Noerenberg Memorial Gardens

Our first stop in the recent bus garden tour was to Noerenberg Memorial Gardens located on Crystal Bay shore on Lake Minnetonka.

 
A beautiful place, so peaceful and calm filled with a vast collection of plants in formal garden beds.   The history of this property is very interesting.  It was a gift from the remaining daughter of the man who established a well known brewery, Grain Belt!  He was an immigrant from Germany who arrived here and set about doing what Germans seem to be very successful at, brewing beer!  Yes, he was very successful which resulted in this amazing gift to Minnesota thru his only surviving daughter upon her death in 1975. 


Two Master Gardener volunteers met our group and gave us a guided tour thru the garden beds complete with identifying the plants for us and answering our questions about them.  We saw many plants that we had not seen before and had a wonderful opportunity to recognize some of our favorites in various stages of  their annual growth cycle.  A simply delightful photo opportunity to enjoy!

What a wonderful Day!

And just what is a wonderful day?   Well, it is a bus tour with 43 gardeners, most of whom I know, that I share the fun and passion for flower gardening with!  This meant meeting them to get on the bus at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning, with a bag lunch, umbrella in case of rain, jacket, plant money in case I find some to purchase and a cell phone and so I can take pictures!  I was also ready to enjoy lots of yummy treats as we ride along thru the day!  We headed north to "the Cities" to take in a Public Garden in Wayzata, two awesome garden nurseries, meet a small garden club to spend a bit of time with and view their public garden bed projects and one of their members fantastic unusual private garden and home!  Once we got moving the treats started off with fresh fruit followed by sweet rolls/donuts and juice to be sure we have the energy to explore the public garden that is first on our stops!  Yes indeed this group knows how to travel!  Later we enjoyed Mary's annual home made sugar cookie treat!   (I hope my husband never has one of those, I'd lose him quickly for sure!)

How's this for a porch pot?

I went with a friend to a 50% sale in Faribault at Donahue's!

Look what I got for $7.50!

Just have to share this sight!

I was stopped by the sight of this on my way into the dental office the other day!

Peony Time at an end!

Rain yesterday took the last of my peony blossoms down!  But, I did rescue a last one to enjoy!

I love these in an open bowl!

These I have been enjoying during the last two weeks:

more pictures of that special private garden

Here are a few more of that special private garden I wrote about yesterday!

Garden visiting!

Recently I had the opportunity to join a car pool tour to Faribault with members of our garden club.  The trip included to visit a favorite garden center and one of the most delightful private gardens of a retired professional gardener!  I jumped at the opportunity for my third visit to this private garden and the garden center that sells the most fantastic hanging baskets I've ever seen for sale!

Yep, I got myself a new hanging basket at 30% off!  Just couldn't pass it up!

Yep, it was delightful to once again enjoy the hospitality of The Koopman's in their gardens!  He is indeed a master of display and pristine gardens!  And their friendly personalities  enjoy sharing their piece of paradise!

Hostas and slugs....

Love my hostas!  Missing my 100 varieties I had growing at the cabin this year, but I did find a spot to move about six of my favorites to new homes here and they are doing just fine!

Right now they are absolutely beautiful as they have enjoyed our rainy spring!  Have the task of "feeding my livestock", the slugs, on my list today!  I use slug bait to fight back!  Although we clear all the foliage off the hosta beds in the fall, those eggs seem to winter over quite well!  Wouldn't it be nice if this last winter's  abundance of below freezing temps made a dent in them this year!  Time will tell but I don't want to risk waiting to see...am armed and aiming to stop them in their tracks, or rather their munching!

Here are a few of my favorite hostas  I enjoyed visiting  along my stroll this morning!

 

'H. Goodness Gracious'

'H. Lakeside Paisley Print'

'H. Sun Power', a huge mature plant!

Birds! Oh My!

We finally added a bird house in our one tree in our yard!  I shared my purchase earlier with you and now I enjoy it every day when I open the living room drapes!  And, I also enjoy the song and sight of a wren who moved into it!  Big house for a little bird!

We've had the delight of having spotted a male oriole in our back yard so we quickly went shopping for a feeder and grape jelly!  What fun, we have at least two pair we are enjoying visits from!  My neighbor Mary enjoys the view also as the feeder is on the property line between us!

Not so fun was the beautiful big red robin who was determined to build a nest in our back porch!  As much as I loved seeing her, I was not happy at having a beautiful hanging planter's flowers destroyed and also the other spot she picked was a empty hanging basket right next to the dining room door that I keep gardening gloves and sweat bands in!  So, we had to remove two different nests in process of being built!  Interestingly Denny stuffed two white coffee filters in that spot and that ended her efforts to rebuild!  She finally gave up and I notice picked a neighbors tree right next door so we can still enjoy her presence!  But, boy can they build a big nest quickly!   They also love the addition we made of a suet cake recently!

I also have a returning little wren that likes a decorative white birdhouse I put out along the garage garden bed!  She chatters to me lots when I am out there!

We are still waiting to spot the hummers we have a full feeder for!  Previous years we have had a few visitors so we are thinking there are more out there so we are looking for them!  We enjoyed so many of them at the lake, so would like to get them visiting here!   Now that we are home 7 days a week we have expanded our bird visitors with a bit more focus on feeding them!

Of course, Denny continues to keep his hanging feeders full that dangle in front of our living room window!  The boys, our new fur children, so enjoy the excitement of the bird visits also!  Their climber gives them front row seats to the daily activity!

June flowers and a reminder of a special lady!

Do you recognize this perennial?  It loves shade with some sun sprinkled in!  I was fortunate to meet Nancy Braatas, a lady who loved gardening and paved the way as a leader of  women in Minnesota politics!  One day when I ran into her she was exclaiming about how beautiful her Thalictrum was in full bloom and I had no idea what she was talking about!  Well, needless to say I had to do some research which included a visit to her gardens!  Wow! I have ideal lighting for these in my garden beds so I really enjoy them and have the bonus of remembering  her spirit whenever I admire them!

June is finally popping forth with sunshine!

At last, after almost a record of rain and overcast weather, we finally passed into June that is giving us sunshine!  A stroll around my garden beds with coffee early this morning was so fun that I grabbed my cell phone to take a few pictures of what I was enjoying!

 

My pansy pot is still glowing with sunshine!

Our Lilac Tree is filling our bedroom with heavenly fragrance!

Proclamation, a new experience!

National Garden Club Week is June 2nd - 9th this year!  A new experience for me, I developed a Proclamation for our local Mayor, Kim Norton, to declare for our city!  There are four different garden clubs in our fair city, representing about 400 gardeners who make awesome contributions to our city including public garden beds, educational opportunities, scholarships, and fun events!  Then I discovered it was my job to hustle it to the media so I began with a photo op of Garden Club people and spread the word thru Facebook and various media resources.

It was a real learning experience but put the spotlight on four vital not for profit organizations who quietly serve our community!

Sign of Spring

Denny snapped this picture at our recent Hosta Club Open Garden Event.

Would love to have one of these myself, just not enough space for every plant I'd love to have!

So, I'll go admire it elsewhere!