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

Summer Celebration and Plant of the Month-Rudbeckias

It is that time of the year again-Summer Celebration time at the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Research Station in Jackson Tennessee. It is one of two gardening events each year that I endeavor ever so hard to attend; the other being the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show. This year's festivities kick off at 10:00 am tomorrow morning. The cost of admission is $5 and this entitles you to tour the beautiful gardens, listen to tons of great local garden speakers, and visit all of the exhibitors booths. My favorite spot to visit is the Madison County Master Gardener's booth for some great buys on plants. When I say great I mean really great. Last year's purchases were the best ever and you just can't beat the great plants offered at this booth for really reasonable prices. In fact, I am profiling one of those great plants that I purchased for my garden at last year's Summer Celebration. It is the giant coneflower, aka Rudbeckia maxima. And this month's Plant of the Month just happens to be rudbeckias-all of them.

From In the Garden

Rudbeckias come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are not too many plants that top rudbeckia for adding structure and impact to the summer garden. This plant is easy to care for, versatile, and long lived. Its impact in the garden cannot be understated. With its bright yellow petals screaming for every passing butterfly and insect to stop and take a look the rudbeckias its presence is known and felt very strongly in all gardens its graces.

Here is a different kind of rudbeckia, commonly known as Giant Coneflower. It stands a cool six feet tall in the garden and those cental cones can rise to 6" themselves. Perhaps we should call it the six flower? Just kidding.

From In the Garden

The flowers were so tall I could only photograph them from below but I also tried to get a big view for you. I planted this one plant in my Sunny Perennial Border last July. It barely did anything at all last year so when I noticed the great looking foliage emerging this spring I was pleasantly surprised and happy. It was not until the long flowering stalk began growing that I really became delighted. This rudbeckia, like all rudbeckias, is a long bloomer and quite a lady in the garden. It fits in well with with large prairie style gardens and large perennial borders where it can keep good company with Joe Pye weed and cutleaf coneflowers (Rudbeckia lacinata). Expect it to grow no less than six feet tall-this perennial towers.

From In the Garden

The foliage is most interesting too. The large leaves are similar in appearance to cabbage leaves, though not as round. The flower stalk holds up great under its own volition and needed no staking from me, I did however provide a leaning support for it.

From In the Garden

Other rudbeckias blooming in my garden are cutleaf coneflower 'Herbstsonne', and brown eyed Susans 'Goldsturm' (both are just beginning). All rudbeckias prefer full sun but I find 'Goldsturm' is a very adaptable plant and will bloom in the shade. Well draining good garden soil will see them performing their best in the garden. You really can't go wrong with rudbeckias, though some do tend to take over and need thinning periodically.

If you attend the Summer Celebration tomorrow be sure to check out the plant sales for some really cool plants. I purchased so many neat ones last year that I really should prepare a post on them-bloom day will see a few. One word of advice if you attend Summer Celebration and plan to buy plants-take a perennial or good shrub book with you so you know what you are buying. Some of the plants have some very cool names that are not too common. For me my purchases are usually easy-it has to say shade unless it says rudbeckia...

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

Summer Celebration in Jackson Tennessee

Summer Celebration was a lot of fun this year. I think the whole set up was the best I've ever seen it in the four years I've visited this fun event in the garden. There were lots of gardens with plenty of whimsy to go around.

This fun bit of garden art is simply a 4x4 with saw blades attached to it. I really liked this. There were also bicycle sculptures, constatine wire and gears attached to 4 x 4s, and huge bowls filled with sedums and agaves. The theme of the event this year was 'Succulent Sedums'.

The vegetable garden is always a lot of fun. I just look at it and sigh because mine will never look like this no matter how much I wish it would. There is so much room in this garden and the rows are so neat! Not a weed in sight either. Then what will you do with all those vegetables you harvest from this nice vegetable garden?

Why take them to the oven in the garden of course! There was a whole kitchen set up in the garden. Sedums seems to be the order of the day. A blender was mixing them, a Hoosier was storing them and the table was set with them as well. Hey, you just have to have fun in the garden.

Each year the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Research Station in Jackson Tennessee puts on this wonderful garden event called Summer Celebration. It is always the second Thursday in July so plan for next year's event now. And each year the theme is different but one thing is always the same, you can expect the unexpected here! I think this element of surprise and whimsy at Summer Celebration is what sets this event apart from many other garden events. You can always expect the unexpected here....

in the garden....

For a fun way to enjoy an old grill in the garden, go check out Darla's blog post found here. I think she's got UT beat for fun! I am thinking I may post the rest of the pics of the kitchen-what will you all come up with next?:)

Some Whimsy For the Garden and Summer Celebration

How about some alliums with the daylilies?

Or sunflowers with the sedum?

It is really something what you can make from a few neat utensils and farm implements just laying around....

in the garden....

There is a very important date coming up for those of us in Tennessee, especially those who have access to Jackson Tennessee. This Thursday, 9 July 2009 is the annual Summer Celebration extravaganza at the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Research Station, 605 Airways Blvd, Jackson TN 38301. You won't want to miss this wonderful event. An entry fee of $5 is all you have to pay in order to sit in on informative garden seminars, visit cool plant and garden vendors, and tour the wonderful gardens on this site. Do check out their website so you can plan your day. It is usually a long and most rewarding day 'in the garden'. P.S. There are air conditioned buildings:) Festivities start at 10 am. This is the one garden related event I make sure to not to miss each year. Have fun!