During day two at The Herb Society of America's 2010 Educational Conference & Annual Meeting of Members I had already done a lot of garden touring!

Our first stop was breakfast at the Centennial herb garden, which was donated and created by the Nashville Herb Society. The garden sits within a walled courtyard at the back of the Centennial Art Center, which also houses a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek Parthenon, originally built for the Tennessee 1897 Centennial Exposition. The garden featured lovely, mature lavender and some beautiful hyssop plants.

This facility used to be a swimming attraction. The pool house is now the Centennial Art Center and the swimming pool is now the gorgeous herb garden. These are some pictures of the herb garden, which sit in the shallow end.

The art center has parties and weddings at this facility. How much fun would it be to have a dance floor in an old deep end?!

Last, here are the plans of the herb garden that sit in the "shallow end."

Photos by Allison Martin

I am attending The Herb Society of America's 2010 Educational Conference & Annual Meeting of Members this weekend; this year the conference is being held in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee.

Last night we gathered at Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee. The plantation, which was built in 1826, features gardens filled with medicinal and culinary herbs and heirloom varieties of vegetables, fruits and ornamentals. Here are some gorgeous pictures from my experience at the conference. And this is only day one!

Photos by Allison Martin

Stay tuned for even more beautiful photos, live from Tennessee!

Culinary herbalist, cookbook author, writer and food photographer, Pat Crocker is passionate about food and herbs. Visit her at www.riversongherbals.com.

How should I communicate the joy, peace, friendship, grace and love I experienced at the recent Herb Society of America Educational Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan?

With few words and many pictures.

The annual event represents for me, an opportunity to spend time in beautiful gardens with some of the country's most experienced gardeners, chefs, artists, writers and botonists. At the two-day conference we learn from each other, from intensive seminars, from workshops and from touring gardens.

This year, we visited some public and private gardens in beautiful Michigan. As always we were greeted with warmth and enthusiasm.

On both the pre- and post-conference garden tours, there were both quiet and secret places for humans

…and birds.

There were serious teaching gardens..

…and there were places of pure whimsey.

We saw cottage gardens...

…Asian-inspired gardens...

…and the 4-H Children's Garden at MSU.

We ate..

…and we drank.

And as always, the herbs were in focus.