2012 Asheville Garden Bloggers Fling - Day 1, afternoon

After our morning community gardens and our eclectic mid-day gardens, we spent the afternoon strolling around the North Carolina Arboretum. I was in need of some quiet time by this point so I headed off for a stroll in the woods by myself. 

After a while I stumbled upon the bonsai collection and enjoyed the woods in miniature. 

Looping back to the entrance of the arboretum, I passed by some interesting plants:

And some interesting structures:

The Arboretum has a variety of garden types from formal to educational to wild, something for everyone!

2012 Asheville Garden Bloggers Fling - Day 1, mid-day

After the creative recycling exuberance of the morning gardens on our tour, we headed over to the mellow kitchen garden at Sunny Point Cafe. With an enviable sizable plot next to the restaurant, Sunny Point Cafe is able to grow much of its produce steps away from the kitchen. Can't get much fresher than that. 

Next up we visited the wonderland of Wamboldtopia. Combine one part smuggler's cave, one part medieval church, one part industrial-revolution factory, and one part elfin enclave and you have Wamboldtopia.

One of the owners of Womboldtopia, Ricki Pierce, aka "The Rock Pirate" - is an obvious virtuoso of rock placement and stone masonry.  

I'm not sure who convinced Helen Yoest and myself to pose on the Rock Pirate truck but I was obviously into it. And we hadn't even had drinks yet. 

For lunch we headed over to Curve Studios, a set of warehouses transformed into wonderful gallery spaces and surrounded by beautiful gardens. 

I love this use of prefabricated steel mesh to create walls to the edible garden that keep critters out but allow lots of light in. 

It was a lovely place for lunch! Next we headed over for a pleasant stroll at the North Carolina Arboretum. I'll save those photos for the next post!