Garden stroll along Summit Avenue in St. Paul

Garden variety Rhino

Egg laying chickens

Clematis

Leashed dogs, perhaps for the rabbits?

House of Hope Community Garden

My wife and I, along with another couple, participated in a garden stroll along Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota yesterday.  I'll put up pictures on the blog for the next couple of days.

Some of the homes had gardens that were extraordinary, and well planned.  Truth be told, a couple of gardens seem to have been less thought through and appeared hastily developed.

Fun to see some beautiful statuary and whimsical sculpture complementing the plants.

Water garden, complete with Koi

One backyard garden was very much like an urban farmstead, complete with vegetables, bees and chickens.  Neat to see this in the city.  Can't get much more local produce than from the back yard!

House of Hope Presbyterian Church developed a community vegetable garden in a large portion of their front lot. The produce will go to the Neighborhood House Food Shelf.  I admired the cedar fence.  In talking with one of the church members I discovered that being along historic Summit Avenue they were required they put in a tasteful, quality fence.

A gardener for a large beautiful garden, which took a full city lot, it sounded like the rabbits were some of the biggest beneficiaries of the plantings. She seemed to think of rabbits of her enemies.  I encouraged her to reread Watership Down, a story that tells of the lives of rabbits and the many challenges they face.