From common to unique and rare, Groovy Plants Ranch offers a broad spectrum of plants and garden decorations. Our first visit happened to be during their “Handmade Hoedown” weekend, which included live music and drink trucks on site. Local artist vendors were set up throughout the property. We especially enjoyed looking at some stained glass, Wrappin Osborne’s pottery planter pots and wood with epoxy wall art that mostly had a nature theme, as well as another artist’s works: planter pots made out of cement and rocks. The metal art was also fun to browse; the road runner was my favorite, but cacti, flowers, and armadillos were also portrayed and sculpted using metal.
A mini wooden Bigfoot plant decorative stake was our selected purchase from a vendor and a “Crown of Thorns” cactus, air plant, and Cholla cactus wood (to use as a container for the air plant) were our picks to take home from Groovy Plants Ranch. The property is well organized and beautifully aesthetically arranged for visitors to feel as though they are in a faraway land of natural beauty and fun artistic pots and garden decor that pops with color. A sense of whimsy is also created with the VW van and airplane strategically placed in the broadest range between greenhouses and near the edge of a natural wooded area. While waiting for checkout, we discovered a very old cactus priced at $400 and enjoyed listening to the music. We were especially impressed with the overall atmosphere, reasonable prices, variety, and soil planting stations for those who also purchased a pot. Many places don’t have bonsai trees available, and Groovy Plants Ranch has several healthy bonsai available at a fair price. We plan to purchase one on our next visit!
Just a short drive away and along our way home, we had a nice meal (meatloaf and chicken tenders, biscuits, fried okra, chicken dumplings, and freshly squeezed lemonade) at Cracker Barrel in Sunbury, Ohio, and discovered some cool coffee mugs we purchased as future gifts for our relatives. Browsing around the store after the delicious meal was a pleasure. As a side note, Cracker Barrel really has some beautiful clothing options along with their adorable decorations and tasty old-time favorite candies and gum.
Still in Sunbury, our shopping continued at the Tanger Outlets. Puma, Cole Haan Outlet, and an independent mom-and-pop shop called Humble Heart (home decor) were some of our favorite shopping experiences at Tanger, but Fragrance Outlet stole the show by providing an exciting fragrance experience while we tried various perfumes and colognes and found a couple that we both really liked: Ralph Lauren’s “Safari” for men and Deauville Eau de Parfum Spray for women. It’s difficult to find “Safari”, but Fragrance Outlet had it at a price that was just as rare. We also learned about two fragrances that we plan to purchase at some point now as well. What fun!
