Longwood Gardens
Besides catching up with wonderful old
friends, the highlight of my trip was a visit to Longwood Gardens on
Friday. I know I blab about plants endlessly, but the truth is
that I often get bored by gardens which are simply ornamental with no
fruits or vegetables. But despite being beautiful, Longwood was
anything but boring.
There were massive trees and perky blooms lining formal pathways.
Inside the conservatory, the pillars were coated with climbing figs,
while in other rooms tree ferns surrounded 
waterfalls and epiphytes
clung to mossy niches along the walls. Child that I am, I adored
the children's garden with its leapfrogging fountains and
scent-alley. The century old bonsai trees left me with a
different kind of awe.
Back outdoors, cats rested on benches and wandered along the
paths. A sign explained that the felines were Longwood
"employees" --- part of the garden's integrated pest management
system. I wonder whether there's science to back up using cats as
integrated pest management --- do they eat enough moles and few enough
birds to make it worthwhile?
The short version is --- next time you're in the Philadelphia area, I
highly recommend that you take an afternoon and check out Longwood!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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