Fluffy Flowers

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!

A Garden of One's Own

It's not secret that I've been on a gardening kick lately. I wanted to share another of those library gems that I discovered by dragging home a dozen or so books at a time. A Garden of One's Own: Making and Keeping Your Flower Garden by Elsa Bakalar is full of gardening wisdom from a no nonsense gardener. I love her straightforward way of talking and her can do attitude. Elsa was a master gardener who influenced many folks over her lifetime. If you see this one on your library's shelves, grab it and enjoy it on the porch with a cup of tea.

The Lost Garden

I don't know about you, but when I go out of town for a couple days it seems like I'm completely loaded down with stuff. And I don't mean things like hairdryers and extra clothes. Who needs a change of pants anyway? No, what I'm talking about is stuff that is essential to life. Stuff that makes the days fun. I'm talking about craft projects and books.

Even for a short trip, one essential thing is a choice of craft projects and books. I never know what mood I'll be in while I'm away so I've always got to have a selection of each to fill my needs. Recently, I was on one of these sojourns with an unsatisfying novel. It was about my favorite subject of late, gardening, but I just couldn't get into it. So I set it aside in favor of Helen Humphreys's The Lost Garden. Boy am I glad I did!

This book was a delight from beginning to end. Set in World War II, our heroine, Gwen, volunteers to head up a farming project in rural England for the Women's Land Army. Problem is, she isn't much of a leader. In fact, she's quite shy and introverted with a low opinion of herself. Not your typical heroine and this is no typical book. Well, actually, it is sort of typical. It's a story about an ordinary person and the small world she inhabits. Its also about love and a lost garden that is found. Helen has written a beautiful book that is nothing short of a delight. It's storytelling at it's best. I promise you'll like it so please run right out and get this book.

On a related note I've spent many hours thinking about and planning my gardens. Y'all may recall that I detested the state of my barren backyard and have been working to build flowerbeds. Well, I've also got an eyesore chainlink fence with a wide open view not only of the neighbors but the neighbors beyond them on the other side of their street! This is not working for me. I want privacy. I want a backyard I can hunker down in and read a good book. So I've been working out just exactly what plants I want to grow along the fence to look and smell good and keep out the prying eyes.

I finally settled on a mix of Confederate Jasmine, Lady Banks roses, and some sort of clematis. Since I will need several to cover up the fence I decided to save a little money by rooting these vines myself. Of course I'd never done this before so who knows where this grand experiment will end. But forget the ending, I still needed to begin! I was on the hunt down around the neighborhood for some Confederate Jasmine from which to take some cuttings. I didn't really know what it looked like so I spent a lot of time online looking at pictures of its flowers and leaves from different angles from up close and far away. I've had to do a lot of this the last few months as I've struggled to get to know plants. When I finally figured it all out I realized that, just as I'd hoped, it was everywhere. Including my own backyard. Who knew?!

Apparently, that little shrub way back there in the corner by the fence is the exact vine I was seeking. I remember seeing some of it climbing the fence last year and thinking that I needed to hack them down. So I did. I had no earthly idea that it was a vining plant nor that it was one that I'd eventually settle on to decorate my fence. And it's kind of funny that it worked out that way, don't you think? A little bit of a lost garden, right there in my own backyard.

Mrs. Greenthumbs

A little while ago I talked about the virtues of hauling home oodles of books from the public library. It's a super way to explore a new hobby in a cheap and satisfying way. One of the things I'm always on the lookout for are fabulous authors whose voices speak to me. And I found just that in the books by Cassandra Danz.

Now when I first picked up Mrs. Greenthumbs Plows Ahead: Five Steps to the Drop-Dead Gorgeous Garden of Your Dreams, I glanced half heartedly at the cover. Surely this frumpy lady in an 80s style dress could teach me nothing about gardening. But oh how wrong I was! Not only did she teach me gardening know how, but she made me understand it. I couldn't believe it. All my life I've been looking for a gardening book to explain just how to make a garden in a way that I could understand. She articulated my needs and explained just exactly how to meet them. I was amazed! And I was converted.

I set about to acquire all the books that were written by this fabulous female gardener. And that's when I discovered to horribly sad news. Cassandra Danz, the person who finally made me see the gardening light, died at age 55 from breast cancer. I was crushed. How devastating that such a lively, energetic person could succumb to such a horrible disease. Damned unfair. And I'm not the only one who misses this enthusiastic personality. I was pretty bummed that just when I'd found the perfect gardener's voice to guide me through my horticultural adventure, she was snatched away.

What makes me love her books so much? Her voice. Her style of writing is quite conversational. It's a lot like a blog, really. She talks to her reader as if we're sitting together chatting over a cup of coffee. And she's funny too. Oh yes friends, she is indeed funny. We're talking Stephanie Plum funny here.

I never thought I'd ever laugh out loud at a gardening book. I thought the only kind in existence were boring, lecture type books that extolled the virtues of plants using horribly boring black and white charts. You know the ones I mean, the kind that state you "must" do it this way or else. Or else what?! I always wondered. Or else you'll come over to my house and march into my backyard and set the place on fire? I always wondered.

But Mrs. Greenthumbs changed all that. She changed my whole gardening information world. She made it ok not to have all the answers. She made it ok to make mistakes. She made it ok to go ahead and try my hand at gardening, even though I didn't know everything. All those other books put the fear into me that I had to memorize all that stuff so I would know it all and avoid mistakes. Oh the horror of mistakes!

I think the reason I didn't get serious about gardening before was because I never felt I knew enough not to make mistakes. But gosh darn folks, ya know what? Everyone makes mistakes! And we new gardeners are bound to. Mrs. Greenthumbs made me realize those things. And for that I will forever be grateful. So thank you Cassandra, for all of your words of wisdom and laugh out loud funniness that helped set me on my gardening path. Even though you've gone to the great big mulch pile in the sky, I take my sun hat off to you and will plant a fluffy flower in your honor.

The Cottage Garden

I had no idea when I picked up The Cottage Garden at the library several years ago that author Christopher Lloyd was THE guy when it comes to horticulture. I just liked to look at the pretty pictures. But I was reading the best gardening book ever written and it mentioned Christopher Lloyd. A lot. And the funny thing was, I kept thinking she meant Christopher LOWELL. Um, yeah, that's a totally different guy. Anyway, eventually I figured out my mistake and was happy to be introduced to an amazingly inspirational British gardener.

This time when I sought out this book again at my library I was ready to actually learn from it's pages. After years spent pouring over the beautiful photos in gardening books and wondering how the heck they managed to create such beautiful gardens, I'm finally, slowly learning how to craft my own beautiful gardens. And what I found out is that not only is this book a delight for the visual sense but it's also crammed full of helpful information. Its an excellent overview of the history of cottage gardens and the plants within them. And not just plants and flowers but all the other aspects that make up a cottage garden too: gates & doors, fences, walls, & hedges, ponds, streams, & ditches, pathways, containers, furniture, and outbuildings. Wow!

If you are at all considering establishing a cottage garden at your home I highly encourage you to find this book. And if you have a cottage garden already then you'll love it too. Sadly, Christopher Lloyd is no longer with us. But thankfully he left behind a body of work that can be read and savored for years to come.

Here Be Dragons

You would think with two dogs and two cats I'd be done adding pets to the Fluffy Flowers household. But this weekend my sweetheart and I invited a dragon into our lives.

Actually, he was a black dragon. Specifically, Cryptomeria japonica ‘Black Dragon’.

Doesn't he have groovy little claws?!

Not sure what Mr. Bunny thinks of this new resident!

Folks, this weekend I planted my very first tree. It was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done.

I spent a lot of time researching a small tree for my backyard that could handle our blistering summer heat.

And, once again, I found lots of helpful information on GardenWeb Forums.

The hole was dug deep and wide, the roots were loosened, and the tree put in place.

Oodles of water to quench his thirst. Dragons get thirsty sometimes.

In the end Mr. Bunny decided he liked the new dragon and would keep him company on his first few nights in his new home.

I planted my first ever tree. Groovy.

Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden

I've had a lot of luck with good things to read lately. I don't know if y'all know this about me but I usually have three books going at one time: an audio book in the car, a fiction book by the bed, and a nonfiction book in the sitting room. I just finished reading a delightful memoir called Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden by Emily Whaley. This book was entertaining from start to finish.

It's more than just a book about a garden and a gardener in her eighties. It's a wonderful glimpse into the life of a southern woman raised in the country during the early part of the twentieth century. It's also a celebration of that life and the people around her. She gives credit to all those folks who where important in her life including her dog, Rosie.

What is really fabulous about this book is the style of writing. Its really more of a conversation than anything else. And Mrs. Whaley's voice, and her opinions, are loud and clear. This lady tells it like it is! I found myself nodding my head and chuckling more than a few times at her sage advice.

Really folks, it's an easy, short read that is thoroughly delightful. You can read more about Mrs. Whaley's garden over at the Stencil Library's blog.

gardening books

Been reading heaps of gardening books lately. I've mentioned a couple of them to y'all already. But I thought I'd show you just how pretty they look all piled up on the garden bench.

That would be Slashables's bench.

He was hanging out with me during the photo op. In fact, Slash usually hangs out with me when ever I'm out in the garden.

And he's really good company too!

Easy Gardens for the South

I haven't spent a lot of time on the computer lately so my blogging seems to have turned into a sporadic adventure. One thing that has kept me away from the computer this summer is hard work in the yard. I've spent the past several months working diligently to turn this place into a pretty cottage garden.

For years I dreamed about gardening, imagining a yard filled with beautiful blooming flowers. I've spent many an hour browsing inspirational photographs on flickr and perusing gobs of library books which I usually check out a dozen or two at a time.

I spent a lot of those years confused by the conflicting information I would read in different sources. I noticed that the "right" way to do things was often exactly the opposite for the same problems from different "experts". I stayed confused most of the time. Their information only served to create fear that rendered me immobile, rooted to the same spot and unable to move.

There was a gradual shift in me over this past year that put me in a place where I finally built up the courage to get my hands dirty and get to gardening. We are talking, after all, about plants. This isn't rocket science! After researching gardening and thinking about things, I finally jumped in with both feet. This time I've actually gone beyond the stage of dreaming about gardening and I've finally, finally taken steps to create a garden of my own.

I'm super glad that I drug home a million gardening books from the library over the years. I've found a few gems that have really inspired me. Easy Gardens for the South by Pamela Crawford is one that I absolutely love. The plant information is organized so well that even I can figure how how to select plants for my gardens. I'm going to purchase my own copy of this one so I can spend the long, cold winter planning out my gardens. What I love about this book is that is focuses on plants that do well in my area. And by "do well" I mean can survive when I forget to water them for a while or forget to prune them or otherwise neglect those pretties. I highly recommend that you seek out gardening books that discuss plants for your state. And if you don't know where to start, then ask your local librarian, cooperative extension office or master gardener. 

Oh, and one more exciting thing for those here in the middle Georgia area. Erica Glasener, host of HGTV's Gardener's Diary will be giving a lecture at the end of October. I love her show and will definitely be there!

Flower Confidential

Thought I'd share some of my other fluffy flowers adventures with y'all. So here's what I've been up to lately when I'm not reading or plush making.

I have, in fact, been gardening. Lasagna gardening. This little weedy mess is the lasagna garden that I started a few months ago. Its a simple method of layering compostables and letting them rot while planting the bed at the same time. I never actually got around to planting this spot so a few weeds have sprouted up.

Too bad the weeds look so pretty cause these suckers have got to go.

And this sucker has really got to go! I have it on good authority that this weed truly is super invasive here in the state of Georgia so out he comes asap.

It's taken me nearly three years to decide exactly how to establish a garden in my backyard. I've been cutting the grass back there and yanking out the weeds but that lifeless expanse of grass and concrete feels like a dead zone. About the only life that can be found are the neighbors and their penned up prisoner dogs that can be clearly seen through the fence.

But finally, after reading and thinking, watching Gardener's Diary and note taking, and perusing GardenWeb forums, finally I think I've got my plan. And I've been slowly putting my plan into action the past couple of months.

One part of my plan involves establishing oodles of new flower beds in my backyard. I long for it to be a secret garden hideaway where I can enjoy lots of fluffy flowers. But beauty is hard work y'all! And hauling around mega pounds of cow poo is no easy task!

But gosh y'all, I think it's worth it. Because in my mind I can just see that new garden, can't you? And it doesn't really matter how long it takes. I'll just keep plugging along at it and taking all the necessary steps and making all the mistakes and reading all the books until I make it my own fluffy flowers magical land.

And speaking of reading, you might find Amy Stewart's book Flower Confidential: the Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful very interesting. This selective, historical account of the modern flower industry is fascinating! It reads almost like fiction (until she gets to the math section where my non-mathematical mind glazed over) with lots of interesting, in depth stories of folks in the industry. Run by the library and pick this one up when you get a chance.

Guess I had to slip a little reading in this story somehow! When next you find me I'll probably still be scrubbing at the dirt under my nails...

the quest for the perfect suburban lawn

I've never lived in the suburbs. Not until a couple of years ago that is. Which means that I've never had to take care of a suburban lawn before.

Up until now I've either lived in the city with postage stamp lawns that require only the barest of attention or in the country where the large expanse of ground can hardly be called a lawn and whose "grass" is chopped to the ground twice a year and left to grow up to your shoulder blades otherwise. I simply had no experience on which to draw for dealing with a suburban lawn.

Two years ago when we moved into this house I was in awe of my new patch of ground that had been lovingly cared for by the previous owners. I looked around and imagined all the beautiful fluffy flowers that I could now grow on my expanded patch of earth. But the funny thing is, that's pretty much all I did for two years: imagine. Somehow, every time I would try to get serious, dragging out a paper and pen to take notes on where to put new flower beds, I found myself paralyzed by fear that I'd make some mistakes. So what I managed to accomplish in two years is exactly, nothing.

The first year, the lawn seemed to remember what those other owners had done to it so it pretty much cared for itself as I mowed it to within an inch of it's life. Only later did I find out that it's really not such a great idea to mow grass down to it's roots! The second year, all trace of those other owners must have dissipated because suddenly we seemed no longer to be growing grass but an amalgam of weeds that have names akin to those in the animal kingdom. That year the dandelions roared and the chickweed squawked. And I'm pretty sure the neighbors were not happy.

In my lawn ignorance I had, once again, done precisely nothing to care for the grass. I'd sort of vaguely heard of weed and feed but really didn't know what it was or how it worked. And of course I'd heard about how completely and utterly awful the chemicals were for our environment. So I dug in my heals and refused to put poison on my lawn. In addition to the greater world I was also quite concerned for Miss America, Mr. Cowboy, Slashables, and the Piggles. I didn't want them to come into contact with any harmful substances.

I started getting desperate to find a way to manage this patch of ground in a socially acceptable way and one in which my conscience wouldn't suffer. So I did what all good folks do when they're faced with a problem for which they need information. I went to the library.

There I found no end of books on gardening and lawn care all of whose covers had landscapes bursting with delightfully thick green grass and big, plump fluffy flowers. They sure had a lot to live up to with covers like that! I'd gather together a selection and drag them home in the hopes of figuring out what to do.

What I discovered is that there are two very distinctly different camps of folks. There are those who embrace the application of chemicals and those who don't. And a handful fell somewhere in the middle. By now I guess y'all have figured out on which side of the fence I was resting. Two books in particular stood out from the myriad of books that I perused in an effort to find one to help guide me.

I've probably checked out Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass by Liz Primeau and Andrew Layerle from the library so many times that my card's getting worn out. But I can't help it and I really need to just go on and buy myself a copy. Of all the books I read this one speaks to me more than any other.

Liz gives a brief, eye opening history of the North American lawn. She makes quite a convincing argument that a diverse front garden is much better for your soul as well as the environment. The sample gardens are many and varied from small to large, urban to suburban and are frankly a delight to explore. There are so many ideas here that I seem to find something new every time I read it.

This book gave me the long term goal I was looking for with my suburban lawn. I wanted more than grass to take care of. I wanted more than the chore of mowing. I wanted a place for birds and bees to gather and enjoy. I wanted more than a lawn.

So I've made up my mind that I really am going to expand existing beds as well as create new ones. I've finally started taking notes and figuring out which plants I want where. This is no easy feat because I'm bound and determined to implement xeriscaping techniques in order to avoid excessive watering. I'm excited about this new project and a whole lot less intimidated.

In the mean time before I get to the place where I can reduce the amount of lawn, I'm faced with an expanse of grass that needs caring for. That's when I found The Organic Lawn Care Manual by Paul Tukey. Paul set my mind at ease because he explains how to have grass without using chemicals. There is a lot of information in this book that can take awhile to 
absorb. But that's how it is with all new things, right? He speaks my language of wanting grass as a place for animals and activities. Plus, I've got to deal with the grass I've got now and decide just how much I want to have in the future. This book really gives the nuts and bolts on how to do that. Who the heck knew you could torch those weeds into oblivion?!

In addition to these two fabulous books I've also found an amazing amount of information on the GardenWeb Forums. These discussion boards cover plants and gardens with sections devoted to states and regions of the country. You don't even have to register to read the information so you can just lurk on there and find out all sorts of really groovy stuff. That's where I found out about my latest fun lawn gadget, the Weed Hound.

I am totally in love with this thing! It's a metal tool that allows you to rip those wretched dandelion weeds out of your yard roots and all. I swear y'all, yanking those suckers out is one of the most satisfying experiences I've had in a good long while. Once I got started I simply could not stop! If you're an organic gardener with a dandelion weed problem this thing 
will change your life.

Y'all are probably thinking I'm a little nuts. Nah, not really. I'm just so excited to finally feel like I know and understand something about this suburban lawn of mine. For so long I just felt lost and confused and immobile. It's so refreshing to finally know what to do and to not fear the results. So what if boiling water on the fire ant beds doesn't work right away? I'm going to keep trying it in the hopes that it will. Because a lot of precious animals are counting on me to make their space safe and fun. And it's nice to know that I'm figuring out my own way of creating it.