A Garden Tour

Do you remember my garden tour posts? I posted on six of the seven gardens on this year's Montgomery County Garden tour back in June. Well, this is the seventh garden and it is a very colorful, full, and stunning garden. You would think you were at a palatial mansion with professionally designed landscaping and stunning perennial borders when you pull up if you did not know better. The two gardeners are pictured above. I am not really and totally sure which is the gardener. You see, Mr. Davidson is a funny guy and really pulled my leg over there when I visited his garden. All along I thought it was his wife Nancy who planted the gardens, only to find out that it was him who planted and she who designed the garden! How is that for a good pairing? Their design and garden was so seamless that to this day I am not really sure who gardens here but it is evident someone does. Do you see all that beautiful garden phlox above? That is just a small sampling of the flowers visitors were treated to on their tour of the Davidson's garden in June.
Jimmy was able to send me a picture of his and Nancy's pond. Remember, the entire garden was designed around this pond. If you look closely, you can see the ginormous koi toward the front of the pond. The waterfall has a very nice sound and adds to the ambiance of the garden.

A specialty of the Davidson's is container gardening. The many unique and incredible containers were to die for. I have never seen such gorgeously designed and meticulously maintained containers as here. Jimmy explained that he and Nancy order specialty containers from a Kinsman Company. Instructions come with the containers, but you still have to be diligent to wind up with such stunning presentations as is pictured above. Isn't it awesome?

How is this for a pergola? This Greek style freestanding pergola was surrounded by lovely plantings. It fit in so well with the landscape and was just the right scale for the rather large property and garden. See all that color and plantings? You would not believe this garden is not very old in terms of well established gardens. Jimmy and Nancy began gardening less here less than ten years ago when they retired. The garden started with a super great koi pond which features a rushing waterfall. The koi were huge and there were quite a few of them. From that one pond everything else evolved out and around it.

This is a view from near the pond toward the pergola. The pond is located fairly close to the house so that all can be easily enjoyed from the house. See the classically styled fountain leading the way to the pergola? Can you hear the rushing water of the waterfall behind you while you traverse this path to a comfortable seating area under the pergola?

There was a lot of whimsy and small personal touches in this garden. One could not help but notice the inscribed stones intermingled in the hardscaping around the pond, the numerous statuary and the special brand of design this gardening couple incorporated into their yard.

The garden is also lit up for nighttime enjoyment. I can tell you I was impressed as were my friends who toured the garden with me. The Davidsons were kind and lots of fun and I thank them for sharing their garden with me and the community!

Special thanks to the Davidsons for taking all of the pictures and sending them to me. You all did a great job!

in the garden....

A Wildlife Habitat Garden

I toured Ron's garden on Sunday. He was very kind and his passion for gardening did show through. I was impressed by the gorgeous container plantings. One of my favorites was the mix of Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost', Opal Innocence and Supertunia Bordeaux.

Ron and his wife have lived in their home less than two years and are working on making the garden their own. Their home is located in a historical area of Clarksville and has mature gardens when Ron moved in. Unfortunately some of the planting were over grown and Ron has sought to rectify the situation by replacing several foundation plantings. Ron tells me his next big project will be a backyard renovation.

Gardening aspects come in many varieties and styles; mine is primarily focused on wildlife habitat. Those who garden will have wildlife, so it makes sense to assist with the diminishing wildlife habitat.

Delona Shockey contacted me and requested my assistance with the upcoming Master Gardener tour. She wanted me to detail the aspects of wildlife habitat because it is my passion and experience. I could not give Delona a direct answer because I was enrolled in a training class for SHRM certification and I would have an unknown test date to schedule. I called Delona about ten days later and she would not let me say no. I had less than a month to prepare for the tour.

While working full-time, working on the garden every spare minute I had, and using daily project lists, I was ready for the tour.

My wife suggested a sign in log which turned out to be very informative. For the Saturday tour, Jim Pugh and I entertained approximately 160 visitors. Eight master gardener volunteers visited on Sunday afternoon.

I heard many positive comments, such as, "This looks great," and "I like this arrangement." Perhaps the best compliments came from individuals' comments like, "My phlox does not look like this," "My marigolds are bushy like these," and "I never thought about putting grass in pot." I even observed one individual take off his shoes and walk in the grass to note the thickness.

Despite the limited preparation time and the stress of getting things ready, I view the experience as positive. I think my advice and suggestions were helpful to the visitors and the compliments were nice to hear.

No anecdotes from me here, I think Ron's stories say it all. Someone taking off his shoes to feel the grass? How great is that on a tour?

I appreciate Ron taking the time to write this up and share his experience with the tour. I think many gardeners can relate to the daunting task of preparing for a tour and I am so glad the experience was positive!

Do you all hear that? Don't be afraid to be on a tour.

in the garden....

The European Flair

The Browder Garden is a very special garden and similar in style to mine, though more refined-I am working on it-have patience! I enjoyed Helga and Dewey's garden very much.

Like many couples I meet who garden together, each half of the couple have their niche. Helga's is the flowers, and Dewey's is the vegetables.

I was very sorry to have missed seeing Helga at her garden, but I did meet her and her daughter at my garden. They made the long trek out here to Woodlawn to visit me just prior to my taking off to tour the other gardens. I appreciated it! Dewey was home though and showed Julie, Nancy and I around his extensive vegetable garden (a big hit with the crowds). He also shared some water; which was ever so helpful on the hot day we toured the gardens!

I learned quite a bit about vegetables from Dewey. Our vegetable gardens are very similar in that we both garden in raised beds and have solid paths in our vegetable gardens. His is surrounded by a picket fence and has a wonderful garden house located nearby. Dewey's garden gets full sun (a must for vegetables) and mine only part sun (but my veggies do okay due to the garden's orientation). Dewey taught us about a salad you can grow in the summertime. A big goal of mine is to pick greens at the same time I pick cucumbers and tomatoes. This is a hard task in Tennessee since most salad greens like cool weather and there is not much of that here in the summer. I believe it was Portulaca oleracea Dewey was growing. I am going to look for the seeds and try it out as it likes the heat! Some of the Browder's favorite vegetables growing in the vegetable garden are: German potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, a variety of salads, radishes, garlic, onions, carrots, Kohlrabi, corn, peppers and eggplant.

Helga and Dewey have six grandchildren, three boys and three girls. Their grandchildren's names are: Nicholas, Phillip, Eric, Katie, Lauren and Jessica, and they all reside in the garden! No silly, not the grandchildren literally, but the Pin Oaks that are named after the grandchildren. Naming trees is a good thing and I know a few other gardeners who name their trees. The only named tree I have is Christine's tree. I'll have to name a few more.

Helga, I hope to make it out to your garden when you are home. I would love to talk with you about it. And come back here when you have time and we can talk too!

Helga and Dewey wrote a lovely description of their garden which I would like to share with you all:

Our gently sloping backyard is a combination of island gardens and floating flower beds with different characteristics.

The 'Gazebo Surround' is our shade garden and is hope to: hostas, ferns, bleeding hearts, astilbes, hydrangeas and other shade loving plants.

The 'Moon Garden' used to only contain white flowering plants, but is now our new Austin Peay State University (APSU) Garden and sports a combination of red and white plants-APSU's colors! (That is it with the white Adirondick chair, Annabelles and red geraniums)

The 'Northern Boundary' island is the busiest part of the garden in terms of plant variety, color and structure. It is anchored by a native cedar tree; which is home to lots of our feathered friends. The hummingbirds absolutely love the bright red monarda (bee balm) and find lots of other flowers for food.

The 'Rockery' is mostly a spring bed with azaleas, iris, and daffodils. It also glows later in the summer with crepe myrtles and sedum. A garden house (German style), the vegetable garden, a berry patch, and a few smaller accent gardens float in the upper garden to round out the backyard.

Most beds are framed by flagstone borders which we have added over the years. We have lots of wildlife including everything from birds to deer to rabbits to squirrels to turkeys to foxes and butterflies. Some critters we enjoy more than others.

Helga wanted to share a funny story about the garden tour. Patsy, her daughter and helper on garden tour day, was walking toward a garden while a visitor was also walking toward it from a different direction. All of a sudden a baby deer jumped up and ran right by them in a big hurry! It scared both ladies half to death and must have been a sight. The baby deer had been in the bed all morning even while some 140 visitors toured the garden.

I want to share a funny story too. Not many will experience this happening-and it is probably a good thing. Helga liked a hypertufa pot I had made. I offered it to her at a very reasonable price, complete with the plants. She unfortunately got a bonus with the pot unknown to her. While driving away from my house on Lylewood Road, a big toad landed on her ankle. Imagine some panic and crazy driving for a quick minute there. She stopped and let the big fella out and continued on her way. I asked her daughter if she got a picture as it would surely make a good blog picture. She replied, "NO, it was NOT a Kodak moment." Too, too funny and I am glad you are safe Helga and Patsy!

in the garden....

A Shady and Beautiful Tour

I visited with Charlsie on Monday for nearly two hours. One of Charlsie's neighbors (Eunice, whom I knew through garden clubs and master gardeners) had told me I really should visit Charlsie's garden as it was so beautiful. Yes indeed. But what I could not understand was just how well planned, incorporated and managed the garden was until I paid it a visit myself. The following is Charlsie's words about her garden.

It was an honor to have been asked to include our flower gardens in the 2008 Master Gardeners' Montgomery County Tour, and such a joy to walk through our gardens with 100 interested guests that beautiful first day of summer, Saturday, June 21.

Having always had an interest in landscaping, we've found terracing to have worked for our extremely sloped and wooded lot. Over the 24 years we have lived here, my husband has built 2-foot-tall rock walls; which cascade down our hillsides. These curved walls have become the foundation for our flower beds, meandering pine needle paths, winding stone walkways, and a rocked, dry creek bed; which crooks down the hillside carrying rainwater. Shade loving trees, shrubs, ground covers, and flowers have been planted throughout our landscape and are accented with birdbaths, bird feeders and benches.

We are surrounded with a beautiful forest of very tall woodland trees and indigenous dogwoods. Ornamental magnolias, Rose of Sharon, and on Japanese maple represent the smaller flowering trees we enjoy nearest our home and in our gardens.Azaleas, rhododendrons, and laurels are examples of the spring blooming shrubbery we prefer. Coolness is added to our shade gardens with the deep green color of transplanted wood ferns, vinca minor, blue liriope, and Francee and Patriot hostas.

We feel that the trees, shrubs and groundcover plantings are conducive to the setting we enjoy and provide a serene backdrop for the color found in the perennial and annual plantings we like to use. In my opinion, the greatest visual impact comes from the cool colors of blue, white and shades of pink found in our gardens. Gorgeous blue mophead hydrangeas and white oak leaf hydrangeas provide us with lasting color throughout the spring and summer. The numerous pink astilbes we use add perennial springtime beauty and interest with their texture and sweet smell. Our favorite annuals to incorporate are pink impatiens and pink begonias; which are planted plentifully and in groupings with white Christmas caladiums, whose bulbs I harvest at the end of the season to replant in late spring.

Colorful potted containers overflowing with white caladiums, various shades of pink impatiens, and English ivy are found throughout our back patio area and accent the stairs leading to the upstairs screened porch. Ivy covered trellises add interest to the patio area, and another porch trellis is the foundation for our 24 year old Sweet Autumn clematis. The clematis tendrils are woven throughout the trellis and upward to the deck railing awaiting its late summer showing of tiny, fragrant white blossoms. Living so near the woods, we are fortunate to also have a treasure of spring blooming wildflowers; which include bountiful bluebells, multitudes of may apples, purple ajuga, lavender woodland phlox and trillium, to name a few. False Solomon's Seal is also found in abundance, with its white, feathery spring blossom turning into golden beads in summer.

While shopping in a garden nursery a few years ago, an elderly gentleman made this comment to me, "I can tell that you are a happy person." I asked how he knew. He then said, "Because you love flowers, and you love gardening. I have found that flower gardeners are always happy people." Yes, I do love flower gardening, and I am most happy when I'm in my cool and colorful shade garden. I hope my husband and I have made our garden setting both beautiful and inviting.

Charlsie, you are indeed a happy person and a super good gardener.

I included many pictures which I hope illustrate how wonderfully planned, cool and beautiful Charlsie's garden on the slope shows.

in the garden....

Seating Areas in the Garden

One of my joys in gardening involve just sitting and relaxing and enjoying the garden. It may seem like I don't have enough time to do this, but I do. I make it a point to just sit and relax every day, usually after a hard day in the garden.


Seating areas in the garden make sitting an easy and pleasureable experience. I have several seating areas and find I use them all at different times. The first picture is of a swing in my front yard. This seating area is tucked into a sheltered area under a cedar and oak tree. It is surrounded by gardens on three sides. This seating area provides me a good vantage point to enjoy my house while still being secluded, even though it is in the front yard.


You all have seen the second pictured seating area before. This is one of my favorite pictures and I use it alot. This is a very informal area next to my driveway. I sometimes sit here, but not often due to the openess of it to the adjacent property owner. I envisioned it as a place for my children's friends to hang out while playing basketball and as an area for me to sit among my sunny perennial garden. The fact it is a sunny area will change as the river birch grows in and provides privacy.




The third picture is a very new seating area. I used some leftover bricks from our old fireplace to build a little pad for this arched seat. It is in the backyard tucked into a garden which grows nothing in it but weeds. That will change this upcoming year (the optimist in me).

The main seating area my family and I use is a swing right off the back deck. It is such a comfortable swing and I bet I have seen half a dozen of these swings in other yards around town. The swing is from our local Wal-Mart and is a very popular style of swing. The Ramsey family tries to have 'swing time' every day.

I hope you readers have some seating areas in your gardens. Seating areas need not be fancy, just comfortable and accessible. What kind of seating areas do you all enjoy?

for now, I am sitting in the garden....

Gardener Tip (and Story) Day

I said I would publish some tips from gardeners on Tuesdays-but don't hold me to it! I should have said I would publish tips and garden stories. The following is from a friend of mine in my garden club. I love the way Esther speaks of her gardens. She said I didn't have to use her name but I think it is important to mention her (at least her first name). She knows who she is though. The following is her story and tips in her words. She sent this to me after she read the newspaper post and I thought you all might enjoy it. It does concern newspapers, but it primarily concerns a gardener who loves to garden.

The way I got into using newspaper was about nine years ago when I moved back to Tennessee and lived in Erin. I was in a rental house and asked the landlords if they minded if I planted flower beds. They said no. They had apologized for an ugly black tree stump about 5 ft high in the front yard that they had attempted to burn. I told them "No problem. I love old tree stumps." I had found years before that not only do they provide an interesting natural look but they are constantly rotting, providing rich nutrients for the soil for years to come.

Anyway, I put a large square of cement blocks around the tree. I found these discarded in the yard. I then planted a whole pack of morning glories close up to the tree and trained them to grow over the stump. They twined and twined and grew to be thick, beautiful and showy. They completely covered the stump and were so dense I had to constantly keep them trimmed back. Then I planted various flowers all around the base filling up the square.

The cement blocks I had sat up on end and filled the holes with dirt. In these I planted parsley one year, carrots another year, and petunias in still another year. People passing along the road used to stop when I was out working in my yard and tell me how beautiful my yard was and what a miracle I had done with the old stump. Morning glories covered it from spring to fall. My neighbor said "You have taken an old ugly stump and turned it into a thing of beauty." They all said how much they loved to ride by my house just to enjoy seeing my flowers and that my yard beautified the neighborhood. Of course that made me happy.

Then I wanted more flower beds but the grass was thick. I did not dare attempt to hoe or shovel it with my back problems. I pondered and pondered how to kill all that grass so I could grow flowers.

I finally came up came up with this plan. I collected newspapers from where I worked and spread them out about an inch thick over the area where I wanted my beds. I figured it would take a good two years for them to rot and in the meantime they would smother the grass. I then placed my landscape timbers around the areas to hold the newspapers in place and to define the beds from the lawn mowing man who cut my yard. Then I started filling them with topsoil, potting soil, manure , humus and anything else I could get my hands on that would rot and make good dirt.

I always try to get the dirt rich enough to get the earthworms to come aerate the soil for me. The newspapers get wet with the rain and rot down under all the dirt. They were so thick that it took a couple years for them to rot and in the meantime they smothered the grass. Worked like a charm.

I bought dirt at Walmart everytime I went to town. I also buried food peelings in the dirt. I spent more money on dirt than food I think. I started with one bed and kept on until I had lots of them. I did not have a lot of money and grew tomatoes and other veggies in my flower beds with my flowers.

Curly parsley makes a beautiful border. Dill and Sweet Basil are lovely accents and smell so wonderful. In the spring I planted my beds first with all types of lettuce. I ate lots of good food from my flower beds.

When I moved here to Clarksville, I have used the same method to plant my flower beds here. There are pros and cons with my methods. Raised beds defined by landscape timbers are essential to keep the man who mows my yard from running all over my plants. (One yard man girdled both my little dogwoods trees with the weed eater and killed them. I had to start putting down newspapers and mulch around my trees to KEEP him away from my trees.) Also, buying dirt and such does get expensive. Another consideration is that with the newspaper under the dirt, I could only plant plants that have a shallow root base for the first couple years until the newspapers rot and the roots can get through enough to stablize a larger plant. I have found that bought dirt has been sterilized and it is sorry dirt for the first year. Plants simply do not grow and thrive in it. This past year I invested heavily in more expensive premixed dirt. I mix it about 1/2 and 1/2 with the cheap dirt. I also put down mulch in some areas in the fall so that rots each year and adds nutrients to the soil and increases the quantity of soil. It is amazing however, that in the fall when I pull up everything and clean the beds for the winter how much soil (quantity) I lose in the roots of the discarded plants. I thump as much as I can off but still lose a lot.

Thanks Esther!

in the garden....

10 Things You Will Never Hear a Gardener Say

Mr. Fix-it and I were talking recently. We were talking about new recruits. Mr. Fix-it is an Army Recruiter and knows a lot about new recruits. I do too. Mainly because they always call him on his government issued cell phone. Doesn't matter if it is 2:00 AM on a day we are on vacation in Maine, or 2:00 PM on New Year's Day. This was the case on this New Year's Day. I got to laughing and said the one thing you will never hear a new recruit say is, "Gee, it is a holiday, I better wait until my recruiter goes back to work tomorrow morning to call him and tell him I have a cold." Or something silly like that. I am positive the recruit thought he had something very important to say right there and then, but what are they thinking? I am sure there are many other things you will never hear a recruit say, but this one thing is a joke between Mr. Fix-it and I because he gets so many calls without regard to family time or off time (Do recruiters get such a thing?).

This conversation got me to thinking about what ten things you would never hear a gardener say. I need help with this one guys. I really do. I have some ideas but not enough. I will start with some things you will never hear me say:

1) Gee, we have had enough rain this month, I wish it would stop raining!

2) I just love watching the deer.

3) Those pesky worms are so gross.

4) That compost pile stinks.

5) Euuwww! Manure!

6) There are too many birds in the garden.

7) It is so great those moles and voles aerate the garden for me.

8) Oh no! Not MORE flowers!

9) That tree is growing too fast.

10) I'm scared of bees and spiders.

What are some things you all would never say as a gardener? I have to confine this list to what I would never say, simply because I know some gardeners actually do like watching deer (me too but I remember they like to eat gardens then I don't like watching them-ever). Let me know if you disagree or agree and please add to my list. I need help! I know there are so many more things you would never catch a gardener saying.

in the garden....thinking about lists.