I continue to be humbled, surprised, and inspired by what I learn in visiting gardens.
This past year, Rich and I signed up for a Danube River Cruise, attempting to travel on someone else’s itinerary. The itinerary had all manner of interesting destinations, Kalosca, Passau, Bratislava, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. I needed a map (perhaps you do too). Romania borders Ukraine.It has been a long time since world geography in high school.
If you are wondering where I wandered off to, I’ve been busy noticing all the non-garden things happening in the world. I began to doubt the need for garden stories. Then I had lunch with dear friends in our garden, and they urged me to rethink that idea. Now, maybe more than ever, we all need to be reminded of the beautiful green magic moments in the world. In 2025, I had innumerable such moments. Traveling by air, coach, river boat, ocean ship, ferry, bus, rental car, tram and foot we visited gardens in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Serbia, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and England. Oh, and I visited gardens in southern Indiana while on a speaking tour. This travel kept us packing and unpacking for four months, and when we arrived home, we were a bit dazed.
Traveling is a major part of my summer this year, and exploring gardens is a big part of these adventures. It isn’t possible to write a story about each one, so I thought I would highlight some notable moments.
