Back to Beth's garden in the country

I first visited Beth Winter's garden in 2015, I was so struck by her style and dedication to gardening her way that I included her garden in my book Fearless Gardening. Several years have passed since I'd last visited, so when I received an invite for a Happy Spring Garden Party at Casa Invierno (Winter home), I was thrilled.

The party was also an opportunity to celebrate the fact Beth is in remission (she's been fighting a cancer diagnosis for a few years) and is able to get back out in her garden and work on a few renovations. I know that has got to feel good!

Beth's garden is mostly shade, with a few sunny areas (more sun towards the end of this post). It's also full of cement garden statuary, metal odds and ends, and containers, so many containers.

The greenhouse was being guarded by this little fellow. I think he lives next door?

Enter, if you dare...

Hold my hose!

The moss man! I remember him from my previous visits and was glad to see he was holding up.

The stairway up to Beth's home, imagine the lantern collection all lit up.

The next series of photos were all taken on the deck around her home.

Back down on the ground now.

Passing by the spiky containers again...

Love the terracotta tree necklace (hat tip to Marcia Donahue). 

Out into the sun now...

And more spikes...

There were even some colorful bloomers...

Thanks for the garden party invite Beth, it was wonderful to see you in your garden, I just wish I would have thought to take a photo of you!

The Bit at the End

I've followed Marie Viljoen and her blog 66 Square Feet (Plus) for years now, as she's bounced around different NYC apartments. As newly published posts on the blogs I read grow fewer and fewer I wonder just how much longer this blogging thing will be viable. A recent post of Marie's Forage kitchen and the politics of information assures me that I'm not the only one thinking about these things.

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Seven days of agaves...

Andrew recently spent a week in New Mexico with a cousin visiting family. Before leaving he promised to send me an agave a day, to let me know he was thinking of me. How sweet is that?

Day One, in Albuquerque.

Lots of pups!

Day Two, also Albuquerque, near the Crossroads at Martineztown Historic Marker.

What happened here (wind? humans? critters?) is a mystery.

Day Three, still in Albuquerque. Three different scenes around town...

Day Four took them to Carrizozo, NM.  

Carrizozo is a town in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat, and as of the 2020 census had a population of 972. The name of the town is derived from the Spanish vernacular for reed grass (Carrizo), which grew significantly in the area and provided excellent feed for ranch cattle. The additional "zo" at the end of the town name was added to indicate abundance of Carrizo grass. The town is now often referred to colloquially as "Zozo" (source). No word on what the white moose is about, if that is a moose?

To the west of Carrizozo is the Carrizozo Malpais, a 40-mile-long lava flow that's some 1,500 years old. It's part of the Valley of Fires Recreation Area. Andrew sent bonus photos...

I was impressed with the dense desert vegetation, he was quite frustrated with how grey the lava flow looks, evidently it was very black in person.

Day Five, in Las Cruces, NM. Three spiky scenes...

Day Six, still in Las Cruces.

Day Seven, still in Las Cruces, agaves on the campus of New Mexico State University.

Day Seven included bonus Texas Agaves! They flew out of El Paso and stopped at an archaeology museum beforehand, that's where these rough specimens were photographed.

Also at the museum (outside the museum that is), a rainbow grasshopper. Crazy right?

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl, photos by Andrew Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.