Late July is perhaps the most precarious time to leave your garden for an extended period of time especially if you don't have a sprinkler system. However, with the help of my wonderful parents, we were able to leave for two weeks without fear of coming home to crispy crops.
We try to visit the in-laws in Tennessee during our vacations, but we also like to see new places as well. So this year we decided to fly to DC, drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway, see the in-laws, and fly to Albuquerque before heading home. It was an ambitious plan, and it turned out to be one of the best vacations we've ever had.
The contrasts in the landscapes were amazing, the sun and heat felt great, and we got our fill of gardens as well. The Garden Highlights are as follows:
A sign featuring the Cabbage Butterfly at the Smithsonian Butterfly Habitat Garden
Coleus on display in the National Floral Library
Arch of potted containers at the United States Botanic Garden
Vegetable Garden at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
Sea Kale
Bean TeePees
View Point along the Blue Ridge Parkway
Dale Hollow Lake, TN
Cactus in Old Town Albuquerque
Children's Garden at Rio Grande Botanic Garden in Albuquerque
Heritage Farm at Rio Grande Botanic Garden
Produce from the farm feeds the local zoo animals
Trumpet vine Pergola at Hotel Albuquerque
Sunset in Albuquerque
This was just a sampling of garden/natural sights we saw. We saw an amazing number of cultural/historical sights around the DC National Mall, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and in Albuquerque. This was the first vacation in a long time where I wasn't ready to head for home at the end.
After two weeks away, we came home to a garden that had grown up significantly. My parents did a heroic job keeping up with the watering. It took us a few days of mowing, weeding, and pruning to get the garden back in order... just in time for summer crop harvest season and fall crop seed planting.
