Different Ways to Enjoy Flowers

In the last seven days I have done no gardening.

I have driven hundreds of miles to look at gardens, touring everything from the stunningly impressive Birmingham Botanical Gardens...

 

This picture was taken at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, from the belvedere looking into the Hill Garden

 

 

To a tiny jewel of a city garden in downtown Tuscaloosa...

 

 

This garden should be named "Little Alters Everywhere." It was an artistic blending of plants, hardscapes, and knick-knacks...a labour of love.



 

 

Then drove from Tuscaloosa to Atlanta to work a convention of a respectable and awe inspiring organization, where I spent the next three days in the basement of a high rise hotel, looking at floral carpet...

 

When there are no windows, floral carpet can be the next best thing to a garden.

 

I worked 45 hours in three days and was absolutely exhausted when I came home to the best kind of flowers...

 

 

Flowers on my library table!

 

I crashed for 10 hours and awoke fevered and dizzy. Apparently bacteria is flowering inside of me. The doc prescribed Biaxin and rest.

 

Look for a real post addressing view, axis, scope, and other important elements of garden design. Seriously, I took plenty of notes on the tour.

 

Ciao!



 

 

 

 

 



 





A Patch of Green

We have gone back and forth on whether to put on what to put down for a patch of green in front of our home. We discussed the no-mow alternative of Dwarf Mondo Grass; the traditional grass lawn; and one night at the Donkey, fueled by tequila, we tossed around the pros and cons of artificial turf (or indoor-outdoor carpet as we were referring to it that evening).

 

 

The Lazy Donkey in Carrollton. No swag involved, just admiring their grass...

 

About the Lazy Donkey; everyone from toddlers held up on his back by their mothers to margarita drinking mid-lifers jumping on his back as they leave the establishment, the donkey and his artificial turf see a lot of action. The owners tried to grow grass out front, it would look great for a few weeks but nothing they tried could stand up to the heavy traffic. Then they put in artificial turf and it looks great. Really great. People keep squatting down to touch the turf to see if it is real. But we decided we just aren’t that type of gardener.

Mister didn’t love the idea of Dwarf Mondo grass but said that if I loved it we would plant it. I don’t love it as much as I love the idea of not mowing, but he pointed out to me that I would have to pull weeds and rake. On thinking it over I decided I might as well mow.

So that brings us to our current plan for a patch of green. No surprise, no wow factor, just regular old grass.

Found this pic on the web

I reached out to our local Master Gardener’s organization for advice on what grass to grow. They gave me a bit of a quiz about the sun exposure and they tested the soil. Our future patch of green gets 4 hours of direct sun a day (more in winter) and is enclosed by pine trees on the north, walkway on the east, house on the south, and trees/neighbor’s house on the west. Our soil tested acidic at 5.4pH.

The Master Gardener recommended a tall fescue blend for our patch of green. Fescue prefers soil to be 5.5 to 6.5pH, will grow with our amount of sun, and is (I am told) easy to seed.

Instructions for establishment:

Incorporate 15 pounds of 10-10-10 per 1000 square feet into the top 4-6 inches of soil prior to seeding. In November and February, apply 3 pounds of 34-0-0 per 1000 square feet. Follow this program for the first year, and then use the maintenance recommendations.

Instructions for maintenance:

Apply 8 pounds of 10-10-10 per 1000 square feet in September. In November and February apply 9 pounds of 16-4-8 per 1000 square feet. In May, apply 1.5 pounds of 34-0-0 per 1000 square feet.

You remember that cranky old lady from your childhood, the one that watched from her front window and stomped out the front door if you got too close to her lawn? Yea, that will be me soon...

 

Picture from webiste "I Can Has Cheezburger?"

Creating a View

I have been reading P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home. Allen recommends taking a picture of your garden area because when a person is used to looking at an area their eye (or brain) will ignore what it doesn’t want to see and focus on what it does want to see.

When I read that I had an “oh yea, you’re talking to me” moment. You see, when I took the picture of my cement girl for this project I had to creatively edit the pic so that I didn’t post a picture of my neighbor’s garbage cans to the web.

That’s right, when you stroll down my walkway toward my courtyard, you can judge the neighbor’s beer and soda consumption and ponder the toxicity of aluminum cans. 

Disclaimer: This is a not my neighbor’s garbage can, they are lovely people and I wouldn’t embarrass them that way. Also, they picked everything up when I told them about this posting. And in the spirit of truth; we have a huge pile of aluminum cans, a large trash can, a canoe, a wood pile, and a garden wagon on the “service” side of our house.

Not my yard! I found this picture on the web and thought it made a point of what I don't want to see.

So back to my point, P. Allen Smith says you should create a view, a pleasing reason for the eye to rest; just because I am blind the neighbor’s service yard doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

That was the problem that P. Allen Smith made me aware of. My solution: A swing near the edge of our yard and a hedge behind it will continue the look of our courtyard and help to create the feeling of an enclosed garden.

This view is from our walkway. The cement girl is to the right of the picture, our house is to the left of the picture, and the maple bed is immediately behind me. The pinestraw in the center of the photo will be lawn one day. 

This is the view of our swing from the courtyard. Until there is a tall hedge behind the swing the eye doesn't really stop but continues on to the neighbor's side yard (he usually has trash cans, aluminum cans, and sometimes a bass boat there).

The swing was white so I spray painted it oil rubbed bronze to go continue the courtyard theme of my garden. Not having a lawn is awesome while spray painting-notice the paint in the lower section of the photo.

The garden center had many shrubs to choose from, but I haven’t yet made a decision on the type of hedge. I want something evergreen, and Mister wants something that blooms occasionally.

We are considering a burgundy leaved Fringe Flower (lorapetalum).

This was at the garden center, the photo-bomber is the nursery dog.

I feel that the Fringe Flower would play well behind the black swing and the burgundy of the leaves would connect to the blue/red bricks of our house. Also, we could use a large variety behind the swing and then use a small variety on either side of the driveway by the road, thereby tying the entrance to the drive to the side of the garden and the brick of the home. To paraphrase P. Allen Smith, it will complete the flow of the garden home.

Here is a final photo of the swing with our dog Boo waiting for someone to come sit with him.

 

Triple Creek Flower Farm

 

 



Our gardening community experienced a big loss this week. A very popular local nursery, a destination garden center, sent out the following email blast Saturday.

“It's with almost unbearable sorrow that I am sending this message. On Saturday morning we lost our son, John Rowley. Most of you knew him or had heard us talk about him, and how he grew the plants and managed Triple Creek Flower Farm. Visitation will be today, Tuesday, September 25th, from 4:00 pm. until 8:00 p.m. at the Martin-Hightower Funeral Home on Highway 27 in Carrollton, Georgia. Funeral services will be onWednesday at 4:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Please visit http://www.martin-hightower.com/ for more information.

Please keep us in your prayers.”

Winkey and Pat Brinson

 

Located on 13 acres in Douglas County, GA, Triple Creek Flower Farm is the “go-to” nursery for our neighborhood.

Triple Creek’s planted gardens illustrate how plants will grow in the shopper’s garden. The areas of sun and shade gardens, the quiet walking paths and picnic area provide an enjoyable and comfortable setting for gardeners to contemplate additions to their own gardens.

John, along with Winkey, do all of the plant production, sales, and delivery, sharing their knowledge and love of gardening to all who enter. John’s mom Pat handles the office duties of ordering and accounting.

John will be greatly missed; he was an inspiration and a friend to us gardeners. In many ways the beautiful yards and Gardens in Fairfield Plantation will always be a memorial to John Rowley.

 

Highlands, North Carolina

I just returned from a work retreat in Highlands, NC. Highlands is located in one of only two rain forests in the United States (the other one being in Oregon). The entire landscape of the town and surrounding area was lush and green. It wasn’t just nature gone wild, though, the town of Highlands is beautifully landscaped loosely based on English garden ideas and using many native plants.

 

This was a sweet rock fountain in a natural-ish area of a garden. 

The house we stayed in was surrounded by manicured lawns, rock walls, evergreen trees, and boxwood pruned into rounded balls. It gave the garden the feeling of being enclosed. A couple of my co-workers mentioned that the garden would make a nice place for a reception.

 

Isn't this lawn gorgeous?Understated and classy. I think I could play croquet out here.

 

 

I really like the rock garden border. I may want to do a border of this type in front of my cement girl.

 

 

Don't you want to explore this secret garden?

 

 

 My bedroom had a copy of the book The Gardens at Kew written by Allan Paterson and photographed by Andrew McRobb. A superbly illustrated book published to celebrate Kew’s 250^th anniversary. I had not time for serious reading, but each evening before going to sleep I would leaf through admiring the luxurious photos. And dream.

The Cement Girl

I added a garden to the front area. It doesn't look like much in person (or on film, to tell the truth) but in my mind it is lush, beautiful, and a little mysterious.

I may be over-selling the garden...

The first time I shared pictures of my front garden you were looking at a drab brown area. You can refresh your memory here http://chichi-notes.blogspot.com/2011/08/introduction.html, or just scroll down. Anyway, The area to the right in the picture is what a person looks at while sitting in the courtyard, where I like to drink my coffee. The no-mow discussions are still going on here so I decided to do something about the area that will be behind the lawn. My dream is to have some permanent greenery directly in front of the lounge window with a low maintenance garden facing our home, giving the impression of enclosure like in the gardens in Charleston and Savannah.

We are working on adding all of the things that will give a garden the Charleston feel. Courtyard...check; Iron furniture...check; walkway...working on it; cement girl...check.

 

I took this picture while standing in front of our double windows facing the street. The house is behind me, the driveway and walkway to the right of the picture and neighbor's house to the left of the picture.

 

 



Yep, we now have a cement girl, aka The Bird Girl of Savannah, in our front garden. She is placed to the right of the imaginary walkway as you approach the house and facing our courtyard. It is a very shady garden so she has hosta in front of her. I am not sure of the name of the hosta, they are from my grandmother's garden, a living memory. To the right of the cement girl are 3 Cinnamon Fern. Cinnamon Fern ( Osmunda cinnamomea) prefer moist shady habitats and grow 2 to 3 foot tall.

To the left of the cement girl, and so tiny they can't be seen until you almost step on them, are three Purple Tiers Hydrangea (Hydrangea s. ’Miyama yae Murasaki’). It will have wonderful deep purple lacecap flowers and will grow to about 3 foot high. I saw the plants in a garden center back in the summer and knew I wanted them somewhere in my garden.

Behind the ferns and hydrangea the area is filled (or it will be when the plants mature) with George Tabor Azalea (Rhododendron indica 'George Tabor') and English Ivy (Hedera helix). George Tabor Azalea grows to about 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide and blooms prolifically in the spring, covering itself with large pink and white flowers. The English Ivy is an evergreen plant that will fill in as a ground cover. In fact it should fill in so well that I will have to keep it clipped off of the tree trunks and azalea.

I didn't think about it until writing this, but I may have just created a smorgasbord for deer...

The No Mow Lawn

As I defensively say; our front lawn is not pretty. Seriously, there were a few straggly weeds growing in lonely islands when we moved in a few years ago and we decided that the place would look better if we removed the few green weeds and covered the whole muddy mess with pinestraw.

Our plan was to plant grass seed or lay sod in early spring...but time got away from us. Before we knew it the temperature was too high to work in the yard, Georgia was experiencing a draught, and our neighborhood had a watering ban. We congratulated one another on the wisdom of having pinestraw instead of expensive dead sod.

The next spring Mister was working crazy long hours, I was working days and attending college in evenings, and the drought was still holding strong. We decided it to refresh the pinestraw and call it good.

I am using our front garden as part of my project for this course- and it has really gotten me thinking about how nice it has been to not mow a lawn. We have the ubiquitus strip of grass between the azaleas and the street so Mister gets his bi-monthly fill of mowing. I am in charge of mowing our back garden; a mixture of grass and clover mixture that the dogs enjoy running through- clover doesn't get that tall so if I am not in the mood to mow it doesn't really matter to anyone but the chihuahua. She can be pretty vocal if the grass/clover gets too tall, but I can be pretty deaf to her if I have to.

All of this time of not mowing the pinestraw has spoiled me; I don't want to start mowing the front garden. I have been checking out no-mow lawn alternatives this week. Many of the homes in Atlanta have very little grass, the greenery is provided by groundcover such as ivy, liriope, or moss.

 

Dwarf mondo grass used in place of grass. Photo found on Walter Reeves' "Gardening in Georgia" website.

 

 

Another photo from Walter Reeves' "Gardening in Georgia."

 

 

I have also been looking at clips on HGTV's website of garden makeovers and what can be done without using grass. One clip that has the feel I like is Mondo Man, he does go too far for my taste (the reason I am looking at dwarf mondo grass is because I don't want to spend all that time tending to the lawn) but I like how he adapted his garden to what successfully grows well.

 

Ivy is another green alternative we are looking at, and one Mister likes better, so we will try to fill in the area under the large trees with it. A local garden center was having an end of summer sale and I picked up a flat of ivy to get things started. I would have picked up more but an ivy shopper beat me to the sale. I hope to get the ivy planted this upcoming weekend.

 

The descriptions don't sound like much, but I am actually starting to have a better idea of how I want the front garden to look...