A Walkaround at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks (Fayetteville)

Isn't it funny how we don't spend enough time visiting the really wonderful places in our own cities or regions? Can you say you've been to most of the landmarks in your town? If so, I think you have the right idea. I've moved away from areas before and realized I've never been to the places that the tourists travel hundreds or thousands of miles to see. For example, I lived in Asheville, NC for ten years and never visited the Biltmore Estate, I confess. It does, however, give me a reason to act like a tourist when I go back there to visit friends....

Anyway, I'm breaking that habit of mine now that I'm here in Northwest Arkansas. I want to be familiar with the places that make the place special. So when my Mother in law and Father in law visited the other weekend, we took them to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, one of the loveliest spots in Fayetteville. (My other all-time favorites being the Farmer's Market on the Square on Saturday mornings and the Fayetteville Public Library.... And our realtor must have sensed this because once we saw those two things, we instantly chose Fayetteville over the other cities in the region.)

So join me on a walkaround at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, Arkansas:


Shadow Art on the Great Lawn

The BGO is brand new, less than three years old. It's an amazing thing seeing a botanical garden begin, take root and grow where there was formerly just a lovely hay field! It's a series of named and themed gardens that radiate out around the central lawn. The Great Lawn is the site for festivals, concerts and other local happenings. (The whole place is the best spot to have a wedding in the whole region...)

We arrived in late afternoon on a Sunday and nearly had the whole place to ourselves. The angled light was splendid and depth shadows added to the drama.


Artful Horse Apples Near the Event Hall

Now this is a clever use for the fruit from an Osage Orange! This decorative planting is outside the event hall. There must have been a wedding the day before because the tents were still up.


My Favorite Fountain

Since I'm craving more water features here at Larrapin Garden, I gravitated to all the ponds, waterfalls and fountains -- and there are many. This one was my favorite. Made a great sound and the light just sparked off every drop.


My Favorite mosaic of all time

The BGO is full of art. This mosaic is at the entrance to one garden -- a dragonfly of natural stone with shiny glass accents. The dragonfly is probably four foot long. What a beautiful piece!


What a waterlily!

Like I said, water gardens everywhere. Is that an amazing color or what!


If your veggie garden looks like this, who needs ornamentals?

Of course my favorite stop is the edible garden! Someday, I'd like my veggie garden to look this pretty!


The Corn Sculpture in the Vegetable Garden. How can an artsy-farmer -wanna-be like me not love a six foot mosaic ear of corn?


Black Eyed Susan Vine Among the Yard Long Beans

This picture doesn't do it justice, but the Black Eyed Susan vines were underplanted with the pole beans (the kind with pods a couple feet long!) and made the whole trellis look beautiful. Note to self: more flowers among the veggies next year!



Cute Chicken Yard or What?

Now this is not your stuffy uptight botanical garden. You can tell because tucked behind the veggie garden is the cutest chicken yard you ever did see. With art --a bamboo star in this case -- among the chicks, of course. This is one happy bunch of bantie poultry.



World's Cutest Chicken Coop?
And what's not to be happy about when you are a bantie living in a chicken coop that looks like a playhouse?


The Chicken Coop Yard -- With Art. I noted they have straw, rye grass and amaranth growing in their yard. Nice! Ok, I want a bamboo star for my chicken yard. At Larrapin, it could be a good obstacle for running chickens to put between themselves and a hawk attack! (We've been lucky lately, but every morning the hawks fly around and call and call, reminding us that it's a wildlife garden, after all...)


New Bridge in the Children's Garden. This splendid bridge, done up in my favorite blue, appeared since the last time I visited the garden.


Adults Enjoying the Children's Garden
Caught these folks having fun on their way to the "Eagle's Nest" a concrete structure that lets you view the garden from on high.


Secret Passage in the Children's Garden. I loved this mosaic tiny door in the chilcren's garden, leading to a big field...

Wow! What a place in my own town. Go Fayetteville! Go BGO!


Afterwards, A Stroll by Lake Fayetteville. To finish up our Sunday outing, we walked a brief bit around Lake Fayetteville, which is back to back with the Botanical Gardens, and has 5 miles of walking trail through the forest around the lake. I love my home of three years now.

Thanks for visiting Fayetteville, Arkansas. I'd love to hear about some of the special places in your hometown backyard!

The Best Post I've Seen in a Long Time!

The box turtle above had the portrait taken under the White Oaks. I love box turtles and welcome their visiting and residence on the property. Thought I'd share his/her snapshot...but the real purpose of this post is below.

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I love traveling the world via garden blogs. Today I stopped by Our Little Corner of Paradise (a favorite of mine). It's a wildlife garden in Scotland and there I found this amazing 23rd Psalm for Busy People. Give yourself a treat and visit this post.

Harmony Gardens Online!

Calvin Bey, inspired gardener at Harmony Gardens, is Northwest Arkansas' vegetable and soil guru. I'm delighted to find out today that he has started a blog of his own at http://harmonygardens.blogspot.com/ ( Harmony Garden Blog )

I've taken two classes with Calvin and learned more about soils and chemistry and compost than I ever imagined there was to know. A class with Calvin is a wandering romp through brix readings, peak oil, mineral ratios and more. (Side note: if math and chemistry had been taught in the context of gardening, I'm sure I would have payed more attention in high school!) He will tease you with more information than a brain can handle per class, but also give you all the information you need to do the research for your own garden.

Favorite things I learned from Calvin:

1. The Soil is Everything. It all starts and ends here -- well, literally, too! But with regards to gardening, if you get the soil right, the rest is easy: pest control, productivity, disease control. When students ask Calvin what he does about particular bugs, he says, quite honestly, that he just doesn't have a lot of trouble with bugs. And you can look at his garden and see it's true. The trick is all about the soil. (This is true for human health too: if the nutrient isn't in the soil, it's not going to be in the food. Calvin has collected some impressive and convincing documentation on that connection.)

2. Experiment! Calvin, being a scientist by trade, does all kind of experiments with his garden. He tries different soil amendments, techniques, etc, then measures the outcome. And he keeps copious records. Best of all for the students, he also documents with pictures.  

3. Learn deeply and dig deeply. Calvin follows the methods of John Jeavons in How to Grow More Vegetables and hey, it really works. Calvin is an inspiration to dig deeply, not just into your garden soil, but into what you love, which in his case, is the garden!

So keep an eye on Calvin's website if you are growing vegetables in NWA and also if you have a particular interest in the nutrient value of the vegetables you eat.

Go Calvin!

Hershel's Tomato

Hershel is my wonderful gardening neighbor. (I misspelled his name in my sign above. Note the Sharpie pen for size comparison....) He's been gardening in our neighborhood for about twenty years and his garden is fabulous. We often benefit from his ability to produce enormous quantities of the best green beans ever -- Kentucky Wonders. The tomato pictured is Hershel's own development and the one I photographed is not the prettiest or the largest he's ever shown me. I believe the parent tomato is a German Pink type. Hershel's tomato produces a slice for a sandwich that will overhang the bread! Really great flavor, nice firmness. To the left is one of the Cherokee Purple heirloom I grew from a transplant I bought at Old Soul Organics in Fayetteville. It is, hands down, the healthiest, lushest plant I've ever grown, incredibly productive and with a *perfect* tomato flavor in my opinion. Needless to say I'm saving the seeds on that one. It has a near potato type leaf. Here's a sliced one:


The other tomato tip I'll do again next year involves composted cotton burr compost. The bed where I was planting the tomato was too clayey so I added a half bag of the compost right in the end of the bed where the tomato was to go. I guess they LOVE this compost! I'll do this again for each tomato plant next year.

Here's a parting pic of Hershel's wonderfully huge tomato -- this one not completely ripe. I knew I'd lucked out when I moved to the neighborhood and after meeting Hershel he pulled a giant whole tomato out of the freezer to show me! This is my kind of neighbor! The tomato had been so huge and perfect -- indeed, it seemed half as big as my head -- that he'd frozen it so that folks would believe him when he told the story! Because we know that gardening stories and fishing stories can be similar in some ways...

Finally today some RAIN!! It smelled exquisite.

Susanna's lovely garden tour

I visited my friend Susanna's lovely garden a few weeks ago and took these photos. What a lovely backyard to stroll around! I was part of a group getting a tour of her rainwater catch system, part of which is pictured below, which she uses for her vegetable gardens, trees and flower beds.

Susanna has a great gardening shed. I particularly loved her story of the mother fox who raised several litters of kits over the years in the crawlspace of this backyard gardening shed. The kits must have been wonderful to see.




How wonderful to have friends who garden wonderfully. And it never hurts if, like Susanna, those friends happen to be fabulous cooks! I've never liked Chard, but Susanna has a great recipe that involves ginger. Yum. I'll ask her if I can post it later...


Everyone needs a garden cart. How much better to have one that is personalized!

Susanna explained that her tiny vegetable garden has three layers of fence protection from critters -- the high bamboo with tape for deer, small low chicken wire for rabbits, and a decorative wire for armadillo. Seems to work. This vegetable bed is just behind the white shed. She gets lots of produce from a very small space.


Here's her rainwater roof catch system. I'd like one of these! The woman who built the system for Susanna is named Kaz and she is the one with her hand up, explaining the plumbing fittings...

Thanks for opening your garden to your pals Susanna!

From Bernheim Forest, Louisville Kentucky

From Bernheim Forest, Louisville Kentucky
Originally uploaded by larrapin67.