A Few Flowers

Posted by Dawn

The North East is experimenting with several days of rain right now, in fact, it appears as though we will be having more rain this week, making it three weeks in a row. I can say, one or two overcast days brought me out to the veggie garden for the much needed thinning and weeding but not anything else, so with much ado about the weather, I've captured some flowers with my camera and decided I would share them, they are some of the blooms we've had over the last month. Wild oats.

Sensation lilac.

Lady slipper and bunch berry.

A holly berry, close-up.

I thought this one was cute.

and finally, a flower from my snowball bush although it looks more like a flake.

Lily of the valley, one of my favorite scents!

I'm not sure what this tree is, it gets loaded with these trailing flowers and it has a wonderful gray smooth bark. Any ideas would be appreciated, until then myself and my daughter call it the "kitty cat tail tree."

A lovely white lilac with an insect we first thought was a baby hummingbird because of it's long beak, no shown in the picture, but alas! Baby hummingbirds don't have antennae.

Goat's rue.

a close-up of goat's rue.

Pink geranium growing by my mailbox.

Pink peony, my poor pictures get dark from here on in, I was desperate to get some shots and took them on the only overcast, clear day we had recently.

Yellow lilies with purple iris.

Thanks to a heavy coating of horse manure, my iris are gorgeous this year. I know some call these Japanese iris but we have always referred to them as blue flag iris, they are native to this area and are found in swampy, low lands.

More yellow lilies.

My highly fragrant moss rose and after this rain, the whole bunch of these should be open filling my nose with their perfume.

A little tenuous bramble rose that last only a day, the white flower float it's one hundred (seems like) petals down to the ground if it is touched at all, a wild kind of rose.

And finally this photo that has a glimpse of sun and a small piece of mica, is a sedum growing on top one of my rock walls. Someday I will post on those too!

Until then, hope to see you on a bright sunny day....In the Garden.

Flag Pole Garden

Posted by: Lola

A couple years ago I had a problem that needed to be solved. My lovely azaleas had begun to die. Actually about 4 in total have met their demise. This area needed some help. I first put in a flag pole. Then I tried planting flowers but that didn't work. The soil was not ready. So I began to remove the grass and add amendments to the soil. These are some of the plants that I began to add to this garden.

The second picture shows how it looked in 2008 at Halloween. Not very pretty I must say.

This picture shows the Flag Pole that was added and also the bird bath for our feathered friends. At this point the garden was taking on the shape that I had envisioned. I planted some Iris, Canna Lillies and Snow Bells along with the Day lilies and glads that were already there.
After I had gotten to this point I started to add some mulch as I finished the garden. You can see the "hole" that was created from the azaleas dieing out. I took advantage of this situation to place an article, that a friend had given me, into that "hole". You can see the article in the second picture.

It is a flower pot holder that looks like a chariot. So I tucked it into the "hole" that was created. It helped to cover the bare spot that would have looked strange otherwise. Notice the "stands" I mentioned in another post!!!
This angle is looking South. You can see the front and backside of the garden. Not finished with the mulch yet. These Castle Rocks help keep the soil in the bed. If it rains a lot like it has this Spring, I would have lost a lot of this rich soil had the rocks not been there.
This is looking toward the point where I stood to take the picture above. This is the front part of the garden. See the pretty Iris"Royal Thunder" that is in bloom!!! Poor little Gnome sitting on the rock with his hand up to his ear trying to hear what is being said. lol
This is a view from the back side of the garden after all the mulch has been applied. I think it turned out pretty good.
This picture is looking straight on to the garden with azaleas beyond.
Other plants can be added as permitted. I do have a couple in mind.

And as all gardeners know work is never over.........

In the Garden.

Revisit the Gourds

By Skeeter

Here is an update on the gourds I grew last summer in my Georgia Garden! I showed you a while back how I Dried Them then turned them into natural Birdhouse's. Tina was kind to Give Pointers on this process and it was fun and exciting Making This Craft.

Above is one of the 4 gourds we turned into birdhouse's and place through out the yard. This one is in the Crepe Myrtle in the front yard. Well, just look who has taken interest in the gourd house! I wonder what he is looking at in the hole? Hum, I only see a hole large enough for this Eastern Bluebird to go inside. Lets move in for a closer look shall we?

Oh my goodness, a tiny blue egg! Could it be an Bluebird egg? And now naked baby bluebirds in the gourd! This brood has fledged the gourd house and we cleaned it out soon afterwards. A big ole ugly spider has made a second gourd his home. I guess I should have made a sign which Says "Birds Only" on the front. Oh well, he is catching bugs so as long as he is happy in the gourd, I reckon he can stay there...

It has been so gratifying to take a seed, place it into the ground, harvest a gourd, turn it into a place for my beloved bird to call home and raise a family! Tina, thank you so much for encouraging me to grow these gourds! It has been most rewarding of anything I have ever grown in the garden!

Mommy bluebird is currently sitting on eggs as she has once again decided to REVISIT THE GOURDS, In the Garden...

Note: the 4 links above should give you all the information you need to turn a gourd into a bird house for your enjoyment! Come on, give it a try, I did...

Wild Things

By Skeeter

Here are some wild things growing in my Georgia woods.

Look at all those blooms!

So precious and dainty.

You can tell how small these are when comparing them to the pine needles.

Just cute as a button!

Pretty purple blooms are all over our woods as well right now!

I have never seen so many bloom as this year. They must have enjoyed the plentiful rains we had this spring.

Ah, a little greenery in the mix as well and so much of it scattered throughout our woods.

And what is this little wild thing?

Yep, those rain falls brought you to life in the creek bed...

Well, here we have 4-legged wild things coming out of the woods and into my yard! Aw, the spring fawns have finally arrived!

The remainder of the wild things were spotted on the county right of way while I was mowing near by.

This is the first year I have spotted them in this area. Maybe a bird planted them for me to enjoy.

Look to the sun you little pretties!

I do enjoy all the WILD THINGS, In the Garden...

Vaughn's Lillie Oakleaf Hydrangea

It is pretty close to maximum hydrangea time here at Tiger Gardens. Since I've already posted about that wonderful time, I think I'll simply post about one of my hydrangeas today. It is Vaughn's Lillie and is a sweet little oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia 'Vaughn's Lillie').

Oakleafs are my favorite hydrangeas because they give year round interest and are very easy to grow. I think they are the easiest of all the hydrangeas and most adaptable. They are drought tolerant and can be grown in a wide range of conditions such as full shade to full sun. They are most splendid. If happy, oakleafs can grow to be very large. This can be a drawback so breeders have begun trying to breed smaller oakleaf hydrangeas. One such cultivar is Vaughn's Lillie.
I had the pleasure of visiting the world renown Don Shadow Nursery in Winchester Tennessee last May with my master gardener group. One of the plants I purchased was this little hydrangea. Hey, how could I pass up a new cultivar (at least to me) of an oakleaf? I've been most pleased with it's performance. This shrub is planted in full shade right next to a mature oak tree. It gets no special care, but just plugs along at it's own pace. In the one year it's been growing here, it has filled out rather nicely and not grown up all that much. See how full it is even in full shade? You can just see the oak tree's trunk in the back lefthand corner of the picture. This oakleaf was bred to remain only about 3-4 feet tall and wide. It is also a double. The blooms are so compact and dense that you cannot see through it at all. A really nice feature of the blooms is that when they begin going by they turn a chartreuse color and remain so for several months, finally turning to a brown. A lovely shrub....

in the garden....

This was not the original post I had planned on posting today. I have tried without luck to get permission to post a lovely garden in Franklin, so this is a back up. Hope you all enjoyed the Garden Tour Week and don't mind the hydrangea.

Final note: As a person who grew up in the 1970s I was most influenced by both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5. Yesterday was a sad day and both of these icons will be missed. I wish for the best for their families in this time of grief.