GeorgiaPeachez

My Spring Garden

My gosh, how I love spring in the garden.  I never get tired of patrolling my garden to inspect and see what is popping up and how the plants are unfolding.

 

I just replanted one of my troughs.  I love trough gardens and I want to make a bunch of new troughs this year.

I love the chartreuse green color of new growth.

Three of anything makes a "collection" so I have a nice collection of old cast iron fire grates.  These were used for coal burning in the fireplace.

Sedums are one of my absolute favorite plants and I stick them into all my pots.  They make excellent planters for sedums and succulents.

Frogs are always welcome :->    

Gardens of China

I just returned from a fabulous trip to China.

Everything we saw and did was incredible and my favorite sites had to be the gardens.  They are stunning.

 

With names like Tiger Hill, Lingering Garden, Emperor's Garden and Yu Gardens how could they not be beautiful?

Peonies are a revered flower in China and I saw so many gorgeous ones.

Interesting signs too :->

Fresh Mulch Terrier Love

Fresh, warm mulch + terrier = love.

That little path between the trees is not for humans, but it's for the resident terrier .  She routinely blasts between those trees in hot pursuit of squirrels.  

I Love Weird Garden Plants

I've bragged before about my VooDoo lily.  Blooming right now in my garden is the Carrion Flower.  From the genus Stapelia this succulent has a large bloom that once it pops open smells a bit like carrion or dead meat.  That's because this weird beauty of the garden needs to attract flies for pollination.

See right there, it's working.  Several flies have found it already :->

Once this bloom pops open it's quite large, about 10 inches across.  It's got long fuzzy hairs on it too.  Awesome. 

Jaws in the Garden

A new (old) acquisition for the garden.

I 'caught' this guy on my last road trip.  Now he is swimming around my backyard garden.

In the Mountains of East Tennessee

I've been visiting with my Mom this week.  MommaPeach lives in the hills of east Tennessee.  She and I both share a love for daylilies.  We visited two daylily farms in the mountains and Wow :->

 

When you look out across the field of daylilies, they don't seem that impressive. 

But then you get up close.

What's not to love?  Daylilies need just about zero maintenance.  They tolerate full blazing sun, drought and poor soil.  Even though each bloom only lasts one day, a mature clump of daylilies will bloom on and on for weeks.

This next garden belongs to Mrs Littleton.  She lives in the mountains outside of Gray, TN.  Her beautiful garden is terraced on a mountainside.  She sells all kinds of plants and she specializes in daylilies. 

I love her garden which includes lots of nooks and benches.  She tucks in all kinds of interesting garden junk amongst the flowers. 

Mrs Littleton's daylilies are so spectacular.

You can't quite appreciate the slope from these pictures, but let me tell you, we are clinging to the side of a mountain here.

As you can imagine, I came home with the trunk stuffed full of daylilies :->

It Was A Rescue Mission

Every day the pooch gets a walk and for many years now we have walked past a certain house.

A certain, modest brick ranch that isn't terribly well tended. 

A certain house that could use a dose of TLC.

This certain house did posses an enviable piece of concrete statuary however.

For many years I have pined for this piece of concrete. 

Then a few weeks ago the lusted for piece of concrete fell over.  And there it lay.  Neglected and on it's side.

Action had to be taken. 

So I wrote a kind note offering to adopt (for a reasonable fee) said piece of concrete.

Days passed and there it was.  So close yet so far.

But today I was allowed to rescue my concrete.  Such a sigh of relief.

 

 

Handy Dandy

My old garden potting tray has seen better days.  It's starting to rust and holes are appearing in the bottom :-<

I found this super spiffy potting tray at my favorite garden center today.

Now back to the gardening already in progress. 

Hellebores

Perfect for a shady spot, hellebores start blooming early and last and last.  Subtle in their floral display they have a refined beauty that doesn't scream look at me. 

 

Also very drought tolerant and care free maintenance.  I can't have enough of these beauties in my garden.

Rescued From the Curb

You can throw anything you want on the curb in my town and the trashman will haul it away.  I mean ANYTHING. 

Cut down every tree in your yard and haul it to the curb and YES, my tax dollars will pay for the city to haul it away.

But this week the curb yielded a fabulous garden treasure for me :->

It was broken into two pieces, but HELLO!  Two words to the wise, CONSTRUCTION ADHESIVE!!!

Good as new and totally fabulous!!!!!