Hobbit Gardens- Fillmore, Indiana

We finally made it to Hobbit Gardens Herb Farm in Fillmore, Indiana after circling around country roads for awhile a couple of weekends ago. There was a small shop (we were disappointed that they were out of lotion) and pretty grounds to wander but we definitely spent a lot longer finding it than we did actually going through it. However, on Sunday, September 6th, they'll be having their 16th Annual Herb Festival which, according to their website, will include workshops, food, music, cooking with herbs, reflexology, and a fresh herb wreath workshop among other things so that might be a good time to visit.

Regular hours are:

April thru October:Tue.,Thurs.,Fri., 10-5 Sat. & Sun.1-5.

Winter Hours Sat & Sun 1-5 other hours by chance or appt.

April in Indiana

Sure, Billie Holiday never sang about April in Indiana but it is getting inspiring and gorgeous here in our state. We love red bud trees and there is even a street named Red Bud Lane off of 82nd St. The last 2 pictures are from there. It's looking good but maybe not quite at its peak yet.

Scenes from... the IMA grounds

We've loved roaming the grounds at the Indianapolis Museum of Art for many years. We like to imagine what it would have been like to live at Lilly house back in the day and throw parties that F. Scott Fitzgerald would have written about. We visited the grounds this past weekend and, as usual, found all kinds of beauty. The pink flowers were on a Rose Tree of China (prunus triloba multiplex) which was not only gorgeous but smelled amazing (as absolutely everyone who passed it said). We might have to buy one of those.

Our daffodils are blooming! This never ceases to amaze us because:

A. We aren't very savvy gardeners.

and

B. There are times during the winter that we don't even feel like hanging in there.

This is pricey ($399) but what a unique way to grow a garden and it also just makes for nice decor. It's the vertical garden from Smith and Hawken.

Ahh fellow Midwesterners, how long have we been waiting for these 60 degree temperatures and to see the flowers popping up? We'd say that it's been worth the wait but we don't quite believe that.

City dwellers might even eventually take their farming vertical.

If we can grow things, anyone can

We've always considered ourselves horticulturally challenged. However, last year one of the Buzzy herb kits caught our eye at CVS. It seemed pretty idiot proof so we thought we'd give it a try. It came with tiny little pots and you could use the plastic container as a greenhouse to get the seeds started. We were so excited to see the little plants actually come up. Then, all we did was transfer them to bigger pots and put them outside. There is just nothing like fresh basil. That is one of our favorites but we have a lot of different plants growing this year. If anyone has good uses for marjoram let us know. Seeds for it seem to be in many of the kits and we aren't familiar with it. We've even branched out this year and planted a couple of tomato plants and pepper plants in a big plastic pot on the patio. You'll see in the picture that we have lots of cherry tomatoes and peppers growing. There is an intrinsic thrill to watching your food grow that was dormant in us after years of grocery shopping. If you're not ready to replace your entire yard with a garden, you can just keep it small and plant a patio garden like we did. We love that Buzzy has these cute little creatures with herbs growing out of them to spark kids' interest in gardening early. That can lead to an interest in cooking and that can lead to them making dinner for you. It's win/win. Even with limited space, we can all embrace how chic farming has become.

Dammann's Lawn and Garden Center

After years of seeing their ads in the Indianapolis Star, we thought we'd see if this local business carried moss rose plants that we have had a hard time finding in years past. Not being people who enjoy spending their time driving all over the city to look for things to buy, we emailed Dammann's inquiring if they carried these. To our great glee, they replied to our email before 8AM that same morning and, to our even greater glee, they said that they did. So, this past weekend, we headed to their 30th St. location and were agog at the amount of flowers and plants that they managed to fit into the little piece of land that they have at the corner of Franklin and E. 30th Street. Kind and knowledgeable employees led us to the large selection of lush moss roses. That was our only purchase, that day anyway. As the weekend continued and our new found enthusiasm for gardening grew, we went back on Monday and picked up lavender, rosemary, sage, tomato and pepper plants. We are not natural green thumbs so this is all pretty new to us but we couldn't help but to get carried away when we smelled the rosemary and sage plants. We'll see if we can maintain our horticultural enthusiasm throughout the summer (and we'll see if we can maintain the lives of these plants) but it felt good to give Dammanns our business and it is a joy to browse there.