Kroul's Farm

Another thing I did a few weeks ago to get ready for the graduation party was to dig out my hanging baskets and get ready to plant them up for the front porch. But, 4 years of continual use had left them rusty and weak. I needed to replace the whole set-up.

So, I headed south of Mount Vernon on Highway 1 to Kroul's Farm. Having grown up on a farm, I love coming here. It's like my blood pressure drops 20 points when I get out of the car. Farm noises and smells. Cows mooing- you can walk right up and scratch their heads when they are eating out of the trough. Chickens, cats, a friendly old dog. John and Kaylene Kroul are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They have grown this business over the years. First they had pumpkins. Tons of pumpkins. My girls both came here on preschool trips to the pumpkin patch. We come here to get our pumpkins in the fall. They even have a corn maze. (Google it, you city folks :) Then they expanded. John also farms. And splits wood- we stock up on firewood for the firepit there. Kaylene delivers mail in the early mornings and then rushes home and works the rest of the day. Hard work.

In one of the greenhouses, Kaylene found the perfect HUGE hanging fuschia plants- and she had 4 of them. Perfect for my partly-shady front porch, especially with the sun-dried tomato colored trim. The green pots even match the green trim on the house. And you wanna know another benefit of living in a small town and knowing your neighbors? Kaylene KNEW the color of my house and the trim and suggested these BECAUSE they would go with the trim. Sigh. I love Iowa.


I also got the flowers to fill the garden shed window boxes.

I'll have to snap a couple pictures of the plants as they look at our house. Maybe this afternoon. I'm heading to Kroul's again. I forgot cherry tomato plants.