Friday Nursery Crawl

My friend, Cheryl (http://consciousgardening.blogspot.com/) and I decided that we were going to start a tradition of getting together every Friday to explore as many nurseries (and related businesses) as possible in the Austin area, with a few margaritas tossed in to keep it interesting. Last Friday we started out at Gardens of the Ancients (www.gardensoftheancients.com) in Northeast Austin on Yager Lane off Parmer Lane. Cheryl had been before but this was my first visit. It was a really different type of nursery in that they carry over 300 different bulk medicinal and culinary herbs, tinctures, essential oils, specialty health products, and a large selection of ethnobotanicals.
There are 3 large greenhouses housing a variety of succulents, cacti and unusual plants that I hadn't seen in any other nursery in the Austin area. Their selection of plants was a bit slim, but I'm hoping that this was just due to the fact that this is the end of the season and plan to check this place out again in the spring to see what's going on.

After about an hour there, I was starving (as usual) and suggested we go to Juan in a Million ( www.juaninamillion.com )on East Cesar Chavez for lunch. This restaurant has good food at a great price (where else in Austin can you get absolutely stuffed for $3.60?), good margaritas and great people watching. It was a nice day so we sat on the patio. I always order the Don Juan taco with two extra tortillas and Cheryl ordered the same. I had a margarita. Cheryl doesn't like her margaritas on the rocks, so she opted for the Bloody Mary which proved to be a disappointment, but the chips were fresh, the salsa was HOT, and the people watching didn't disappoint.


One more margarita for me and I was ready to take on the world (fortunately Cheryl was driving) and we headed off the The Natural Gardener (www.naturalgardeneraustin.com) on Old Bee Caves Road in Southwest Austin.

I love this nursery. They have a great selection of plants, the staff is friendly and knowledgeable, their soil and mulch yard is not to be beat and the grounds are beautiful and relaxing. Our friend, Terry (greenirisblogspot.com)met up with us there.

Here is a photo of Terry and Cheryl molesting the Quiver Tree.







The Tee Pee in the maze and iris garden




We had to leave there in a hurry as I had an accupuncture appointment at 4 (that I didn't make) so we headed off the the (formerly) small town on Bee Caves, Texas to check out The Living Desert (see the YouTube video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M6zspNSMT4) . Cheryl was on a quest to find an ocotillo and we thought this would be a good place to find it. Unfortunately there were no ocotillo, but it was a really cool place to see.



Every time I would go camping at Pace Bend Park ( http://www.co.travis.tx.us/tnr/parks/pace_bend.asp) I would pass this place and promise myself to check it out. Twenty-five years later I finally did it. I'm glad I did too as the owner of the land recently put the property up for sale and they will be moving soon. It's a shame because they had a really lovely chunk of land there. Actually, it used to be a lovely chunk of land. The area surrounding the property used to be rolling hills and giant ancient oaks, but now it was surrounded by strip malls. Heaven forbid anyone should have to drive more than 5 miles to go to Marshalls, Best Buy, Kohls, etc. Bee Caves used to be a little bump in the road in the beautiful hill country. It was heartbreaking to see this once picturesque town paved over with concrete. I guess that's progress.

This is the artwork and a cool plant near the entrance. Does anyone know what type of plant this is?

They had a fairly large greenhouse stuffed with different species of cactus. Really nice.
Interesting plants that I had never seen before. Of course I had to purchase a few. Many of the cactus had amazing blooms on them. I signed the guest register at the front counter and will definitely make the trek out here again when they have their moving sale. I'll keep you posted.
I've realized after seeing Cheryl's photos of our trip that I need to break down and read the owner's manual for my camera. My photos aren't nearly as nice as hers.

I had intended to post this the weekend following our trip. I've had so much trouble with this particular post. I don't know why. My apologies for the oddly placed photos, underlined text, etc. Hopefully I'll have it figured out by the next post. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.