I could while away many an hour at local nurseries immersed in all the garden goodness they have on offer. Everything from plants to fountains to mulch! My favourite nursery though is in at the city farm. I love to visit, to talk with and seek advice from staff and to browse their range of incredible and edible plants!
The colourful gates at the entrance to the City Farm Nursery.
Bright and early, on the Saturday just gone, I spent some time at the nursery choosing some seedlings to plant in my Autumn veggie patch. I came home with some tiny little lettuce seedlings and some silverbeet to plant out too. These will be the first things I tuck into the soil this Autumn. I'm looking forward to picking the leaves of our own lettuce again!
An amazing selection of vegetable seedlings and herbs.
My lettuce and silverbeet seedlings and a pot of lemon thyme.
I love to wander the little paths of this small nursery. Besides the interesting range of edible plants (herbs, veggies and fruit trees) there is so much inspiration to find...
Beautiful leadlight bamboo!
(This has me thinking about Art for the garden.)
Gorgeous tumeric flower.
(I hope my newly planted tumeric will flower too.)
The nursery's native beehive.
(Could I make a little roof like this for my own hive?)
There's a wonderful range of herbs at the nursery. Everything from tansy to thyme. I bought a pot of lemon thyme as I lost mine recently. Too much rain?? I'm looking forward to flavouring our Winter stews and casseroles with this wonderful herb. Such a zingy scent!
My new vanilla bean orchid.
I always find new-to-me or unusual plants too. Things that are a bit different! This time, I chose to bring home a vanilla bean orchid. (It was a hard choice between that and a pepper vine!) I'm going to plant it in the dappled shade that the trees near our back deck rotunda create. I really hope I can get it to grow! If I am lucky and it blooms, I will need to learn how to hand pollinate the flowers because there are no natural pollinators of the vanilla bean orchid outside of Mexico. No wonder vanilla is one of the world's most expensive spices.
A re-purposed laundry trolley full of liriope.
A visit to the city farm and its nursery always renews my enthusiasm for growing food and provides so many ideas of what is possible in the area where I live. I always leave with many new ideas and always more than a few plants!
Do you have a favourite plant nursery? What do you love about it?
Meg
I could spend hours in garden centres/nurseries, good places to pick up ideas, I really love the stained glass Bamboo.
ReplyDeleteThe stained glass bamboo is beautiful, Marlene. I'd love something like that in our garden! Meg:)
DeleteI also love garden centers. I have be careful though, when I see plants I tend to buy things that are not in my list. :)
ReplyDeleteI have to be careful too, Nil, otherwise I'd buy one of everything! Meg:)
DeleteLooks like a great nursery. That lemon thyme looks so healthy! Growing your own vanilla would be quite an amazing thing. Look forward to seeing how that goes.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite nursery in Adelaide was the diggers shop at the botanic gardens - only small but i have a soft spot for the beautiful heirlooms. Their names and variety of colours are always so inspiring - always hard to contain the shopping there!
I'm starting to investigate a few nurseries in Canberra. So far my favourite is the yarralumla heritage nursery but i'm sure i'll need to sample a few more (and of course make a few sneaky purchases) before making a final decision.
Happy planting.
It will be amazing if I can get the vanilla to grow. It's a bit of an experiment! Have fun discovering new nurseries, I always love to visit a nursery I haven't been to before. Meg☺
ReplyDeleteVisiting a place like that certainly gets you excited to start planting that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's lovely to bring home new plants to grow in your own garden. Meg ☺
DeleteI bought some seedlings at the farmers market on Saturday. I can just buy a few seedlings if I want to instead of a whole punnet. The plan is to buy a couple of seedlings each week and plant them when I get home so they aren't all ready to pick at the same time. I came home with three silverbeet and two snow pea seedlings and I will buy a few more on Saturday. Hope this plan works. :-)
ReplyDeleteI like your plan, Chel. Planting a few seedlings each week should see you with an ongoing supply of veg rather than a glut! Meg:)
DeleteWow lucky you, a wonderful place to visit, plants look fantastic.
ReplyDeleteIt is great to have this nursery so close to the city. It's always a treat to visit. I find too that their seedlings always grow well. Meg:)
DeleteI love nurseries which go to the extra effort, to make their products look interesting. So you walk away with more ideas, than you entered with, lol. You could easily use some re-purposed stuff in the house, to put in your garden, in the same way - to make the garden look just as interesting. Loved the stained glass!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of repurposing things to add interest to the garden. I have a few ideas and materials to make a little birdbath using some leftover bathroom tiles. I also have my son's little red wheelbarrow which is so tiny but so sweet. Have to plant that up with something! Meg☺
DeleteI love our local nursery, and often enjoy browsing. I find their plants are locally grown and “toughened” to suit our climate better then those that are trucked in from the big commercial hardware shops. Their staff all know so much about gardening too and are a wealth of information. Your garden centre looks like the perfect place to browse and i could certainly enjoy a good walk around.
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It's a lovely place to spend time, Emma. I do think the seedlings raised in little local garden centres like this are more hardy and they reflect also what grows well in the local climate. Meg ☺
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