Many thanks to Violet at Lady Greenthumb's Garden, and Anna at Flowergardengirl's Blog for gifting me with this award. I've been reading and enjoying these two fine women's blogs for several months now, and congratulate them for having receiving the awards from readers of their blogs. By the way, Anna has started a new blog called Woody and Herbaceous. If you haven't already, you should check it out!
As I understand it, 'Arte y Pico' translates as something like 'peak of art.' The origin of the Arte y Pico Award: "This prize has arisen from the daily visits that I dedicate to many blogs which nourish me and enrich me with creativity. In them I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain me day to day and to share this prize with those who enrich me every day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few. The people I will name today deserve this prize, as do the very long serious list of bloggers I also enjoy to read. But I will name the first 10 and leave the rest of the work to all the bloggers that visit other's blogs and are nourished by them."
The rules for accepting this award are:
1. You pick 5 blogs you consider deserving of this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.
4. Please include a link to the “Arte Y Pico” blog so everyone will know where the award came from.
5. Show these rules
It's been nearly impossible to narrow down my choices for the award. There's a long list of blogs I think are worthy. I bit the bullet though, and here are my picks, in no particular order:
Melanie at Old Country Gardens. I've been reading Melanie's blog since first discovering gardening blogs several months ago. Melanie is a talented, artistic, knowledgeable gardener, with extensive, varied, beautiful, and inspiring gardens in her acreage on Long Island. I learn something new nearly every time I visit her blog.
Meems at Hoe and Shovel. Meems gardens in beautiful, tropical Florida. Her gardens are so beautiful! I'm partial to tropical plants and overwinter several of them in my basement under a sodium light. Meems overwinters her tropical plants in her garden where they easily survive the usually-mild winters. I envy her falls, winters, and springs - her summers, not so much! This year she grew her first vegetable garden. Her posts on the veggie garden inspired me to find a spot in our side yard where I'm seriously considering a vegetable garden next spring.
Gail at Clay and Limestone. Gail gardens in Tennessee on her beautiful property. Her tough soil hasn't stopped her from creating lush landscapes with lots of natives and a great variety of cultivated plants. Her warmth, passion, and sense of humor shine through her posts and her comments on other blogs.
Monica at Garden Faerie Musings. Monica is a master gardener living in Michigan. If you haven't checked out her new blog Full Bloom on MLive, a Michigan website, I highly recommend you waste no time doing so! Monica's been gardening and writing about it both personally and professionally for a long time. She plans a trip to Chicago sometime in the next month, and we hope to meet for a visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens while she's here!
Mr. McGregor's Daughter. A garden-blogging neighbor, MMD lives in the Chicago area too. I've learned a lot visiting her woodland garden and from her comments here and at other garden blogs. Her gardens combine natives and cultivated plants. Like the other garden bloggers listed here, she's a good writer and photographer, and a garden-blogging friend. She and the other bloggers I've picked here are all smart, socially-and-environmentally responsible women who do their best to make their corners of the world better places.
