And if you go visit the new water feature while you're there, you'll see the big koi I donated a coupla weeks ago. :-)

Thank you! I didn't have this one on my calendar.

We visited the gardens after the Arboretum and Ijams sales, our guest was impressed but I was a little sad. The big Eucalyptus tree was gone, and many of the garden beds were gone or weedy.

I said many bad things to James when I saw that they had taken out those upper beds. He PROMISED me that they are putting new beds in, but it's still upsetting to see all the changes!

I can still remember back in the old days when it seemed the UT Gardens were more about plants than whatever they are about now days. Hardscape is nice, but it needs plants to go with it. Some garden art is great, but tacky garden art is tacky. Lots of tacky garden art without plants looks even more tacky.

I'm still looking forward to seeing what they do this year. Maybe things have hit bottom and will improve from this point on. At least I hope that's what happens. FOG is doing a good job on their publications and newsletters. I got my quarterly newsletter a few days ago and thought it was one of my horticultural magazines at first glance.

Well, I already know that they're putting in a new rose garden -- about 150 plants, I think -- as well as a bunch of dogwoods from Don Shadow. So it isn't ALL hardscape, but it's still stressful!

Thanks for the reminder!
I bought an Agave, some pretty Coleus ($2!) and some mints.
They had some nice big Azaleas but those were snapped up really fast.