gardening

Volunteerism

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Today I’m going to talk to you about “volunteers”. “Oooo…what kind of volunteers?” Well, not this kind (although he sure is cute!): Smokey is the University of Tennessee’s mascot.  There’s a real one and a costumed one.  “Are you going to talk about your military service?” Nope, not that kind either. Although an essay about … Read more

Volunteerism

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Today I’m going to talk to you about “volunteers”. “Oooo…what kind of volunteers?” Well, not this kind (although he sure is cute!): Smokey is the University of Tennessee’s mascot.  There’s a real one and a costumed one.  “Are you going to talk about your military service?” Nope, not that kind either. Although an essay about … Read more

Nebraska Discoveries 12: Lauritzen Gardens…Omaha’s Botanical Center

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Since I won’t be in the Omaha area forever, I realized recently that my time is running out for visiting the many attractions in the area.  Thanks to my boys’ field trips, Cub Scouting and birthday party invitations, they’ve already been to several area attractions.  But I’ve set a new goal for myself and the family: to visit every attraction on the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau’s “Pin Map”.

You probably can’t see it that well, but just click on the “Pin Map” link above and you can see the original PDF.   It’s called the “Pin Map” because in front of each of these attractions is an enormous mock up of a blue-tipped pin.  I’ll get a picture of one as soon as I can…
So…my goal is to visit each of the 15 attractions on the “Pin Map” before I leave the area.  So far, I’ve covered 7 of the 15 attractions (numbers 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, and 13)…and we have this summer to make our way through the rest.  Maybe I’ll blog about these “pins” as we visit them…I hope to, but I won’t make any guarantees.
Today I’ll share with you my first visit to #8 on the list: Lauritzen Gardens.
Timmy’s preschool class took a trip here on Monday.  I can’t believe I’ve lived here nearly 2 years and hadn’t been here till this week!  I guess it goes with living in a house full of boys, right?
This is a beautiful place, full of pretty flowers (of course) but I also really enjoyed the gardens “repurposing” sconces, corbels and other ornamentals from throughout Omaha…the pieces were rescued and help decorate the gardens.  The kids really enjoyed the flowers but the weather wasn’t very good and the walking was pretty tough on that group of 4 and 5 year olds.
So here are some pictures of the lovely visit.  I won’t include everything, just some of the more summary-type pics.  I STILL can’t believe I left our camera sitting on the counter as we headed out the door…so these pictures are with my iPhone camera.

This piece was repurposed from a downtown Omaha building:

Garden Season!

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Hooray! The weather has finally warmed up well here, and the birds have returned! The grass is returning to a lovely green color, and the kids would rather be outside playing then cooped up in the house. With the warmer weather comes one of my favorite things, starting our family’s garden! It’s been very exciting … Read more

Worm Update…Let’s Get It ON!

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Just call me Heidi Fleiss. After all, I was pimping out my pumpkin flowers earlier this summer. Winter has finally arrived here this week. It’s 26 degrees F outside right now, with a low of 22 expected overnight, and lows in the teens later this weekend. And windy too. So our house is beginning to … Read more

My Latest Cockamamie Hairbrained Idea: Vermicomposting!

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“Vermi…what? Okay Major Mom, now what are you trying to do????” All summer I’ve been basking in yummy veggies being harvested: lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and hops! Earlier this season I was using my compost to fertilize things and that really helps — but over the past month the balance in the compost … Read more

First Hops Harvest!

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Today we harvested our first batch of hops! We’re expecting 1-2 more harvests before the end of the season. Today we probably got enough for Dave to brew 1-2 batches of beer. It’s in the food dehydrator right now and our house smells like a brewery!

Some Summer Color to Enjoy!

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First I thought I’d share some of our new friends in the garden. From 2009 08 11 BlackSwallowtailCaterpillars From 2009 08 11 BlackSwallowtailCaterpillars From 2009 08 11 BlackSwallowtailCaterpillars Go ahead…say it…. [Blog reader gets up from computer and does a heebie-jeebie dance] “EEEEEWWWWWW!!!!! Stop! Make it go awayyyyyyyyyy!” For my friends from Florida, not sure … Read more