The Clock is ticking...

BY SKEETER
I have so much yet to do before I am ready for house guests to arrive in my Georgia Gardens. I have been painting, (example: above sign) cleaning, pulling weeds, mulching, planting, decorating, etc. I am not close to finished but THE CLOCK IS TICKING, In the Garden..

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

A big Skink

BY SKEETER
Do you see what I see in my Georgia Garden? Look on the stump.
Now can you see it?
Now you can! This Skink lives inside the hollowed out stump. Wrens have built nest's in this stump several times. Then OJ kitty discovered them. I would see him sticking his paw inside trying to get to the baby's. I feared seeing him get one of my beloved birdies so after they safely fledged, I closed the hole with a piece of Tin. The Wrens can no longer nest in the stump. Now this Skink has taken up residence.
He looks big doesn't he? That is because he IS BIG! A bit intimidating to walk upon him and spot it from the corner of your eye. Look at those neat feet.
This is a 5 lined Skink that can get up to 8 inches long. His face is bright red/orange during mating season. He comes out and suns on the stump each day. He is a brave thing as I can get really close to him and he only watches me.
Today I added a plant into the pot on the stump and he never flinched. I kept my eye on him though as I did not want him to become startled and jump on me. I would have done a major Pee Pee dance! I think it looks like a snake in this picture.
I am still weeding and mulching away in the Gardens. I keep running into these huge roots in the butterfly garden. I must get the large shovel and dig them up. I have no idea what type of root this could be. Do you? I am dealing with Big Roots and A BIG SKINK, In the Garden...
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Spring in Tiger Gardens

Spring in Tiger Gardens is glorious. Let's take a tour.

The pulmonarias are strutting their stuff in the Greenhouse garden. They look kind of like Virginia Bluebells don't they? Virginia bluebells are also in full bloom. 

The hyacinths are perfuming the garden splendidly. I have picked several for inside of the house but I have to keep them away from where I sit as the fragrance gets to be too much.

The above helleborus 'Onyx Odyssy' is looking fantastic. This was a new buy at the Lawn and Garden Show.

A new bottle tree graces the vegetable garden. Mr. Fix-it and I purchased this from The Peddler's Mall in Hopkinsville a month or two ago. Mr. Fix-it noted it would cost him more in materials to make the same bottle tree than what it costed us to buy it! It was a good buy indeed as it is most sturdy and adds to the vegetable garden.

Spiraea 'Ogon' is the best spiraera I grow. It has been blooming for more than one month already and shows no sign of giving up any time soon. The foliage is gold (I think Ogon means gold in Japanese) and is such a frilly texture that the plant is most interesting.

Grape hyacinths rule the day here in Tiger Gardens. I can't get enough of these. Though the bloom does not last long the interesting seedheads persist until May or June in my gardens. Can you figure out why they are called grape hyacinths?

This little bulb is sweet! The problem is I always thought it was 'Glory of the Snow' (Chiondoxia) but I am now not sure if this is right. Perhaps this is ipheion instead? I don't ever remember buying ipheion but it is possible I suppose. What do you all think? Chiondoxia or ipheion? The foliage comes up in the fall just like the foliage of grape hyacinths. These bulbs spread fairly quickly too.

Here is a longer shot of some of the grape hyacinths in a front garden. These guys really do a good job of multiplying.

Our 'Black Tie' camellia is blooming. It is such a treat to see these dark red double blooms each spring.

They look just like roses but have absolutely no fragrance.

Bloodroot. This patch is awaiting transplant into another part of the garden. These are very hardy and tough little wildflowers.



More Glory of the Snow or ipheion? I love this little flower.

A double hellebore. 



The crababpples are wonderful this year. This one glows. Come winter it will be loaded with small fruit that the birds adore. 

Close up of the above crabapple tree.

Blueberry blooms in the vegetable garden.

A double kerria. This shrub and the others like it here are favored by voles. I struggle to keep this shrub alive let alone for it to bloom.

Daffodils are still going fairly strong though the big show has come and gone.

Tulips and irises are now replacing the daffodils.

'Nuccio's Gem' camellia is still putting on quite the show.



Azaleas bloom under the crabapple tree in a side garden. It was on these azaleas I found the swallowtail in the opening picture. We have had swallowtails for a week or so now.

The front gardens are looking great. Tulips and irises are taking over.

Another shot of one of the front gardens.

The Foundation Garden is coming along. I have worked very hard on this particular area of the foundation beds.

A stunning Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris (STB) that my friend Helga game me last spring is blooming. I love the dark iridescent color of this one.

Old fashioned Bridal Wreath spirea (Spirea prunifolia) is blooming. Soon the 'Vanhoutte' Spirea will join its cousin in bloom.

More STB irises growing under yellow 'Knockout' roses on the eastern edge of the Vegetable garden.

African daisies wintered over in the greenhouse like champs. This is but one of several I have already planted out in the garden. I am crossing my fingers there will not be a late hard freeze. Frost I can do, no freeze please.

Frittilaria meleargris is blooming in the Rear Center Bed. I made a mistake and planted bearded irises on top of these small bulbs last summer when the bulbs were dormant. I will have to move the irises once they have bloomed out.

The far back bed alongside Mr. Fix-it's garage houses several shrubs and a small Korean maple. This bed is overloaded with good stuff because it is the overflow bed. There is no real design here but I enjoy it nonetheless.

The Secret Patio garden is all aglow one 'Tamukeyama' Japanese maple, bleeding hearts, iberis, and hellebores. One of the two 'Tamukeyama' Japanese maples that flanked the Secret Patio died last summer. It happens. I hope this one does not perish as well. I probably should've watered them last summer.

Corydalis solida is blooming all around the gardens. Most of these small bulbs came back so I am pleased with them.

'Sango Kaku' Japanese maple is outstanding as always. It does a great job of providing privacy from the neighboring house for our deck.

A Viburnum burkwoodii 'Mohawk' is blooming out front. Gerianne gave me this shrub a month or two ago. I read its bloom smells the best of all viburnums but I am not sold. It does smell okay but it is the white blooms that are most exciting.




Textures in the gardens help to carry them through the early days of spring. I can't wait for the blooms to come; which will be throughout the next few seasons.

This combination draws my eye every time I walk out the front door. The tulips with irises-perfect combo. I'll have to remember this combo this fall and plant more tulips to keep it all going.


 Finally, when I find marked down bulbs in the stores in November and December I usually buy them-if I have a good spot in mind and don't mind losing my money if they don't make it. These tulips were a markdown in late December. I plopped them in this window box with blue pansies (I also planted them in another window box with orange pansies) and the combo has worked out well. Sometimes I get lucky because in the past tulips I have planted late have sometimes failed to show.

There are a lot of pictures in this post because next week is spring break and I will be taking a hiatus from the blog and perhaps even from the computer, so I kind of overloaded this Spring in Tiger Gardens post....


in the garden....


Also blooming not pictured are: spicebush, brunnera, two other crabapples, stinky hellebores, quince, aconites, verbena, hyacinths, Chinese redbud, another unknown viburnum, 'Forest Pansy' redbud and other redbuds, 'Brilliantissima' chokecherry, Vanhoutte spiraea, bittercress (a very obnoxious weed this year), dandelions...okay, enough on the weeds. Peonies, lilacs, and salvia are all loaded with buds so it won't be long for those blooms. How is spring in your garden?

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Whimsy

BY SKEETER I have a bit of Whimsy here in my Georgia Gardens. This is my latest bit of fun. I have lost 2 Azalea's in the Driveway Island. I cut down the mostly dead one yesterday and decided to do something unique to take the eye off the empty spot. Flowers are my solution to keep the eye busy while looking at this Island. Bicycle baskets were too expensive to purchase. I remembered an old wicker basket in my storage closet. Can we say recycling? Ta-da... I hope these two containers of flowers fill in really well in time. I have a vision of full baskets draping over the sides. This bicycle once belonged to the Saints parents. They purchased it at Sears back in time when Sears was the place to buy most things. Remember when Sears had a Catalog and even sold house's? Wow, that was many moons ago. I knew when I saw a bicycle in Tina's Tiger Gardens, (Click HERE to see) that I had to have one of my own. Plus our next door neighbor is really into biking. I mean REALLY into biking as he has biked cross country. He is a biking fanatic and I got his thumbs up approval for this display. Thanks Mom B for keeping this bike out of the land fill and passing it along to us. No you cannot have it back either. Hee hee. In the past 3 days, I have seen 4 snakes in our yard. I fear it is going to be a bad year for snakes seeing so many this soon. I am hoping that maybe with this abnormal hot weather, that many critters are waking from winters naps sooner and they are on the move for food.


This Rat/Chicken Snake was doing a dance for me. It was the neatest behavior I have ever seen with raising his head like a King Cobra. I believe it was looking for food. It was funny as I went out to snap pictures and then it took off into the woods. I came back inside and no sooner had I sat down at the computer and I spotted it back in the same spot. As if that critter knew exactly where it was going. I watched it for a while then lost track of it. Sheba kitty had her eye on it the entire time and so wanted for me to let her out to play with it. My indoor only kitty wanted to have some WHIMSY, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden