Gardening in Eden

[I love to Garden]

Gardening in Eden

5 Mar '12 4:19 am

Since it is Spring ( Hopefully for real ) I have decided to TRY and do more than a random post now and then. I spend a lot of the Winter drooling over everyone elses post and I am ever so thankful for all of you who have brightened my days with such cheerful gardening news. Somebody is weeding!! Yeah!! Oh I'm so glad it's not me!! Must remember to budget more mulch this year!! Does that sound snarky? I promise I don't mean it that way. I love to hear all the news. So Thanks Thanks Thanks!
I am just outside of Savannah Georgia in a tiny place called Eden Georgia. On day in church the minister said that we no longer live in Eden and one of my children piped right up during service and asid " You're wrong Brother Dan, My family lives there every day!!!" I love our small country church. The city of Savannah itself is just beautiful and has old oaks draped with spanish moss and millions of azeleas of all colors.( Not for another month on the azeleas I think ) Where I live ( In the boonies ) There is sand, sand, and more sandy soil. While this makes starting a new garden spot expensive, as I must add much to make things grow, Lots of companies want the sand and they dig small lakes that dot the whole area.
We have had the hottest Summers on record for Savannah two years in a row and problems with drought. We had 90 and up for 116 days running this last Summer. When it gets really hot it is the most I can do to get everything watered in the morning, but I know that I am blessed to have what I do have. And to be able to dig in the dirt in the mornings and evenings so I am really happy when I can get outside in the Summer. We really didn't have much of a winter this year in Ga. at all. My Irises rebloomed, and I still had tons of roses on Christmas morning. We cut all that we could an took them into church.
But now it is spring. I feel so great! I've been outside and weeded and mulched almost everything. That was all in the last two weeks. I am now really sore but in a good way. I also went thru and fed the roses ( I'm pretty sure we won't get any more frost ). They are now awash with those new red leaves and I even have buds a plenty. Now all the waiting begins. Will anything new bloom today? Has that shoot gotten bigger than yesterday? Will my Hygreangas get bigger than 1 ft. high this year? ( Please, Please, I am running out of different places to try you and see if you prosper. ) I must admit that I went to the store for more mulch and bought a new rose. Oh no I don't need any more, I have potted roses now that don't have a place to go. But it was in bloom already! I am so weak! Maybe I shouldn't mention the light pink camellia I saw, and got this week, when I went to get potting soil. It was miss marked and therefore on sale. Ah justification at last. Maybe.....
There is not really much going on except getting ready here, but I am in a constant state of anticipation. But that is really no excuse for all of my rambling on. I tilled 2 new gardens last year one for roses and their friends and the other for some recycled blueberries. Saddly the blueberries did not survive ( only one is left ) and I could not keep up with the grass over taking their new garden. I retilled it this week and have yet to decide what to try now. It was so much easier than trying to get all that crabgrass out by hand. Possibilities possibilities........
I wish all of you luck in your gardening day wether you be in the beginning of your season or the ending. Hope you have lots of good weather! Dawn

The lake ot the back of our property

Awesome mosses down at the lake

Narcisis in the woods

Oh one weak moment.....Hopefully years of joy!

[Kerole]

Re: Gardening in Eden

5 Mar '12 7:55 am

Well, well, aren't you a gardening writer for sore eyes? (That sounded better in my head).
Sooo nice to have a new garden thread to read through what may well end up being the longest, crappiest winter in NZ history (and it's only March!).

You are such a cheerful, positive writer. It shames me a bit when I think of all the whinging I do (especially lately). Today has dawned clear and still and sunny, and armed with some of your enthusiasm I am off outside to do some weeding and mulching with the undergardeners.

LOVE your lake by the way. What a fab feature to have on your back step.

[moosey]

Re: Gardening in Eden

7 Mar '12 8:35 pm

This is a wonderful post to read - my gardening has been terribly light of late, and I too have been grumbling about the lack of summer, the rain, the weeds, and so on. It gladdens my heart to read your paragraphs, so full of energy and good things. Huge thank-yous in reverse are due, and definitely a change of autumn attitude. Some people feel they start to fade and droop in autumn - I don't ever want to be one of those. I love the fire colours and the light quality. But sometimes I need a little help!

And oh yes, please keep posting. Love the photographs, too. Cheers, and all the best with your gardening, M

[MacFlax]

Re: Gardening in Eden

8 Mar '12 2:08 am

What a lovely post, please ramble more often! I love your pics, especially the mosses and that rose, yes it's irresistible.

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

8 Mar '12 6:58 am

Oh no what happened? I wrote a reply and hit save draft but that logged me out ant the reply is nowhere to be seen. Is there a delay?

Still figuring things out...

Dawn

[moosey]

Re: Gardening in Eden

8 Mar '12 7:04 am

Hitting 'draft' , I did it only once, it puzzled me so much that I never tried again. Please don't give up. Submit, submit! Cheers, M

[MacFlax]

Re: Gardening in Eden

8 Mar '12 6:17 pm

I preview often but I don't think I've ever used save draft. Hmm...

Amazing, it seems to work for me!
First I got this message...
Please note that saved drafts only include the subject and the message, any other element will be removed. Do you want to save your draft now?
So I said yes, and I found my way back to the thread and saw an additional box to click on, load draft, so I did...
and then I got lost because I clicked on the thread instead of the post I think but I found my way back and clicked on the thing that worked this time and my first line up above reappeared!

So, does that mean you can't save attachments ie photos in a draft? And why are there clickable links that make you lost? Oh well, I never use drafts anyway.

Sorry you lost your reply Dawn. Please come back!

[I love to Garden]

Re: Gardening in Eden

16 Mar '12 12:17 am

Good Morning, It is bright and early in my neck of the woods. I have been just jumping to get outside every morning. The weather has been beautiful with rain in the evenings. I think that must be the perfect time for rain. It means I can get so much done if I don't have to water too.

I was doing my general Spring chores last week moving all the pots on the porch ( otherwise known as my plant nursery ) and sweeping it off... I know, such an exciting life I lead. When inspiration struck! Yeah! I know what I am going to put in the old blueberry patch. Our lone blueberry sort of survivor might like some blue friends. A very Smurfy garden. Hee Hee. I suddenly came to the realization that I have a lot of blue and purple things rooted from last year. Who knew? What a perferct time to try to find some Agapanthus for my garden too. I have heard so much from Moosey about it but I did not have a place to put it yet. But alas mine will not be the free recycled sort. . I had to search some of the local nurseries and greenhouses to find it. None of them had ever heard of a miniture variety though. Whenever I asked they all though I wanted smaller pots full. I had a really great time at the nursery. Nothing was labeled and I spent almost 1 1/2 hour trying to identify 18 acres of baby plants by sight ( It was like a guessing game or a playground for gardeners ). I don't think that I did too badly, but I missed having my Mom with me because she would know all of them.

Since I now had a garden plan and I needed these densely planted pots overflowing with Agapanthus for part of the gardens backbone I felt no twinge of guilt in buying 10 pots full. Which I promptly split into 24 plants to ring my garden. WOW ya'll really weren't kidding about their roots. Some of the pots were almost split open from the roots buldging to get out. I also had the nice nursery man drive me around in his zippy buggy to get two new camillias for the woods. One is candy striped and the other is snowy white. They can join my lone pink camellia and keep her from being lonely back there... I do however wish I knew their names so I could introduce myself to them and welcome them properly into the garden... Oh well, back to blue...

To try and balance out the blueberry bush I planted a semi circle of silvery lavender double Roses of Sharon ( Also known as Althes and woody hibiscus ). You have to be careful when naming this plant to other area gardeners, because for some reason they are really attached to whatever name they know it as. I have even had some locals get angry and haughty if I dared to use one of the other names. All of mine are rooted from gardens of other members of my church so I never had an official plant tag, but I looked it up online and all of the names are valid. I guess that's just the South for you. Anyway I have 5 8in. cuttings that were rooted from Mema Joan's and Papa Stanley's old country garden when they moved lock stock an barrell to Alaska last summer. That is also where I got the original blueberries.

Next, for contrast I planted the three Prince roses that I had potted ( They grow almost black purple-red here ) in a semi-circle in front of the Althea. I think I will have to move one over because it is not centered. Oh darn! I really don't want to do that!! Bad spacial skills, bad, bad, bad, must do better next time. I planted 2 JFK roses and one iceberg rose ( found in the dying plant rack ) in the center with some pretty heather and some silvery greenery. Next in the front of the garden I did pie pieces of plantings. I had a ton of autumn-fire day lillys ( dark red with yellow centers ) from last years divisions, so I planted......Day lillies, Young Lycidas (a David Austin lavender rose),Day lillies, Midnight Blue roses,and Day lillies!! Well really!! I had to find some new place to put all of those Day lillies. I gave them away to everyone I could last year. I found every spot I could stick them in the existing garden and even in the woods. I also helped my next door neighbor plant a ton of them in her front border. I only bought 6 of them 6 years ago........Who knew????? Ha Ha. Thank you God for your bounty, now can you send some people my way to share it with? Thank you. I seem to be missing one Young Lycidas rose so I put a potted Princess Alexandrea of Kent rose in the ground as a place holder. I must get one more.. Hmmmm Budget, Budget, Budget. Lastly I put in some mixed pots with herbs and things to add a little interest until all my baby plants have a chance to grow.

Before

Before 2

Lone camellia in the woods

Lady Banks ( Baltimore? ) rose in the woods

My first rose bloom of the year!! Happy Dance!! Her name is Sophy's Rose ( Austin )

Smurf Garden. Finished except for mulch. Dosen't look like much yet but I have high hopes for it in a few years.

[Kerole]

Re: Gardening in Eden

16 Mar '12 7:38 am

Thank you for such an entertaining read first thing in the morning with a steamy cup of coffee. Oh to have the kind of property where a garden can be begun and completed in a day or two! Love it. Love the colour scheme and the arrangement. I cannot wait to see it growing and flowering. I wouldn't worry about the off centre rose - prune it a bit lopsided and it'll grow looking like it's planted in the right spot!

I laughed and laughed at your agapanthus purchases! They will most certainly give you plenty of value for money. They're not so keen on snow but will cope with fierce frost once established. A bit of watering in the heat of summer when they're little and they'll be away like a blind robber.

I have aggies scattered over the property. A couple of dozen clumps grow on a hot and bone dry bank of pure clay. They are green and happy and flower madly each year. Several clumps grow down near my pond too. I found some strength one day to dig a few of the clumps out as I don't want aggies near the water but a whole day of toiling with the pick ax was too much for me to repeat in a hurry. Then I found the pile of aggies, a whole year later, flowering happily sideways from their heap on the rubbish pile at the rear of the farm! Tough characters for sure!

The big ones are tougher than the minis. Sometimes the minis take quite a while to get established and bulk out, even in our mild climate.

Please, please keep us posted on the journey this Smurfy garden takes. I would love to see pictures of the roses in flower etc.

[moosey]

Re: Gardening in Eden

16 Mar '12 8:06 am

Me too! And with a less than steamy cup of coffee - why do my coffees always cool off between the kitchen jug and the computer? It's just across the room. OK, OK - the thinner the cup the better the heat retention, I know...

I've just come from a first-thing-in-the-morning read about a garden designer, a proper one, who understands colour, and does all sorts of restrained and sensible things colourwise. So I'm feeling a little less than capable, design-wise, and it is a pleasure to read someone who has instant ideas and does things from the heart!

Are those Prince roses David Austin ones too? I could be mixing him up with The Squire. And it's far too early in the morning to be sensible and google him.

Thanks so, so much for posting. I'm now inspired to shift some big white dahlias - wrong season, but their garden has gradually become more and more shady, and so they are desperately seeking the sun, and failing.

Cheers, M