Creating Our Eden

Just About Ready!

2011-12-27T09:26:00.002-06:00

I’m so very excited about the jump start I have on spring this year. I don’t ever remember having the garden cleaned up and ready to go so soon. There are still a few minor things that need to be done, but nothing of any major significance. It is such a relief to have all the hard stuff out of the way so I have nothing to do but enjoy planting next year.

It never ceases to amaze me how empty the garden looks in the winter time. The vast majority of the plants I have die back to the ground in the winter. Last year, being by myself and just having back surgery I had help cleaning everything up. He came back about midsummer for a visit and even he couldn’t believe how different everything looked.

I took the ‘Sweet Autumn’ clematis down from this arbor this year. It was just becoming way too much vine for it. I have two very healthy vines that I’ll be removing and passing along to a friend. I was thinking about maybe planting black eyed susan vines on it. They come in so many different colors now a day. It’s not written in stone but that’s the idea I’m kicking around at the moment.

The Crepe Myrtles are starting to get some good size on them too. I’m going to be highlighting them with spotlights. I went yesterday and starting pricing the items I need to put the lights in the garden. I thought I would go ahead and buy the transformer and put down the wires this winter and I can always add lights all along. It’s going to be an expensive project so I thought I would reduce my eating out and purchase a couple of lights a pay period until I get everything like I want it.

Meanwhile, the camellia my grandmother rooted before she died has more blooms than I’ve ever seen on it before. I’m really starting to appreciate camellias in the garden. The pretty flowers in the winter time and the evergreen leaves have been a real treat for me this year. I need more evergreen shrubs in the garden and Camellias might be the way to go. My only concern is they grow so slow, it’ll take years for them to get any size on them. Just a thought…

Hope this finds you all well and happy.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-16T11:16:00.004-06:00

I hope this post finds everyone well, happy and enjoying the season. I got a jump start on spring this year and already have a large portion of the garden cleaned up and ready for the new growing season. The parts I haven’t cleaned were still blooming at the time. I started way behind this year because of the back surgery I had in February. I’m hoping next year is going to be a much better year for me and the garden. It’s really been neglected the past two years, but if the good Lord is willing I plan on whipping it back into shape next year. I’m looking forward to filling some empty spots where shrubs have died and adding a lot of annuals. Meanwhile, Mother Nature has already sent me a spring bloom in the middle of winter to keep me encouraged. Check out ‘CHRISTabel’ blooming in the picture above. Kind of appropriate don’t you think? Since CHRISTmas will be here in a week. This little beauty has been around since 1934 and the world is a prettier place because of it. I have several irises from the 1930's and I would love to expand my collection. Happy Holidays, Ya’ll!

Happy Blogiversary To Me...

2011-10-23T09:00:00.005-05:00

Today is the 4 year blogiversary of ‘Our Eden’ and really, the garden is also four years old this month. My gosh… how my world has changed over these four years. I guess we never really know what life has in store for us, do we?

No doubt the people that read this blog regularly, have noticed my absence the past few months and it’s been a sporadic thing over the past two years. Though I tried to keep a bright and cheery disposition with my post, that most definitely has not been my life. The past two years have been filled with a lot pain and chaos that finally culminated in February. It's never easy to watch someone you love suffer and be unable to help or make things better. While I don’t care to go into detail about what was happening I’ve been using my absence the last couple of months to attempt to heal physically and emotionally. I’m still not quite there yet, but things seem to get a tiny bit better with every month that passes.

Don’t give up on me and the blog just yet. :-) I’m hoping that next spring will be a much better time for me and that the joy I once got from toiling in the soil will return to me full force. I have some new ideas for the garden, but for now I need to use this time to heal. Maybe between now and then I might even get in another post or two. :0) I just wanted all of you to know how much I appreciate the support you've give the blog over the past four years even in my times of absence. Thank you!

Rain! Precious, precious rain...

2011-07-18T13:42:00.002-05:00

It has rained pretty much all week long and I couldn’t be happier! The garden was hanging on by a thread. I’ve lost so many plants the past two growing season it’s not even funny. Things in the garden were looking so ratty and haggard. But look at it now, so lush and green. And besides, I’m about ready to start re-doing some things anyway.

Even the grass is starting to fill back in some. All the St. Augustine was lost to the heat last year. Honestly, it’s really pretty but I don’t care what kind of grass I have as long as it’s green.

Hope this short post finds you well and happy. Happy gardening and many blessings sent your way!

Have a Good 4th!

2011-07-01T11:05:00.004-05:00

I suppose this pre 4th of July post should have really been done in red, white and blue, but I just didn’t think ahead. Oh well, I hope you have a festive holiday anyway. I'm looking forward to three days off, a little trip away from home and some time for quiet contemplation. I did all the end of the week chores earlier this week so I am free to roam around this weekend. I’m hoping to get some really good pictures to post on my new photography blog while I’m away. For the shots I want to capture I really need a specific filter that I don’t have, but I’m going to see how well I can do without it. Wish me luck. Hey, nothing ventured nothing gained, right? Why don’t we take a look at what’s blooming in the garden?

The first flowers always catch my eye when I’m out in the garden. I love Flame Lilies and each year the stand continues to get larger, I’m enjoying the extra blooms this year. They’ve done really well.

The PeeGee in the back garden is loaded with blooms too. The ones planted on the side of the house haven’t done as well because I didn’t realize the watering system wasn’t working. They didn’t get enough water to produce blooms this year.

‘Ellen Bosanquet’ was given to me by a very good friend and she is really putting on a show despite the drought. The two photos below were taken just minutes apart. Isn’t it amazing how the shift in the afternoon light happens so quickly?

‘Stargazer’ smells absolutely delicious right now… I was walking around the garden yesterday and I could hardly wait to stick my nose in it and take a sniff. I really wish these guys would take off and spread like crazy, but alas they’ve always been well behaved.

These little tattered coneflowers are quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I love the simplicity of the flower design. That’s also why I love Black-eyed Susans. This little stand came up from seed two years ago and this year I see many more seedlings sprouting. I’m going to leave them alone and let them spread. Within the next three years I should have a patch about 8 feet long and they are going to be spectacular in bloom.

I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday spent with the ones you love most. Watch out for those short fused firecrackers!

"Nothing can dim the light which shines from within."
— Maya Angelou

A Visitor in the Garden

2011-06-26T07:36:00.004-05:00

Hello everybody! I came home this past Tuesday to find a surprise waiting for me in the garden. I usually make a loop around the garden if it’s not terribly hot to see what going on in it. I noticed a small movement out of the corner of my eye and as I turned to see what it was I was VERY surprised to find this guy.

He’s about half grown and didn’t seem to mind me taking pictures of him at all. I was able to get within about five feet of him, but I didn’t dare to get any closer. I live in the middle of a large, heavily populated subdivision in the business district of my town. I also have a chain link fence all the way around the garden so I have no idea how this little rabbit found his way to my garden. I don’t know how long he plans to stay but I put out a bowl of water for him and scattered a few baby carrots. From all appearances though, he must be gone already.

In other news we finally got some much needed rain and the grass is beginning to turn a nice green shade again. Unfortunately, I had another little episode with my back late Tuesday night and now I’m hesitant to get out there and cut the grass. I spent two days in bed and it seems to be well on its way to healing. It put a damper on my weekend plans, but I’m hoping to be back in the pink and pushing the lawn mower by the middle of the week. I had started a new exercise program twice a day and I’m afraid it may have been too much too soon. BTW I had just gone to my back surgeon that day and he released me because I was absolutely pain free. Ain’t that a kick in the pants? This not the same area where I had the surgery, it’s the disk below it. In the future I will know not to push myself so hard. Lesson learned… Hope you all have a good day, I see an afternoon nap in mine. I’m exhausted from dreaming all night long, but since it was about loved ones I’m not going to complain too much. I’m always amazed at how real dreams can feel, sometimes I wonder if we don’t actually meet spiritually in some other place rather than dream..

How Bout This Heat?

2011-06-20T10:20:00.001-05:00

The heat has been absolutely horrible lately here in central Alabama. I’ve been doing what I can to stay out of it. The lawn is burnt to a crisp and the garden isn’t fairing much better. I have a drip system installed, but it’s just no match for the 100° temps we’ve been having. With the water bill already in excess of a hundred dollars due to practically no rain I refuse to pour more water into the flower beds. If what I have isn’t strong enough to survive the summers here I will replace it with something stronger when it dies. Some of the Daylilies are hanging on by a meager thread. Dead foliage is mounding up around the base of the plants and some have just mere sprigs of living foliage. I started cleaning up the dead leaves around the base until it occurred to me it could be helping retain the moisture in the soil. So I decided to leave it for now, even though it doesn’t look very pretty. I should probably add more mulch to the garden, but right now I can’t seem to keep the squirrels from scratching it out of the beds. To the casual observer the garden looks fantastic, but I see all the things that need attention. Meanwhile, the ‘Kwanso’ daylilies are plugging right on along.

This is our second summer of no rain and excessive heat in June. I lost a lot of plants last year. In an effort to stay cool and still be outdoors I’ve been traveling around and taking pictures in areas exposed to less sun. While it’s been so hot in the garden I’ve been turning my attention to my other blogs. If you haven’t visited, check them out. The links are in the upper left hand corner of the garden blog. The picture below was taken last week on my little excursion to the bamboo forest here in Prattville. The little frog is such a stereo type chilling on the lily pad. I hope this post finds you well and finding moments of refuge from the heat and the drought.

Blooming in the Garden 06/05/11

2011-06-05T08:57:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. Sorry I’m a little late with the post, but it seems like I’ve been running around like mad the past few months. I decided to stay home this weekend so I walked around the garden to snap a few pictures for you to enjoy. We were due a big rain last night according to the weather man, but it was a no show. The temperature here reached over 100° this week and its only June! The daylilies are stressed beyond belief and the foliage looks terrible, but they are still producing some really pretty blooms.

The balloon flowers are larger than they’ve ever been before and I can’t wait to see them next year. The patch should be about three times as wide.

So far this year I’ve only seen one humming bird around the salvia, but honestly I’ve been too busy to do much other than maintain the garden. I have a three day weekend so maybe I’ll have time to enjoy it a little today or tomorrow.

This photo doesn’t really do the Vitex justice. It’s such a brilliant blue right now and it’s really growing into a very large tree. I’ve just been limbing it up and allowing it to gain in height. This photo was taken in the afternoon so the light was horrible.

The Asiatics are smelling wonderful too. This particular one is ‘Coral Queen’. Okay folks, this post is short and sweet. I’ve got to get up from here and get started on a few things that need to be done. Have a good week.

In the Garden 05/24/11

2011-05-24T08:32:00.003-05:00

I walked around and snapped a few pictures in the garden yesterday. The photos below would give the appearance everything is lush and green around the garden. The truth is, this very dry spring is taking a toll on it. Even with a drip system there are crispy plants everywhere. Only the diehard plants are thriving. The day lilies are looking very ragged and stressed and we haven’t even gotten into the season good yet. The plants just aren’t where they should be for this time of year. What happened to the April showers? I’m going to give the garden a little TLC this coming week and see if I can’t nurse it back around to a happier place. We just need some good, steady rain. Looks like this may be another summer of losing plants and crispy grass.

On another note, the photo blog is finally up and running. Blogger never responded to my support request so I just decided I would rebuild the blog, give it a peak sometime. The following photos were taken in the afternoon so they aren’t the best, but I hope you enjoy them anyway. God Bless~ Randy

Around the Garden 05/17/11

2011-05-17T09:40:00.003-05:00

Well the first Balloon flower of the season has opened and I was happy to see it. Last year seed was dropped all over the ground and by next summer there will be a nice big patch of them. I can’t wait to see them in bloom! This one is called ‘Sentimental Blue’. I’ve been shooting my photos with manual settings lately and so far I’ve been very pleased with the results. When I purchased the camera I used for these shots at the time I was under the assumption that I had purchased this VERY nice camera. And, it is indeed very nice, but the more I learn about photography the more I am beginning to realize how limited I am by the settings. Looks like a new camera will be in the picture sooner or later. While I’m having fun with the new information I’m learning, I really can justify buying a new camera just yet.

‘Daring Deception’

Photography can become a reallllllllly expensive hobby when you get to buying new lenses and cameras. If I win the lottery though, the first place I am headed it to a camera shop!

‘Stella Supreme’

The KnockOut roses have been really pretty this year. I admire something so resilient! I trim these babies any time of the year I feel like it. The rose hedge, while absolutely loaded with blooms this year, had gotten too tall. So after the burst of blooms were gone I pruned it down to about two and a half feet and its getting ready for its second flush of flowers now.

‘Tequila Sunrise’ Coreopsis

As I was walking around taking photos I realized the garden is going to need some re-designing done soon. So Many plants were lost last year as a result of negligence and the weather. The poor ‘Crimson Queen’ maple in the far corner appears to have died about half way down from the top. I hate that, it was such a gorgeous tree. It’s starting to come back now, I’m not going to cut the top out of it until I know for sure it has no life left in it.

The garden suffered a lot of stress last year and it’s not as perfect as it usually is, but it’s bouncing back and in the meanwhile I’m planning the changes to be made to it. At this point I’m not replacing the items that have died. I’m just going to let the things that are living continue to grow. I want to decrease the number of plants in the garden yet let the volume of the ones there increase. Instead of having lots of little plants I want large drifts in few amounts. A garden is always evolving… Hope you enjoy the photos

With a bit of luck the new blog will be restored soon. I’m really excited to get it up and running again! I’ve been going out of town a lot and I’m trying to get in the habit of always having my cameras with me when I leave. I need a place to share my other photos that aren’t garden related. Gosh, I have so much to learn. But, maybe we can learn some new things together as the posts get rolling out?
Blessings~ Randy

Hydrangeas

2011-05-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I popped in on my folks and visited with them a pretty good while on Sunday. Once a month my sister brings my Dad to the house for the weekend to give him a break from the nursing home. Since he was home this past weekend I got to visit with both my parents at the same time, which was really nice.

When I was younger I planted lots of different plants around the house. Over the years they’ve all disappeared and my parent’s home is pretty much devoid of any blooms these days. As I was walking around the house my mind became flooded with memories of my childhood and the way the old house once looked. When I was a child I would take my little green army men and lie under the azaleas on my belly. Instantly I would be transformed to the height of two inches and my army men and I would be hidden in a huge jungle filled with large trees. I would place them on a twig in the azalea forest and pretend they were on a large branch in one of the ancient trees. Ants suddenly became animals the size of a small dog. I can still remember the smell of the moist soil. Isn’t it amazing how quickly our imagination can adapt to a situation when we are children? The world was a different place then and I long for those days back.

I’m still very much in touch with my inner child even as a 44 year old man. I allow my imagination to take over as often as I can, though it’s never as vivid as it was when I was a child. I think as adults we allow society and even friends to steal parts of our soul. We are told and expected to act a particular way. I’m certain that there are those in my circle that are convinced that I am a fool… But despite their opinions and their attempts to change who I am I still on occasion wish on stars, jump in mud puddles and sometimes on warm evenings I dance in the rain wearing nothing but my underwear. The warm rain has a way of cleansing my soul and washing away all my troubles and fears. But, I digress…

As I was strolling down memory lane and the yard, I came across this Hydrangea. I was fascinated by all the different shades and colors of the blooms as they age. For some reason I was over whelmed by the beauty and the process of it all. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s just the state of mind I’ve been in recently. Colors seem to resonate with me more some days lately… Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Mr. Johnson's

2011-05-07T07:14:00.002-05:00

Whenever I meet a new gardener and I hear them say they want to buy statuary or benches the first thing that comes to mind is I need to take them to Mr. Johnson’s. I’ve met a new friend that is busy creating a garden and I took him to Mr. Johnson’s to find the things he needed. While we were there I snapped a few pictures for you guys to see. His prices cannot be beat. He has three tiered fountains that you would pay 800 to a 1000 dollars retail sale available for purchase for 175 dollars. You would still have to buy the pump, but that’s minimal expense. He has everything, huge stepping stones for 3 to 5 dollars, birdbaths for 15, all sorts of planters; the list just goes on and on. So if you are in the market it would be a great day trip for you if you live in Alabama. I have no affiliation with Mr. Johnson; I just wanted to share his business with you because I can guarantee you cannot come close to finding these items retail for the price you can buy them from him. Here are just a sample of items and prices.

Concrete benches with legs - $50.00

Four foot concrete benches with marble and legs-$ 60.00

Very large urns and bases- $40.00 each. I’ve seen these same urns and bases sold as a pair for hundreds of dollars.

When I asked Mr. Johnson why his prices were so low he just had a puzzled look on his face and said, “Well, it’s just concrete…” His business is located 6 miles north of Clanton, on Alabama Highway 31. Below you will see a sign with phone numbers, if you are driving from a long distance you may want to call first to see if he has what you are looking for in stock.

In other news, I went to see the surgeon Wednesday and he said my new injury will heal just fine and will go away very soon. He insists that walking is the best way to strengthen my back so I continue to do as he says so I’m still walking a mile in the morning and one in the evening. I’m happy to report that I have now lost 20 pounds and I am tickled to death about it! I also got my car out of the shop yesterday and it looks fantastic too, so everything is falling back into place again. As for Digital Impressions I am still working on the blog and I haven’t posted anything yet. In the meanwhile, I’m learning to use Manual focus on my cameras rather than the auto shot, so I am curious to see how my photos will look when I start to post them. I’ll do some with manual and some with auto to see how bad the difference will be. ROTFL. Okay, I’m off to do my mile then I have yard chores to do. Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there. God bless~ Randy

The Iris Parade Continues...

2011-04-29T19:35:00.000-05:00

Well, Irises are continuing to bloom in the garden and I’ve been very lax about getting photos of them. I’m having to stay out of the garden again and it’s so hard to do when I see so much that needs to be done. I was doing so well from my back surgery too! I leaned over when I was getting dressed and coughed, that’s all, just coughed and it dislocated my back. I don’t think it’s the area where I had surgery, I’m pretty sure it’s the disk below there. I go back to see the surgeon on Wednesday and I will find out for sure. I’m hoping for a complete recovery and I’m actually doing pretty well now, but I can’t do anything that’s going to aggravate the situation. I just have to remember that the garden can take care of its self this year and I need to take care of me. Hopefully my back will be completely healed by September. I’ll let you know what the surgeon says on my next visit.

Okay, let’s get on with the Irises. This first iris is Edith Wolford and it’s one of my very favorite Irises. Isn’t she just an absolute beauty? It’s tucked away in a space where it isn’t displayed very well, but I think that’s okay. I sort of think of it as a hidden treasure. Hope you enjoy the rest of the pictures.

‘Sentimental Rose’

'Gypsy Romance'

'Fall Fiesta'

'Unknown'

Horrible Storms!

2011-04-28T07:41:00.005-05:00

Horrible, horrible storms passed through Alabama the last two nights creating a lot of tornados. Many people lost their lives yesterday and last night. Lots of people lost their homes and businesses. Please pray for these families during their time of need. Last night a tornado passed within an eighth of a mile of the house. I was outside and could feel the strange wind and I saw the orange sky. I didn’t realize just how close it was to my home. Nights like that certainly have a way of putting things into perspective and can make you realize just how fragile life is… none of us are promised tomorrow. Hope this finds you all well and happy. Blessings~ Randy

Perseverance

2011-04-25T21:02:00.006-05:00

Look at what I found when I returned home after a few days away…

Regrettably I don’t know the name of this plant. But my, my! What a lesson it has taught me today. You see there is something very special about this little bloom. In the last year is has suffered unimaginable circumstances. It has been ignored; it has been uncared for, none of its needs have been attended to in many, many months. What a strong will it has to live! Despite everything it has been thru it has made its mind up to give life all it’s got and shines thru in the face of all it has suffered. We should all live our lives in such a way! Little flower you are indeed an inspiration to me, to us all.

I’ve never been one to keep container plants. I find it too much trouble to keep them watered during the hottest part of the summer. I can kill a houseplant in a heartbeat. However, I will make an exception in this case. Something that struggled so hard to produce beauty in the face of sheer neglect and abandonment deserves a better life. Tomorrow I’m going to buy a new pot and some very good potting soil and find a place of honor for this little plant.

I’ll probably be doing more than one post this week because I’m getting farther and farther behind with the photos. In addition, I'm still working on 'Digital Impressions' and shopping around for some new equipment and software. This is a project that I don't feel should be rushed, so bear with me as I get things together. Hope this finds you all well and I hope you had a wonderful Easter! God bless~Randy

The Iris Parade

2011-04-18T14:27:00.006-05:00

Well, the Irises are continuing to bloom in the garden and they’re looking really beautiful. Some of my favorites were lost last year, but I’m sure I'll replace them with ones that I like just as much. Plus it’s good to put something new and interesting in the garden. Several new friends have been by to see the blooms and they think the garden is so pretty right now. LOL I think to myself, wait for another month or two, it’s just starting to wake up.

The roses are also starting to bloom as well. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t get really excited about them this year for some reason. I’m kind of like, oh… I see the roses are blooming. I think I’ve just been so busy I haven’t had time to slow down and enjoy things. It’s not showing any signs of stopping anytime soon either. I’m traveling away from home on the weekends now and spending less time in the garden. Things are looking really nice though. It’s reaching a point where it really cares for its self now. I just do a little weeding here and there. The weeds in the grass are the big issue right now.

I took the photos below on my trip this past weekend. Look at this magnificent oak. I walked around quietly underneath it and I could hear the whispers of hundreds of years. The sounds of family picnics, the young man that professed his love for his bride to be when he gave her a ring, a mother yelling at her son to get down before he breaks his leg or arm and maybe even broken promises… Can you imagine what this tree has witnessed in its lifetime?

I hope you all have a wonderful week. God Bless~ Randy

I LOVE SPRING!!!!!

2011-04-10T16:39:00.007-05:00

The garden is just crazy pretty right now and probably not even one third of the growth is even out of the ground good. The cleanup is about 98% complete and the garden would be looking perfect now except my grass guy had to work and wasn’t able to come cut it this weekend. I worked in the garden for about four hours Saturday and got a really good jump on all the detailed cleaning. I also got all the shrubs shaped up, except for the front yard flower beds. Actually, I’m considering removing them and redoing them with new shrubs. The next step is to get the spring weeds under control. I know if I wait long enough the heat will kill them, but if I get them first the grass will have a better chance and they won’t sap up all the vitamins and good stuff in the ground. The grass can use it instead. I was walking around looking at the irises and I seem to be missing a lot of tags. Either they are buried in mulch or they were taken by an evil tag troll. So I’ve got to figure out the name of some of these plants. Last year the iris borers really did a number on the tall beardeds and several were lost. Know what that means? Time to buy more! Have a good week and God Bless~ Randy

'Sultan's Palace'

'Invitation'

'Hello Darkness'

'Crepuscule and Old Fashioned Cabbage'

Breathing Life Into An Old Blog

2011-04-07T14:01:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone! Two years ago I started another blog and I didn’t tell anyone about it. It’s been sitting patiently waiting for my return and I’ve decided that there is no better time than the present, so I'll be making the first new post soon. During my absence the last couple of years I have been offered one lesson after another and I’m in a place now where I am beginning to see and understand the value of what was being presented to me. So now it’s time to discuss what has happened and what I’ve learned so far. This blog is simply a collection of my idle ramblings and thoughts; it has nothing to do with gardening. I guess it will become somewhat of an online journal for me and will also give me a chance to expand my photography to something other than garden photos. Some of you may enjoy it, others may be bored by it and a few may dismiss it as complete idiocy, but I invite you all to visit it if you like. Join me as I stumble through life and have the occasional epiphany. Crossing Through Windows, hope to see you there. God Bless~Randy

Well, It Finally Happened...

2011-04-04T20:26:00.005-05:00

Four years ago I got this Caribbean Lily in a trade. I had made up my mind it would never flower. Well! Finally it decided to produce a bloom. Look what a beautiful shade of blue it is. According to Dave’s Garden you can grow this plant from seed. When I got it, the bulb was pretty large, so I could only imagine how long it would take to get a bloom. If it produces a pod I will save the seeds for any of you enthusiastic gardeners out there that have more patience than me. The irises are starting to burst into bloom so I’ll try to get some pictures of them for a later post. The weather is supposed to get really bad tonight with possible hail and high winds. Hopefully the garden won’t get beat to death when it’s off to such a good start this spring. Looking forward to catching up on my reading with you guys, I’ve just been so busy getting the garden cleaned and trying to keep up my exercising to help heal my back. I have to walk at least 2 miles a day to strengthen my back muscles. I haven't missed but a day or two since the surgery so I've lost 16 pounds in less than four weeks. Woo Hoo! I feel better too with some of the extra weight gone. Hope you all have a good week! God bless~ Randy

The Garden 03/28/11

2011-03-28T10:06:00.006-05:00

The garden is well on its way to waking up and I’m really enjoying watching the life come back into it. This garden was created with love and you can feel it all over you when you walk around it! It’s become my new favorite place to read my Bible. I got the New Living Translation (large print!) and I can finally understand what I’m reading. It must put me in a really special place because this past Saturday morning while I was reading, a squirrel, two doves and a robin sat less than seven feet from me as if they expected me to read to them. I was actually a little scared of the squirrel because I didn't like the way he was looking at me. It was really strange because even moving my legs didn’t seem to frighten them. The cleanup is still underway, but I would say I am about 85% there. I almost over did it Saturday because Sunday after church I bent over to put a pizza in the oven and I had a sharp pain in my back. I’ve been assured everything is okay though; I’m just stretching nerves and muscles that haven’t been used in several years. It’s “to be expected.” On another note, the largest and oldest Japanese Maple may have fallen victim to the heat last year. Keep your fingers crossed, I’ll be in touch soon. God Bless~ Randy

Recovering In Style

2011-03-23T16:03:00.007-05:00

Hello everyone. I’m in my third week of recovery from back surgery. I hope this fixes the problem once and for all! I tell you what; you certainly discover who the people are in your life that really love you when you go thru something like that. I’m so thankful to everyone that came to visit me and helped me thru the hardest part of it. The garden is really starting to wake up now, but it’s nothing you guys haven’t already seen so I’ll post pictures later after I recover more. I still have very strict limitations on what I can and cannot do. Meanwhile! I found something that really makes my back feel a lot better! Check out my baby; a new Cheverolet Camaro SS with the RS package. I decided it was time to treat myself. I haven’t been satisfied with my vehicles since I had my old green convertible. This sweetheart has a 400 horse power V8 with every possible feature you can imagine. I didn’t even know you could put a manual AND an automatic transmission in a car. It even has it's own phone number! It’s really going to help pamper me while I have to stay out of the garden. Give me a couple more weeks to heal and I’ll get you guys up some garden photos. Oh, Oh, Oh! Some of my photos were published in a book that was released in February; I’ll tell you about that too. God bless!~ Randy

Winter Garden Woes

2011-02-13T11:25:00.002-06:00

Let us make an apology to all of our readers, but this winter in the garden has just sapped the life out of everything. Looking around at all the brown and withered flora isn't very motivating. I was strolling the garden this morning while Maxx scampered through the yard and realized there is much to do before spring arrives. Warmer weather is forecast for our zone this week, so I plan on getting out and doing some much needed work in the yard. Randy, however, will be sitting on the sidelines as I do a lot of the work as his back is in poor shape. Physical therapy will keep him busy while the yard will keep me busy. Photos will be up soon as well as regular posts rolling out again, too.

What Happened to Jeanette?

2010-10-20T07:30:00.000-05:00

The photo above is Chrysanthemum ‘Frosty Jeanette’ and she’s been returning to our garden for three years now. I purchased them for seven cents a pot at the end of the growing season and they’ve always performed very well for us. Though this one looks haggard, they usually produce bold huge displays and the Gulf Fritillaries seem to love them.

Well this year I noticed the plant in the southern most section of the side bed is displaying two colors. Half of the plant is now a pinkish purple. It was really a pleasant surprise to discover.

Admittedly this is not the best photo; I posted it for the purposes of showing the plant and the two colors. I’m really curious to see what color returns next year. Has this ever happened to you before? I wonder if Schnauzer water has anything to do with it... Hmmm. Okay, Every one have a good week. I'm off to see my Reiki therapist this afternoon for some much need attunement. I'm so excited, I'm way over due for some relaxation.

Ending the Growing Season

2010-10-19T07:30:00.002-05:00

Well,
These are probably the final “wide shots” of the garden for this season. Things are winding down and slowly the blooms are disappearing. In the background to the left you can just see a curly willow we planted two years ago. It’s already about 20 feet tall with a trunk about 8 inches in diameter. I’ve never seen a tree grow so fast.

It’s nice to see how much size the Crepe Myrtles have put on this year as well. We plated 8 of these trees in the garden in various sizes. They’re spaced so the canopies should slightly overlap forming a small canopy for us to stroll under. Our plan is to keep them limbed up so they provide nice gateway for us to pass through. Three of them are going to be a slight nuisance until they reach maturity, but the two in this photo or behaving just as expected.

The butterflies and bumble bees continue to flock to what is left of the blooms in the butterfly garden. They are most certainly welcome guest. Jamie and I are already planning a few changes for next year, but for the most part our gardening will be over for this season. All that will be left is cleaning up as it goes to sleep and maybe popping in a plant or two hear and there. That is, if we find something we just simply can not live with our.

In a final note, does anyone have any suggestions on what to get to control Iris borers?

Blooming 10/13/10

2010-10-13T07:40:00.002-05:00

What is this strange flower I found blooming in the garden? I believe it’s a carnivorous schnauzer bloom. It usually sprouts up under the Mexican Bush Sage and can be found munching on unsuspecting bumblebees and random pieces of mulch in the back part of the garden.

We got outside and cleaned up in the garden some this past weekend and I can’t believe how much better it looks. It’s amazing how much difference mowing the lawn and picking up debris can make in the appearance. The lawn is COMPLETELY devoid of any color or life.

Jamie and I both have not felt very well the past week or two. Our energy levels have been nonexistent I blame it on allergies. My nose is constantly stopped up and my eyes have been burning like someone threw sand in them. The goldenrods are in full bloom and the farmers are also baling cotton right now so the air is filled with allergens. Once I got outside and got going on the grass cutting I started to feel much better.

We didn’t kill ourselves trying to get everything done in one day. We just tidied up here and there and I was so pleased with the way everything looked when we were done. I really enjoyed getting out and walking around the grass paths later that evening looking at everything. I try not to walk on them too much because the grass is literally breaking off at ground level and I’m seeing a lot of dirt where there was once grass. I hope it grows back fast next spring.

Despite all the climate has done to it this past summer our little garden still rewards us with blooms. I have a sneaking suspicion winter will be coming early this year. It will only be a short matter of time and the garden will fall asleep for some much needed rest.

Where have Jamie and Randy Been?

2010-10-07T09:00:00.003-05:00

Wow! What a summer… Where have Randy and Jamie been? Trying to get our lives back together and I am happy to report everything is going great. Sometimes things just have to take priority over blogging and that’s what has been happening the past few weeks, well, the past year actually. We are so thankful to faithful readers that continue to visit us and comment on the scattered post, despite our truancy from blogland. We were just trying to do too much at one time in our lives and it all came crashing down on and around us.

Jamie, has been taking time to recuperate from several years of working full time, going to school full time, a full time hobby of body building and managing the demands of every day life. He’s also writing a book. And me, well, I’ve been exploring other little projects and interesting things to do. I’ve always wanted to learn how to make jelly and jams and that’s just what I’ve been doing. I been hunting down fresh fruits to make homemade gifts and so far I’ve been very successful. Jamie and our friends have been enjoying delicious pear, muscadine and pomegranate jelly. I also made some fantastic peach jam from the local peaches. I love all the beautiful colors that jams and jellies produce. Too bad you can’t put them in the window and let the sun shine through them.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but our garden just looks horrible. The heat and lack of rain has just sent everything into early hibernation. The past two months our garden has looked like we were in the last week of October or the first of November. The plants are hanging on and producing blooms, but bless there hearts they all look so tired and ready for rest. Jamie and I haven’t done any work in the garden for weeks now. With the lack of rain there aren’t even any weeds to pull. We’ll most likely get out there this weekend and do a little tidying up. I don’t even remember when the last time was that we cut grass. It’s been dry, dry, dry…

On a positive note, neither Jamie nor I can remember seeing so much wildlife and flying visitors in the garden. Despite its neglected and haggard look, it has been absolutely filled with hundreds and hundreds of butterflies, dragonflies, birds and insects of all shapes and incredible colors. It has been unbelievable; Jamie and I have been in utter amazement and wonder. Tiny jewels of color have filled the air like never before and our back yard has been a source of enchantment for both of us.

We Have a Winner!

2010-09-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

~~~~ Congrats to Monica the Garden Faerie! She is this month's winner! Thanks to all of you that took the time to participate.~~~~

Hello everyone! It’s time for the September Giveaway sponsored by CSN Stores! This month’s reward is a $65.00 gift certificate that comes in the form of a promotional code. You can use the code to completely purchase an item or you can use the $65.00 to apply to a more expensive item, it’s your choice. You do not have to be a United States resident to participate in this giveaway, but should you win you will have to pay the cost of international shipping charges on whatever you purchase from CSN.

To be eligible for this month’s giveaway, Jamie thought it would be interesting for everyone to share how they developed an interest in Gardening. What it is the driving force within you that makes you get out and toil in the soil? What do you so find so rewarding about gardening? Since Jamie posed this question I think it’s only fair he share his story with us. Don’t you think? So I’ll have him add to this post. Most of you already know my story of the elderly neighbor and my little red wagon.

You can contribute your answer two ways. You can either do it as a blog entry linking back to this post. Be sure to tell us when your post is up and provide a link. Or, if you absolutely do not have the time you may simply reply in the comments. The first is preferred because more people will be aware of the giveaway, but it is not necessary to be eligible. The deadline for participating in the fun is midnight September 17, 2010. Have joined us in the past and not won? Here is another chance for you to receive the gift. The winner’s name will be drawn at random out of the giveaway flower pot by Jamie. Have fun! I look forward to reading your personal stories.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would have to say that my interest in gardening started with my grandfather. He was always pruning this or that shrub in his yard and his favorite flowers were petunias (hence why I love petunias so much). He kept an immaculately maintained flower garden always. My love for gardening waned a little over the years, but when I started gardening with Randy, my passion to create something beautiful was back in full force. I haven't looked back since! --Jamie

Coming Next Post... September Giveaway

2010-08-30T12:54:00.004-05:00

September is just a page turn away and with that comes another occasion for the readers of Creating Our Eden to win a thank you gift. These chances are made possible by the generosity of CSN stores. If you aren’t familiar with this company you should check them out. They offer a plethora of items in their online stores. You can find anything from dining chairs to bird feeders. In the past, I’ve spent hours pouring over the websites to find the perfect item to offer our readers for prizes.

Previously I’ve chosen an item myself, but now you have the opportunity to pick your own gift. The Promo Team now provides me with a code you can use to purchase the article of your liking. This month’s gift is even more generous than the last so pour through the websites and start making a wish list!

I’ll be posting the specifics of the giveaway in a few days! Once again, thank you all for being such loyal readers of my ramblings. A warm thank you also goes out to CSN for sponsoring these opportunities. See you soon!

Crispy Challenge

2010-08-26T08:39:00.004-05:00

The other day I was reading thru the blogs and thinking, how incredible everyone’s garden looks compared to ours right now. I had just made up my mind I was going to do a post showing the damage the heat did to Our Eden this year when I came upon Lisa’s post. I told her it was good to see it wasn’t just our garden that was suffering so much. She confided that she also had been wondering the same thing.

We’ve kept our garden watered well because we have an extensive drip system, but it was still no match for the heat. You work and toil trying to keep everything looking neat and lush and the heat just destroys your efforts. The heat burns plants quicker than you can help them recover.

It made me feel so much better to see Lisa’s plants. It some how gave me the peace of mind that it was not my lack of care that was causing our garden to look so haggard. It can be so disheartening sometimes when you see the lush beautiful photos of other gardens when your own is looking so tattered.

I’m presenting a challenge. Are you brave enough to show the not so pretty areas of your garden? It sure lifted my spirits to see I was not alone. Just post a link to your post in the comments if you want to participate. :-)

I know for certain we’ve lost two butterfly bushes.

What the heat hasn’t gotten the acidic tee tee of the wild schnauzersaurus has severely damaged… hopefully he will learn not to trample so bad and aim in a different direction, preferably on the chainlink fence.

We Have a Winner!

2010-08-14T07:00:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to Jan Goldfield from The Pond Lady’s Pad! She is the winner of the giveaway for this month. Jan I’m sure your friend Bethie will enjoy her gift! For the rest of you thanks for entering and keep checking back. There will be another giveaway coming soon!

As promised in the previous post here’s the giveaway for the month of August. This is what I want you to do. Pretend that I have just given you a $60.00 gift certificate (wink wink*) to use at CSN Stores. Pick out any item you would like to have in that price range and post the link to that item in your comment telling me why you would like to have it.

You have two choices; either pick an item that is $60.00 or less including shipping or you can pick a more expensive item and apply the gift certificate towards that purchase. You will be responsible for the remaining balance if you win.

The rules are very simple, so if you don’t follow them you will not be eligible for the giveaway. The deadline for entries is Midnight on August 13th. The winner’s name will be drawn out of the giveaway flower pot by Jamie and will be announced on next blog entry after that date. You have 72 hours to contact me via the email provided in my blogger profile after you name is drawn or you forfeit your prize and another winner will be randomly selected.

This is my little way of saying thank you to all of you for reading our blog, even when I am unable to visit and read your blogs as often as I would like to do. Good luck to all of you! Oh! In case I wasn’t clear enough, the prize this time is $60.00 in the form of a promotion code. When making your choice of prizes get as close to that amount as you can because there will be no remaining balance on the code once it is used.

Picture This Photo Contest

2010-08-01T08:44:00.005-05:00

“On The Road Again” is the theme for this month’s picture this photo competition at Gardening Gone Wild. This is a photo I took while at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The glass sculptures mixed with the plants were gorgeous!Good luck to all that choose to enter!

Coming Soon... Another Giveaway!

2010-07-28T07:10:00.000-05:00

It’s that’s time again folks. The good people and CSN Stores are offering us another opportunity for one Our Eden’s readers to be rewarded with a gift. I love these little promotional giveaways! For those of you that aren’t familiar with their line of stores they offer a wide variety of items available for purchase through the online websites. I usually pick a garden related item to giveaway on the blog but they also carry a full line of other products as well. Dinnerware sets, furniture and even bath accessories are just a few of the items available from the stores.

I’ll be posting the requirements to qualify for the giveaway soon! Be sure to keep you eyes open for the post to see how you can win a very nice gift I’m sure you will enjoy. How am I so certain about that? Because this time you will get to pick it! I’m looking forward to the fun, I hope you are too. Be sure and tell you friends to watch for the upcoming opportunity.

Flowers In the Sky

2010-07-05T07:55:00.003-05:00

Jamie and I had a wonderful 4th of July yesterday. It was spent cooking out with our dearest friends Wade and Jimmy and later that evening we went to watch the “flowers in the sky.” Jamie and I both agreed we can’t remember when we’ve enjoyed Independence Day so much. I hope you enjoyed yours too.

Crocosmia 'Firefly'

2010-07-04T11:40:00.000-05:00

What says summer better than fireflies? This is Crocosmia ‘Firefly’.

I have all these bulbs and I just can’t bring myself to throw them out in the trash. BTW this is only about half of them I got tired of snipping off the top and the rest are still in a trash bag. I’ll be thinning out three other areas soon. I thought maybe you guys might be able to help me figure out what to do with them. *wink* I wouldn’t think they would produce much nectar, but the humming birds seem to love them.

If I have time, I’ll snip off the tops of the rest of them, if not I may just have to let them go out by the road. If I could find homes for the ones I have cleaned up at least that would be better than throwing them all away, right?

If Only For a Day

2010-06-27T06:45:00.005-05:00

Hi all! I hope everyone is doing well. Jamie and I have been busy trying to get the garden clean and hitting a few nurseries for some good bargains. We’re at a point now where we aren’t really buying as many plants as usual due to the fact we just simply don’t have the room. We have however, been making plans for a few changes in the garden, which have already started BTW. It’s beginning to look a little over grown, so we are going to be thinning out a few things and replacing others. We also have several holes that still need to be filled from the things we lost this winter. We’ll get around to doing things in due time, what a precious thing, there never seems to be enough of it. Even as I sit here and type there are plants waiting to be put in the ground. It’s just so dadblame hot out these days!

I thought I would post a few pictures of the daylilies that have bloomed recently. The foliage looks reallllllly ratty this year. We had a dryer than usual spring and the watering system needs a few additions to cover areas that are no longer getting reached. Despite all that, we still are being rewarded with several beautiful displays even if the leaves are a little crispier this year.

I haven’t been able to visit a lot of your blogs lately due to time restraints. I want to thank all of you that continue to read my post, despite my inability to visit you all as often as I once did. I’ve been doing pretty well about reading a few on the weekends. Hope you enjoy the flowers.

'Custard Candy'

'Mildred Mitchell'

'Strawberry Custard and Strawberry Candy'

'Crimson Pirate'

'Tiny Pumpkin'

'Pandora's Box'

'Daring Deception'

'Little Girl'

'Pumpkin'

And the Winner Is...

2010-06-26T07:31:00.004-05:00

I want to thank all of you that participated in the little giveaway. I know a lot of bloggers consider it to be in poor taste to play a part in these little posts. I personally enjoy doing them and I’m sure the winner enjoys the fact that they entered as well! That being said I’ve been offered the occasion to do this on a relatively frequent basis and I believe I will continue to do it as long as the opportunities present themselves. Please take part as often as you like and feel free to tell your blogging friends. Everyone enjoys the chance to win a drawing or competition and I won’t hold it against them if they aren’t regular readers of this blog. *wink*

Another thing I wanted to mention very quickly is that the companies I host for do not request that I refer my blog readers to their sites. They simply ask that I very naturally find a way to put a link in my blog post. It is my decision to ask you to visit their site. It is my opinion, if they are willing to provide us with such very nice gifts the least we can do is show our gratitude by taking a peek at other objects they have to offer.

That being said, Jamie closed his sexy brown eyes and stuck his nimble little fingers down into the bottom of the pot and pulled out a name. And the winner is….

Dee from Red Dirt Ramblings! Congratulations Dee! This is a very nice looking watering can; I know you are going to enjoy it. It’s so pretty I don’t know if I would use it to water my flowers or put flowers in it like a vase! Whatever your choice I hope you enjoy it for years to come. Dee, please contact me thru the email provided on my blog profile with your mailing address and we’ll sort out all the details. To the rest you that entered thank you very much for participating, I do so enjoy the opportunity to give away a little gift and hope you enjoy the chance to enter. Hugs to you all and happy gardening!

Lets Have a Giveaway!

2010-06-18T07:56:00.002-05:00

The generous people at CSN Stores have provided me with another wonderful opportunity to give you guys a gift. They have over a million products in their online store to include landscape lights, patio furniture, gardening tools and a lot more. Now, I’ve never been one to beat around the bush about my reasons for doing this. I think it’s only fair if you get something you need to give something in return. We all know this is promotional. *smiles*

Here is what I would like you to do in order to qualify for the giveaway. Don’t panic I’m not asking a lot and since CSN is being so generous I think it’s only fair. I would like you to go to CSN through the link provided above and tell me if you saw anything there that struck your fancy. It has a dual purpose; it will generate traffic to their site and will give me an idea of what items you might like in future giveaways. Don’t limit yourself just to the lights; they have a fantastic selection of garden related items.

This giveaway is for a beautiful, classically designed water can done in copper. Below is a stock picture borrowed from their site with permission.

Can you picture yourself in a big floppy garden hat walking around watering your flowers? I can! The deadline to enter this giveaway is 11:30 PM Friday, June 25, 2010. The names of the qualified entries will be placed in a flower pot and one will be randomly drawn by Jamie. Good luck! And thanks again to CSN for providing us with this fun giveaway!

Not So "Native Gladiolus"

2010-06-13T07:15:00.005-05:00

Gladiolus Dalenii
'African Parrot'

When I first sat down at the computer this morning it was my original intention to do a post showing you all the daylilies that are blooming right now. Along with the daylilies the ‘African Parrot’ gladiolus are blooming, so I thought I would just throw in a picture of them as well. It occurred to me that I really didn’t know that much about them other than the name so I resolved to do a little research. What I discovered about them fascinated me, so I decided to share it with you.

Jamie and I have a wonderful friend named Carol that I’ve known for about 20 years now. She has a beautiful old home on a dirt road in south Alabama. Jamie and I had noticed wild glads growing on the side of the road a couple of years ago and made the decision to dig some up to bring back to our garden. I googled pictures of wild gladiolus in Alabama and found a picture of these flowers and were able to identify them as ‘African Parrot’. Until this morning I had left it at that and enjoyed the flowers. What I didn’t know was these glads were the first of seven brought to Europe in the 1600’s from Africa where they are native plants. ‘African Parrot’ or ‘Sword Lily’ was crossed with G. Oppositiflourus in 1823 to create the very first hybridized gladiolus; we inadvertently dug up the great grandfather of all modern day gladioli.

The plants were introduced to the United States sometime in the very early 1800’s. Even though these plants are considered native gladiolus because they have been growing wild for so many years, technically they aren’t. If you find the babies growing wild somewhere, you can just about count on the fact that in the last 334 years there has been a home somewhere nearby and someone now long gone from this world cherished the same blooms you have found by accident.

Gladiolus represent infatuation…

Just a Few Flowers

2010-05-29T06:01:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone! We are in need of some serious rain here in Prattville. The grass is brown and crunch and the plants look haggard. We have a very effective drip system that waters the beds, but nothing can replace God’s water. Plants always look so much more vibrant after a good rain. Someone once told me rainwater is rich in nitrogen, is that true?

Anyway, I’ve been short for time here lately so I’m a little behind on my blog reading. I usually take my lunch at my desk at work and do my reading then, but the head of the IT department has told everyone no more internet usage. Sooooooo, that’s an hour of the day I don’t get to catch up on my blog reading. Which really sucks. I guess I just have to do what I can on the weekends because there is simply very little time during the week.

Here are a few pictures from the garden. I hope everyone has/had a great Memorial Day.

'Tequila Sunrise'

Variegated Iris

'Becky'

'Double River Wye'

'Darius'

'Daring Deception'

Unknown

'Raspberry Pixie'

'Chorus Line'

'Catalina'

Around the Garden 05/17/10

2010-05-17T08:36:00.001-05:00

Jamie and I were out working in the garden a little this weekend. I was trying to catch up on a little cleaning and Jamie was busy planting some annuals. He got some beautiful African Marigolds, a few of his Petunias and three ‘Firewitch’ Dianthus planted. I had gone over to inspect the Louisiana iris because we are getting ready to do some serious thinning out and I found this beautiful guy.

Look at those beautiful pearl colored eyes and the pretty blue spot above his jaws. Those gold wings shimmer just like little jewels.

In another area of the garden two of the clematis have managed to escape the wrath of the weedeater. This one is called ‘Galore’. The blooms were much bigger last year. I’ve been afraid to throw out any fertilizer this season for fear Maxx will eat it. He eats everything. He has a special fondness for garden spiders and pieces of bath towels right now.

We have a couple of late blooming azaleas in our garden. This first one is ‘Gumpo White’. It’s a very compact plant and we purchased them for that very reason.

Here it is again coupled with some yellow ‘Anblo’ Yarrow blooms that have fallen over on the top.

Another late bloomer is ‘Cascade Pink’ it stays very low to the ground and can spread to about six feet in perfect conditions.

This plant is 3 feet wide and only about 11 inches tall. It’s almost like a ground cover.

‘Pink Cascade’

The Garden Orbs

2010-05-13T07:35:00.000-05:00

About two years ago I was looking thru photos of television stars garden. At the entrance to the paths of her garden I noticed she had meticulously place concrete orbs. I liked the way they seem to indicate a path. Almost saying you should walk thru here. The ones she had were slightly larger, but then again she had a much larger garden.

We have these concrete balls sporadically placed throughout the garden. At corners of beds…

The base of trellises…

Marking the entrance to other paths…

I’ve had so many questions about them I thought I would do a post. I didn’t make these, we purchased them. When I first starting looking for some concrete balls for the garden I was astounded by how expensive they were, most especially the terracotta ones. Well, one day I was over at our favorite garden statue place when I notice a heap of broken concrete pieces. I asked Mr. Johnson what it was and he replied just a bunch of old junk. One of the things that Mr. Johnson makes is concrete post caps. If he forgets to put the wire in them the ball snaps off or cracks at the neck and they can’t be used for anything. Of course my thrift eye spotted the balls in the pile and I asked him how much he would charge for them. He told me I could have them for free. Well, this man works very hard for his money and we insisted that we should pay him at least a little something for them, so he agreed to take 2 dollars a post cap. We took them home, I took a hammer and busted the square piece off the bottom and voila, we had our garden orbs.

I just push the little neck stub in the dirt and there we have our very inexpensive garden balls. Now you know our secret, they are just broke post caps. :-)

Around the Garden 05/11/10

2010-05-12T08:10:00.000-05:00

Well, the garden is waking up nicely so I thought we would take a little look around. It occurred to me this year that so far, Jamie and I have done a pretty good job of keeping blooms in the garden. First the Irises bloom and as they fade the roses start and as they are beginning to fade the daylilies are starting to bloom. We didn’t plan it that way but it turns out really nicely. The picture below is probably the last iris that will be blooming this spring.

‘Fall Fiesta’

The shrubs and flowers are growing in nicely around the statuary. I believe we can tastefully place two or maybe three more statues in the garden. I’m looking for my ever elusive dragon. I’ve found many versions of him, but not the exact one I want. Maybe another goddess or two, like Jamie says, we don’t want it to look ‘like a concrete truck threw up in the back yard.’ He’s so funny…

From the first time we saw Phillip’s weeping buddleia I’ve wanted one. Being the generous gardener that he is, he made sure we had one for our garden. This is the first bloom it has produced. I can’t wait until it’s as large as the one in his garden. We are going to enjoy this plant for many years to come. Phillip and Michael have been such wonderful friends to us since we met them.

The lawn is filling up fast with Dichondra, now that I know what it is I can hopefully get it under control. The grass paths still look nice in the garden and it’s finally filled in around the stepping stones. This was all bare soil 2 years ago.

This is Anthony Waterer's second year in our garden. The blooms are such a beautiful color. This plant was mid-summer sun fried plant we got for a dollar. Amazing what a little TLC can do.

I love the way this back area turned out. Every time I walk thru here I remember the horrible blisters Jamie got on his hands digging up all this grass. He did the little center bed and the bed to the left all in two days. That’s over 350 square feet of thick tough grass he dug up people, all by himself.

Well, the sun is starting to set and it’s getting too dark for picture taking. I’ll leave you with this last shot. One day the privet will grow and the neighbor’s houses will be veiled by pretty variegated foliage.

The Garden Wall Project Update

2010-05-11T06:30:00.002-05:00

Those of you that have been reading the blog for a while will remember a project Jamie and I did in September of 2008. It was an arbor and garden wall. Well, it’s filling in nicely with Confederate Jasmine and I thought I would show you a couple of pictures of how it’s looking now. Incidentally, how we made this wall was the first article I had published in a magazine. It was like a wish coming true for me, photography and writing, two of my favorite things and I got paid for it!

This wall is much larger than it looks in the photo; the width of the arbor is over four feet.

After the trellises were built on each side we added window openings for extra interest. We thought they would nicely frame parts of the garden when you look thru them. You can tell by this photo it does the job well. The great part is you get a different view thru the windows when you stand in different areas. They seem to frame several things in the garden.

We'll take a look again in another year, it should be nice and full at that point. :-) By that point maybe there will be more work done on the little courtyard that is going to be put in front of the wall.

Our Little Rose Collection

2010-05-10T06:20:00.009-05:00

In Our Eden Jamie and I have started a small collection of roses. We were inspired to try again by Phillip’s wonderful rose garden. Years ago I had 16 or 17 hybrid tea roses. While they were beautiful to look at and I did very well with them, they were just way too much work. If you didn’t spray them at least once a week the black spot would take over and soon you would be left with nothing but blooming stems. Here are a few roses blooming in our garden. I’ve tried my best to provide you with dates of introduction, to my knowledge they are correct but I could be mistaken.

‘Dr. Van Fleet’ 1910

‘Caldwell Pink’

I’m not certain of the name of this rose. It’s a hardy old shrub rose that my neighbor gave me. The blooms are simple and they don’t last for long, but when it blooms… you can smell the scent all over the garden!

This is ‘New Dawn’ -1930; she’s just about bloomed out for the year. I still wanted to get a picture of her for the list. From what I understand ‘Dr. Van Fleet’ is her father.

‘Peggy Martin’ did not disappoint us this year! We just planted this rose in our garden last summer and look at it. The best part is it’s thorn less. I can really appreciate a rose with no thorns. This rose survive 2 weeks under salt water after hurricane Katrina in the garden of Ms. Peggy Martin, hence the name.

Jamie and I know very few or really, no gardeners in our area. On one of the streets coming into our neighborhood is a house with a beautiful garden in the front and back. I’m not the type of person to just walk right up and knock on a stranger’s door so I’ve been waiting for two years to catch the owner outside. Well, I finally did. His name is Ray; he’s a master gardener and a super nice guy. He showed me around his garden and I got a chance to see his wonderful Japanese Maple collection. I invited Ray to see our garden and later that evening he popped in on us. It was really neat to show our garden like that. Other than Phillip and Michael, we haven’t had the chance to show off our hard work to other gardeners in person. I mean, you can show it to your non-gardening friends, but only another gardener can fully understand the hard work and love that you’ve put into it. The next morning Ray popped in on us again, this time with a beautiful gift. This ‘The Fairy’ -1932 rose! The crazy thing is I was just reading about it the day before. How cool is that?

I’m particularly pleased with this new purchase! 'Petit Pink Scotch', I love it! We got it this weekend at one of our favorite nurseries. This rose was discovered in an 18th century plantation garden in North Carolina in 1949. It was believed to have been brought there by Scottish or English immigrants.

This is what I love about it! Look at it's itty bitty blooms! Dontcha just love them? ‘Petit Pink Scotch’ it can make a 4 to 6 foot mound of beautiful tiny blooms. The only drawback (if it even is one) is it’s the thorniest think you’ve ever seen. I think I can deal with the thorns in exchange for the blooms.

‘Petit Pink Scotch’ 1949

‘Red Cascade’ 1976

‘Veilchenblau’ 1909 and ‘Zephirine Droughin’ 1868

The KnockOut hedge really filled in well. ‘Radtko’ 2005

‘Crepuscule’ 1904

‘Dortmund’ 1955

‘Reve d’Or’ 1869

I'm glad you took this little garden tour with me! :-)

Irises 05/03/10

2010-05-03T14:10:00.004-05:00

One of my very favorite things about spring time is watching all the Irises bloom. Each day can hold a new surprise for me when I walk out the door in the morning. Jamie and I are constantly adding to our Iris collection. Here are a few that are blooming in the garden right now.

‘Blueberry Bliss’

‘Owen’s Yellow’

‘Contraband Girl’

This is a beautiful unknown iris that was sent to us by a friend in Michigan. If you think you know the name feel free to shoot us a note.

‘Caesar’s Brother’ was a gift from Phillip’s garden. I really want to increase the Siberians and Japanese Irises on our garden.

‘Champagne Waltz’

‘ Not Good Show’ Turns out this is Sentimental Rose- It was marked wrong at the plant show.

Marilyn from Wheelchair Gardener sent me a picture of this Iris over a year ago. When we saw it, we thought it was the prettiest thing we had ever seen. Jamie ordered it online as a gift for me and this is the first bloom it’s produced for us. It’s called ‘Starship Enterprise’.

‘Slavok Prince’

‘War Chief’

‘Spartan’

‘Avalon Sunset’

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Iris ‘Megabucks’ is next on my wish list. Who knows, maybe I’ll order it today!

Blooming In Our Garden 04/19/10

2010-04-19T09:37:00.007-05:00

Dorothy Frances Gurney
1858 - 1932

I’m so very happy things are starting to grow and bloom in the garden. Nothing makes me feel more alive than to walking among so many beautiful bright colors. In our garden we don’t really tend to have much of a color scheme going on. As a matter of fact, for the most part it looks like a kaleidoscope threw up in it, but Jamie and I like it that way. While we don’t try to place “complementary colors” beside each other we are learning the importance of large patches of color for impact and we are working on that.

Jamie and I are very fond of Irises and they tend to steal the show when they start blooming in the spring. We currently have 55 different irises, 35 of which are bearded. We know the names of all them with the exception of 2 or 3. When Jamie and I first started the garden we cataloged every single plant that went into it and have continued to do it to this day. The original reason we did it was to make certain we didn’t buy the same daylily twice. Now, I’m glad we did because it’s a handy reference list when I can’t remember the name of something.

Some of the irises are looking a little poorly this year and I’m not certain why. Maybe it was the cold winter or maybe they have some type of bug. I’ll have to do some research and see what I come up with as the answer. Here are a few that are blooming this week.

'Clarence'

'Beverly Sills'

'In Your Dreams'

'Invitaion'

'Sugar Blues'

This is an Unknown that came from an online friend.

'Canned Heat'

'Point In Time'

Now this particular iris is not one from our garden. Our friend Carol was up for the weekend and we went to visit Jasmine Hill Garden to see the spring flowers. If any of you know what it is I would positively love to know the name? Better yet, if you happen to have it I would love even better to have a fan or two! No, I’m not too proud to ask or too shy for that matter. If you have it, I’m certain we could do some horse trading.:-)

Okay, so now I have another question for you. When is a rose not a rose? Give up? When it’s an azalea! In February of 2008 Jan at Always Growing did a post on this plant and Jamie and I both just fell in love with it. I love Jan’s blog, she has a knack for finding the most interesting plants and we have several in our garden that are there because we saw them on her blog. If you’ve never been to her blog pop in and tell her hello. Without that post neither we nor our friend Carol would have this beautiful plant in our garden.

'Amelia Rose'

Isn’t it just gorgeous? We bought a second one that we are training to grow into a tree. It’ will take a few years but it’ll get there eventually.

I’ll leave you with this picture of ‘Trouper Orange’. I hope this post finds you well, happy and loving every minute you spend in the garden.

Idle Rambling...

2010-04-15T07:27:00.003-05:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, finally. The garden is well on its way to waking up at Our Eden. I’ve been strolling around taking note of all the things that need to be done. We had a particularly cold winter this go around and I’m pretty certain we lost several huge banana trees. I’m going to give it a little while longer before we plant something to take their places. I tried to divide them last year to share with a friend and I keep remembering how deep down the roots were, it’s hard for me to believe they could have frozen that far down. Fingers crossed…

The ‘Tangerine Beauty’ has more blooms on it than it’s ever sported before.

Jamie and I got several new Irises last year and I’m looking forward to enjoying the blooms this spring. ‘Autumn Tryst’ is a new addition to our garden; I’m still not certain where the autumn part comes in to the picture. It blooms in the spring and when I think of autumn I think of reds, oranges and yellows. Jamie planted it in the new bed we put across the back of the garden. We still need 12 daylilies to go in it. I want something spectacular though. We need really unusual ones that stand out when you see them. We’ve picked out some pretty good ones and I’ll be ordering them tomorrow.

This weekend our very dear friend of many years, Carol will be coming to visit. She’ll be arriving this afternoon. This weekend is the annual plant sale from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens; we always go and come back with a truck load. I hope eveyone has a fantastic weekend!

A Walk With Old Faithful

2010-04-11T10:14:00.001-05:00

I have two cameras. My newest is the Sony DSC-H50/B and the second one is the great grandfather to the new one an old DSC-F717. I love my old camera and I only pull it out every now and then to take photos with it. The LCD screen is failing and it will no longer charge unless the battery is attached to an external battery charger. I decided to drag it out and walk around the garden a little while, just for old time’s sake. When I got the H50 nothing you could have ever said would have convinced me it could take the photos that its grandfather does, now I can look at the pictures and see a noticeable difference in the color. The H50 has better color, but it still can’t stop a bird in flight like the 717.

Jamie got the windowsill containers planted for the summer. We generally go for the bright colored flowers, but this year we decided to do something a little different. I think Jamie did a fantastic job and I think these will stand up to the full sun a little better.

My grandmother’s old rose bush seems to be happy where it is and it’s sporting its first bloom of the season. I have no idea how old this rose it, but my grandmother got it from her mother when she was married in 1931. When she passed and her house was sold I dug it up and moved it to my home.

This is a new Dahlia we added to the garden this year, ‘Sumatra’.

Variegated Solomon’s Seal

'Crimson Queen' and Bridal Wreath

'Miss Saigon'

This is a wonderful old Iris that I’m just tickled to have newly planted in our garden. It was given to us last fall by a very generous reader that wishes to remain anonymous. We planted them on both sides of the patio sidewalk; I get to enjoy them every morning. The color is even better than I thought and I just love it!

Hello Yellow

2010-03-25T07:00:00.006-05:00

Is it just me or does yellow seem to be a very dominant color in spring? The color Yellow symbolizes renewal and hope so it’s only appropriate that it be a leading color in spring. In Elizabethan England, by law only the wealthy were permitted to wear this color. Holistic healers believe yellow is the color of peace. Studies in psychology suggest it increases concentration, that’s why legal pads are yellow. It also speeds up metabolism. The list goes on and on… I also read yellow is the most difficult color for the eye to process so it can overpower other colors if overused. Everywhere I look the garden seems to be filled with yellow.

Here are the same old yellow irises you guys see in spring of every year. These guys seem to bloom forever in our garden. They sporadically produce flowers until fall.

This tattered ‘King Alfred’ daffodil caught my attention for some reason. It’s still holding its color despite the wind beating it relentlessly against the rock behind it. I felt such diligence should be rewarded with a photo.

The weather was just perfect outside yesterday. Our new baby, Maxx was enjoying the spring day too. He seemed to be particularly interested in the scent of the ‘Ice Follies’ daffodils. This photo was a complete accident. I was actually taking a picture of the yellow iris when he decided to take a sniff of the daffodil.

Maxx can sniff the daffs all he wants I prefer the scent of the jasmine.

Is yellow a dominant color in your garden? I love it, yellow can bring sunshine to your garden even on a cloudy day.

Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest

2010-03-16T09:55:00.001-05:00

This month’s theme for the Picture This Photo Contest is “Awakening”. I chose this image of a frost covered daffodil as my entry. Good luck to everyone and thanks to our wonderful competition hosts.

Evergreen Clematis

2010-03-16T07:06:00.004-05:00

Well these are the first blooms for the Clematis Armandii we planted last summer. As you can see the little vine is going to be loaded. Jamie and I have been making a slow, but conscious effort to introduce more evergreen plants to the garden. When we bought this clematis I just assumed it would be a summer bloomer. It never occurred to me that it may have it’s flush of blooms in late winter. That’s okay though, it’s nice to have things that bloom this early in the year. We can add this to the list of indicators spring is on the way. While I’m not a botanist by any means I have done a little research on the vine and here are the basic facts about it.

I’ve discovered two spellings of the word Armandii in my reading, one with a single “I” and also spelled with a double “I”. I’m not certain which one is correct because I have found reputable sites spelling it both ways. The vine has been known to be hardy to zone 6a but I wouldn’t recommend anything cooler than zone 8. It can grow up to 40 feet in length and produces its best blooms in late winter or early spring, although it can bloom sporadically during the summer as well. The flowers have a soft sweet scent are white and about 2 inches in diameter. The vine doesn’t require any pruning, but over the years will produce less foliage and flowers from the lower sections of the vine. So, it’s not a bad idea to give a haircut every now and then after it blooms. It performs well in sun or part shade and like all other clematis likes to keep its feet cool. I think Jamie and I are going to enjoy this vine for several years to come.

We Better Get on the Ball

2010-03-08T07:10:00.006-06:00

Every where you look there are signs of spring’s arrival in our garden. The Forsythia is blooming, the Spirea and willow are putting out new leaves and the daffodils are starting to bloom.

'Ice Follies'

The very first Iris to bloom in our garden is always a small border iris named ‘Ice Wings’.

'Ice Wings'

The past few months seemed to have been filled with one difficulty after another for Jamie and me. Just when one thing seemed to work out another monkey wrench was thrown in the works. Between family, health and relationship issues, holidays and the just the pure stress of it all, the garden was just too much to keep up with. I’m very happy to report that things are much improved now and our lives seem to be finally returning to normal.

So what does a garden look like when it’s been neglected for five months? Not a pretty sight people…

Well Jamie and I got out there and busted our butts Sunday and made quite a dent in the clean up. You guys should see the pile by the road for the trash men to pick up! It’s not completely cleaned up, but I feel safe in saying that we are 80% there. We really are a dynamic team…

Ahhhhhhhhhh, I just love spring. Bright colors, rebirth and new beginnings.

We Have a Winner!

2010-02-01T07:07:00.004-06:00

Congratulations to Marnie of Lilacs and Roses! She is the winner of the beautiful bird feeder! Marnie has a wonderful blog filled with lots of beautiful photos, if you've never paid her a visit go tell her hello and enjoy her creativity. Thanks to all of you that entered. Hope you all have a great week!

Bird Feeder Giveaway!

2010-01-26T07:09:00.006-06:00

Hello everyone! The good folks at CSN Stores contacted me about a little promotional giveaway from their company and you fortunate guys get to reap the benefits! One lucky winner will get the bird feeder shown in the above picture. It comes in your choice of three colors: French Bronze, Moss Green and Virdigris.

Okay, so here’s how this is going to work. To enter into the competition I would like for you to do two things for me. First, send a short note to crazyboutflowers@gmail.com and tell me something about Jamie or me that you would only know if you read our blog. After you’ve sent the email place a comment on this blog post to tell me your message is in my inbox. Pretty simple so far, right? Second I would like you to click the link below to show your appreciation to the people at CSN Stores for the generous donation to the giveaway. It only takes a second and it’s the right thing to do. Here’s the link to their sister site and the available house numbers they have in stock. Explore the site you might find just what you are looking for, they have lots of great items.

I’ll be accepting entries to the competition until January 31, 2010. The eligible entries name will be drawn from an empty clay pot on February 1, 2010 and I’ll announce the winner. Then I’ll contact you via the email you sent me to get your shipping information. The feeder will be mailed to the winner directly from the company. Good luck!

The Little Garden

2009-11-17T10:50:00.000-06:00

Hey ya'll, as promised I am back to my blogging. I’m not sure if I can be quite as dedicated to it as I was before for the simple reason I just have too many other obligations right now. I’ve joined some local organizations and I'm dabbling in some other things. My classes and meeting take up four nights a week so I’ll just have to blog as time permits. I’m also VERY excited about the possibility of something else new in my life and I’ll share that with you as the time gets closer.

Several weeks ago I wrote a story and I thought I would share it with you guys. Maybe it will resonate more with some of you than it does others. :-) I hope you all enjoy it.

The Little Garden

Once upon a time there was a young man that was very sad and lonely. Every night as he went to bed he would pray to God that he would be given a way to share his love and he would cry himself to sleep in pain and loneliness. But God heard his prayers and unknown to him he was already in the process of making them a reality. For God knew of a tiny plot of land that was barren and unattended and in need of love and friendship. For years God listened as the tiny space of dirt called out to him. Dear Father, I am so alone. People pass by me daily and none even care to give me a second glance. I have so much to offer and I know I am capable of such great things if you will just send me the one that will believe in me and work with me to make it all happen.

One day a very wise woman passed the barren area; it was almost as if she sensed the pain coming from the land. She stopped to gaze at the area and spoke, just as if she knew the soil could hear her and said, “The one you are waiting for will come very soon and together you shall create the most beautiful garden filled with love, happiness and beautiful blooms. The garden cried out in such joy, in hope that the wise woman would hear. “How will I know when my gardener appears?” “You will recognize him by his smile,” she said. “When you see his smile you will know in your heart he is the one.”

A year and a half passed by and each day the uncared for piece of land patiently waited for the gardener to arrive. Then one day it happened, a young man walked onto the piece of earth and smiled the most beautiful smile and at that moment the voice of the Almighty spoke to the property and said, “He has prayed for you every night, he is the one you have waited for, I commit him to you and together you shall create a beautiful garden and your love shall prosper for a lifetime.

And so it was, for several years to come a great bond was formed between the neglected land and the gardener. The gardener planted the soil and cared for it and the little piece of land was so happy! The little garden thrived for its caretaker and produced beautiful blooms to show its love for the one that cared for it so deeply. For the first time since its existence the garden was happy. God had answered the little garden’s prayers and life was beautiful.

Then one day something very much unexpected happened. The garden eagerly waited for its darling gardener to come home. The sun had shown brightly that day and there were many beautiful blooms to show him. He will be so very proud thought the garden. But, the gardener never came. At that moment God spoke to the little garden. “Oh my beautiful little garden… I am so sorry… your gardener has abandoned you and I’m afraid he shall not return.” The garden cried out to God, “Why lord? I don’t understand. Why has my beloved gardener forsaken me? I tried so hard to show him how much I loved and cared for him! Were my blooms not bright enough? Were they too few? Dear, dear God, did I produce too many weeds? Was I too much work to care for? Was it because the butterflies were late coming and I could get their attention no sooner? Why God, why did he leave me when I tried so hard to please him? I don’t understand and I am in such great pain, my heart aches for my gardener to return. Please help me understand what I have done wrong so that I may get my gardener back.”

“My precious, precious child, human beings are very complicated creatures. I cannot say for certain that there is any one reason why your gardener has chosen to leave. Perhaps even he is not aware of the exact reason. Mankind is a very fragile species and sometimes their actions are related to things that may have happened long, long ago. The connection may not even be apparent to them. Sometimes the stress of daily living can cause their bodies and minds to become ill, only time will tell” said God. “But God,” said the garden, “did you not tell me he prayed for me every night and cried himself to sleep?” The Great I Am explained to the garden that he did in fact pray every night and cried himself to sleep. But, for whatever reason he does not remember and does not see that he has walked away from the very thing he begged God to bring into his life. God, now walking among the paths of the garden spoke, “I can tell from what the two you have created you loved each other very much. For the love I see here is a strong and glorious one. It must have been very difficult for him to walk away from something so beautiful. Much hard work and dedication has gone into this creation and it is not something he can soon forget.” “Will he come back to me?” asked the garden. “Perhaps,” said God. “Once he has a chance to realize that the relationship between the two of you was an answer to his prayers and that you were created just for each other and each of you was a gift for the other given by me. But, there is still a chance he may be unable to see that and he may never return.”

“God, I am afraid I shall grieve myself to death over the loss of my gardener and loving caregiver. For the hurt I feel is so strong the only way I know to stop it is to cease to exist. God I pray that you send others to remove me a small part at the time until I no longer remain and there will be no sign I was ever here. If I can not have my gardener then I no longer wish to survive.” This saddened the heart of God until he wept tears of sorrow. He made a promise to the garden that if its beloved caregiver did not return, another would recognize the great beauty it possessed and it would once again be the pride and love of someone else’s heart.

“Without care I shall perish, in no time at all I shall be over grown with weeds and I shall be forgotten.” said the garden. Others shall cross you path said the Lord and they shall help for they will recognize a great beauty is being lost. And, I will also be here.

The garden heard the words of God but they offered little consolation for the pain it was feeling. And just as it believed, it began to die. Leaves began to curl, stems began to turn brown and the garden waited for the last ounce of life to be drained. Just as God said, he was always there. As the garden tried to die of thirst he sent rain. As the flowers withered and died God sent the sun to draw more blooms from the plants and with the blooms came bees and butterflies. The butterflies laid eggs and new butterflies were born by the hundreds and inundated the garden. Until one day the garden realized that despite the great loneliness it was feeling after being abandoned by the gardener, it was never really alone and life continued. God was always there to give it what it needed when it needed it. Suddenly a peace came over the garden and it knew everything would be okay.

The garden realized at that point that even though the love of another may be gone, self love and self respect must always remain. With that also came the knowledge that many, many others loved and appreciated its beauty in addition to the one that had left. It found peace in the knowledge that one day it would once again be loved… be it by the one that created it with the blessing of God or by a new gardener that would love it even more… weeds and all.

--Randy Parker

Hello Everyone

2009-11-09T08:07:00.000-06:00

After a period of silence I’ve decide to continue blogging. Over the next few weeks you will notice some subtle changes in the blog. One of which will be the name. I’m not certain how soon I will begin to make the adjustments or when I will make the first post, but I look forward to visiting with you all again soon. Best wishes to you...

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-09T07:11:00.000-05:00

Thunbergia Grandiflora

A.K.A Bengal Clock Vine or Blue Sky Vine

Hello guys! I hope you are all having a good week. I just wanted to let everyone know that I managed to injure the Ulnar nerve in my left arm about 3 weeks ago, I have no clue how I did it. It’s getting better, but I really have to limit my activities with that arm and it is a slow healing process. I’m still going to be reading; unfortunately my commenting and posting will be almost nonexistent for the next few weeks. Just because you aren’t hearing from me doesn’t mean I’m not around. I’ve got my eye on you guys! :-) I’ll be back posting on a regular basis as soon as I can.

The Four Seasons

2009-08-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

Well, the girls are finally here. Jamie and I have wanted to add the four season statues to our garden for a long time, but were uncertain as to where we could put them. When we finally completed the new back bed Jamie suggested it would be a good place. After searching forever, we finally found a place we could get them. The unstained statues weren’t that hard to find, but finding the pedestals that came with them was a different story. After debating the existence of them with several companies I was finally able to convince a nursery in Montgomery to search. They found them and were willing to order them for us. They came in last Monday and Jamie and I went to the nursery to pick them up this past Saturday. In the photo below there is a 4th goddess waaaaaaaay down at the end that isn’t visible. There was just no way to capture all four in the same photo because although it may not look like it, this bed is 75 feet long.

The Horai were the four Greek goddesses of the seasons. In original mythology there were only two seasons, Thallo and Karpo or blooming and fruiting. Later the seasons became three goddesses to exclude winter. It wasn’t until the 4th or 5th century that all four seasons were represented by goddesses and given a name. Very little information is available on what is considered to be the 4th generation Horai that symbolize all seasons. They were mentioned in the epic tale ‘Dionysiaca’ produced by Nonnus in the 5th century and have been represented as 4 since that time.

The goddess of spring, Eiar, is usually found holding a bouquet or garland of flowers.

Theros, the goddess of summer, is usually holding a harvest of wheat. When purchasing the statues you may sometimes find fall and summer misidentified.

The goddess of fall, Autumnus, is found holding grapes or some other fruit.

Chiemon, the goddess of winter is usually found wearing a cloak or long sleeved garment and sometimes holding a flame.

This will most likely be the last statuary purchased for the garden. I think once the privet and other shrubs grow in to screen the distracting view of the houses the statues are going to look great. Not to mention the bed is practically void of any perennial planting. I had hoped to take care of that this year. For now, I’m really starting to feel a little gardened out, if we get the new plants in the bed this fall that’s great, if not there is always next spring. :-) I hope everyone has a great week!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-19T09:56:00.000-05:00

Everyone have a great day!

Westinghouse Solar Lights

2009-08-17T06:05:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I have finally reached a point where we are ready to install landscape lighting in the garden. There are so many products for sale now it’s hard to know which ones to pick. In the past, solar lights haven’t been a very reliable source of luminance for the garden. Recently, leaps and bounds have been made in the available variety of products and I’ve been anxious to see what’s out there. When Teak Wicker & More contacted me and asked me to do a review on these landscape lights, I was happy to oblige and thank them for the opportunity. I intend to do a future post on landscape lighting and what I’ve learned, but this post is strictly for review of the product sent to me.

Within 24 hours of the shipment date I received the Westinghouse lights via FedEx. The first thing I noticed upon opening the box was that these were very chic lights with a nice modern design to them, but that they could easily fit into the design of any garden. Over 26 inches in height and 2 ½ inches diameter, the antique copper finish on these lights make them very attractive in the garden and I didn’t feel the need to conceal them from view.

The thing I was most interested in was the output of light. With only a single diode as an illumination source, I knew that a tremendous amount of light was not going to be produced by these particular lights and I was correct in assuming so. I must admit though, I was extremely surprised at the amount of light that was produced by them.

If you are looking to light up a path or walkway these lights may be inefficient for those purposes, but you should also realize they were not designed for that task. The light source is simply too high from the ground. The most efficient lights for that job are lights that cast the light downward and not out, the way these were designed to function. Also keep in mind that these are solar lights and if you place them in a shaded area they will perform very poorly. They, as well as all other solar lights need sun to operate.

If you are looking for a soft, ambient light to place in darker areas of your garden this light set is the way to go and should certainly be a consideration. They provide a very pleasant glow in a small circumference around them that I find very aesthetic and reminiscent of moonlight. If you are less interested in the artsy contribution and need lights for a more practical purpose you may want to consider going for a higher level of luminance.

Taking into consideration the design, size and light output of this set I find them fairly reasonably priced for a mail order item. In summary I was very pleased and my only regret is that we have six of them instead of twelve. These statements are of course only my opinion. You can find other reviews and order the product here.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-12T08:25:00.000-05:00

The butterflies finally found us this weekend and they've been everywhere. I don't ever remember having so many swallowtails in the garden at one time before.

Installing Drip Irrigation

2009-08-07T02:38:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I ran the third line for the drip irrigation system yesterday. It's so simple to do and can save you so much time watering I wanted to show you guys some pictures. This post is a little long. Everything you need to do this you can find at the drip irrigation system section in Lowes or Home Depot. Or, for beginners you may want to just buy the little kits with everything you need to run you drip system for about 35 or 40 dollars. The kit was too small for our purposes so we just bought everything individually. We have hundreds of feet of lines running in our yard. The system can be as complicated or as simple as you like. Ours even fills the bird bath and waters the hanging pots. If you go with the kit, you can always add on to it later as you get use to what you are doing. It’s cheaper to just buy what you need. Look at the pictures on the back of the box; it will help let you know what to do and what you need.

This first picture shows the line running from our faucet to the yard. Our faucet has one of those inexpensive attachments on it that changes it from one spigot to four. It came with a timer kit we bought made by Orbit. It’s an extremely efficient system at a very affordable price and I highly recommend it. It can be found online or in your local big box store. I don't understand why, but you can get the same kit I've linked to for much cheaper in the stores than you can from the actual site, the link is to show you what we are using. We actually just bought a second one from Wal- Mart for about 25 dollars less. It can be just a tad bit tricky learning to program it, but after you learn how it’s set up you’ll realize how simple it really is to operate.***For those of you that are wondering I have no affiliation with the company I just really think this is a fantastic product and Jamie and I are very pleased with it’s performance.***

In this second photo you can see the half inch water line running into the bed and under the side walk. I had the foresight to think about running a section of line under the sidewalk when we put in these two beds. Then when we got ready to run the line all we had to do was to connect to it. It’s very simple to do. Just attach your water hose to a broom handle or pipe with some good tape, turn it on full force and keep pushing. Before you know it that water will wash away a small tunnel and you will be under the side walk in no time.

The quarter inch line that you use to run water to your drip emitters and sprinkler heads just snaps into the side of the line in a hole you make with a provided hole punch.

You just lay out your half inch tubing where ever you need water to go.

All the connectors just simply slide into the pipe. This takes a little strength. They come in T’s and elbows and two sided to connect two sections of line.

You can see the quarter inch line running to each plant here. It’s held in place by little plastic stakes that you can buy.

All that’s left to do now is bury the line. It doesn’t have to be deep; all you do is stick your shovel in the ground and lean it forward and back to wiggle open a little slit in the ground. Just push your hose into the little slot in the ground and step on the grass to push it back down when you are done. It’s barely detectable that anything has been disturbed and after a week you can’t even tell you buried a line. You just want it covered so the lawn mower can’t cut it or to hide if from view. You can see in the picture it’s about an inch or two deep in our yard. In the beds, just cover it with mulch and use landscape cloth pins or pieces of old wire hangers to hold it in place. The reason this is so dug up here is because we were tying into another line that was already buried.

For just a couple of hours effort, you can save yourself tons of hours standing in heat, dragging hoses. It’s the best thing we’ve ever done. If you need any help or need pictures of how to do something, just let me know. Jamie and I have become old pros at this.

Oh, one more thing you should know. The half inch line can only carry 244 gallons of water an hour. So if you are using sprinkler heads that put out 4 gallons per hour you can only use 61 heads, 10 gallon per hour – 24, drip emitters that put out 2 gph you can use 122. You can never put out more gallons per hour than the hose carries. Well you could, it just won’t work as well. It would be better to just run another half inch line to make another watering zone.

In other news Jamie and I have been researching the new lighting system we will be installing in the garden. It can be so confusing with so many types to choose from today. As luck would have it, I’ve been contacted by Teak, Wicker & More and I’m very excited to say they have asked me to do a review of a solar landscape lighting product for them, so look for the post to be coming soon. If you aren’t familiar with Teak, Wicker & More they have a very nice line of patio furniture and tons of other home and garden products.

"Down on Your Knees" Photo Contest.

2009-08-05T07:33:00.000-05:00

David Perry picked the subject for this months Gardening Gone Wild photo contest. The challenge is to present a photo taken from knee high or lower that shows different levels of existence that we would not normally see in this hurried world we live in today. So below is my photo submission. Good luck to all the participants. :-)

In the Garden 08/03/09

2009-08-03T09:32:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I had a very busy and productive weekend. We’ve needed to put in a third line to our drip irrigation system since last year; it was one of those things we just never got around to doing. Jamie and I laid out another 200 feet of line and we should really see some good growth on some of the things that were maybe not getting as much water as they should. I told Jamie one by one we are slowly completing the really large projects and within the next year or two our garden will just simply be a matter of maintenance. The next large project we tackle will most likely be the lights or the water feature, but that’s down the road and more than likely next season.

Why don’t we walk around a little and see what’s going on in the garden? The Thunbergia Grandiflora is looking good this year. It’s really covering this 20’ section of wall well and should be filled with blooms before very long. I hope it’s going to be breath taking.

I think one of the reasons it’s spreading so well is because Jamie and I got permission from our neighbor to place this fencing on the back of her privacy fence. It gave something for the vine to hold on to and enabled us to fan it out nicely. Next year we will need to divide this plant more than likely.

We have a couple of first blooms in our garden right now. ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is giving us our very first bloom ever. It’s planted on a split rail fence in the front yard between 2 ‘Veilchenblau’ we thought the pink and purple would look good together when they bloom in the spring.

One of our Banana trees is giving us our first bloom too. We have tiny little bananas about 1 inch long. Every time a new petal opens more bananas are exposed.

The Susans are looking good. We will be dividing these in the fall, they have hole in them that needs to be filled so we’ll just move them over a little.

Jamie had decided he wanted black berry lilies in fall of last year. We’ve purchased two since that time. This one is ‘Hello Yellow’. I’ve fallen in love with these little flowers and I want to fill the new bed with them and Candy Lilies. If you happen to run across cultivars of these lilies feel free to email me the name of them so we know what to look for in catalogs and online.

‘Sound of Silence’ is rewarding us with blooms again.

All three of the Pee Gee hydrangea standards are filling with blooms. They’re going to need re-shaping after they bloom.

By far one of my favorites in the garden is this Black and Blue Salvia. The humming birds just absolutely love this plant. Last night swarms of little birds were fighting and fussing with each other over which one would drink its nectar.

I think we’ve decided on the new shrubs to replace the mums this fall. I’ll be telling you more about that at a later date. Thanks for all you ideas and the plants we chose did come from your suggestions. Hope everyone has a good week and I’ll be visiting you soon.

Seeking Advice

2009-07-29T07:14:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I planted a several Chrysanthemums in the garden year before last. During the summer, they have a nice mounding habit that makes them look like two foot wide rounded shrubs. The affect is really nice in the garden and I like the way it looks. Unfortunately, we noticed this spring that the mums are traveling like crazy under ground and in a matter of two years could be out of control. In addition, they really aren’t performing very well this year.

So Jamie and I are calling on the experience and knowledge of all our readers for suggestions. Here’s what we would prefer and the conditions we are working with. We would like an evergreen with a small mounding habit that will not grow over 2 X 2 feet wide. We would like something that has interesting blooms with as long as possible of a blooming season or maybe a repeat bloomer. The plant needs to be able to handle full afternoon sun and the shade that will be in that area in a couple of years when the trees grow. We are in zone 8a.

I suggested some dwarf variety of re-blooming azalea, but Jamie thinks we already have enough of them and we don’t need anymore. I wouldn’t be completely opposed to a deciduous shrub, but since we have virtually zero winter interest in the garden evergreens would be nice. Okay, so that’s the challenge, you guys put your thinking caps on and see what you come up with. Most of you have way more gardening experience than we do so I’m confident you have a much larger knowledge base to work with. And, if you have any gardening friends you happen to be having a conversation with hit them up for suggestions too. LOL We appreciate your help.

** A litte note: For a wonderful post on butterflies check out Peg's Blog.**

Let the Planting Begin

2009-07-27T06:51:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Jamie and I got so very much done this weekend in the garden. We’ve been gone a lot lately. We practically wore ourselves out, but just about everything is caught up now. The only time we really have to work in the garden together is on the weekend. We made a pact some time ago that neither would really do anything in the garden without the other working beside him. Even if we choose to work side by side with out speaking a word to each other while we toil, the time in the garden is our time to be together. We do everything as a team, with the exception of on Friday when I usually cut the grass and use the trimmer. I know that sounds ideal to those of you that have to garden by yourselves, let me assure you though; it’s not always cookies and cream. Long about noon when the sun gets hot and we get hungry, it can get pretty vicious sometimes. With all those sharp garden tools lying around it’s a wonder we haven't had an “incident” at some point. For the most part, we work together like well a well oiled machine with each reading the others thoughts.

This weekend we set out over 53 plants, most of them in one gallon pots. That was a lot of holes to dig. Thank goodness the ground was soft so we made pretty good progress. All those pots that have been tucked here and there are finally planted. I’m embarrassed to say three of those pots were from last year! Can you believe that? I know, but sometimes you buy things and you really aren’t sure where you are going to put it and it takes a while to figure it out. We also got all the beds completely weeded and several new bags of mulch put down.

The only thing that we didn’t get done this weekend that needs to be accomplished is the drip system. We need to add another line that will water new beds going in around the garden wall and also a new bed in the front yard. The bed in the front will most likely not go in until next year, but we already have trees and roses planted that need to be watered until that time. We don’t have any plans for next weekend so we decided rather than work ourselves into a tired, sweaty mush Sunday, we would just put it off until next Saturday. It was a little much to do all in one weekend, but we are happy it’s all caught up now. Oh! A special note to Marilyn at Wheelchair Gardener. We were able to find the 'Starship Enterprise' Iris. Jamie bought it for me as an anniversary gift and we planted it this weekend. When you showed me the picture I had to have it, I can't wait to see it bloom!

One of the things we wanted to do was fill the new bed with coneflowers for some good summer bloom. I noticed while reading Darla’s blog that she had the most wonderful purple coneflowers growing in nice sized clumps. I asked her what kind they were so we could add them to our garden and she very generously offered to send us some. She told me these were passalong plants from her mother’s garden. That makes these plants very special and we are exceedingly happy to have them in our garden. So, Darla here’s a picture to show you that the coneflowers are doing very well and are going to be rewarding us with a bloom very soon. I hope everyone had a good weekend.--Randy

The Weekend 07/18/09

2009-07-20T08:01:00.000-05:00

Good morning everyone! Jamie and I had a wonderful weekend and I thought I would share it with you. Last night the weather was incredible. We had a record low of 59° last night! In Alabama… in July… all I can say is wow. We have very little blooming right now besides the Lantana and Buddleia, but thanks to the rain we had recently everything is a lush beautiful green and I’m happy with that.

Keeping in mind what IS blooming now Jamie and I have been on the search for items for the new bed. We have a lull right now so we are paying special attention to make certain we can fill the gap in blooms when we plant the new bed. One of the things we knew we wanted was more ‘Sunny Border Blue’ Veronica. We weren’t certain where we were going to get it though because the plant we have was ordered from a magazine. Well, low and behold we walk into Lowe’s and what do we see? That’s right, Veronica. To top it off it was mispriced by about 33% and the garden manager told us without hesitation we were free to have it at that price. Yay! We saved $40.00! So here is the first edition to the new bed. We’ll post pictures when we get it planted. The plants are beginning to go out of bloom now, but they will certainly be gorgeous next summer. I've read if you cut the spikes that have bloomed out down to the ground they will produce new ones. We might give that a try.

In other news we were invited to the very recently built home of some new friends this weekend for a birthday party. We met Ronnie and Lee thru our friends Jimmy and Wade. They have a lovely home and were very gracious hosts on our over night visit. The evening was wonderful and provided Jamie and I an opportunity to meet several new, interesting and very pleasant people. We really enjoyed ourselves!

Ronnie and Lee are avid gardeners and their new home came complete with two compost machines to provide black gold for all those new beds they’ll be making soon. Meet Rowdy and Copper.

Ronnie and Lee have a HUGE blank slate to work with when creating their new garden. If I remember right Lee told me they have 128 acres and 12 acres to play with as a garden. Oh! Isn’t that every gardener’s dream? The land has been in Lee’s family for 80 years. I have no doubt it’s going to be a masterpiece when they finish. Here’s the kicker, would you believe all this in the middle of a heavily populated residential area? While you are there you have no idea you are in a neighborhood, it seems as though you are 20 or 30 miles out in the country. The garden is already beginning to take shape. With Ronnie and Lee’s blessing I’ll keep you posted on their progress. Maybe they’ll start a blog! That would be great!

It was such a nice peaceful weekend. Just the little break that Jamie and I needed from all the work we’ve been doing lately. I hope everyone else had a good weekend and I hope you have even a better week.

Ready For Planting!

2009-07-13T06:51:00.000-05:00

Well Jamie and I got out in the garden this weekend and busted our butts. Our calendar is full for the next two weekends and we knew we had to get this back bed finished. Not only did we get the back bed finished, but we also got the small island bed put in as well. It’s difficult to get an idea of the size of everything by the pictures. To help you with the scale of it all, the small island bed is about 12 to 15 feet long.

The irrigation system has been updated with sprinkler heads to replace the drip emitters that were once under the shrubs. Now, the beds are ready for planting. Jamie and I added almost a half ton of composted manure to the new back bed. We always amend the soil in new beds really well. We usually add an equal amount of topsoil also. In this instance the dirt was in pretty good shape so we didn’t think it necessary. It’s a conservative estimate to say that Jamie and I have added over 6 tons of composted manure and topsoil to the beds that we’ve put in the garden. We’ve also planted almost 400 species of plants in it. One of the biggest problems we’ve faced is what to do with the tons of soil that we’ve taken out 1 wheel barrow and 5 gallon bucket at the time. For every hole that was dug for a plant, there was dirt left over. We also had to remove some dirt from the beds to amend them or else we would have mountains all over the back yard. We have filled stump holes all over the neighborhood! Thank goodness Wade and Jimmy are building terraces in their garden. They’ve taken a lot of it too.

The grass paths that we have left around the beds are 4 feet wide. In their most narrow areas in two or three turns they had to be reduced to just about 3 feet. That’s a little closer than I wanted but we still have ample room to maneuver around the garden. I really love to work in the garden, but I’m not going to lie about it this is one project I am so glad is complete. Whew! Now, on to planting.

Why Do You Garden?

2009-07-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

I was just over at Rose’s blog and the very first photo on her ABC Wednesday post instantly sent me reeling backwards 37 years. Seeing the picture of her grandson brought forth memories of my past that have not surfaced in quite some time. It brought such a happy light feeling to my heart I wanted to share these thoughts with you.

My first introduction to gardening came when I was about 4 or 5 years old. We lived in the outskirts of town; the houses weren’t right up under each other like they are these days. Everyone in that area has lived on the same stretch of road since their childhood. My father lives in a house now that was built less than 200 yards from where a little two room shack was where he was born. He’s lived on the same three mile stretch of highway his entire life. So long in fact, he used to drive the mules and wagon to the mill on the same road. Get the picture? Three homes down the road, which was only a few hundred yards, lived an elderly lady named Louise Parker. Mrs. Parker was a widow woman that owned almost two hundred acres of land with horses and a pond that was located behind our house. She loved flowers and I remember her yard was filled with them. She always used the aged manure from the horse barn as compost to amend her beds.

I’m really not sure why she began doing this, but one summer she called up to the house and told momma to send me and my little red wagon down to her house because she needed my help. I grabbed my western flyer and down the road I headed. Mrs. Parker would take me down to the barn and we would use my wagon to haul compost back to her flower beds. We would work all day in her yard. She taught me how to sow seeds and grow them. She also taught me how to plant them in the ground and how to transplant larger plants. To this day when I put a new plant in the ground I always do it just like Mrs. Parker showed me when I was just a little boy. As I sit here typing I still see her in her big floppy sun hat explaining everything to me step by step as she did it. At the end of every garden day she would always send me home with a potted plant or seeds as payment for my help. On Friday afternoons she would always walk up to our house to look at my plants and brag about how much they had grown and how pretty they were.

How did she know? I had brothers and sister and there were other kids in our neck of the woods. She even had her own grandchildren, so why did she pick me? Why do I garden? I garden because it is in my blood. I can’t walk past a pretty flower with out stopping to look at it. I would rather spend money on a new plant than much needed clothes. I don’t eat out, drink or take vacations because I would rather replace those costs with purchase of a new tree or daylily. I risk heatstroke nearly every summer to pull weeds, remove dead foliage and trim perfect grass borders. I garden because it is what feeds my soul and I could not imagine my free time spent any other way. To top it all off I’ve been sent Jamie to spend my life with and he loves gardening just as much.

Mrs. Parker remarried and moved away and I haven’t seen her for many, many years. I don’t even know if she is still alive, she would have to be in her 90’s. I have a wonderful garden now, I’ve been lucky enough to have a couple of garden articles published and I have even been asked by botanical gardens to use photos that I’ve taken while on visits in their publicity campaigns. All this happened because of a very special seed that was sown in a little boy’s spirit many years ago. Daily, our actions and statements change and shape peoples lives and we never even know it. I wish Mrs. Parker knew what an impact she had on mine. I hope I haven’t bored you with my nostalgia. :-) Why do you garden? When did you start?

A Visit With ROY

2009-07-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

The much needed rain finally came. For the past three days we’ve managed to get some substantial rain fall and I’m sure the garden appreciated it. Yesterday, I decided to walk around and take some pictures of the thankful flowers. After I had downloaded them to the computer I realized that with the exception of one photo, everything that is blooming right now is Red, Orange or Yellow. I don’t usually like to repeat photos of the same plant, but with some of these I just couldn’t decide which ones I liked best. Today the words don’t seem to be coming as I type, so why don’t we enjoy the flowers and save the conversation for another day.

'Red Cascade'

'Chicago Apache'

'Stephanie'

'Rocket City'

'Firefly'

'George Davison'

In other news, yesterday the skipper butterflies and a humming bird finally showed up in the garden. I hope they stick around for a little while.

I Love Progress

2009-06-29T07:20:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! We got the grass dug out of the new back bed this weekend. Poor Jamie ended up doing every bit of it by himself! Our helper was a complete no show, the bad part is that he was just across the street. Soooooo, it took two days to get the grass out. Jamie and I worked until noon both days at that point the heat was unbearable and we had to stop. I helped, but Jamie is the one that did all the hard work. I was forced (by Jamie) to sit on a bucket and pick grass out of the dirt. That grass was terribly hard to get up… very, very hard. When we stopped Saturday Jamie’s hands were covered in blisters. Sunday he got up, wrapped his hands in gauze bandages and kept digging until he was done. What we were willing to pay for help would have averaged out to almost 20 dollars an hour. I can’t believe we couldn’t find anyone dependable to assist us. Anyway, I digress. We still want to tweak the curves a little, we aren’t completely satisfied with the shape yet, but the worst part is behind us.

We still need to amend the soil, but right now the ground is just way too hard to do it. We are going to have to wait for some rain to come and soften it up.

I also strolled around the yard looking for some decent color to share with you. The pickins’ were slim, this is all I could come up with for now. The 'Raspberry Wine' monarda is still holding up.

We bought three monarda to go in the garden. I thought two of them had died, but 'Dark Ponticum' made a comeback after it was a no show last year.

A nameless Daylily...

'Honeycomb' a sweet butterfly treat, but where are the butterflies?

'Double Decker' coneflower. It's only "double decked" once for us.

Last but not least, a sun faded Hibiscus.

A Break From the Heat

2009-06-25T07:13:00.000-05:00

Doesn’t that picture look refreshing? These are photos that Jamie took at Chimney Rock Park on our vacation. I thought with all the heat you guys might enjoy a little cool water. The mist that you see in the air is the clouds in the mountain tops. Enjoy the pictures while I fill you in on the goings on in the garden.

Yesterday I thought I would brave the heat and snap a few photos for you. It’s been so hot outside this week I haven’t even walked around the garden. Tuesday the heat index was 110° and it was just miserable outside. I thought surely I would at least find something that I could take a picture of to share with you. Regrettably the garden is a sad sight now.

We are fortunate to have had the good sense to install a fairly complicated drip system last spring that waters everything in the entire yard for us, front, back and sides. With the exception of a couple of new plants that have been put in the ground recently. The hanging baskets, planters and even the birdbath are connected to it, so it all gets water. Even so, the sun is taking its toll on the plants. Yesterday as I walked around I found the plants blooming their hearts out only to have their petals dried to a brown crisp. Even the foliage is bleached shades of tan and yellow every where you look.

Not to worry, these temperatures can’t last forever. The rain will come; dead and damaged foliage and blooms will be removed and replaced by vibrant colors. All will be beautiful in our little Eden again and the blog will be filled with vivid photos. Saturday we start to work on the new bed again. Wish us luck and a speedy completion!

Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest

2009-06-19T12:33:00.000-05:00

The Gardening Gone Wild June photo contest is the Rose. Here are a few of my favorite rose photos. Good luck to everyone.

Rosa banksiae 'Lutea'

Climbing Hybrid Tea Rose 'Peace'

Climbing Rose 'New Dawn'

In the Garden 06.18.09

2009-06-18T09:21:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Here's a peek at what's blooming in the garden today. As usual when I post a large number of photos there will be little commentary for easier viewing. But, I’ll be glad to answer any questions you have about the plants. :-)

'Summer Sky'

'Green Envy'

'Raspberry Wine' and 'Red Dragon'

Yarrow and Japanese Maple 'Virdis'

'Kobold' Liatris

'Lusty Leland'

'Luxury Lace'

'Chicago Apache'

'Gentle Shepherd'

'Stephanie'

Unknown...

'Frans Hals'

'Little Bumblebee'

A gift from the birds.

'Coral Queen'

'Acapulco'

'Orange Dream'

'Lucifer'

'George Davison'

'Pee Gee'

'Sea Gold'

Common Ditch Lily

'Kwanso'

'Atom', the poor petals have been bleached by the sun.

Aches, Pains and Blisters... Oh My

2009-06-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally started. This weekend Jamie and I began working on the last large bed that will be going into the garden in the back yard. When we are through digging it out, it will be 75 feet long and about 8 feet deep. I had mixed feelings about starting this bed. I knew it was going to be hard work and too much for Jamie to dig by himself, although I knew he would kill himself trying to do it for me. We started out by painting the line out on the grass that we wanted to follow to create the border. It was very overcast and dark so I had to adjust the contrast on these pictures. If the light seems a little weird in them, that’s why, otherwise they would have just been too dark to post.

Jamie and I have always been so enthusiastic when we started a project that we always completed it in the same day. It became apparent that this was not going to happen with this venture. The irony of this entire garden is I have spent the last 15 years trying to grow grass in the back yard. Now, after we finally have beautiful St. Augustine grass, what are we doing? That’s right, digging it up. The past two years I’ve spent all this time and energy trying to create a perfectly weed free front lawn with plush grass. This year I haven’t done anything but cut it. It occurred to me that the back yard will soon be full and we will no doubt move to the front so why waste time and energy on something we are just going to dig up?

We only managed to get about a 1 foot strip cut out over the entire length of the garden before the rain moved it. That was a good thing for several reasons. First, the rain will soften the ground more and maybe that thick grass will come up easier. Second, I only helped with the digging a little bit and I started feeling pain in my back and thigh for the first time in two weeks. Third, you should see poor Jamie’s hands; they are raw and weeping with blisters. If the rain hadn’t come in there is no telling what kind of condition we would be in today. We are going to have to learn patience with this project.

We probably won’t be working on the bed anymore until the weekend after Fathers Day. Jamie’s brother is getting married next Saturday and then Sunday we have to go to Elba to see my dad. That pretty much fills the weekend. The good thing is I think we have finally found someone to help with the grass removal. Jamie and I have realized that unless we want to be working on this project until next summer we are going to need some help. The grass is just too hard to get up in that area and we have become very efficient when it comes to digging. I can’t believe how hard it is to find someone to help though, because you would think in these economic times people would want the extra cash and we are offering a very good compensation for the work. Well, I’ve rambled enough, how about we look at some flowers? Our Asiatics are starting to bloom now, this is the first and it’s called ‘Sunray’.

This is a new tall daylily we got named ‘Alabama Music’.

Recently Jamie and I decided that our collection of daylilies has gotten so large rather than buying every new one we see, we are going to have to be more selective. We only have so much room to plant things. This daylily is the perfect example of why you should never buy one that isn’t in bloom. This was supposed to be ‘My Melinda’, a beautiful pink lily with ruffled edges. What do we have? A new daylily I have affectionately named ‘Not My Melinda’. It’s a beautiful flower, but we already have plenty of bright yellow daylilies.

Last but not least, ‘Baltic Elegy’ has decided to bloom. This is the first year and I think it’s beautiful! Okay, everyone have a great week and I’ll keep you updated on the new bed. I’m so excited we are getting new room to plant things!

Variegated Peppermint Tree?

2009-06-10T06:52:00.000-05:00

A Photo from our trip to Owen's Orchids.

Some time ago I had the honor of meeting, via our little online garden club, a nice young lady from Australia. Laura sent us seeds all the way from down under when we were rebuilding our garden after the storm. I was so happy to find out that she has a blog. Australia is filled with some of the most unusual and beautiful plants that you have ever seen. Laura is an excellent photographer and I have seen her post some gorgeous pictures of beautiful plants over the past two years. Currently she has a post up about a Variegated Peppermint Tree. Its one of the most beautiful trees I’ve ever seen. The dark bark showing through the light green foliage is just gorgeous! If you’re interested in seeing new and unusual plants, you might want to check out her blog, One Aussie Perspective. Meanwhile, I’m going to shoot her a note and see if that Peppermint Tree makes seed!

Asheville Botanical Garden

2009-06-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I had a very quick trip to North Carolina; while we were there we squeezed in as many local attractions as we could. One of our stops was at the Asheville Botanical Garden. It wasn’t a very large garden, but it was a really pleasant stroll. It’s filled with native plants and I knew that several of you out there would really enjoy seeing them. This is the type of place where you want to sit quietly on a bench and enjoy your communion with nature.

Mountain Laurels have long been a favorite of mine. Every time I see them I'm whisked back in time over thirty years ago. I instantly envision the old creek where our swimming hole used to be. There were shallow areas in the creek where you could walk for great distances thru tunnels of cascading mountain laurel.

Though I’m not a big fan of whimsical things in our garden, I absolutely fell in love with the fountain in this pond. I thought the idea of the huge hands pouring water out of a cup was absolute genius. The feature was turned off while we were there, but I loved the idea of it.

The garden has a wonderful stream flowing all thru it. Down just a few hundred feet from this shot children are playing with water guns in the water while the mothers relax on large rocks.

Jamie has a fascination with Trilliums and he was thrilled to find these.

How’s this for a dogwood bloom? This is Alternate-leaf Dogwood Cornus alternifolia.

Eastern Goats-beard

This was my third encounter with this plant. First our friend Jimmy dug some up from the woods to plant in his garden, then it was identified on Clay and Limestone and finally here in the Asheville Botanical garden. Three times in one week, is someone trying to tell me something? This is Indian Pink.

This is called Fringed Indian Pink. Why do they call it pink anyway? It looks red to me.

After a long day of traipsing around the woods and other places we figured we had burned enough calories to deserve a treat. I heard at the Fairegarden that the best place for homemade ice cream is The Hop so we gave it a try. This shop is owned and operated by Frances’ family and it was a real pleasure to have a sweet treat there. If you are every in Asheville you absolutely must stop by and enjoy the ice cream.

There is a Stranger in Our Garden

2009-06-07T07:50:00.000-05:00

My neighbor has a vine growing in her garden that has the most wonderful fragrance, but she has no idea what it is. This spring I started growing the vine from seeds, it starts very easily. Just guessing I would say it’s some type of Jasmine, but I don’t know. I’m certain someone out there knows what it is and can help us out with the name. One more note about it, it make large seed pods.

May Vacation Part I

2009-06-04T07:18:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I recently took a few days to sneak off and enjoy a brief vacation. Our first stop on our trip was Callaway Gardens. I’ve wanted to see the Cecil B. Day Butterfly center for almost 20 years now and I finally got my chance. It was absolutely wonderful, I enjoyed every second we were there and I couldn’t think of another person I would rather have experienced it with than Jamie.

You have to walk a short little woodland trail to get to the Butterflies.

The path is lined with these beautiful Lace Cap Hydrangeas. This one is called ‘Tiara’.

The Conservatory is composed of 854 panes of glass and is maintained at a year round temperature of 84°.

The first things you see when you walk in are the wonderful butterfly prints on the wall and the nursery where they raise the butterflies.

I headed strait to the Conservatory to see the butterflies. I can’t tell you how magical it was to walk into an area filled with almost 1000 butterflies drifting around. I was only there a second when this one decided to take a rest on my shoulder. He stayed there until I finally blew on him to make him fly away. He wasn’t bothering me, but I got tired of people stopping me to take my picture. I despise having my picture made and after about 10 or 15 people I’d had enough.

There are 50 species of butterflies here. I’ll only name the ones I could identify by the charts. Also, Jamie took a lot of these pictures, he was quite the shutterbug chasing butterflies around everywhere.

Owl Butterfly

Thunbergia is a vine that is used a lot at the conservatory and I was excited to find there were more types than I knew about. The red and yellow Thunbergia Mysorensis below is listed as a cold hardy evergreen to zone 10. The Grandiflora dies to the ground every year at our house and grows back, I wonder if the Mysorensis would do the same? Does anyone know? If it does I would absolutely love to have it.

Here’s another vine that was not named in the garden I would love to have it as well. If you know what it is let me know please. It may not be cold hardy in our zone, but I won’t know that until we can identify it.

Blue Morpho

Malaysian Blue Clipper

The Paper Kite butterflies were huge and had such floppy wings I was surprised they could fly. They bounced around like marionettes on strings.

Doesn’t this little guy look like he longing to get to the other side of this window? He seems to be saying “if only I could find a way to get out there.”

I’ll post pictures from Chimney Rock, North Carolina in a couple of days. :-)

Morning Monochrome

2009-06-02T07:03:00.000-05:00

I woke up somewhat early the Saturday morning before our vacation and decided to grab the camera on my way out into the back yard. I was hoping for a few quick snapshots before the rain began to fall. Randy's new camera, a Sony DSC-H50, has some very cool features on it; one of which is an editor that allows you to transform your photos to a monochrome scheme while still on the camera. It even allows you to crop what area you want to remain in color and what you wish to turn into greyscale.

I managed to get quite a few great shots of some of the beauties in bloom right now and then I monochromed them all for quite a dramatic finish!

Black Liriope, also known as monkey grass, is quite interesting as the top of its leaves are dark black and the underside a deep, vibrant shade of green. The blooms are quite intriguing to me; even moreso in monochromatic photography.

Here we have a few shots of our enormous collection of day lillies. This jewel here is called Chorus Line:

And another day lily here called Red Rum:

And one last monochrome day lily for your enjoyment, Apricot Sparkle!

Here we have a shot of 'Oranges and Lemons' Gaillardia with a friendly little bee crawling along its delicate petals:

Here is a close-up macro shot of one of the fourteen 'Razzle Dazzle' Double Knock-Out roses which will eventually create a hedge at the edge of the island bed. I stare at the blooms and the color of the petals reminds me of the rosy-red lips of a delicate china doll:

And here, we have one final monochromatic snapshot for you. The bright cluster of flowers here are from 'Homestead' Purple Trailing Verbena. Gorgeous, are they not?

More Daylilies, Getting Tired of Them Yet?

2009-05-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

Good morning everyone! I’m still half asleep so it I have typos please excuse them. Jamie and I will be out the door shortly to go visit Phillip and Michael from Dirt Therapy. I understand the Hydrangeas are looking great up there so we don’t want to miss that. I never tire of visiting Phillip’s Garden.

I thought I would show you some more of our Daylilies, I think at this point we have covered about 2/3 of them. We bought what we believed to be ‘Custard Candy’ a couple of years ago and ended up with some really strange orange daylily. I couldn’t even begin to describe the color to you. Well we saw the real ‘Custard Candy’ a couple of weeks ago and decided since it’s been in our plant inventory for so long we might as well really add it.

'Wild Mustang'

We have had several surprises in the garden when it comes to the daylilies, ‘Strawberry Candy is a good example. It’s one of four lilies we have that were two different colors when we bought them. I’ve made it a point to tie around the different fans so we can divide the colors this fall. I Googled ‘Strawberry Candy’ and both of the colors are listed under that name in just about equal numbers. I guess we’ll call them SC1 and SC2.

If I had to pick a favorite color for the ones we have in our collection right now ‘Grape Ripples’ would be it. It’s such a beautiful color. I wouldn’t mind having an entire bed of nothing but these.

'Sound of Silence'

'Chicago Mist'

'Frances Fay'

When we bought this one is was simply named ‘Violetta’. But I believe is ‘Violetta Mondrian’

'Little Girl'

'Doodlebug'

‘Little Missy’ was the second Daylily I purchased in our collection. So it will always have a special place in my heart. I was just starting to get interested in gardening when I got this.

'Merle Kent'

'Bonanza'

'Irving Hepner'

'Tang'

'Gentle Shepherd'

In the Garden 05.27.09

2009-05-27T11:21:00.000-05:00

I haven’t posted any wide shots of the garden lately so I thought I would show you a few pictures. Everything is starting to grow in really well. Next year the Daylilies should be awesome!

Jamie and I have made it back from vacation and we have a lot of pictures to show you from our trip. Today is also our six year anniversary and we intend on spending it doing absolutely nothing but relaxing. Tomorrow is also Jamie’s Birthday; he will be a spry 26 years old. Okay, on with the photos. No commentary just some pictures. Sorry they are so dark; it was very overcast this morning.

Japanese Climbing Hydrangea 'Moonlight'

'Conestoga' Canna and Verbena

Vitex and Coneflower 'Sunset'

'Fairytale Pink'

In the Garden 05.22.09

2009-05-22T06:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! I’m particularly excited because after today Jamie and I will be on vacation and I don’t have to return to work until June 2nd! Yay! Anyway, I walked around the garden to see what was blooming and decided to post a few pictures for you.

This first picture is daylily ‘Fragrant Treasure’. She was added to our garden last summer. I love the pale yellow color.

‘Champagne Waltz’ is giving us its first bloom this year.

I was looking through photos online and I saw this iris, I said to myself that’s our ‘Pink Lady’! But they weren’t calling it that so I got on line to look it up. Nope, it’s not her and since I don’t remember what page I was visiting I have no idea what her name is.

'Maudie Malcom'

This is a wild Gladiolus that is native to Alabama. We dug it up in the woods at our friend Carol’s House. It’s called ‘African Parrot’.

'Fairytale Pink'

'Pandora's Box'

'Honeycomb'

'Oranges & Lemons' Gailardia...

This is an un-named Daylily that we got at a tiny nursery in the middle of nowhere. Anyone recognize it?

I love Shasta Daisies and we have three different cultivar. This is ‘Becky’ and ‘Crazy Daisy’. I don't think you could have too many Shastas.

I guess we’ll finish up with a vivid ‘Lollypop Yellow’.

Daylilies and Daylilies and Daylilies...

2009-05-17T11:04:00.000-05:00

Well, daylily season is upon us and I shall bore you to tears the next couple of weeks with pictures of them. BTW last year we had a bad problem with some of the less disease resistant ones getting leaf streak, can anyone out there suggest a treatment for it? It does nothing to harm the blooms, but the foliage just looks terrible when it take over. Okay, on with the show.

We have two little lilies in our garden that are major work horses when it comes to blooms. ‘Little Mystic Moon’ below is the first one. Last year this plant only had three fans and it produced hundreds of blooms. I’m not exaggerating either; if you want a daylily that will reward you with all it has this little plant is the way to go.

I’ve posted a lot of pictures, so like I always do in situations like this I will comment less so you can enjoy the pictures more.

'Little Mystic Moon'

'Catalina'

'Sweet Southern Sun'

'Always Afternoon'

'Chorus Line'

'Theresa Hall'

'Gordon Biggs'

'Lady Georgia'

'Joan Senior'

'Janet'

When we purchased this daylily it was marked as ‘Custard Candy’, which it isn’t. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the lilies in the “Candy” line but I have no idea which one it is. If you think you have some idea of the name whether it’s right or wrong I would like to research it.

‘Regency Dandy’ like ‘Little Mystic Moon’ is a must have. This plant goes crazy with blooms allllll summer long. Just look at all the buds in the second picture; it will continue to bud like this for months.

'Regency Dandy'

'Daring Deception'

'Crimson Pirate'

'Stella Supreme'

'King Lamoni'

'Raspberry Pixie'

'Happy Returns'

'Red Rum'

'Strawberry Candy'

'Mildred Mitchell'

'Tiny Pumpkin'

'Apricot Sparkle'

Okay, that’s it for the daylily trail this week, I promise to try and mix it up a little between posts about them.

Welcome The Weekender

2009-05-14T06:47:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Just a quick note to tell you all about a new blog called The Weekender. Two very dear friends of Jamie and I have started a new garden from a blank canvas. They’ve been working very hard this past spring and decided to document their progress with a blog. We all know how hard it is to get things going with a new blog so pop on over there and tell Jimmy and Wade "Hello!” Jimmy is a genius when it comes to using recycled things in the garden and I believe we are all going to get some excellent ideas in the months to come. These two have been doing a lot of back breaking work the past few weeks! I’m so excited for them and I can’t wait to watch their new baby grow!

More Iris...

2009-05-12T02:45:00.000-05:00

Here are more blooms for some of the iris fans out there. This first flower is ‘Gypsy Romance’ like most of the other irises in our garden it was a new addition this year. This is the first time its bloomed and it is certainly no disappointment.

Next up is ‘Invitation’, this little pretty is new to the garden this year and rewarding us with our first bloom ever. I’m looking forward to many years of these little beauties.

‘Hello Darkness’ is enjoying it’s second year with us as well. By next year, there should be a nice large plant here.

This is another shot of ‘Judy’s Blue’. I’ve already posted it once, but I couldn’t resist these blooms in the ‘Crimson Queen’. This flower spike is over 4 feet tall!

This is another un-named pass along iris that has been planted for almost three years and is blooming for the first time. We affectionately call this ‘Polly’s Purple’.

We bought this iris last year and for the life of me I don’t know how it managed to escape being documented without the correct name. We slipped up on this one. It’s not I’m that much of a plant snob, but when we are out buying new plants if you know the names of the ones you already have you won’t accidently buy it again. Jamie and I have almost 400 different plants in the garden now and we need a list to keep up with everything.

Oooooooooh and look at this new baby we got week before last. She’s not in the ground yet because we haven’t decided where we want to put her. This is ‘Edith Wolford’ and isn’t she a doll? I staged this shot for you and the one below. Doesn’t she look pretty with the ‘Sweet Southern Sunshine’ Daylily? Aaaaaaaaahhhhh… I just love a beautiful iris!

Blooming May 11, 2009

2009-05-11T07:07:00.000-05:00

Well, May is upon us and flowers are opening up all over the garden. No doubt in the next couple of months I shall fill you to the brim with photos of daylilies. They are all getting ready to burst into bloom. Here are a few of the things blooming this week.

'Stella D'Oro'

'Dortmund'

This was suppose to be Clematis 'Confetti' but instead it's one of those surprise clematis that had the wrong tag on it. :-) It's still very pretty.

'Double River Wye'

'Red Cascade'

'Aztec Gold'

'Anthony Waterer'

'Catalina'

'Anblo'

'Little Princess'

It's All About 'Dirt Therapy'

2009-05-04T11:35:00.000-05:00

Almost a year ago Jamie and I had the great pleasure of meeting Phillip from Dirt Therapy. Jamie and I had been looking through photos on his blog and website for several months and we were absolutely mesmerized by his garden. Phillip has a huge selection of roses that are in their peak and he and Michael invited Me, Jamie and our friend Carol up for a visit. Let me tell you, the two of them will spoil you rotten and pamper you the entire visit. Jamie and I are planning a vacation the end of the month and I’m starting to think we should just rent a room at their house! The companionship is five stars all the way and so is the garden. Unfortunately, the night before we got there a huge rainstorm moved in and stayed the entire weekend. The roses were still gorgeous, but a large number of them were hanging their little blooms face down from the weight of the water. If this garden was an elegant crown the roses would be but a few tiny precious jewels in it, what Phillip and Michael have created is a labor of love that shines thru even the soggiest of days. This is going to be a long post, so get comfy and enjoy the tour I’ll minimize my comments so you can enjoy the garden.

Walking thru this garden is a feast for the eyes. We’ve been guests at Phillip and Michael’s house several times and even in the dead of winter I can’t help but saunter thru the garden. I enjoy it most when I am by myself with a cup of coffee. Such an indescribable sense of serenity wraps around you like a blanket as you stroll.

The garden is filled with the most incredible pieces of art. This planter is Pan, he is the god of flocks, forests and all things woodland in nature. He fell in love with a water nymph named Syrinx that did not return his love. She fled to a river and transformed into a stand of reeds. Pan was so heartbroken he took the reeds and created a pipe flute to play to help ease his grief.

This incredible patio and walkway was made by Phillip from recycled concrete. Phillip took the broken pieces and joined them back together with mortar. What an ingenious way to create the look of a very expensive stone structure.

All around the garden are falls and water features of every type.

This fountain sits in a perfectly circular courtyard filled with oak trees and hydrangeas.

This statue is part of his four seasons collection, this one represents winter. Jamie and I like his so much we will be getting these to go in the new bed at the rear of our garden. We think they’re fantastic.

This is one of the paths leading thru the secret garden.

One of these visits I’m going to find a way to sneak this weeping buddleia pictured on the left out of his garden. Shhhhhh! I know most of you know him so keep this to yourself… surely with all these wonderful plants he won’t miss this one.

The ‘Wolf Eyes’ dogwood shines out like a diamond even on an overcast day.

This is the upper entry to the secret garden. I love the way he has the giant old key by the doorway. Phillip has collected numerous copies of the book; it’s one of his very favorites.

Phillip's secret garden is filled with hydrangeas, hosta and host of other shade loving plants. The hydrangeas are a particular favorite of Michael’s.

I always find myself just a little bit sad when we drive away from Phillip and Michael's home and garden. I can never resist taking one more look back before it disappears out of site. I hope you enjoyed your tour.

Irises In Bloom

2009-04-30T02:13:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I have over forty different Iris in the garden right now. Japanese, Flag, Louisiana, Dutch, African, Border Bearded and Tall bearded, it would be impossible to choose a favorite one. Oddly enough we don’t have any Siberian… that will certainly have to change. This first iris is a Blue Flag named ‘Contraband Girl’.

This Iris is a pass along from a gardening buddy online. It’s a Japanese Iris and it’s gorgeous, but I have no idea what the name is. I call it 'Bethie’s Japanese'.

About two years ago, another online plant friend sent me a box of un-named bearded. This is the first one to bloom and I’ve affectionately named it ‘Polly’s Blue’.

This beautiful pink is ‘Beverly Sills’.

Once again another pass along, we’ll call this one ‘Judy’s Blue’.

And… ‘Judy’s Yellow’. This iris is the best bloomer in the garden. It starts blooming in December and will continue into May. It beats all I’ve ever seen.

'In Your Dreams'

'Point In Time'

'Sea Swells'

This is Louisiana Iris ‘Sinfonietta’

'Owen's Yellow'

I believe this is ‘Baltic Elegy’ the storm blew away the labels and I mis-tagged it as ‘Juris Prudence’.

This iris is giving us blooms for the first time this year too, this is ‘Iceland’.

In the Garden 04.28.09

2009-04-29T09:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I was off work yesterday for the holiday and the weather was so nice I wanted to piddle around in the yard some. We purchased some new plants to go in the little window planters so I got those nestled into their new homes. I don’t remember what the yellow flowers are, but I thought they looked pretty good together.

Our tiny little ‘Crepuscule ‘ rose is rewarding us with new blooms. It’s only about ten inches tall and wide, but it will grow.

This is clematis ‘Galore’. Jamie and I just started collecting them last year when we found some really reduced in price at one of the stores. We decided to let them grow up the same poles where we planted the roses.

I don’t know the name of this rose. It’s an old antique shrub rose and it has the most incredible scent. Do any of you know what it is?

Several weeks back Jan at Always Growing published a post about an azalea called ‘Amelia Rose’. I’m not a huge fan of azaleas although we have several, but when I saw this I had to have it. I was lucky enough to find it a couple of weeks ago. We bought two of them , one will mature to full size and the other is being trained into a tree.

This False Indigo Baptisia didn’t do a single thing last year and I almost shovel pruned it. I’m so glad I left it. What a beautiful color it is now.

These gladiolus are native to our area and can be found on roadsides and old home places. They are surprising slow to multiply, but are certainly a beautiful color.

I’m really pleased with this combination. We didn’t plan it this way, but I was noticing in the picture how nice these three plants look together. When they get a little growth on them it’s going to be very pretty.

Peggy Martin it showing off for us, this rose reminds me an awful lot of the wild roses around here we use to call seven sisters…

Last but not least is ‘Sugar Candy’. The irises are also putting on a show right now, but I’m saving that for another post.