Plants, Ponds & Pottery

Click to enlarge all pics to see all the details!

We recently got plants installed in our office & I was in charge of shopping for the planters, so I went to a few places to see what was available. I found our planters at 2 different places downtown. This one is called The Arbors & they have really great looking concrete garden accessories, as well as some beautiful fountains. I always enjoy browsing here.
This is my kinda stuff!
This is one of the planters I picked up for the office. It now holds 2 beautiful plants (just got one of them). The others are all clay pottery pieces & we are so happy with the way they turned out. Our plant service is going to be great. I'll have to take some pics of the finished plants for you sometime soon. It was really fun picking out planters.

This is one of my favorite nurseries in town, Hanna's. They have gorgeous plants, accessories, & garden items. I love to browse here & have bought several plants from them. They have a huge selection of perennials & annuals & those of you here in AL would love shopping here. If you need a new nursery to try out, come to Hanna's. They have the cutest little shop cat. He lives here fulltime & has the run of the place. He finally plopped down & let me take his picture. Sometimes he lets me pet him.
Lots of architectural pieces too....I love these iron pieces.
Small garden table, lots of plants & see all the containers in the background. That's what we are looking at for the office. I see a few possibilities here.
More iron pieces.
Love this bunny bench. I'd love to have one of these for our yard.

This is part of the indoor plant selections, including orchids.
Outside in the conifer area.
Blooming treeforms.
More plants.

Cute concrete bunny that I love, of course.
Inside they have some nice accessory pieces.
Lots of garden things. Aren't those birds cute?
Right next door is a pond place, called Aquatic Gardens. This place is SO neat...I love to browse here. They have all kinds of fountains, they build ponds too, & just have a great selection of pond & fountains & garden art.
Front courtyard with lots of fountains to choose from. They have them all running too so you can see how they look.

Busts & more fountains. I just love all this stuff!
Pond with fountain & bench.
More fountains up close.
Pond with water feature. Wouldn't you love one of these fountains at home? I would!

Love this fountain!
This is inside, where they have lots of garden accessories too.
Place settings on a table.
Accessories for the pond.

Hope you enjoyed the nursery & pond tour. These are all fun places to browse. I really love gardening and will be ready to go next spring with some new garden ideas!

Petals from the Past.....

Is it just me, or does something come over you this time of year & just gives you the urge to dig in the dirt?? And when you get out & see all those blooms & blossoms in the nurseries, it really kicks into gear...I want them all! I visited a delightful nursery here in AL yesterday. Went with a ladies group down to Petals from the Past in Jemison, AL (about an hour south of B'ham) ...a wonderful family-owned nursery that was just amazing. I had heard all about it, but this was my first visit. I was in for a treat! We got the grand tour from the owner (who has a degree in landscape design & horticulture). He & his wife own the nursery & treat you like you're family. We all got some great advice from Jason, the owner & he took time to answer any questions we had. One thing that really amazed me & I thought it was genius...they grow blackberries on vines just like grapes grow, so that there are rows in between, no weeds or snakes, & you just walk along picking the berries...all neat & orderly, how cool is that? He told us that they get ripe around May & you can go & pick to your hearts content, so guess where me and DH will be heading soon?! There were also fig trees & blueberries in abundance, all for picking when harvest time comes. I would definitely recommend going there if you haven't been & live in the area....it is truly a treat. I bought some reseeding annuals that he showed us growing in the yard....I'm all about reseeding plants! The house that you see, which is now the nursery store, was an old farmhouse that they moved to the property...it was once a few miles down the road. It has an old-fashioned feel & they sell old-fashioned heirloom plants that your granny might have grown. Lots of old roses for the rose lovers out there. Me...I stick to Knock-Out roses that are easy to take care of...I'm a little leery of growing roses, cause I've heard how hard they are to take care of. It's a charming place to visit & they have lots of great garden ornaments too. Oh, and all their plants are grown in AL, which has to be a good thing. Hope some of you get there one day!

DH & I had a real bunny spotting last night right after dinner...we've been wondering when they would come out again this year...and then, there he was in the backyard. We had so much fun last year watching 3 bunnies frolic around in the backyard, putting on a show for us! They are so darn cute! I scared him when the flash went off...and away he scampered, but I know he will be back.

Who likes asparagus?? We sure do! Just a quick recipe to share with y'all...I watched Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee recently & she did these roasted asparagus. I used her exact recipe, but left off the kalamata olives she added. These are SO delish (as Rachel would say!)...asparagus must be in season right now, cause it's been really cheap lately & I've been buying it for about 4 weeks now. This recipe is one of the best I've found, I always have just steamed it before, but this one is great.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Chop ends off asparagus, drizzle with a little olive oil, place on baking sheet (so they are all spread out), sprinkle with lemon pepper, bake for about 12-15 min. until crisp tender. Try it...it's SO yummy!

Happy Gardening Everyone!