Happy Saturday!

I took Thursday off this week to visit a garden. This was almost a last minute decision. I knew I had Thursday off from work but I couldn’t think of what to do on that day. The decision came on Tuesday night when I found out my mom would be heading to the office on Thursday and oddly, only one place came to mind.

Red Butte Garden is located near the University of Utah. It’s a place I have been wanting to visit for several years, even prior to having a garden. It’s in the foothills of the Wasatch mountains, which gave me an awesome view of Salt Lake City below.

My goal for this trip was mainly to gain some inspiration for the garden but instead, I found the visit to be quite educational. The garden is split into many smaller gardens. Walking through each of the smaller gardens, I felt like I belong in such place, like I’m in paradise.

After gardening, listening to gardening podcasts, and watching hours of gardening contents on YouTube, I’ve grown to recognize the various plants without needing to look at labels. Each tree, shrub, and flower in the garden had a label that told me all the information I needed to know about the plant like water requirement and hardiness.

I was surprised by the number of plants I discovered I have in my own garden. I was laughing at myself as I walked around pointing at the plants and saying, “I know you!” One of the plants I found was growing everywhere was the catmint (nepeta) and I heard myself say, “so, it’s not just me.” The catmint has been going crazy in my garden this year and the thing is, I can never get near it as it’s always covered with bees and other pollinators.

The only garden I did not visit was the rose garden because nothing was blooming yet. I’ll have to go back for another visit. If this garden is anything like mine, it’ll be different every season.

Of the garden I saw on this trip, my favorite garden was the water conservation garden. It opened my eyes to learn how little water some plants actually needs and I learned that I might be over-watering some of the plants. There was a section within the water conservation garden called “Desert harvest”. This was interesting to see that even though there’s a lack of water, planting vegetables are still possible.

I appreciate you stopping by to read about my trip. Thank you Natalie for hosting WeekendCoffeeShare, and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.