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Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Historic Farms Botanical Tour

The next day, we did a tour of the Botanical Gardens that are now on the grounds of the farm that supplied the Hospital with fruits, vegetables, meat, milk... for many years.


 One of the first things we saw was this gravestone.  The only thing buried on all this property is here, and it's a cow.  This cow was a world champion who died in 1932 and still holds records today!



They let Bob drive a golf cart for this tour.  He had fun doing it!




 There were lots of beautiful flowers...





The barns were beautiful too!


This barn burned at one time - the darker brick is the newer part.


 They took very good care of the animals.  They had cork bricks for the cows to stand on, the barns were heated, and each stall had fresh water plumbed in for them to drink.






In one of the barns was another tunnel.  There was a root cellar here, so they were able to get the vegetables through the tunnel.


This is the original horse barn.  It was unable to be restored, so they saved the foundation and made it into a walled garden.


 This is what it looks like now.






The flowers are planted as the barn was originally laid out, with flowers in the stable area.








It's hard to see, but there are 2 Japanese Lion sculptures on either side of the opening.  They were a gift from Japan to a U.S. General and he recently donated them to the gardens.


 When you walk through that opening, there is a Japanese Garden.



 Such a gorgeous place!



Here's  mystery to end the post.  These flowers were next to a sign explaining the history of the barns.  Our guide said that flowers appear every week.  They come in a variety of containers; pitchers, vases, canning jars.  However, no one ever sees them get delivered or picked up!

8 comments:

Ramblings of a Retired Lady said...

A beautiful place to visit.

Kim said...

Very cool place...and what a mystery. Adds to the charm of the place.

Arlene G said...

How fun!! I love seeing all the pretty places in Northern Michigan. I dont know much about your state and have learned a lot from your blog, Mari.

Dianna said...

Thank you, Mari, for sharing these beautiful pictures and a bit of history. I would have thoroughly enjoyed touring there! That tombstone for the cow is quite impressive. And love it that someone is a mystery flower-giver.

Laura said...

So glad you went and had a great time! My favorite was the horse stall garden. They sure do a nice job with it!

Terri D said...

How interesting about the flowers! I would be putting in a night-vision motion detector camera!! Ha! Loved seeing these photos again. It is always wonderful when a historical site is preserved, even when repurposed!

Jean said...

What a unique arboretum! I love the creative ways they have turned the barn foundation into a place of beauty. Wow, the story of those mystery flowers is slightly spooky! I’m with Terri! Get a trail cam set up!

Jenny said...

Oh my goodness! I don't even know where to begin! The flowers that appear each week in a different container? How wonderful but please, plant a camera and find out who's doing that, haaahahaha! Or maybe it's more fun not knowing.

A cow's gravestone -- now that's a first for me! She must have been a real peach.

I LOVE driving a golf cart. I beg TG to get me one all the time, just to drive around the 'hood. I drove one all over Folly Beach last week! It looked just like Bob's.

I have never seen a brick barn. That's amazing.

That walled garden is perfection.

Cone flowers! xoxo