Happy to SAD

By Skeeter:Life gave my family a major Blow last year. On May 3, 2010 their Tennessee home was flooded. I left my Georgia Gardens often during the year to help with whatever my parents needed.
This is the mess that Mother Nature left in the Great room of the house.
I am happy to say that back in October 2010 (on my last visit home to Tennessee), this is what I found! A beautiful new Great room ready for family gatherings.
This was the Flooded view from the other end of this room.
Here was that view on October 2010.
The kitchen was a total flooded mess.
Here is the Kitchen on October 2010.
Red Clay mud after the flood in the bathroom.
A beautiful Bathroom now!
The first thing back into the newly renovated house were the plants! Some plants spent the 6 months on the back porch during the construction. My parents were able to maintain them during their daily visits to the house. Some plants went missing for a while. They were discovered in a neighbors basement which had been taking care of them all summer long. Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors!
I put in long hours for 2 weeks helping them get settled into their new home. This golden Bald Cypress tree brought me back to life each morning outside my Window after a tiring day before.

It was a Happy Time helping my parents move back into their home...

The first of the Year, I became sad again from what I believe to be a major case of SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder. I usually get the Winter Blues but nothing like this year. I have a lot of the symptoms of SAD such as: Not wanting to get out of Bed, Craving Comforts foods, Lack of energy and I cannot seem to complete started tasks. I have not even wanted to Blog and I love writing and talking as you all well know. Ha ha.... There is no real cure for SAD but I am trying to get my groove back by forcing myself to Blog. I had some Happy things to share with you and hopefully, this will help me to get over this funk. So Bare with me on Blogging and commenting...

I know that spring is around the corner because I spotted Daffodils popping up and hopefully, I will be over this for good when Spring gets closer. If you wondered why I have been missing lately, I guess you can say that I have gone from HAPPY TO SAD, In the Garden....


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

Updates

By Skeeter

I enjoy all the comments from you with each topic I talk about from my Georgia Garden. At times you ask for me to keep you posted on progress with certain topics. I am also curious of how things work out on certain topics in your posts as well. Although I have not been a good reader of Blogs lately because with so much going on in my life these days, I just don't have the time. I promise I will get caught up on blogging some day soon. The heat of summer is setting in and after this current trip to VA, I don't plan on going anywhere for at least a month. Maybe I can get caught up then! So now I would like to update you on some of my past blogs.

Of course the most recent talked about topic was the bluebirds making nests in the gourd we grew! (Click Here to see that topic if you missed it.) That was an awesome experience for me and how surprised I was to peek into the hole before taking the gourd down for cleaning to find the babies still inside the gourd! The Saint and I had thought they had fledged a few days ago as he said he saw a chickadee on the gourd. Well, not so as the babies are still inside on this day of typing which is Wednesday July 1. By the time this goes to posting, I am sure they will be out of the gourd and starting the next chapter in their life.

Last year, I talked about a Rescue we tried on a dogwood tree. The deer decided to make a meal of the tree and we could not let the tree die such a death. So we built a fence around the remaining dogwood. Click Here to see that topic if you missed it.
Update: The little dogwood tree did not make a come back in this spot. Too much sandy soil and not enough rain from the skies above. The fence kept the deer from eating it but the tree was not happy in this spot. So the Saint took it out and put it into a pot for us to baby it for a while. Just look at that sad little tree. Here is the dogwood tree now! Making a slow comeback on the west side of the house under our watchful eye and lots of watering. We will find a spot for it this fall and hopefully the rains will start to fall again by then.
The Saint had something in mind for this spot but once digging a bit, he found rotting roots from a tree we took out a few years ago. This may be the culprit of the dogwood and not just the sand as the roots breaking down were leaving pockets of air for no water to penetrate. So after a bit of digging, he decided to fill the hole back up with dirt and let it go back to grass in time. Look beyond this spot and see what he did plant for me...

A few feet back from that dogwood spot of sandy soil, he found clay dirt! That is how it goes in this yard. One area is sandy and the next area can be clay.But we don't let clay get the best of us. We added bags of dirt to the hole to make a nice new home for my surprise. And the surprise is a Redbud tree! We do not see many Redbuds in our area but enjoyed seeing them with our spring travels in Tennessee and Virginia this year! We enjoyed them so much that the Saint brought one home to me on my birthday! I was not expecting this so it was a wonderful surprise for me. Thank you my wonderful Saint!

Here is the Redbud a few months later with some leaves on her!

I don't know much about Redbuds but I am finding the shape of the leaves really neat!

A nice little heart shape saying "get to know me and love me" which I will do as time continues forward...
I talked about how the Saint and I were Foster Parents to a turtle for a bit. Miss Tuttle has a wonderful new home and we still have the hibiscus plant we bought for her. Click Here to read about that topic if you missed it.

Update: The plant never made it into the ground this spring as planned. It continues to bloom on the front porch but I refuse to bring the plant back inside this winter. A closed door to cats does not make for a happy household. Does anyone want this plant? Come on down to GA and you can have it because I am going to leave it to nature this winter. Remember me talking about the squirrels destroying the Saints Crabapple tree this spring? Click Here to read about that topic if you missed it.

Update: The stovepipe on the tree trunk seems to be working. The tree is growing and the bark is healing. Some of you were concerned about heat building up in the pipe therefore doing more harm. But so far, no damage from the pipe and keeping the squirrels at bay as well. We even have a few crabapples on the tree!
I showed you the suet pole once we completed this project by topping the pole with a "See Rock City" Barn birdhouse. Click Here to see that topic if you missed it.
Update: Even though we put the birdhouse on the pole as decoration, a bluebird built a nest in one of the holes! We had to stop putting suet cakes on the poles as he was fighting with all the birds that came to have a bite of suet. Here he is perched on top of the house keeping guard. The bluebird did not lay eggs in the house and we now have the suet back in place on the pole and all is happy. We plan to take the house off the pole and put screen on the holes to keep birds out of the house. We have birdhouses scattered all over the place and they do not need this one with those available. We like our wildlife to live in harmony and not fight with each other.
I recently showed you how we trimmed the butterfly bushes in the island. Click Here to see that topic if you missed it.

Update: The butterfly bush that we dug out and replanted after filling the hole with soil is now blooming. So it survived being taken out of the ground this spring! I was worried about this bush but no need to worry any more. It is not as tall as the other bushes but blooming and calling in the butterflies. Yippee, I did not loose one of my beloved butterfly bushes!

I asked advice from you all on the Saints Bald Cypress tree. Remember that blog about the twisted branch? Click Here to see that topic if you missed it.
Update: In the first picture of the cypress, I circled the twisted branch. As you can see the Saint decided to let nature take its course so he did not prune the branch. I hope he does not regret this in the future. The tree is doing well and really did enjoy the spring rains. Gee, wish we had some more rain as we are not getting it these days. Sigh, I know that feeling well... No drought this year, no drought this year.... Fingers crossed on this one...

Remember last year how I talked about one of my favorite Crepe Myrtle tree's getting damaged in the bad storm? Click Here to see that topic if you missed it.

Update: We pruned the poor damaged tree down to not much of a tree. We watched a local garden program on PBS that talked of Crepe Myrtles. The suggestion was to prune all but the main trunk's from the ground. So we did. It looked pretty bad don't you think? I was saddened for the once huge tree.

Here she is now almost a year later and looking mighty good! I am waiting for that gully washing rainfall as it never fails to get us once Miss Myrtle is in full bloom! (Do not enlarge this picture or you will see the suckers I have yet to snip. lol)
I showed you my solution for keeping the birds from building nest in the hanging plants this spring. I put the artificial nest and plastic egg in the nest of each hanging plant. Click Here to read that topic if you missed it.
Update: This solution has worked 100% for me! Not one bird has tried to build a nest once I placed the faux nest and egg in the plants! I should market this idea as many people complain about the birds in their hanging plants!
Ah, how could anyone forget the topic of the Saint and I scooping up some Natural Fertilizer? Silver (the white horse) and Georgia (the brown horse) were the providers of the wonderful fertilizer. I had reported that Silver had Crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to be with so many of our pets that once roamed this earth. It was a sad day for Georgia horsey as she really missed her sister horse Silver, as did we...
Update: Georgia's human mommy did not like seeing Georgia depressed about losing Silver. So now Georgia has a new brother. Meet Harley a beautiful horse which will be a new asset to fertilize our gardens this fall! He has such a wonderful personality. He gives kisses too!

I hope I could remember all the UPDATES, In the Garden...

Who will come to get that hibiscus? It awaits your arrival...

Note: I will pop in here when I get a chance. We are visiting Family this weekend!

Prune or Not? And a contest winner

I noticed a strangely growing limb on the Saints Cypress Tree in our Georgia Garden. The limb is growing upward. It is a bit difficult to see in this picture so I put a circle around the weird limb.

Here it is up close so you can see how strange it is compared to the rest of the limbs. I believe the limb should be pruned but the Saint says to leave it alone and let it grow as it chooses. Since we don't really know too much about trees, we are putting the question to the Garden Blogger's...

Should we PRUNE OR NOT? In the Garden...

Note: Since the photos of the tree were taken, the tree now has green growth on it. Does this make a difference if we should prune it?

Blogiversary Give-away winner:

The recipient of my One year Blogiversary give-away is, Drum Roll please......
The Saints hand went into the magic hat and out came Gardenjoy4me! Please send your address to Tina at ramseytina5@gmail.com so she can forward me the info. Your coffee mug and accessories will be in the mail as soon as possible!

Bald Cypress Tree

Look at this huge Bald Cypress tree (Fall, Rust Colored) that my dad planted in his Tennessee yard. Compare the size of the tree to the sun room of their house to the left! Yep, it is a big tree. When dad planted the tree, the Saint joked and told my dad that he would never see it grow as they are very slow growers. To this day my parents call this the Saints tree due to that little mistake on the Saints part!


Cypress trees do grow slowly if standing in the water but the cypress in the ground without constant water, grow quickly such as my dads tree. The Saint now has his own Cypress tree here in our Georgia garden. My dad found this sapling popping up in his yard and gave it to the Saint. We planted it in April of 2006 in the Butterfly Island on the west side of the yard.

Here is the Saint next to his Cypress tree 4 months later!

In one more month, it was taller then the Saint which stands 5 foot 9...

Here is the tree in June of 2007 being 14 months old! It really does seem to like where we planted it. Now we fast forward to this past summer. The fast growing cypress in June of 2008.

By July of this year, we knew we had made a mistake to plant the tree so closely to the butterfly bushes. I will have to keep the butterfly bushes trimmed and may have to move them at some point. Look at the size of the trunk! I like the way the trunk looks on a cypress tree. You can easily identify them by their neat trunks and bark.

We had a pesky visitor to the Cypress this summer. Lets move in closer shall we...

Darn pesky tent worms! We plucked them off the tree and remove the small damaged branch. Luckily, no more returned this year.

This picture was taken on Nov 12, 2008 showing you the rust color of the cypress during fall time. Now she stands all naked with no leaves on her branches.

I cant wait to see how large the CYPRESS TREE will get, In the Garden....