We’ve been blessed with some frequent short gentle rains interspersed with long, sunny intervals this month, and the flowers and plants have been loving it! It’s the third season as innkeepers for Paul and I, and now that we have the basics of breakfast and general innkeeping under our belt, we are taking more notice of the gardens and other plantings around the property. We are blessed to have so many Mennonite garden stores nearby – it has been fun to pick up some hopefully deer-proof annuals and perennials and pop them into the ground to brighten up the area.
Bob has a special gift with potted coleuses. Every year he puts together several beautiful arrangements and places them on the deck, in the driveway, and this year they are in the planters on the Sunflower patio. Something magical happens in these pots on the property – by the end of the season, each plant is lush, and about 4 feet tall!
We put up the Fairy Houses again this season. This year, I found a box labeled: “Furniture” – so our village now includes a gnome, a birdfeeder, and some places for our fairies to sit down and enjoy a glass of wine! And since one of our most popular rooms is the Morning Glory suite – the fairies can play on the small trellis with these plants winding their way up now, too!
If you’ve had our “Finger Lakes Omelet” you know that we like to garnish it with some strips of basil leaves arranged in an artful (means you need to use your imagination) representation of the lakes we call home. And our signature plate decoration is a cherry tomato with a sprig of oregano for savory breakfasts, and a strawberry with a sprig of mint for sweet ones. As you can imagine, we consume a lot of herbs here at Sunrise Landing!
So we are trying to get a better start on our herb supply this summer. We have beefed up our regular potted herb garden, and have some back-up basil, along with some cherry tomato plants started in a new planter on the deck.
Over the last three seasons, we’ve been working to spruce up the parking area overlooking the lake, and this summer, we’ve installed some new planting areas, adding Columbine, and a row of Echinacea (Cone Flowers) and Heliopsis Helianthoides (False Sunflowers) along the ledge heading down to the lake. It’s some nice color in the area, designed to be encouraging to the pollinators, and reinforces the Sunflower theme for the guests staying in that apartment!
And in our quest for deer proof perennials, we discovered Salvia – which have the added bonus of attracting hummingbirds – one of our guests spotted one suspended in mid-air at the plant, so I immediately ran out and bought a hummingbird feeder – and the beauty has returned a few times to visit it – too elusive for a photo, though!
We hope you visit us at Sunrise Landing to see the beauty of the site for yourself! And if you visit soon, you’ll see our lilies in bloom – they are stunning.
