Some garden centers are worth going to just for the experience. Even if you don’t buy anything (like that would ever happen to me), you have got to see these places. The Flower and Herb Barn is one of those. Joann said that if we were going to go to Nashville, Indiana, we HAD to see this place AND have lunch there. You are not planning to go to Nashville, Indiana? Well that is mistake number 1. Fix it. Rolling hills, craft stores galore, and ice cream stores everywhere. What’s not to like?
A five hour drive from our suburban Chicago home and we arrived in cuteville, aka Nashville. The Flower and Herb Barn is nearby in Nineveh. It’s hard to find and just when you think its time to turn around, there it is. It didn’t look like much. What was Joann thinking? Oh, she was thinking all right. Thinking that I would love this place. I did.
Of course they have flowers for sale. Garden centers do that. They didn’t even have many compared to some of our large Chicagoland nurseries. What they had was my undivided attention, thanks to the ambience, a barn full of antiques and a charming little restaurant.
We did have lunch there. Again, Joann was right. The Farmhouse Cafe & Team Room is tiny, so tiny that the food was being prepared by two ladies sitting at a kitchen table in an also tiny kitchen. Nothing institutional about this place.
Of course, I did buy something – Turtlehead. It’s a shade plant that was on my hit list and they had a beauty. I also came home with a vase of wildflowers. I picked those as we enjoyed the scenic route back instead of the main roads. The wildflowers are still gracing my kitchen counter, in an old medicine bottle we had bought just days before while on our trip to the Smoky Mountains. But that’s another story, isn’t it? Tune back in for more on the flowers of the Smoky Mountains.
Also coming will be postings about two other garden centers that are worth the trip. You can head to Destination Garden #1, knowing that eventually I’ll tell you about Destination Garden #2 and #3.
[…] Gardens of Woodstock and Rich’s Foxwillow Pines By Carol Cichorski, on August 10th, 2012 Was Destination Garden Center #1 a bit too far for you? Perhaps Destination Garden Center #2 is more in your driving range. […]