creative jewish mom

Essential Tips For Creating A Family-Friendly Garden

Pride Of Madeira with its huge cones of purple flowers grows effortlessly in Northern Israel. 

Israel has a large variety of plants: the country's cities and suburbs are amass with flowers which attract all kinds of wildlife with no less than 2600 varieties and over 135 types of butterflies! In order to do our own part in preserving our amazing wealth of flora and fauna, spending time and effort in our own gardens will ensure that we embrace wildlife while also creating a beautiful environment for the family to enjoy. Whether you’d love to grow geraniums in your garden, prefer to grow your own food or would like to create a fun play area for the kids, designing a family friendly garden can benefit everyone, young and old. Here’s some ideas to help you get started, and enjoy the gardening journey for many years to come.

Lantana In Bloom Is Stunning And Drought Tolerant

I have a soft spot for Lantana, the plant which is characterized by balls of colorful flowers that are made up of clusters of the sweetest little flowers you've ever seen. And so earlier this week when I was out and about with my camera one morning, I just had to capture a few shots of these beauties........ to share with you and to remind myself to plant a bunch in a garden that I've designed and landscaped, as well as in my own container garden. The wonderful thing about lantana is that it comes in intense reds and oranges, as well as in a color combo of light pinks and peaches altogether on one bush, which is quite sweet, and that it can be a small trailing plant, a low bush, or even something that grows more like a vine, supporting itself on other plants and reaching as high as 7 feet or so! Take a look at my photos, and get inspired to make lantana a part of your life!

Pride Of Madeira, Dramatic and Draught Resistant In No CAL and Northern Israel!

The Pride Of Madeira plants that I planted in a little neighborhood garden that I designed four or so years ago are in bloom, and it is truly a gorgeous site! I thought I'd share a few photos with you for those of you who might like to try a plant that has a great Meditteranean garden flair, grows really quickly and is very dramatic looking. Sorry folks on the East Coast this one isn't for you, but those in California and Texas, and other areas without freezing winters, run out and get one! In fact that reminds me that I'd like to try growing one in a container in my own garden! The plant you see here was just a little baby, the size of a small houseplant when I planted it, and wow, how it grew, even within two or so years into a huge woody tree/bush.

Hedenbergia Vine In Bloom, On The Late Side.....

If you follow my blog, you may already know that I just love sharing with you signs of the changing seasons. Migrating birds, blooming trees, ripening pomegranates and grapes are just a few of the things that make us excited around here, and I now share with you my yearly photos of my hedenbergia vine in bloom.....something that usually happens during the winter as opposed to early Spring, but so be it! Right about now, when some of you may be thinking about your garden, whether in containers or in actually earth, I'd like to recommend this lovely vine to you.......it blooms in the winter when all else in the garden is sleeping (at least in my zone) and in the summer is it a lovely and lush vine, that grows quite quicklym and happily attaches itself to whatever it can.

A Beautiful Garden Grows In Central Israel......

Can anybody out there identify this lovely tree with lilac-like blooms? No luck with Dr. Google......

Last week my husband and I happened to drive by a wedding hall with a fabulous garden, and we just had to take a peek. Here in Israel weddings tend to be very large and so there are many many wedding halls of all kinds to accomodate all budgets and styles. In the city, wedding hall usually have very little outdoor space, but here on the highway between Hadera and Emek Hefer there was plenty of room for this wedding hall to spread way way out, and so they did, with a gorgeous green garden. Take a look for yourself!

Slice of Life - Berkeley In Bloom, Gorgeous Flowering Shrubs

As you may have figured out by now, I have actually been away from my home in Israel for the past few weeks visiting with my mother in California and now with family in New York. I feel so very fortunate to have made the visit this year in the Spring, as the show of flowering shrubs and plants everywhere is just spectacular. For starters I thought I'd share with you some of the gorgeous flowers we saw on our walks around Berkeley, where I was so very inspired by so many gorgeous gardens. Above, flowering roses at the Rose Garden on Euclid Avenue in North Berkeley, and a flowering Camellia bush. 

Rhododendrons in a purple and pink and red and white are on show everywhere. Wow. And our beloved California poppy is making a great show too!

Nastertiums in bloom at the Berkeley Marina, as well as this interesting plant with cone shaped stalks of tiny purple flowers, which I would love to know more about and saw in many places, so I'm assuming it's drought resistant. Anybody know what this is?

Vivid magenta flowers of the ice plant succulent, and budeliah blooms on the shore of the San Francisco Bay, at the Berkeley Marina.

And calla lillies are in bloom in so many gardens, a very popular bulb so I see!

A public path is lined with some purple wild flowers, and another glimpe of the gorgeous rhododendron bush, seen in many gardens, especially those of older homes.  I'm quite sure there are gorgeous flowers in bloom all around the northern hemisphere, so don't forget to enjoy them yourself, and do share your love of flowers with others!