Top Five Serendipity Gardens Stories

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Bottle Tree

The bottle tree, based on an old tradition, adds a reliable touch of blue to the garden.

The Serendipity Gardens blog is one year old. To mark its anniversary, we are republishing the top five posts. Here they are:

My Bottle Tree “Blooms” Year Round

Bottle trees, often seen in the South, have a complicated history.

According to Felder Rushing, in his book Bottle Trees, “Clear glass was invented in Alexandria, Egypt around 100 A.D. Soon around then, tales began to circulate that spirits could live in bottles – probably from when people heard sounds caused by wind blowing over bottle openings. This led to the belief in ‘bottle imps’ and genies that could be captured in bottles … Somewhere in there, people started using glass to capture or repel bad spirits. The idea was, roaming night spirits would be lured into and trapped in bottles placed around entryways, and morning light would destroy them.” ... Read More

Five Ways for Kids to Have Fun in the Garden

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The crew at Serendipity Gardens is lucky. We have six grandchildren, five of whom live nearby. We would venture a guess that these kids do not have nature deficit disorder.

What is nature deficit disorder?

According to Wikipedia, Nature deficit disorder refers to a hypothesis by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems … Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen. ... Read More