Think Global, Garden Local: 2015

Monday, August 10, 2015

Green Bay Botanical Garden in mid-August

One of the newest additons to the Green Bay Botanical Garden is the Conifer Garden. In spring of 2013, 83 tons of limestone boulders were brought in from quarries surrounding Northeast Wisconsin in preparation for the installation of dwarf conifers, low growing evergreens that typically grow to less than the size of their parent plants. The design is intended to showcase the conifers not so much as a “collection”, but rather as they would be integrated into a well-designed home garden. Perennials, chosen to provide the maximum beauty for color and form for visitors strolling through the garden, were installed in the spring of 2014. They will be relocated as the conifers grow and reach their mature size.

View from the top of the conifer garden
where water bubbles from a stone fountain
down into a pondless basin of stones.

English cottage style garden

Bee skep is hidden here

A colorful late-summer floral display

A lovely display of seasonal flowers
floating in a ceramic pot

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Floral displays on Mackinac Island

Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas.

-Elizabeth Murray

Upon exiting the ferryon Mackinac Island, visitors are greeted with colorful flower baskets hanging from lamp posts up and down the Main Street.

Lilac hanging baskets at the Lilac Tree Hotel

Porters gather bags from the ferry to transport to your hotel. A quick walk or carriage ride takes you by residences and hotels with window boxes, hanging pots, containers, garden beds overflowing with cheerful floral displays.