Baptisias!

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring as much as I have been. Each year I keep telling myself spring doesn't get any better-but it does! This spring has been the best. Peonies and baptisias make it so. Perhaps I should've titled this post 'Baptisias AND Peonies' but I'll save a peony for later. Today we focus on the splendid baptisias. As a side note from a landscape designer (me!), peonies and baptisas are a great pairing in the garden. My peonies are just beginning to open up and they are quite beautiful this year.

The real stars are the baptisias tho. This one is a while one growing in my little wildflower meadow. I have several baptisias planted 'in the wild' in a small grassy area on our property as well as several more in gardens and scattered around the property. Baptisias are tough, beautiful, easy care, and long lived perennials for all sorts of situations.

Here is the main grouping of baptisias. Wow! It is a sight to see. I guess I planted about six baptisias here. There are three or four 'Lemon Meringue' baptisias and were supposed to be three 'Dutch Chocolate' baptisias. I honestly don't know exactly how many of each are here because I haven't counted them but they sure do make an impact massed like this. When I purchased them from a nursery several years ago (on clearance), I think they were mislabeled or the labels somehow got mixed up. I moved all of these baptisias to the new garden in the fall of 2013. To see more about moving baptisias successfully (don't attempt to do it with plants older than three or four years old!) see this post from last spring. It will also show you just how much these baptisias have grown. You need to leave at least three or four feet between plants for their mature size. Don't skimp on this step!

They grow between a grouping of crepe myrtles and border the edge of the large peony garden. There are over 40 different types of peonies in this garden and I thought the baptisias would look great with the peonies so that is where I planted them. I just love it. Can you see the 'Dutch Chocolate' baptisias? They are more subtle than 'Lemon Meringue' but are an integral part of this grouping nonetheless. Both 'Lemon Meringue' and 'Dutch Chocolate' baptisias are a Proven Winners plant. They are definitely winners in my book.

Here is a better shot of the differences between 'Lemon Meringue' and 'Dutch Chocolate'. Don't you love their names?

I'll finish this post with a shot of the main focal point of my new vegetable garden. I built this tiered strawberry bed from materials from my old garden just this past fall. And we are picking strawberries already! The rest of the vegetable garden is coming along and is almost done too. Soon I'll show you all of it....

in the garden....

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

The Year of the Bottles at Summer Celebration-UT Jackson Part II

Part II of our trip to the University of Tennessee's Annual Summer Celebration sees a LOT more bottles and garden art. Let's start with these strings of wine bottles hanging from a tree limb.

How about a huge bottle tree? I think this bottle tree was made from an old cedar tree. I too have a cedar bottle tree in my garden and I love it. I can honestly say the cedar holds up pretty well to the weight of the bottles but with time, the branches will slowly become flexible and will tilt down to the ground following the pull of gravity. This can make a problem for moisture getting into the bottles and the bottles falling off from the tree. You should plan for this happen and help to prevent it by choosing thick sturdy branches to place your bottles on. These branches should be distinctly upright in their habit. If you need more places to hang bottles then I have found long lag bolts drilled into the tree work well and don't sag.

Rolls of barbed wire can be beautiful when displayed in a garden. It is that timeless theme of circles with the added benefit of the new 'in' theme called 'rust in a garden'.

How about this mailbox fitted into a cedar tree? Mr. Fix-it and I are trying to decide what kind of mailbox we can put on our rather isolated country road in order to protect it from hooliganism. This idea might work! I believe this mailbox was left over from a previous Summer Celebration where the theme involved mailboxes. Mailboxes in a garden are a great idea!

Now we are coming to some specifics. Anyone who lives or visits Tennessee during this time of the year will be introduced to fireflies. It is a major but simple pleasure of Tennessee summers and I made sure to introduce my sister and her family to Tennessee's fireflies on her recent visit here to Tiger Gardens. I was super excited to see not only fireflies but dragonflies highlighted at Summer Celebration and to show my sister's two young granddaughters the sparkly Tennessee evening thanks to fireflies.

These fireflies were made by taking small bottles and filling the bottles with shiny ribbon (from the gift wrap section of your local department store) and adding some wings made of wire wrapped around another wire frame. The effect when these small bottles are hung in a tree is that the bottles appear to glow and cannot be mistaken for anything but fireflies. These were splendid! If you make some make lots because they look best en masse.

In the same bed and display area as the fireflies were these dragonflies made from a spherical piece of metal with four wine bottles attached. The whole thing was then mounted to a pole and placed in the garden. What a creative way to display wine bottles! Dragonflies are also a mainstay of Tennessee and most appropriate to this year's Summer Celebration....

in the garden....

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

The Year of the Bottles at Summer Celebration UT Jackson-Part I

How about a little fun with bottles today? No! I am not talking bottles full of spirits so please give up that thought! The bottles I will share and have fun with are empty bottles poised in a garden so as to bring lots of delight to all who see-no artificial 'celebratory' spirits required to have fun!

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of traveling all the way to Jackson Tennessee to participate in the University of Tennessee's Summer Celebration in honor of gardening. UT Jackson is a research facility that trials many plants. Some of the plants are displayed in lovely gardens such as the one above. All plants are labeled and displayed in a beautiful way so as to delight onlookers and make us all go running for our cameras, pens, and paper so as to take notes.

What distinguishes UT Jackson gardens from perhaps some other gardens are all of the lovely adornments. Can you say junk? Junk is right up my alley and I happen to think junk in the right situation is a win-win scenario for all. I mean think about it. This old boxspring (I have several on my property thanks to thoughtless people who prefer to dump on others' property) was saved from the landfill and is now used to bring a smile to onlookers faces. Not to mention it is a great trellis for vines to grow upon. Now if I could only secure those boxsprings on my land from the years of weeds growing up through them-but that is another story. Don't you love the bottles attached to the posts holding up this boxspring? I have also seen boxsprings like this displayed horizontally hanging from say a gazebo. Woven into the springs will be miniature lights so as to give a starry effect to wherever the boxspring is hung. It is a delightful sight!

Now these gears are too much fun in the garden. For some reason almost everyone is drawn to circles in life and in nature. The endlessness of them is tempered by the pointed triangle they are displayed upon. What a nice focal point!

This has to be one of my favorite displays. It was quite different than the usual bottle tree. Here we have wine bottles strung upon cables which are then hung between saw blades that were secured to a cental 4"x4". Sweet!

As my dear friend (Irene) and I walked around we kept finding really neat displays. This garden area near the buildings was one you really had to look at in order to see all of the neat bottle art in it. I will show close ups of the 'fireflies' hanging in the tree and dragonflies taking flight on a later post. You will be amazed at them. I know I was and plan to make some very own fireflies and dragonflies of my own.

I'll finish this post with a picture of my friend Irene and I. (I am the white haired lady on the left). This is the second year for Irene and I traveling to Summer Celebration together and we had a great time and bought lots of super good cultivars and hard to find plants. We swap years for driving and I tell you the drive with a friend makes the time pass by so much more quickly. We are standing in front of the grand 'bottle wall' at the gardens. There is a close up of the bottles in the first picture of this post. This display was probably one of the largest in the gardens and certainly the most grand during this 'Year of the Bottles'.....

in the garden....

Look for a part II to this trip later this week.

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

A New Bottle Tree in Tiger Way Gardens

There is nothing like a bottle tree to cheer the landscape. I recently installed a new one out on the land in the orchard. I had purchased this hanging bottle tree at the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show last March but had no place to install it--until now. I initially thought I'd hang it from a tree but then remembered I have a powerful arbor (formerly the wisteria arbor in Tiger Gardens but now the grape/kiwi arbor in Tiger Way Gardens) in the orchard that would be a perfect foil for this hanging bottle tree.

A simple chain with a latch was all I needed to hang this bottle tree. I looped the chain around a 2'x6' cross beam and hooked the bottle tree to it. The bottle tree holds 20 bottles but so far it only has 12 on it as I need to bring more out there. I want to make sure it will be safe before I totally fill it up as I am not sure how much it will swing and sway in the winds. But for now it is a lovely little highlight of color hanging out in the orchard. 

The gardens are really shaping up at Tiger Way Gardens and it so comforting to me that I am lucky enough to have the time to slowly move things out there and recreate as many of my current gardens as I possibly can. Bottle trees will be a real big part of that re-creation you can bet!

in the garden....

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

A Few January Pictures and a Splendid Winter Blooming Native Shrub

Hello all! We in Tennessee and actually a good part of the country are going through the 'Big Freeze' and while I sit here shivering I thought I'd share a few pictures from my garden. 

I am a big, big proponent of year round gardening and put my money where my mouth is. In Tennessee there is no reason why we can't garden year round. Despite the 'Big Freeze' here now it will only last a few days. By the end of this week I'll be back at it on the farm and in my garden here. So get out and enjoy it! In the meantime here is what is happening in my garden right now. Firstly, and most importantly to me is my vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis). Vernal means 'spring' or spring like according Dictionary.com. Here in my garden this witch hazel has always bloomed in January-a far cry from spring. But I'll take it.


This shrub has been here for 7.5 years and has slowly grown to form a good sized shrub that puts on a magnificent display each and every year without fail. I can't get enough of it! The small spidery blooms are sweetly scented and remind me of honeysuckle. The scent is never overpowering and is always welcomed this time of the year. This shrub is native and is drought tolerant. I have never had to add supplemental watering to it. Mine grows near a mature oak tree in a very dry, part sun garden. When it leafs out in the spring the leaves are very attractive and will stay attractive all season. Come fall they will turn yellow then slowly fall. I grow several witch hazels in my garden and can without hesitation say this is the absolutely best one!

More winter interest in my garden comes from spent hydrangeas blooms and straw colored grasses. Here we have 'Annabelle' blooms and in the background the clumps of grass are 'Adagio'. Adagio is an awesome clumping ornamental grass that grows well in part shade to sun conditions. It would appreciate a bit of moisture but is okay once established in very dry beds under mature trees. It is a smaller miscanthus that grows to about five feet tall with blooms. Its mature width is about 4-5'.

Close by the 'Annabelles' are several 'Limelight' hydrangeas. These babies are my most wonderful hydrangeas. Just look at all of those spent blooms providing interest all winter long. If you'd like to be reminded of how they looked this past summer just click here to read this article about these wonderful hydrangeas.

The birds need us greatly during these big freezes. I have been busy filling up the feeders on my back deck. These few feeders are hanging just outside of my kitchen sink window where I can enjoy the birds up close on a daily basis. It is important to feed a variety of foods to the birds if you wish to attract a great deal of birds. Here I feed primarily black oil sunflower seeds and suet. The suet is beloved by all birds and especially by woodpeckers. I always enjoy seeing the big red bellied woodpeckers visit these bird feeders.

Saturday morning I woke up to a ton of jet trails in the sky. Perhaps they are always there but I marveled at just how many and how clear they were this past weekend. As a child in Maine I would often lie on my back in the grass and watch the jets fly overhead. Here we can't do that because of all the ticks and chiggers but the memory is still fresh and clear in my mind.

The garden has lots of new life. These hellebore seedlings are patiently awaiting their new home at Tiger Way Gardens. I used to pull new seedlings immediately after I noticed them and place them in flats for planting out in the fall. I no longer do that because I found the new seedlings are more successful if left alone for one year in situ. These seedlings are now one year old and should succeed once transplanted. I love hellebores and one really good note, deer do not eat hellebores. The entry way to our farm will be covered with hellebores in a few years. This will provide interest and hopefully keep the weeds down so that I do not have to mow the area. Thank you to all of my friends who have kindly given me hellebores over the years. I especially want to thank Nancy for her wonderful donation of many large and mature hellebores that I recently planted at the farm. I was able to split most of them and got a great start on covering the area.

Lastly, a little color looking out front from my porch. Orkin has just eaten and is most content. She spends her time in a heated box on the porch but when it is sunny she'll make a rare appearance for us. The other two 'boys' spend their time in the garage bundled up together on a cat bed when not eating or hunting. They are lethal hunters and daily I find remnants of rodents they have killed in my garden. The bottle trees are free standing trees that support a good deal of bottles. These will move to the farm once the house is built.

Everyone stay bundled and warm....

in the garden....

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

Garden Whimsy at Herman and Donna's Garden Pond

The third pond on our 2012 Montgomery County Water Garden Society Pond Tour was the garden pond of Herman and Donna. For me these tours are more about the gardens than the ponds. I believe ponds, and water in general, enhance a garden experience. I simply cannot tour for ponds only so please excuse me when I refer to the gardens. 

Herman and Donna are fellow master gardeners and actually spent some time in my garden in June during the Master Gardener Garden Tour. My husband and I really got to know them and enjoyed talking to them and Herman's sister, Sue. It was no surprise then that when the tour stopped at their garden I was pretty excited. Their garden made me feel right at home-let me tell you!

One of the first things I saw was this mosaic. My husband said I should ask Donna if she got inspired from my three mosaics like this in my garden. I immediately went to her and asked her and she said she was indeed inspired by my mosaic when she spent time in my garden in June and gave me a big hug. She immediately went home after the June visit and created her own glass gem-shower door mosaic and the result is above. Isn't it beautiful? Now I no longer have the claim to fame that my garden is the only one in this area with a mosaic. Harumph! Nah, just kidding. I am flattered that Donna loved the mosaic so much she created it. I can tell you they take some work and each and everyone will be a bit different and unique. Mounting them in the garden adds so much to a garden. I am so thrilled to see this beautiful one in Donna and Herman's garden. It was a big hit with our tour too.

Here is the backside of it. Both sides are gorgeous. One side is in 3D while the other one simply sparkles with color.

There was another reason I felt at home in this garden. There were so many wonderful garden art pieces and splendid seating areas that I surely felt at home. Here we have some of those famous tipsy pots made by Lola, and a tower that sparkles with gems.

This had to be my favorite piece aside from the mosaic of course. I plan to make one of these soon. Mr. Fix-it has already been forewarned.

The garden area was interesting. I did not actually explore the growing spaces but noticed this wonderful trellis made from cattle panels. I wish I had the room to do this in my garden. These trellises are perfect for growing vining crops.

The host of the tour, Terrie, loved loved loved this sparkly tree. She asked me to take a picture of it. It is an easy do it yourself project for anyone and not very expensive either. The 'gems' are plastic doodads you can buy at any hobby store. I bet you can get the tree there too.

This totem was created by Donna. She is quite the artist and had paintings displayed in her home that I loved. I unfortunately did not get pictures of them as Mr. Fix-it and I were in the food line and so I left my camera at our table. Speaking of which, part of the tour included a lunch provided to the VIPs (PreTour guests). The spread Herman, Donna, their daughter, and friends laid out for us all was pretty amazing. Everything from fried chicken to barbeque to chess pie! And a very comfortable spot to eat it too! A few of us sat under a gazebo right next to the huge pond and enjoyed a shady spot to eat al fresco. I tell you I was not ready to leave.

This little bicycle was all set for a champagne toast.

How about this nearby bottle tree?

I like rusty things so this large flower caught my eye. No fertilizing, weeding, or watering required!

Now this weeping Atlas Cedar would need some help from the gardener. It was a specimen plant I wished I had in my garden.

Naomi was our traveling companion on this date. She thoroughly enjoyed herself as you can see. Pond tours are great to get good ideas not only about ponds but about gardens. Naomi is a learner and she savored everything we saw this day.

This whimsical koi caught my eye. He looks like he was washed up high and dry doesn't he?

Ah, here is the pond. This post is long and I was not sure if I even included the pond. I am really glad I did!! Herman used to have three ponds that he very recently combined into one large pond. This is one of the ponds that was less than three feet deep. He was limited on how deep he could go by fill lines under the pond. Pipes and lines are a big consideration when digging a pond. I made sure my waterline was no where near where I dug my pond as well. It takes some work to figure this all out but you must know where your lines are prior to digging to avoid costly mistakes down the road.

This neat piece of art was a hanging planter that really stood out to me.


As did the potted wreath welcoming all to Donna and Herman's garden....

in the garden....

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

My Friend Geri

Have you gone through life with few or no real friends but plenty of acquaintances? Then all of sudden that one special friend comes along and makes you very happy. You know the kind, the kind you talk with about anything, the kind that will not judge you, the kind that can sympathize, and even give you an alternative opinion when required? That one friend can change a person's perspective so totally that it is a friendship you will treasure no matter what happens. Well, for me my friend Geri was that person and now the unthinkable has happened; she has moved away.

When I talk of many acquaintances and not so many friends that was not really the whole truth. Throughout my Army career I made a few friends along the way. Friends I even now keep in touch with and friends with whom I have many good memories. Those friends were most special but for me while traveling and working in the Army those friendships were a bit fleeting in that you kind of knew you might not be close friends forever. Being a mobile person moving on was just kind of a fact of life. My friends knew it and so did I. When I retired from the Army I kind of floated. I mean let's face it, most really good friends are made in childhood or made in the workplace or through other social circles. I never really had any of this being a mobile person. Temporary was the name of the game when working in the Army. So it was very special when I retired here to Tennessee for me to make a good friend, that friend being Geri.

Now you all know as do I that good friends don't just drop out of the sky. They don't come knocking on your door (not usually anyhow but sometimes) and sometimes someone who seems a perfect person might not be such a good friend. Friends are like gardens, they are unique to the person. Meeting friends for me was difficult because I was a 'new' person in countryville Tennessee where everyone seems to know everyone else. And if my neighbors don't know everyone else than those 'others' were military or just passing through and not really worth the time of getting to know. Such is the life in my part of my town. It is not that I am not social or anything. I am probably the friendliest person you will meet. I'm always happy to talk to everyone and to share. But to just walk up to a group or get involved is not really my thing. There was and is a saving grace for me though-I am passionate about gardening. The logical thing to do to meet others and to get involved was to garden and to go to garden related events. When Sandy asked me to join her garden club (Beachaven Garden Club) whole circles of friends opened up to me. Oh the possibilities! Friends just kind of complete you and make you happy and help you to feel good. I was so happy to have some friends who all liked to garden too! One day while at a garden related function one of my friends from Beachaven and I were talking. I must say Faye is much more social than I and she struck up a conversation with a nice short lady about my age. That lady was also new in town and was very curious about how to landscape an above ground pool. She just happened to have had one installed and wanted to know how to make it look pretty. She was from Michigan and hated the heat in Tennessee but was willing to put down roots for a while. Her name was Geri and we hit it off.

It wasn't until a few months later that she called me out of the blue and said she had met me at the garden function, and she wondered if I would be interested in visiting her home to help her to figure out her garden. It seems the plants that do well in Michigan don't always do well here. People who are mobile and move from one zone to another have a great deal of difficulty in adjusting to the changes and Geri was a person in a state of 'Help'! She was also a person who did not sit on her laurels. She got involved in gardening functions, even joined the Beachaven Garden club and she got her hands dirty and made over her spot of paradise into a functional garden she and her daughter could enjoy.

After that first visit we became incredibly awesomely good friends. We were so compatible you would not believe it. Where she was quiet and soft spoken I was loud and blunt. Where I was computer savvy she hated computers with a passion (I do hope she visits this post though). Where I spent money she was thrifty. Where she was a Christian I was a bad girl and the list goes on. Through it all she and I connected and always, always felt comfortable together. When she would call me (she certainly didn't do Facebook you know) we could talk for hours about anything and everything. Talking to someone on the phone is something I generally do not like to do so you know our relationship just had to be good for us to talk the way we did. We did for one another selflessly and always, always cared about what the other was doing. Our children are the same age (her daughter is two months older than Jimmy), Geri is one of four girls (like me), Geri is a twin and I have twin daughters, and she shared all my trials and tribulations with me as I did with her. We talked family, school, jobs (we even worked together at Home Depot stocking plants of all things), and we traveled to so many garden functions together that it seems unreal now when I will go to my favorite garden events without her.


About two months ago Geri told me she was putting her house on the market and moving back to Michigan. I was and still am heartbroken. Even now I tear up thinking about her being gone and I am not normally an emotional person but I miss her. We have grown quite close over the last six years and she was my first real friend outside of the military life. We will still talk and we will still be friends and I suspect I'll go and visit her in her new home in Michigan one day but for now I am sad she is gone. Most of the problem aside from the fact that we were such good friends is the fact I did not think my friends would move away once I retired and settled down. Sometimes we just take things for granted and the thought of any of my friends moving away just kind of never occurred to me. The fact she did move away makes a sad time in my life going back to my time in the military and throughout my life when I would move and be transient. I am happy for her and her daughter and wish them the best in Michigan and I will be okay.


I went over and helped Geri and Clare load up their POD prior to closing. This is when I took all of the above pictures of her home. The stone pathway you see by the pool is stone Geri traveled all the way to Russellville to purchase. She hand loaded those stones in the back of her Pontiac multi purpose vehicle, and hauled them back to her house where she meticulously laid each stone. It took her years but she was ever so proud of the finally completed patio and path. The arbor in the corner is set on bowling ball stones. She and I made countless trips to Hopkinsville to purchase these stones for .10 each. They too were loaded into our cars and transported home. We shared plants, we shared crafts, we shared a passion for gardening and we two are very strong do it yourselfers. She grew her wild garden from nothing by using unique things in unique ways. She reveled in all the wildlife that visited her garden but would absolutely refuse to feed the birds or hummingbirds, and don't even think about a birdbath feature. She said the animals can fend for themselves. She shared her wonderful cherries with me and the wildlife. One day I was coming home from a client's house and was in a hurry. I had said I would stop by but was running late and forgot all about stopping. She called me at the opportune time just prior to me passing her house and asked if I was still coming over. She said she had picked me a huge bowl of cherries-in the heat and mosquitoes she did this for me. She was one of a kind (just looking at her bottle tree will tell you what kind of unique person she is and was-the bottle tree was left behind for the new owner and he hasn't changed a thing) and I had so much happiness being her friend....


in the garden....

Here are more posts I have done that involve Geri. It seems when I look back she has been a part of many milestones in my life while here in Tennessee. Geri fostered dogs, helped me with my animals, but to tell you the truth she did not really like animals. There is so much more I can say but will leave it as is for now.

Garden Art from Bowling balls-a very popular post.

Tennessee Bloggers-Geri traveled to Nashville with me to meet other Tennessee bloggers a few years ago.

Nashville Lawn and Garden Show-each year since Geri and I met we always went to this show together. One year there was a tornado warning and our kids were sent home from school early. Yikes!

Perennial Plant Society-Geri and I alternated driving to Nashville each month to attend the PPSMT's great programs each month.

Starbucks and coffee grounds.

Irises from the Iris Society sale in Nashville-on the cheap.

Pine needles-we raked pine needles on Fort Campbell. I thought she was raking them for her garden but she gave all the ones she raked to me!

Garden tour-she helped out at my house.

There are at least 30+ posts where I have mentioned Geri. Some of the memories I had forgotten until I was preparing this post. It is so nice to have history with friends. History I can look back on as well as remember thanks to this blog. Thanks for coming along while I tearfully say goodbye to my beautiful and wonderful friend....

in the garden....

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