Fluffy Flowers

Atlanta British Car Fayre

Had a rip roarin' good time at the Atlanta British Car Fayre this weekend!

There were simply oodles of cute little sports cars there!

And the city of Norcross, Georgia also had quite a lovely display of fluffy flowers.

My very favorite car of the day was this super sweet bugeyed Sprite. I wanted to cuddle it and take it home with me!

More super pretty fluffy flowers!

Wouldn't I look good riding around in this cute thing?

I really want some of their lantana. It blooms in our heat and drought and the blooms were pretty big.

Yum!

Pretty!

I'd look pretty good in this one too!

This little fellow was sweet enough to hold still so I could take his portrait.

Rolls Royce 1913 Silver Ghost. The hood ornament is to die for! Why don't cars have hood ornaments any more? They should!

So beautiful.

It was a beautiful day and I'll have more to report on it this week. You can see all my photos from the day here.

more garden tour

These are photos from May's garden tour.

This garden was an utter delight to visit.

Notice that groovy tree house over on the far right?

Here's a closeup of it from the other side. Isn't it totally awesome?!

These were some mighty active fish.

And pretty huge too.

Now this grape arbor looks like one that would have a lovely breeze blowing through.

And how about that awesome view?!

There were delights at every turn in this garden.

classical garden

Believe it or not the following garden tour photos are from the same home as yesterday's diverse collection of potted plants. But the rest of the garden was nothing at all like what greeted visitors at the door.

Enter through the wrought iron gate...

...and find an entry way...

...that leads to a lengthy covered porch...

 

...with views of a wide lawn.

 

There are a couple of different ways to go...

 

...and several pretty flowers to see...

 

...along with beautiful outdoor architectural features.

 

Pretty archway and fencing.

 

Sunshine flowers :)

I love the green trees as backdrops.

 

Delightful buds.

 

Another archway to the pool.

 

Doesn't this look fabulous on a hot summer's day?

Looks like they're just getting started with their box trimmed hedge.

Pretty urns.

 

Pretty fountain in the middle.

courtyard garden

I'm quite a bit behind but here are a few pretty pictures from last month's garden tour.

I loved that this very formal house...

 

...had a delightfully informal front door courtyard.

 

It was all prettily packed with plants in oodles of different pots.

 

So pretty!

 

And I do love dog statuary :)

Garden Tours

 

Last weekend I went on the Macon Secret Garden Tour. I only got to three of the five gardens this year but they were all delightful and I plan to share them with you soon.

 

I also got to attend one of Tara Dillard's lectures where I learned all sorts of interesting things about garden design.

And if you want to see the photos from last year's tour you can check them out here, here, here, here, here, and here.

red blooms

I figure y'all didn't get enough beautiful blooms yesterday so I thought I'd throw out the roses blooming in my side yard.

Oh, but first a quick shot of kitty cat Mr. Slashables who didn't want to pose much for the camera.

Once again I can not take credit for these beauties as they were already here when I moved in and I haven't given them the anything to eat or drink. I did place the trellis behind them to decorate their space, does that count?

Oh, and here is Mr. Slashables hiding from me in the tall grass in the neighbor's yard. Master of disguise that one!

These red roses are even more beautiful in person and they smell nice too. They're a delight to see in the side yard after rounding the corner of the house.

what's blooming?

Lucky the Cowdog and Slashables cross each other's path in the front yard. There are some roses blooming just out of range of this photograph to the far right, behind the crepe myrtle tree.

We had lots of rain this week and the roses are opening up.

Stunning aren't they? I can't take credit for these beauties as they were already here when I moved in.

But they certainly are beautiful!

I'm not entirely sure Slash cares either way though!

Treva's garden

This has been quite a strange year for my annual spring fever. Usually around this time I get caught up in the cultivated nature hoopla for only a couple of weeks. But this time it seems to be lasting a whole lot longer. I suspect it's all this wide, blank suburban lawn staring up at me through the mullioned windows. Or maybe it's just that I finally have the time, space, and energy to create some magic. Funnily enough though I haven't taken many pictures of the developments. Sorry about that! I can't even promise I will be better. All I can think when I head out into the yard is about looking and doing. All thoughts of my beloved camera slip from my mind. But I did manage to capture a delightful set of photographs of a private garden I can only dream of aspiring to. My sweet mother in law kindly arranged a private tour of her friend and neighbor's garden. Treva's garden was an inspirational private suburban wonderland!

Now how about this for a front yard? Not too much grass to mow, eh? Apparently this is the only grass on the entire property!

But I assure you that there was all sorts of flora and fauna!

Treva has been gardening in this spot for quite a few decades so most of the plants and trees have reached mature size. And what I truly loved was how she wasn't afraid to pack them all in! Could you even guess that this photo is standing in a typically sized suburban backyard?

Treva is still adding new plants and flowers and this Knock Out Rose is a stunner in our horribly hot south.

How sweet is this pretty lady taking a reading break? That's my mom in law, Mary. You may have seen her garden before.

There were still a few camellia blooms hanging on but the big show for them was in February.

Ah, finally we meet the gardener! Treva was so full of absolutely fantastic garden knowledge that I felt like I should throw my camera down and take out a pen and paper. I learned so much that day and enjoyed seeing such a well loved garden.

Oh, here is some of that fauna I promised you. Mighty cute, eh?

Years ago Treva decided that she needed more gardening room but moving wasn't an option. She was trapped on a small in town lot. Did she give up her need for more space? No way! She and husband Bruce bought the house next door. They promptly redrew the property line and rented the second house out. Now she has twice the gardening space, isn't that fabulous?! Perfectly at home in the second lot garden is this bird girl statue replica from the cover of the infamous book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (later made into a movie with the amazing Kevin Spacey and adorable John Cusack).

An old fashioned favorite and the state flower of Georgia, Confederate Rose. Treva tells me that this wild, thorny beast may be dying out in the wild.

I adore the garden rooms that Treva has created within this space. This rustic archway is an awesome divider that actually makes the space feel bigger than it is. I really like to see these types of photographs that give you some sort of idea of the layout of the garden. But there is no way I could capture all the nuance of this delightful garden.

But I certainly did try! Here is one of the amazing irises that my mom in law oos and ahs over.

Getting back to the garden rooms idea for a moment, look at the photo above. Notice how the boxwood is grown in a horseshoe U shape and the angel statue is tucked away inside. There are several of these surprising discoveries along the paths in this garden.

Very pretty nearly blooming spiderwort. Treva assures me they will take over if not cut back. But she also assured me that oak trees would take over the world if we let them!

Hey, here's some more of that super cute fauna for you. We ran across him sleeping under one of those horseshoe boxwoods then he decided to come along with us.

This courtyard is actually one of the first parts of the garden that you see when you enter into Treva's garden. But it is was so lovely that I thought it would be a beautiful way to end our tour.

Doesn't this serene space make you want to sit down with a nice ice cold drink and relax a while?

I'm hoping Treva will have us back at the change of season to see her beautiful garden again. But for now it's back out the garden gate we go.

Dr. Ruppel

One of the greatest joys of gardening is finding surprise blooms.

I planted this Dr. Ruppel clematis last year and watered it faithfully. It promptly died. But the other day I was out in the yard, rounded a corner, and there it was. It's blooms have only increased since. I guess it needed time to get comfortable in it's new surroundings before putting on a show.

And the gardening fun continues!

spring fever

 

I've been pretty absent from the online world the past couple of weeks because spring has arrived here in the deep south!

 I've been outside taking stock and gussying up the yard.

I've been working for months toward establishing a large flower bed by the mailbox. There was already a tiny bed there and one lone forsythia bush.

Last fall my sweetie and I hoofed it on down to the big box hardware store and bought some concrete edgers.

I dug out just enough grass to outline the bed and wrestled those jokers into place. That took some work! Then I laid down about nine hundred and forty two pieces of newspaper and covered that over with oodles of compost from our local municipal composting center. I used a huge piece of black plastic over part of the bed to test how effective that would be to kill the grass. And just to keep the neighbors happy I covered that over with a nice fresh layer of pine straw. Goodness knows they probably already think I'm crazy enough with my outdoor antics.:) Anyway, then I let the whole thing sit for a l-o-n-g time.

All of this work was my attempt to organically kill the grass and amend my horrid clay soil for planting. I was actually amazed at how well this worked. All of the grass and weeds were dead. Totally gone. I'm hoping that with continuous mulching no grass or weeds will be able to rebound.

So after months of cold wet weather the temps finally warmed up enough for me to get out there and plant my new bed! But first, a trip to the spring Master Gardener's plant sale and other various and sundry plant nurseries. This is the fun part y'all! I'd spent all winter thinking about and researching which plants might be best for that bed. I figure most of those plants would have to be pretty drought tolerant since the water hose doesn't really reach that far.

Y'all, I have got to say that I am totally pleased with how this bed turned out! This is the largest flower bed I've EVER attempted. I'm looking forward to seeing out it fills out in the next few years :)

Mailbox bed includes:

2 Dahlia Seattle (yellow blooms summer - fall)

2 Dahlia Border Bluesette (pink blooms summer - fall)

3 Fort Hill Creeping Pholox (pink blooms)

3 Encore Azalea Autumn Belle (small pink blooms)

5 Pink Double Knock Out Rose

1 Pittosporum variegated shrub

2 Angel Trumpets (from MIL color unknown)

1 large Iris, can't remember type

a few Irises transplanted from last year's divisions

1 Lady Daylilly

1 Pink Lady Daylilly

1 Peppermint Crinum Lilly

Lots of Daylillies from Master Gardeners sale a couple of years ago. Transplanted them from front flower bed where it was too shady for them.

Still want to add:

oodles of daffodils & muscari

weekend

Having a lovely weekend so far.

Surrounded by all sorts of pretty things.

Even a few fluffy flowers here and there.

How is your weekend going?

We Made a Garden by Margery Fish

I'm pretty sure that Margery Fish and I would have thoroughly enjoyed sitting down to chat over a cup of coffee. Probably our conversation would have lasted only five minutes or so before we both jumped up to scuttle over to the garden. I just finished reading her book, We Made a Garden, and I highly recommend it. Margery is gone from this earth now but she and her husband gardened in England for many years starting in 1939. And amazingly enough her East Lambrook Manor Gardens are still privately owned and available to tour.

I'm still a novice when it comes to gardening so I can't say that I understood much about the specific plants she kept name dropping in Latin, but her writing style is conversational and enjoyable. By the end of the book I wanted to slap the sin out of her husband though. I suppose it was how things were in those days but frankly, his in your face domineering was getting on my nerves! After he passed away she was able to add plants to the garden he had forbade and make changes of which he would surely not have approved. Good for you Margery, you go girl!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention my favorite quote from the book: "When I think of it now I wonder how I had the hardihood to attempt such an ambitious scheme." I'll have to remember that one :)

Mary's house

Lots of cute things to see at Mary's house.

Lots of pretty things too.

You just never know what you'll find :)

sky & flowers

I can't believe it's nearly Thanksgiving.

The year has gone so quickly.

And we're still wearing short sleeves here.

But I imagine all that will change soon.

It feels like a change is coming.

from a couple of sticks to a beautiful Confederate Rose

Y'all know I'm new to this gardening stuff, right? I barely know how to get a plant into the ground. Well, last year about this time we were visiting my mother in law in Dublin, Georgia and I saw the most beautiful blooming plant ever.

It had white and pink blooms on the same beautiful bush! Amazing.

"What is it?" I asked my mother in law.

"Confederate Rose" she responded.

"Wow" said I.

Wow, indeed. "I have to have some of that plant!" I screamed.

My mother in law is a kind and generous woman. She took me at my word and, on a visit a couple of months later, I found three long sticks in a five gallon bucket of water to take home. Three sticks. In a bucket of water. I thanked her profusely and dutifully carried the sticks home where I promptly stuck them on the back porch for about, oh, six weeks or so. I did add water to the bucket periodically.

You see, I had no earthly idea what to do with those darn sticks. How exactly does one deal with three long sticks in a bucket of water? She told me to plant them in the ground but somehow my brain just couldn't process that information. I mean, come on, how do I plant them in the ground? They're sticks! How deep? Where? Then what? You've probably figured out by the myriad of questions that ran through my mind that I was paralyzed with fear. I had no idea what to do!

Y'all can probably guess what happened next. Eventually my mother in law came for a visit to my house and there those sticks were, still in the bucket. I wasn't home at the time, but I heard from my sweetheart that she was none too pleased. Those sticks had to go into the ground. Soon!

Somehow I managed to gather my strength and resolve, along with a spade and that bucket of sticks, and get them planted in the ground. As I stood back to observe my handy work all I could think was, "this can't possibly work". But I spent the rest of the summer dutifully putting water on those jokers every single day. I was determined to make them live but if they did die I certainly didn't want to be faulted for lack of watering.

And then an amazing thing happened. Those sticks started to sprout! Eventually those sprouts turned into beautiful green leaves! It was a miracle I tell ya. Through out all of this sprouting period I dared not hope that the sticks would produce blooms. In fact, I chastised myself every time that stray hope wandered through my brain. Until one day while shopping the semiannual Master Gardener's Plant sale a couple of months ago I got to chatting with a lady about my sticks. She disagreed with me when I mentioned that I figured they wouldn't bloom this year. She told me to go home and look for buds.

Well folks, I'm here to tell ya I started to get a little hopeful and a wee tad excited. The next day I got out there with that lady's words ringing through my head and checked out each nook and cranny of those sticks and their sprouts. And lo and behold, I found flower buds. Wow! I was out there every day after that, marveling as bud after bud appeared on all three sticks. The dark cloud of doubt still hung over me as I watched those buds mature and realized that I would be out of town for a few days very soon. Would I miss the first bloom?!

Turns out that I didn't miss it at all. The first bloom popped out the day before I headed out of town. And what followed upon my return was a flush of plump, beautiful fluffy flowers that were beyond all of my hopes and dreams. It was nothing short of a miracle, I tell ya. And I am so utterly amazed by this entire wondrous process called gardening.

Erica Glasener of HGTV's A Gardener's Diary

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/croatoan_found/512177446/

Last Friday night I got to hang out with Erica Glasener, host of HGTV's A Gardener's Diary. Yep, it was me, her, and about fifty other folks! Erica came down from Atlanta to give a lecture at the Garden Club here in Macon.

She is just as sweet in person as she is on the show and I really enjoyed hearing her speak and watching her slide show. I recognized several photos from gardens she's visited on the show including Lucinda Hutson's garden which I absolutely love.

Erica spoke about creating a four season garden here in Georgia. Now this is a topic after my own heart! This is what I've wanted forever but what I couldn't articulate. I simply didn't have the words to express this desire until I read Mrs. Greenthumbs. She was the one who explained it in terms I could understand. Mrs. Greenthumbs explained my want, which is similar to hers, to have multiple climaxes in the garden. Y'all know what I mean! I want color to bloom and be beautiful in my garden all year round, not just in spring when you can throw a few annuals in the ground to march in rows like little soldiers. No, I want a proper cottage garden with oodles of perennials that bloom year round and flop around on top of each other. Erica was kind enough to share with us some of her favorites and she even provided a handout with plants broken down by blooming season.

Erica has a bit of a sense of humor too. She doesn't mind adding non-native plants to her garden. I agreed with her when she said "nothing is native to asphalt." :) Like me, she's also anti Crepe Murder. That's where folks cut those beautiful trees down to sticks in the winter. Who on earth came up with that idea anyway? Erica encouraged us to personalize our gardens and to mimic nature whenever possible. If you're in or traveling through the Atlanta area then Erica recommends shopping at the Garden Hood plant nursery.

Overall, it was a fun and informative evening. But I saved the best for last because that sweet Erica brought prizes! She gave her lecture standing next to a huge beautiful bouquet of flowers and fluff picked from her garden. And she also had three small potted hydrangeas to give away. The first two were snapped up mighty quick by a couple of brainy folks who answered her plant species questions from her bouquet. I just sat there racking my brains thinking to myself "uh, asparagus fern, maybe?" It was not asparagus fern.

Anyway, to make a long story endless, for the last plant prize Erica asked for an audience member whose birthday was today. Nada. Ok, how about someone whose birthday was this week, she asked. Nothin'. Alrighty then, who has my birthday, October 16th, she asked. Not a peep. Erica was stumped! The audience started calling out other plant giveaway question ideas. None of them floated her boat. Finally, Erica was thinking quick on her feet and she said, ok, who here is new to gardening?

Well folks, I'm pretty sure there was less than a nanosecond for my brain to process this thought and run down to my arm because I shot my hand up in the air so fast I'd swear I'd been through some sort of space, time continuum. Yes, I thought, yes, I AM new to gardening! And because I had strategically placed myself directly in Erica's line of site, in the middle aisle seat at the back, her eyes landed right on me. That's when she said some sort of pretty words about giving it to that "enthusiastic young lady there". Yes, Erica, that was me and I really, really love my prize. You must have known, surely, that hydrangeas are my absolute favorite plants. I'm sure you must have known that for months I've been planning to install several in my front yard. And, surely Erica, you must have known that as a relatively new gardener I could use all the help I could get in the form of a fabulous plant aptly named Hydrangea Invincebelle Spirit. Yes, Erica, I'm sure you must have known all of this when you kept asking your questions, waiting for me to come up with the answer. Because now, you see, I have every desire in the world to keep that plant alive, to plant it in the ground and see it grow, to photograph the beautiful blooms in the cottage garden of my dreams. Thanks Erica, for the inspiration!

how to recover old camp stools

We have here a couple of not too pretty, old camp stools. I think its time they received a makeover.

Of course I'm going to do this the super lazy and easy way just like when I recovered Slash's chair. So first I pried off the ratty old covers with a screwdriver. A butter knife would work just as well.

Hey, speaking of Slash, this sweet kitty wants to help out.

Ah, much better with those horrid covers removed.

Now it's time to shine up that dried out wood!

I use a bit of Pledge extra moisturizing. Ok, I use A LOT of it actually.

While I let the wood dry I ran inside to cut out the fabric. Hum, might need to iron it too.

I used the old ratty cover as a pattern and just sort of cut around it. Then it was off to the the sewing machine to sew up the edges. Sorry, I forgot to get photos of me wrestling with the sewing machine beastie. Ya know, I was rushing along with this project, trying to get it done before dark and forgot to photograph the next step too: stapling the covers on. It's just as well that I didn't photograph it because in addition to the ginormous heavy duty staple gun it also required a hammer and a lot of the time I was sweating and grumbling and wondering why I took this project on in the first place. Yeah. Anyway, I did finally get them finished.

Ta da! Here they are all revamped in their new fluffy flowers fabulousness.

Aren't they awesome? Totally groovy even?

I adore them! And I'm delighted that they turned out so well.

They're perfect for an outdoor tea party to for a camp out. Best for children though, they probably wouldn't hold the weight of an adult. If you love them and want them to spiff up your cottage they are for sale over in my shop.

road trip

I was in Columbus, Georgia last week for a couple of days.

Stayed in the super fabulous Rothschild-Pound House Inn.

It was a delightful little bed and breakfast.

It was surrounded by cute little cottages.

And I got to stay in one of those sweet little places.

It was prettily decorated.

Complete with fresh flowers.

And lots of books to read.

With extra spots to stash guests.

And pretty little garden spaces.

On the last day things turned a little ethereal.

But before leaving town I was sure to wander by Gina's Junk.

Just as the sign on the front door promises, it was crammed full of useful junk. This place is not to be missed! Lots of selection, good prices, and clean, unbroken stuff. Loved the place.

Slash in the garden

I've been a little remiss in pointing out my constant garden companion.

Slash aka Slashables the kitty cat is always out in the yard with me.

If I'm there, then he's there too.

I love having him around!

Gives me someone to talk to when I'm muttering about some garden chore I'm dealing with.

And it's always fun to glance up every so often to see what he's up to.

And he's mighty cute too!

fall

I love fall. Too bad here in the south it takes such a long time to arrive.

 

Believe me when I say we're still wearing short sleeves around here.

 

And even though the trees are still as green as they can be, we love to decorate with those beautiful autumn leaves even if it means surrounding our cotton with the fake ones...

 

...and filling our wagons with faux pumpkins.

But we do always insist on real flowers. Its just not the same when it's not the real thing.

 

Can you believe I saw all these cute fall goodies at a store called Roche's in a small town in Georgia?