Category: Life

Utah Botanical Center

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I love the UBC. I caught on to their vision after working there one summer, and I love to go back and see all the progress they’ve made. I keep blogging about them too. (I just checked and I really haven’t: one post and mentions elsewhere is not constantly blogging about them. So this post is muchly needed.) I love it there. Not saying it’s perfect. There’s around 100 acres, and a lot of it is mowed weeds. Another good portion is under construction, and there are also experiments that didn’t quite work out as planned. (Including a naturalized planting that had me weed whacking for weeks. I’m not kidding. Weeks. Good old internships.)

But here is one thing I love about them, that has not yet received a lot of attention by me. I love there perennial gardens. Anne Spranger is the one behind them, and she does beautiful work. She can also be found in work boots bailing out irrigation leaks, and doing all the dirty jobs as well. Anne was my boss when I was an intern, and she was also my design teacher in school. Here is some of her work:

The UBC has influenced me to focus on regional-specific landscaping. Use the climate, soil, and surroundings to create unique gardens for the area. The UBC creates unique gardens that mirror the needs of the Utah area–lots of water-wise plantings, use of native plants, not a lot of lawn, tons of plant material etc. But it’s a good idea for anywhere: don’t fight your surroundings, embrace them.

Disneyland

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My dad had a conference in Anaheim, so Peter and I tagged along with some of my family and went to the beach and Disneyland. Peter would wake up in the morning and just rock in his stroller, excited to go to back to Disneyland. We were there three days of magical fun, and rode nearly all the rides. Peter did wonderfully the entire trip, and it was fun to have him along. The more cheesy rides made him excited: so they were better for us all. The only thing bad about the trip was Joe had to stay home and go to school and work. Thanks Mom, for letting me come!

Peter’s Birthday

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Peter is now a year old. Wow. We had a rip-roaring birthday party with a whole bunch of family last Sunday. Peter loved all the food and people, but didn’t really get opening presents. Thanks to everyone that came and for all the presents.

Every one year old should have a cake all to themselves. He just dug right in. Horrible manners, unlike his cute little cousins who would very carefully pinch off a piece while Peter was digging in. He’s quite messy, but is eating almost everything we eat. Makes meals a little more simple.

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He is walking a little, but not as a primary mode of transportation. Besides mama and dada he has one little word he uses all the time–up. He’s constantly saying up and pointing. It’s very cute.

Weekend without Peter

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Joe and I had a weekend free from Peter thanks to my Mom. First we went hiking up Dry Canyon in Alpine to Horsetail falls. It was raining soon after we started, and we weren’t wearing rain gear but perservered to the falls, about a mile and a half up. When we reached the outlook to see the falls, it stopped raining and the sun came out. Just perfect timing, and it made for a wonderful hike.

After that, we stopped to do some birthday shopping for Peter, and I started to get chills/feverish. So we went home and I got a nice nap and some ibuprofen and felt much better. Apparently hiking in the rain, although quite romantic and beautiful, was also quite hard on me. Marry Poppins just might know something. I think I had a very mild case of mastitis, but luckily the fever didn’t last. Sleeping while sick is not the best way to spend baby-free time, but we still had fun after I was feeling better. We rented a movie, slept through the night, and I didn’t have to sweep the floor after breakfast and dinner.

A break from Peter was much appreciated–no matter how much I love him, he’s still hard. Sweeping/cleaning/playing/changing diapers isn’t too bad, but it gets a little old. He did great at Grandma’s too.

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Just a thought…

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I was at a church meeting, and I was listening about the creation and then Adam and Eve’s time in the garden of Eden. I had a thought that I was doing the work of God while creating gardens. Because He has certainly made many gardens. And He has encouraged us to so as well:

“And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Gen 2:15)

“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken” (Gen 3:23)

I felt glad of all the time, money and effort I spend out in the garden.

Wadsworth Creek

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Have you noticed the fall leaves? I started to see red on the mountains and started itching for a hike. This Saturday, my little family took a long hike up hobble creek canyon. We went on the Wadsworth Creek trail, which was pretty empty, not too steep, and gorgeous. So beautiful. We ended up hiking anywhere from 8-10 miles. I hardly noticed we went that long–there was something new and colorful and interesting around every corner. We reached a grove of cottonwoods and bluegrass. (I’m a little wondering how they got there–neither are native.) Peter had fallen asleep by then, and we placed him in the hammock where he was rocked so deeply into sleep he didn’t noticed when we took him out and put him back in the hiking backpack. Joe and I had lunch, and then he suggested we lay down and take a nap. I actually slept a little too, with my head on my husbands shoulder. I thought that heaven must be like this.

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I want this tree

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This is a Golden Variegated Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus ‘Areo Variegata’) I was unaware that pines could be variegated. The effect of the variegation is stunning. I found this tree on a recent visit to the Utah Botanical Center, over at the Varga Arboretum. It wasn’t the only tree I was impressed with.

I have long loved Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), but this variety ‘Cascade Falls’ makes it easy to fit in a residential landscape. Bald cypress is a swamp tree–and yet here it is growing in a water-wise arboretum. Highly adaptive and quite unique. This tree is actually deciduous–it will turn red and lose its needles in the fall.

Many times in my visit I found I knew the species tree, but not the cultivar. The cultivar was what impresses and I began to realized that I need to learn cultivars not just species. But oh what a daunting task that is.

This is Diablo ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diablo’). It’s not an uncommon shrub–but I’ve never seen it pruned up to tree form, exposing exfoliating bark. I was unaware this shrub had such beautiful bark.

This is Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana). A more open pine, but that allows a clear view of the bark. This would be great in the winter, or any season for that matter.

The Varga Arboretum is still under construction. I almost didn’t find a way in–but it was worth it when I did. When I worked at the UBC, I wasn’t even too aware of it’s existence (although at that time it was more a holding place for trees, not somewhere to visit). It has well labeled trees that give the botanical and common name, the year it was planted, and water use. They have unique trees, but some more common ones as well. It’s a great place to go and look for trees to use in your landscape.

One final tree. I would never plant this, but it made me laugh. This is Weeping Treadleaf Arborviatae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Filiformis’)

It’s the Cousin It of trees.

*Side note: anyone know of a good place to order bulbs?

Vacation

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We survived our vacation, and enjoyed most of it. Trips are much harder with a kid in tow. Everything took longer to do and so we didn’t do as much. But it was still very enjoyable. First we had to stop by a couple of public gardens that were beautiful. We went up to Logan and visited lots of family and friends, kept going to Grand Tetons and camped two nights. It rained, but not when we were putting up or taking down camp. Just the whole day we had to go out hiking and visit places. We went hiking anyway, but not quite as much as we might have. The one trail we went on was across a lake, up to a fall, and back around the same lake. We saw a moose + baby on our way back, and it stopped raining.

We visited my brother who moved up to Powell to go to school, and back home taking one final stop at my wonderful grandparents. It turned out to be a great trip. I decided not to really plan it–we had a direction and that’s about it. As it came close a lot of the plans just came together. It was fun and a nice break from home.

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Ogden Botanical Center

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My family went on vacation last week, and I was able to stop by a couple of gardens. One stop was the Ogden Botanical Gardens, located in Ogden (I bet you didn’t guess that). They had a cottage garden feel, and were very full of color. They are run by USU extension and have a education building, along with the park and gardens. There are classes, plant sales and other events, along with very helpful people there to help you out. Well worth the small side trip.

They did use a lot of annuals, but mostly in the front to add color. Those beds were gorgeous, and I like the use of the large variety of flowers all growing in and around each other, just packed with color. Further on, there were rose gardens (not my favorite, but fun if you like roses), perennial beds, shade gardens, and lots of pathways to meander down. It seemed to have a more naturalized feel: nothing was heavily pruned or maintained but still very pretty. They used a lot of warm-colored flowers which worked wonderfully to make a bright-feeling garden. After seeing this garden I am much more likly to use annuals (they just bring color in you can’t get any other way), and also let things go a little more naturalized.