For nine years, each season has brought a fragrant outburst of gardenia flowers. Each year there would be maybe 50-60 blooms each season. Then one year, I noticed it was infested, which I treated in the off-season. The next year, and in years since, it produced hundreds of blossomsContinue Reading
As a child, I lived in a small southern town. Just outside of town was a Royal Crown bottling plant, and it also produced the Nehi line of soft drinks (we called it “pop”). A relative worked at the plant, so occasionally, I got a free grape Nehi. Grape NehiContinue Reading
Every spring, I try to get fresh images of the first blooms. Usually, this happens in early April, and this year was no different. The woodland phlox kicked things off and was soon followed by the Catmint and Gerber daisies. The azaleas, usually loaded with blooms, were more subdued thisContinue Reading
The Polar Vortex came through last winter and dropped temps into the single digits. I watched as my brown garden with defiant patches of green turned all brown. The gardenias suffered the most. The large seven-foot bush in the front of the house turned and remains brown, looking almost asContinue Reading
Posh folks use “winter” as a verb, as in “We wintered in Palm Springs.” Although my unplanted sweet potato vines and geraniums do not count as posh items, I didn’t want to see them die, having never been properly seated in pots. I bought them along with 30 or moreContinue Reading
Since 2014, the garden’s first season, I cannot recall a winter when the local temperature fell below 18. Even then, the cold was limited to nighttime. Typically, nighttime temps in December are, at worst, in the mid-30s with occasional lower temps for a few hours at best. The polar vortexContinue Reading
Gardening makes one pay attention to yearly cycles. Before I planted a yardful of flowers, rain was a random occurrence with pluses and minuses. It could be welcomed as a respite from the heat or dreaded as the bringer of humidity that makes it unbearable. It could be the reasonContinue Reading
Pincushion flowers found their way into the yard by way of a chance encounter at the Grower’s Outlet in Snellville, Georgia. Wandering through the maze of tables covered with plants, I spotted the lavender blooms and immediately knew they had to come home with me. The first group of fiveContinue Reading
Mid-April seems to be the best time to plant–earlier, and frost is still possible, much later, and there is a chance the rains will stop. It could easily be 95 or hotter by the first weekend in May, which would fry tender, young plants. Some plants are real troopers. AngeloniasContinue Reading
Violets and creeping Jenny do not understand the concept of boundaries. Unfortunately, they both have beautiful colors and decorative leaves. As best I can tell, the violets that plague me came from next door 10 years ago or further back. They used to grow in my neighbor’s yard in patchesContinue Reading
