Armchair gardening

Hi there! It must be time for my annual post again. Gee, I'd like to apologize and say I'm going to better at the blogging but I know better than to make promises I might not keep.

So much has changed in my life that I hardly know where to begin. The biggest change came a few weeks ago on Valentines day when I married the man of my dreams, Andy.

While Andy isn't a big gardening fan he is a huge fan of anything outdoors so we spend lots and lots of time hiking trails and visiting various garden. One of our new places we visited last year was Sweet Briar Park in Smithtown. I can't wait to go back when it's in bloom later this year.

As you can see it was late Autumn so we had to make our own excitement in the garden.

Luckily there are many wonderful gardens right here in our community. I have a number of favorites and walk almost daily to see what people have going on in their gardens.

SUNY Farmingdale was one location I visited, I have to get back there more often.

The Peconic River Herb farm is another favorite place for us to go. I made sure I brought home a pot of that fabulous Hakone grass.

We are only a few blocks from the north shore of Long Island. It's almost impossible to go for a walk without a water view.

Planting Fields Arboretum in Upper Brookville is the place I visited the most this past year. It's close enough to my work that I can visit it on my lunch break. My daughters Lauren and Emily both visited with me at different times.

Andy and I spent a weekend in eastern Pennsylvania and I took photos of rocks. I had visions of rock gardens and borders for our cottage garden and needed inspiration. I'll go in to more detail on another post.

Our neighbor Helen moved in just a year ago and she and I have been having such fun watching the amazing plants bloom in her garden. The Siberian Iris are amazing. I can't wait to help her divide them and add some to my garden too.

This week is the Hicks flower show, I haven't attended it yet. This photo is from last year. A blizzard was forecasted for today and I didn't want to buy plants and have to keep them indoors. We dodged the bullet and it's mostly rain and sleet out there. I'll be sure to stop at Hicks later this week to pick up some bulbs and pansies.

Here's another peek at Planting Fields, probably what it looks like right at this moment.

This is our little cottage, taken just a year ago. So much has changed in one year. The front garden is really shaping up, this year I am going to attack the back yard.

Wish I could do more than just armchair gardening today...