Luther Burbank Gardens with Mom

One of my favorite places in the world is the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, in Santa Rosa, California. Luther Burbank was someone who loved plants, he developed over 800 strains and varieties of plants most commonly, the shasta daisy

You may also know Luther as the inventor of the Russet potato! Ever had a white blackberry? If you go to Luther's Wikipedia Page, you can find out more facinating facts, like he never even graduated high school! You can also thank him for this juicy fire poppy

At the Burbank house there is a whole bed of them

This is the biggest Opuntia (prickly pear) plant I've ever seen!

And some pears

I'll never have a veggie garden like Burbank, check out his red chard

And Orange

I feel blessed to live next to Santa Rosa, Burbank wrote to his family "I firmly believe from what I have seen that [Santa Rosa] is the chosen spot of all this earth as far as nature is concerned...." I think that he's right.

The flowers above were in Burbank's children's garden, I read this beautiful quote in front of it 

"Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water-bugs, tadpoles, frogs and mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, waterlilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries, and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education"

I couldn't agree more

The beans below are great for returning nitrogen to the soil, they are good food as well, what you do is plant these in an area in a year after you have planted a crop that drains nitrogen from the soil. After a few years the soil is rich in nitrogen and great to plan in again. Brilliant!

A bed of Shasta Daisy!

Annabella loved all the flowers

Some Blue Fennel! I love how these flowers look

This sundial was so easy to read!

If you are ever in Santa Rosa or Northern California, definitely check this place out, you can even get some of Luther's plants to take home and plant in your garden! 

Or just hang out on the lawn, watch the fountain, and eat a banana

yum