Botanical Garden Visit- Cedar Lakes Woods & Gardens

 Date: Saturday, May 31, 2025 (my birthday visit!)

Location: Cedar Lakes Woods & Gardens, Williston, FL — a stunning botanical garden built in an old limestone quarry

A Beautiful Birthday Walk Through Nature

For my birthday, I spent the morning at Cedar Lakes Woods & Gardens, a unique botanical garden carved into a century-old lime rock quarry. The garden had subtle Japanese design elements—like stone lanterns, peaceful ponds, and wooden bridges—blended into Florida’s lush greenery. It was a perfect, calm way to celebrate.

Before you even get to enter the parking lot, you are greeted with a whole bunch of cows!! You can get super close to them for pictures:)

🌿 Water Features & Garden Design

The garden is filled with cascading waterfalls and small koi ponds surrounded by palm trees and native foliage. I loved how the stone walkways curved around the water, leading you through colorful flowers and ferns. The whole space felt peaceful and grounded, like a Japanese garden but with a tropical Florida twist. I even got to see this adorable family of swans. 

🌸 Flower & Greenery Highlights

Everywhere I looked, there were vibrant blooms—bright petunias, zinnias, and tropical flowers tucked among lush greenery. The garden beds were filled with ferns, palms, and flowering shrubs. It felt like stepping into a living painting.

🌳 Edible-Inspired Features

While there weren’t formal orchards, I saw fruiting or fruit-like plants tucked in around the trails—things like papaya and citrus peeking through the greenery. It reminded me of how fruit can be incorporated into ornamental garden design.

Final Thoughts

Walking through Cedar Lakes on my birthday felt like a natural reset. The combination of water features, stonework, palm trees, and hidden flowers made it feel both wild and carefully designed. It showed me a different kind of garden; one that blends beauty with a touch of edible potential in a unique quarry setting. This visit definitely inspired me to think more creatively about how gardens can combine fruit, design, and nature in unexpected spaces. I recommend this place 100 times over and over again! 

Lowes Garden Center Visit

 Date: Sunday, July 6, 2025

Location: Lowe’s Garden Center (Gainesville, FL)

Getting Lost in Green: My Garden Center Adventure

On July 6th, I visited the Lowe’s Garden Center in Gainesville. I originally went just to complete this assignment, but I ended up staying for over an hour. Being surrounded by so many plants felt peaceful and unexpectedly fun. I explored every aisle, took a bunch of photos, and got inspired by what I found.

The selection of fruit plants wasn’t huge, but I still found some interesting options in the back.

🍊 Fruit Trees in the Back

Toward the back of the garden center, I found a small section with fruit trees. There were orange, apple, grapefruit, plum, and papaya trees. Most of them were young and still in pots. The labels on the pots explained how much sunlight the plants needed and how big they could get.

It was exciting to see both familiar fruits like apples and oranges alongside more tropical ones like papaya. Even though the selection was small, it made me realize that growing fruit at home is more doable than I thought, especially in a warm place like Florida.

🌸 Flowering Plants and Visual Displays

Lowe’s had a beautiful variety of flowering plants. There were marigolds, petunias, zinnias, and lots of other blooms in every color. The displays were grouped by plant type and sunlight needs, which made it easy to imagine how they would look in a garden or on a patio.

I noticed that many of the flowers had little labels with bee or butterfly icons, showing which ones were pollinator-friendly. That was something I hadn’t really paid attention to before, but I thought it was a cool and helpful feature.

🌿 Greenery Galore

One of my favorite parts of the garden center was the greenery section. There were rows of ferns, palms, snake plants, pothos, and peace lilies. Some were outdoor plants, but many were perfect for indoors, too.

This section had such a calming vibe. Even though these plants don’t produce fruit, they added so much life and color. I found myself taking more photos than I expected because everything looked so lush and healthy. There was currently a sale going on for Independence Day. 

Final Thoughts

Even though there weren’t a ton of fruit plants, I had a great time exploring the garden center. I left feeling relaxed and inspired. The mix of fruit trees, flowering plants, and vibrant greenery made the whole visit worth it. I can definitely see myself coming back in the future when I have a space of my own to start growing. Here are some additional photos I took!

Grocery Store Fruit Displays

 Date: Sunday, July 6, 2025

Locations: Publix, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods (Gainesville, FL)

Fruit Aesthetics – A Store-by-Store Breakdown

For this blog post, I visited three different grocery stores to compare how each one displayed their fresh fruit: Publix, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods. I focused on what stood out in each space. That included the layout, how the fruit was presented, and how the overall vibe influenced the shopping experience.

🍊 Publix: Calm, Clean, and Classic

Publix had the most open and spacious produce section. One of the first things I noticed was the number of large display stands set up in the middle of the store. Most of the fruit was sold loose, and everything felt really easy to access and browse. They had a clearly labeled organic section, and pricing was simple to find. The atmosphere was clean, calm, and fresh. It felt like a place where you could take your time picking the perfect fruit.

🍌 Trader Joe’s: Small but Full of Personality

Trader Joe’s fruit section was much smaller compared to Publix. Most of the produce was in refrigerated upright cases or on smaller floor displays. They offered more packaged fruit than loose options, but the selection was still solid. I didn’t notice any fun chalkboard signs like they’re known for, but they did have a dedicated organic section. Prices were clearly marked and surprisingly affordable. Even though it was tight on space, the store felt fun, welcoming, and easy to shop.

🍉 Whole Foods: Clean, Polished, and Pricey

Whole Foods was definitely the biggest and most upscale feeling of the three. Their fruit section had a mix of loose and pre-packaged options, all arranged really neatly. They had both organic and conventional fruits side by side, with clear labels to tell them apart. The overall presentation was extremely clean and appealing. Everything looked picture-perfect. Prices were a lot higher here, but the quality and variety made it feel worth it. The whole experience felt premium. You could tell you were paying for both the product and the aesthetic.

Final Thoughts

It was really interesting to see how different grocery stores present the same thing in completely different ways. Publix felt like the standard, reliable option. Trader Joe’s was smaller but full of charm. Whole Foods felt like a boutique. Everything was beautiful and well-curated, but it came with a higher price tag. Each one had its own strengths, and what you choose just depends on your mood and budget.

Trying new fruit - My First Time Trying Rambutan & Apricots

 Date: Sunday, July 6, 2025 

Locations: Publix(Gainesville, FL) & Traders Joe's(Gainesville, FL)

On Sunday, July 6th, I decided to explore some fruits I had never tasted before: rambutan and apricots. I picked up a container of rambutan from Publix and grabbed a small pack of fresh apricots from Trader Joe’s. I wasn’t sure what to expect from either of them; one looked like a spiky sea creature, and the other resembled a soft, orange plum. I brought them home, snapped some pictures, and gave each fruit a taste test to document my honest first impressions.

🍥 Rambutan – Spiky on the Outside, Sweet on the Inside

I found Rambutan at Publix, and I honestly had no idea what to expect. It looked like a small red sea creature,  round with long, thin “arms” coming off of it. To open it, I carefully sliced around the middle with a knife, and the thick skin peeled off in two clean halves, almost like cracking open a hard-boiled egg.

Inside was this glossy, translucent fruit that looked like jelly. The texture surprised me: it was firm but slippery, kind of like biting into a peeled grape, but denser. It came off in sections, which I didn’t expect at all. The flavor? Amazing. Super sweet, really juicy, and refreshing. I ended up eating the entire container by the end of the day. Definitely something I’d buy again!

🍑 Apricot – Pretty but Definitely Not My Favorite

Apricots are adorable. They’re small, fuzzy, and have the most beautiful blend of soft orange shades; seriously, I wanted to take aesthetic photos before even tasting one. I washed one with warm water and bit right in, expecting a juicy, tangy experience. Unfortunately, the texture and flavor were a total letdown.

The inside was mushy, kind of like applesauce, and not in a good way. The taste was bitter and tart, like sour applesauce that had been sitting too long. I thought maybe I just got a weird one, so I gave another apricot from the pack a shot, same exact disappointment. I didn’t even want to finish it.

Funny enough, my mom is from Switzerland, and she said apricots there are absolutely stunning, super flavorful, and sweet. But when she moved to the U.S., she was so let down by how different they tasted that she stopped buying them altogether. That’s probably why I never had one before this assignment. Now I understand why.