#ferngrotto

[edreamworld]

#wailuariver #ferngrotto #ferngrottokauai #ferngrottocruise #fern #wailuariver #wailuariverstatepark #lydgatebeachpark #beachtime #springbreak2022 #lihue #lihuehawaii #hawaiianairlines #hawaii #hawaiiisland #gardenisland #dreamamericausa #dreamamerica #edreamamerica #da #thegardenisland #aloha (at Fern Grotto) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc8zBSYv9ao/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thepoetrystore]

how to be alive 329. take a mental health day. walk hot coastal trails where you count the number of harbor seals (eighty) and quail (eleven) and more brown pelicans than you’ve ever seen (at least 300). meditate inside a fern grotto keeping a soft gaze on the ocean swelling onto the beach. see how sea breaths like you breathe. how water on shore rinses, repeats. silvi . #howtobealive #mentalwelness #hike #santacruz #california #coast #nofilter #coastalhike #beach #fern #ocean #ferngrotto #wilderranch #selfcare #thepoetrystore #poetry #poet #howtobealive #cave #meditation #writersofinstagram #writersofig #writersofinsta #poetsofig #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poetsofinsta #poetsofinstagram #harborseals #quail #pelicans #life #blessed https://www.instagram.com/p/BmlkjDGlZv9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=evz15xvt6zom

[modernhomespalmsprings]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brian Beard (@psarchitecture)

#wailuafalls amazing views hiked down and swam underneath just breathtaking and now going for a cruise thru #ferngrotto utterly incredible scenery here #kauai #hawaii #staycation #mahalo #coconut (at Kauai Wailua River and Fern Grotto Excursion)

[petrinakauai]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @petrina_kauai

Hula time ~ so cute #hula #kauailife #ohana #luckywelivehawaii #lovemyfamily #ferngrotto #wailuariver (at Smith's Fern Grotto Wailua River Cruise) https://www.instagram.com/p/Br-wknWA9Nq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mrzuasughr6m

[kaneika]

Did not come to play with y’all #Kauai #Hawaii #bamboo #jungle #vacay #baecation love that my amazing husband puts up with all my photo shoot needs @milesaaron1 #ferngrotto #smithsfamilyluau (at Kauai Wailua River and Fern Grotto Excursion) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqgNpiQAStn/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qv9c7gr6vcll

[justjossn]

#ferngrotto (at San Antonio Botanical Garden)

[offroadstroller]

River cruise #ferngrotto (at Wailua River)

[syrendell]

Hiking to Hidden Falls in Auburn, we came across this fairy fern grotto. #ferngrotto #homeschooling (at Hidden Falls Regional Park)

[goddessgardener]

Back to Work!

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

P.G.E. has informed the community that the power may be shut off for 48 hours at a time due to high gusty winds and dry conditions. Obviously, this doesn’t make me happy because if there is no electricity, there is no internet connection on my computer. Without an internet connection, I can’t submit my articles and photographs to the newspaper. I’m not one to use my cell phone for my writing or photography assignments, thus, this announcement means that I have to stop my autumnal garden clean-up to write and publish.

The silver lining is that you, my dear readers, will get a jumpstart on your fall chores. Yes, it is time to get back to work in your yard.

The next 30 days are the optimal time to get your landscape prepared for the winter sleep and the spring awakening. Before the rains come, harvest your grapes, take away the trash, tidy up the vegetable patch, clear away the dead stems. Over-wintering pests and diseases will take refuge in the hideouts of debris left in the garden. Corn stalks must be cut (use them for Halloween decorations). Pick the ripe apples, figs, and Asian pears. Leaves from deciduous and evergreen trees may be raked into the compost pile. Or, if you have space, stack leaves separately to create a rich leaf mold that can be used next season as a valuable ingredient in your potting soil.

Most garden projects are best begun in autumn when the soil is still warm with cooler evenings. Create new paths, add a rock garden, terrace a hillside, plant a fern grotto, sow a new lawn. If you have a greenhouse, start bringing frost tender potted plants into the structure. If you don’t have a greenhouse, identify plants that need protection and if they are in containers, move them closer to the house, preferably under an awning. For plants growing in your garden that will be susceptible to winters chill, wrap them in burlap. I am currently covering my bougainvillea and blue flowering Birds of Paradise.

With the change of seasons, our houseplants require a bit of TLC. For all of the smaller, moveable plants, bring them outdoors for a final refreshing shower to remove built-up dust. Give them a deep drink on a warm, but not a hot day, and let them dry in the shade before returning them to the house. For large plants such as fiddle leaf fig or philodendron, take a damp cloth and wipe each leaf, top and bottom, as well as the stems. With shorter days, less intense light, and a different indoor atmosphere, our houseplants may suffer. Make sure to keep the soil evenly moist without being soggy. If you want your Christmas cactus to bloom for the holidays, keep it in a cool room without watering so that it can rest.

Red flag days will be more common through November as winds kick up and the heat of fall keeps the thermometers rising. If you pruned your begonias and roses in the last few weeks, you’ll enjoy bountiful flowers until the downpours begin. I am truly enamored with begonias, both the tuberous and the wax leaf or fibrous. In some areas, the wax leaf begonia is an annual but in our warmer Mediterranean climate, they are perennial like their sisters, the tuberous begonias. Don’t make the mistake of pulling them out when they die back. Just cut them to the ground to allow them to overwinter and you’ll be rewarded with even a fuller plant next blooming season.

Cynthia Brian’s “Back to Work” Gardening Guide for October

The chores already discussed need doing before inclement weather begins. Once we have a deep soaking of life-giving rain, October is one of the best months for planting, seeding, and digging.

⎫ CREATE meandering borders filled with perennials and shrubs. ⎫ PLANT trees and bushes as the temperature cools. ⎫ SCATTER wildflower seeds, especially California poppies and lupines. ⎫ START a new lawn or re-seed an existing lawn. ⎫ DEADHEAD annuals. ⎫ ROOT out any remaining weeds. ⎫ DIG a pond and add a water feature. ⎫ CHOOSE fall planting bulbs that will have different bloom times from early to late spring. Don’t forget muscari (grape hyacinth). This fragrant bulb will multiply, growing in sun or shade. ⎫ REFRIGERATE hyacinth, crocus, and tulip for six weeks before planting. ⎫ SOW cool-season vegetables including turnips, peas, lettuce, rutabagas, kohlrabi, carrots, kale, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. ⎫ ADD a tropical ambiance with New Guinea impatiens, red-hot poker, and palms. ⎫ PROVIDE long-lasting beauty for sunny areas with ornamental grasses, geraniums, and elephant ear. ⎫ FIX nitrogen and increase biomass with a cover crop such as mustard, alfalfa, or crimson clover. ⎫ ENJOY your begonias. Once they start dying back, do not pull them out. They will return more robust next fall. ⎫ TAKE pleasure in photos of beautiful gardens, such as those from Butchart Gardens in Canada. See https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1316/Cynthia-Brians-Gardening-Guide-for-October-Benvenuto-to-Butchart-Gardens.html

  Our gardens are winding down and so too will we. Get to work finishing your tasks this autumn in anticipation of a restful winter. Life begins again!

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing.

Photos and More: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1317/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Back-to-work.html

  One Minute emergency: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1317/One-Minute-to-Evacuate-a-personal-perspective-from-the-Oct-10-fire.html

  Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, raised in the vineyards of Napa County, is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3. Tune into Cynthia’s StarStyle® Radio Broadcast at www.StarStyleRadio.com.

Buy a copy of her books, Growing with the Goddess Gardener and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store.

Hire Cynthia for writing projects, garden consults, and inspirational lectures. Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com

www.GoddessGardener.com

  keywords: #backtowork,#ButchartGardens, #begonias,#impatiens,#waterfalls,#ferngrottos,#giverny, #monet, #autumn,#fall, #Canada, ,#gardening, #cynthiabrian, #starstyle, #goddessGardener, #growingwiththegoddessgardener, #lamorindaweekly

[bethestaryouareradio]

Benvenuto a Butchart Gardens

Cynthia Brian’s Gardening Guide for October https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1316/Cynthia-Brians-Gardening-Guide-for-October-Benvenuto-to-Butchart-Gardens.html

  Benvenuto to Butchart Gardens by Cynthia Brian

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

O Canada!

After a hot summer of weeding, pruning, mowing, cleaning, composting, and tidying my plots, traveling to Victoria in British Columbia was a welcome respite. Despite the cold and inclement weather on Vancouver Island, we set out to explore the extraordinary National Historic Site of Canada in Brentwood Bay known as The Butchart Gardens.

In 1904, the Butchart family built their home amongst sheltered Tod Inlet surrounded by forests and fields in an area where there were limestone deposits, the perfect conditions for establishing a cement plant. They named the location, “Benvenuto”, meaning “welcome” in Italian. Mr. Butchart’s first barge-load of cement sailed from the inlet in 1905 for sale to Canadian cities. As rocks were gathered and piled in select locations and soil was brought in by the wagonloads, the quarry soon metamorphosed into the show-stopping sunken gardens. Every site for planting was meticulously chosen and a lake was created from the deepest part of the quarry, fed by a waterfall and stream.

Still owned and maintained by the Butchart family, the 55 acres of gardens continue to evolve, expand, and attract. Over a million visitors a year flock to this oasis of calm and beauty. Today separate gardens include the Rose, Italian, Mediterranean, Japanese, and Sunken Garden. Numerous waterscapes abound. There are boat tours at Butchart Cove, fireworks in the evening, restaurants, tea time, and even a Carousel with thirty hand-carved animals that delight children and kids-at-heart alike.

Although I was enamored by the entire landscape, it was the Sunken Garden that captured my imagination. As an avid and very diligent gardener, I can only imagine the amount of labor that was involved in creating a lush and elegant horticultural masterpiece from a rough, grim, grey quarry of jagged rocks. As I meandered around the paths admiring the handiwork of years of devotion from hundreds of talented plant smiths, I was thrilled to see that the gorgeous flowers blooming in the beds and cascading over the stone banks, were plants that I grow in my California garden. Dahlias, roses, begonias, New Guinea impatiens, cannas, camellias, salvias, rhododendrons, geraniums, petunias, hydrangeas, alliums, acanthus, astilbes, arums, snapdragons, zinnias, euphorbias, fuchsias, heliotropes, hostas, lantanas, marigolds, and even an entire swatch of deep green shamrocks, also known as oxalis, blanketed this serene environment. It was such fun to pass a grouping and be able to answer my husband’s constant question: “What is this called?”

But one plant truly stumped me. I had never seen it before and although the entrance ticket includes a small flower and plant guide to the most popular species in the garden, I didn’t know what this plant was. Thankfully, The Butchart Gardens has a Plant Identification Center with knowledgeable plant people. I snapped a photo and showed it to the expert. “This is a tropical plant that we will soon put in the greenhouse to overwinter. It’s called a “Popcorn Plant” because it smells like buttered popcorn.” How marvelous to learn something new every day!

The camellias and rhododendrons were budding but not in bloom and I can only imagine how sensational the grounds must be when they burst into flower. Every season brings new annuals and bulbs. Spring is filled with tulips, crocus, and daffodils reflecting a love for the Netherlands. There are over 900 bedding plant varieties, 26 greenhouses, and 50 full-time gardeners.

A forest of trees including maples, madrones, dogwoods, magnolias, flowering cherry, weeping sequoias, poplars, beeches, and Golden chain trees anchor the scene. There were two unusual and unique trees encased in a rock-walled garden, the Monkey Puzzle Tree, definitely a conifer, but not one I’d seen before.

Wherever I travel, I seek out gardens that will inspire and instruct me to be a better steward of our earth. Butchart Gardens is exquisitely and elegantly designed. With a plethora of water features including streams, lakes, waterfalls, and fountains, I was transported to a place of sheer joy and tranquility. Totem poles, bronzes, statuary, and whimsical moss-covered wire sculptures offer a nod to the artistic value of landscaping. To walk in the footsteps of those who lived a hundred years ago knowing that they lavished love on this land, preserving it for posterity as well as the enjoyment and education of the general public was simultaneously humbling and enlightening.

Life was created in a garden. A garden is life unfolding. I returned to my California countryside as October beckons with the changing of the foliage wardrobe and, motivated by my sojourn, immediately got to work with a spark of a new beginning for digging deeper. Although my property will unlikely ever be a Butchart or Giverny, it is my personalized refuge of sweet repose.

O Canada, thank you. Benvenuto October.

Cynthia Brian’s Garden Guide for October

CONTINUE watering your yard. Your plants need the moisture now more than ever. VISIT a public garden for inspiration and ideas. REFRIGERATE your spring bulbs for the next six weeks. RAKE falling leaves to add to your compost pile. PRUNE fruit trees after the harvest. FERTILIZE begonias and roses to prolong the blooming period. READ a garden book. May I suggest, Growing with the Goddess Gardener, available at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store TAKE a break. The tough landscaping projects start in two weeks!

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing.

Photos and article: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1316/Cynthia-Brians-Gardening-Guide-for-October-Benvenuto-to-Butchart-Gardens.html

  Press Pass Photos: https://blog.voiceamerica.com/2019/10/02/butchart-gardens/

  Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, raised in the vineyards of Napa County, is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3. Tune into Cynthia’s Radio show and order her books at www.StarStyleRadio.com

. Buy a copy of her new books, Growing with the Goddess Gardener and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store.

Hire Cynthia for projects, consults, and lectures. Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com

www.GoddessGardener.com

_____________________________________________________________

keywords: #ButchartGardens, #begonias,#impatiens,#waterfalls,#ferngrottos,#giverny, #monet, #autumn,#fall, #Canada, ,#gardening, #cynthiabrian, #starstyle, #goddessGardener, #growingwiththegoddessgardener, #lamorindaweekly

[haikuhamo]

Fern Grotto, at the end of Wailua River on the Island of Kaua’i, reminds me of the heart of the Forrest in My Neighbor Totoro. It’s gorgeous, serene, and feels magical. Also, there’s a ton of mosquitoes and these flying white rats with wings whom I’m convinced will crap on you head if you’re not paying attention. Visit at your own peril. #kauai #ferngrotto #hawaii #aloha Forgot to mention the wonderful music performers and hula dancers that entertained us for the entire journey. Mahalo! (at Kauai Wailua River and Fern Grotto Excursion) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoFnLUiFZCs/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=jj802o608kfq

[edreamworld]

#ferngrotto #kauai #ferngrottokauai #hawaiianislands #hawaii #dreamamericausa (at Fern Grotto) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHymidNnC9S/?igshid=u9tnk2e08us7

[poshkauai]

My Friday... . . . . . . . . #wailuariver #ferngrotto #luckywelivekauai #firstfieldtrip #preschooladventures #myfriday (at Wailua River)

[4x4lawyer]

Trace & I #kauaivacation #kauai #luau #ferngrotto #CarssClan5 (at Smith's Tropical Paradise)

[petrinakauai]

They're here! It's been far too long. Started their visit at the Wailua River with the Smith's fern Grotto tour #kauailife #ohana #cruise #ferngrotto #lovemyfamily #luckywelivehawaii #twinsofinstagram #kidsofinstagram #wailua (at Smith's Fern Grotto Wailua River Cruise) https://www.instagram.com/p/Br6pWbygDXZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=pdo6s0adw6ni

[meancobra95]

#kauai #ferngrotto