Travel provides eye candy for gardeners

Looking out the kitchen window, there is still a lot of color in the flower garden. Flowers just aren't as vigorous as they were a few months ago.

I was fortunate to recently view some wonderful flowers that were still in their prime as I traveled on a bus trip to Mackinac Island in Michigan. Located in Lake Huron, the trip didn't disappoint with eye candy for flower lovers.

I'm thinking the waves of humidity from the water is a breath of moisture each day for the flowering plants. Never have I seen so many hydrangea bushes sporting beautiful flowers. The pink and blush tones were gorgeous.

Mackinac doesn't allow motorized travel vehicles on the island, so the taxis are horse drawn.

With an endless supply of large teams of horses to transport tourists and everything else on the island, there is, of course, an abundance of horse manure. We were told it is composted and, I assume, is used to feed flower beds. Hence, with the lake breezes and compost, the flowers are gorgeous.

Hanging pots filled with flowers line the streets where shoppers leisurely travel in and out of souvenir shops.

A well-advertised destination is the Grand Hotel. There, thousands of red geraniums fill the window boxes and there are even some inside the hotel. As all gardeners know, those spring-planted geraniums don't all keep blooming vigorously throughout the summer. That makes me think that somewhere not far from the island is a greenhouse filled with geraniums that can be transported to the hotel when one of the geraniums isn't performing well.

Even though the compost and lake breezes likely prompt the vigorous blooms, there is still a lot of care needed for those flowers that earn tons of "oohs and ahs" from visitors. I can't imagine the number of people needed to plant the annuals in the spring.

Back home, I confess that, as a gardener, my eyes are viewing the sites of fall in the garden. Already my mind is jumping ahead to spring planting. Do I have room for more hydrangeas?

While tomatoes continue to slowly ripen in the garden and potatoes need to be dug, I'm thinking of what I might plant in the veggie garden next spring.

I would like to plant colored corn for fall decorating and of course, pumpkins.

As we traveled through Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and into Nebraska, the fall decor was beautiful, with pumpkins and pots of mums tucked in among straw bales. Again, eye candy.

I will be reading up on pumpkin care once again as I miss peeking under large green leaves for a preview of the fall harvest. There just isn't anything much better in vegetable gardening than previewing harvest time. Well, harvest itself is pretty sweet.

If you are a gardener and have the opportunity to travel, you probably always find something new to try in your own garden or a new idea for what to combine in a plant scheme. When you get home, write down the plantings you want to try or the idea you learned along the way so next spring it won't be forgotten.

No matter how far you travel from home, gardening really doesn't change, except for the zones. We all want the biggest blooms, longer seasons and just the right color combination of flowers.

For now, enjoy the view out your window. Fall is here and just about all the gardeners on our recent bus trip were anxious to get back home and enjoy it, even if they don't see those gorgeous hydrangeas every day.

There are numerous hydrangeas that adapt well to our area. You just have to read up about them and what they like and then you, too, can have a part of that Mackinac Island life right out your kitchen window.