Wednesday, February 09, 2005

The Yellow Book

Last September my wife Liz and I went to London, and of course visited Kew Gardens, and stuck our noses in as many other gardens as we could fit into our trip. I've always envied the Brits their climate, their gardens, and their penchant for garden tours. The National Gardens Scheme is a national organization that sponsors tours of 3,500 gardens, listed every year in "The Yellow Book", with the proceeds going to charity. The minimum requirement for gardens to be included in the book is that they provide at least 40 minutes of interest to a reasonably sophisticated gardener. Now, like most of us, I've always really wanted to have a garden in England, with a rushing stream and a view of a bucolic countryside with grazing sheep. That not being likely in this lifetime (especially with the current currency exchange rate for the pound, and with the current real estate bubble in Great Britain), I've done what I can in the middle of the corn fields of Iowa. I do think, at least, that my garden meets the 40 minute requirement to be included in "The Yellow Book", because, first of all, it takes 20 minutes just to walk all the trails in the garden (I garden in 3 acres of woods, with a couple of small creeks trickling at the bottom of the ravines, flowing to a 4 acre pond at the bottom of the valley), and secondly, the garden is best seen on hands and knees, as my main interest is small, woodland perennials, like primroses.

Comments:
Help! I am lost. I was searching for coloring book and somehow ended up here. How that happened I don't know, however I do like your Blog a lot. Would you mind if I add your Blog to my favorites page so others can visit?
 
Hiya, Don. This is an old comment, I know. I think the one before mine on this post is actually spam. Anyway, I was in this area of the archives because I was updating my Garden Blog Directory and discovered to my horror that I didn't have more than the name of your blog listed. And I quoted from a post in this month. But in regards to the Yellow Book, you probably know we have something equivalent to it in the Garden Conservancy. But did you ever considering applying to be included? I think you should.
 
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