What I Learned by Visiting a Botanical Garden in Autumn, Part One

Today, His Madness and I took a walk around the Botanical Garden in Green Bay. Burt and Ivy didn't join us, they were out trying to scare the neighbors until early this morning so they decided to sleep in.

It's always a good sign when there's something worth photographing in the parking lot. It was a fairly nice day, apart from the fact that it was threatening to rain at any moment. His Madness was taking photos with his cardboard camera but I was relying on 21st century point and shoot technology. 

You wouldn't think that this would be a good time to be visiting a garden up here in the soon-to-be-frozen north but apart from the native prairie plants and a few perennials, it was thriving. The rose garden was one of the best I've seen anywhere, at any time of the year.

Just down the hill from the fantastic rose garden was this little area that is described as the Wisconsin version of an English Cottage Garden. Since it contains an amazing number of plants and ideas on how to use them, all in a relatively small area, I'm devoting this whole post to it. You can never have too many good ideas, even if you have to wait six months to try them out! 

First off, there were these two tall, bronze sculptures by Chicago artist, Jim Budish. They are just standing there, peering over the flowers. No giant pedestals or fancy inscriptions, in fact it took me awhile to even notice them, ha! Since they are modern abstractions (with a nod to Rodin) they add a lot of humor and keep the whole area from looking too precious. I can see some oversized bronze kitties in our future.  

Chauncey

Bailey

On the other side from the "sculpture garden" is a small, round, fenced-in area with a stone walkway around a center bed of kale, tomatoes, herbs and flowers. The fence is planted with a mix of climbing vegetables and flowering vines.

I liked the quirky pots holding a variety of succulents.

Now I know what to do with all those broken pots.

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It appeared that these wheelbarrows had been recently filled with plants and were now in the process of being loaded up with pumpkins. 

At the other side of the enclosure a rustic pergola is supporting several gourds. I wonder if I can talk HM into building one next spring?  

Also this amazing vine. I need to do some research to find out what it is but those crazy, fuzzy seed heads look great. At least I think they're seed heads, ha! There's a lot packed into this garden, all I was hoping for was some colorful trees, so getting inspired was a real bonus. In Part Two we will explore some of the other parts of the garden along with the Hobbit House toilettes.  

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!