Fall

Getting your garden ready will make it a lot easier in the spring. October is the month when you plan and plant your bulb garden. Make or buy your mulch and arrange to have your garden tilled and covered to kill off the little pests and weeds in the soil. Time to start raking the leaves and or wait for them to drop. This year we decided to pile them up and run a mulching lawn mower over them and use them as mulch as a way to be more green. A lot of garden supply stores are having sales getting rid of summer inventory. It’s the perfect time to buy your manures/ composts, pre-emergent, fertilizers, oil sprays, repellants and even some plants put them in the ground immediately (perennials) . Store things for next year somewhere cool and dry so you have them in the spring. Its also time to start collecting seeds. Remember to wrap them in paper towels to ward off mold and keep them nice, cool and dry. Mark the seed containers with permanent markers so you won’t be trying to guess what they are later. Bring in containers and plants that aren’t winter safe and store them.

Morning Glory!

Summer hit me with a lazy kind of heat. Heat in Georgia is wet and numbing you spend your days avoiding it. Most plants wilted and some died, but my morning glories were magnificent! I planted a little flower called a Cardinal climber with them. The purples, pinks and red brightened cooled a wall that got full sun. All it took was a few sticks for them to climb, and a little water in the mornings every other day. Morning glories are tough little plants. Next year I'm going to plant more variations and see if I can get a full riot of color. The flowers planted in spring are still flowering and it's October!

I've been a busy girl

Summer has come and it's too hot. I catch myself watering before the sun comes up and only coming out to gather a few fruits of my labor mostly tomatos. The good thing is composting it fast!
The heat is cooking everything down to a nice dark rich and smelly earth!

Rainy days

Today it was cold and rainy I spent the day with my seed packets. Picking out the next great experiment in color. A white garden or a red garden or something in all purple...As I think about it I see the riot of colors of Atlanta's highways planted with wildflowers. I put the white, purple and red into the basket. I then dump all the rest of the colors in what will be will be! Anything too planned looks like that! Too planned! Here's hoping for happy accidents.The crush of color, the wave flower faces as I put my head down on the pillow facing the tv and dream not of movie stars and their dresses but flower faces. In rings...in waves..in things dreamed of. I sit in a field of flowers every color known to god...on a rainy day.

This morning

This morning I pulled on some running clothes and decided today I would work on being healthier. I warmed up with some yoga pulled on my shoes. Walking out I glanced over to my garden still wet with morning dew and a low fog was clinging to the low places in the yard.
So quiet and beautiful! The yellow asian lilies glowed like hazzard lights in the dim light. How often had I gotten up made breakfast chatted ove a cup of coffee when this Miracle was going on mere steps from me? Why hadn't I noticed when I walked to get the paper? This morning was like any other day. We go through our days kind of blind so focused our ordinary world we miss the extrodinary. So tomorrow I will get up pull on my running cloths but this time my plan is to have a look around the garden first. Miracles are waiting for me I just have to pay attention.

Weed and feed

News! The blue flowers in my garden are called Mountin lily! If you read my blog before you will know we don't know what all is in the garden we inherited from the former owner. Every month we've been surprised with little gifts of flowers. Mounds of blue flowers, day lilies and the roses. I've planted three "recovered" rose bushes" we dug them out of the Kudzu of our former garden. We also recovered a Bear's Breeches plant, 4 Blueberry bushes and a Salvia. We don't dare dig in this garden til we know whats there but we've tilled a vegitable garden much to our Azeala living rabbit's delight. We're thinking about fences.
We've applied for a rescue dog. I'm so excited. We were going to adopt or buy a dog but we walked past Pet Smart and there was this beautiful animal. He was a little shy and I think in need of alot of love. Someone told me once animals are like angels they come to you when you need them. I firmly believe that and he needs us too so pray for us. So y'all may be getting alot of pictures of a big ole furry dog named Ruddy.

Peat pots are the best thing in the world for getting an early start on plants. Put them in plastic trays and put them outside with your heritage tomato seeds or delicate little herbs. Bring them in when it's cold or too hot or just looks bad. Best thing you can plant the whole thing no struggling to take them out of the pot! These little pots dry out easy so keep their feet in a plastic tray with plenty of water. I have purple basil in mine and a recipe for purple basil lemonade thats sooo delish!This was given to me by my mother-in-law.
2 quarts water in a large glass pitcher, a cup of slenda ( or a cup of sugar) and two large lemons juiced about a 1/2 cup of lemon juice, a half cup of purple basil leaves lightly crushed. Combine all the elements and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours...pour this little perfect sippy into tall glass with crushed ice and a sprig of purple basil. Sit out in the sun in one of those long low chaises, in your sundress with your wide brimmed hat and think moody deep hot sultry southern thoughts.

Small Miracles

Life and loss..Today I awoke after a frightening night. Tornadoes ripped through Alabama and Georgia. We readied ourselves putting things in the basement. A radio, some candles a couple lawn chairs that we could sleep in there. We watched the news and waited. It passed us by.
Others were not so lucky. I watched the people searching for their loved ones. Looking at the ruins of thier homes. I have cried today hard for them and for us as a people. We can not play fast and lose with the earth and not expect the climate to change. The melting of the polar ice caps the changes in the weather are part of our ignoring nature. Like small children destroying and throwing away a toy we play with this earth like it's nothing. Oils spills, Factories pumping out carbons we reap what we sow.
I went out today and looked at my flowers and said a prayer. Please Lord let us learn and change.

Please give to your local red cross and go out and plant some flowers in memory of the storms of 2011.

Happy Easter!

There are times when you feel close to God and the world. More and more I am finding those moments in the garden. I sit down beside the newly opened flowers,vegitables and trees and marvel at it. My garden was the concept of the family that owned the house before we bought it. They built it, loved it, planted the azeala bushes, the hydreangeas and lovely little pink things I've yet to figure out. I feel as if I inherited heaven.
Mind you I didn't like the house at first. It was old fashioned and our realtor was showing us these beautiful new houses with huge kitchens tiny yards. The magic didn't happen until we had heart broken by the house we really wanted and the bank not even looking at our offer. It was around the corner. So we decided to look at this tiny little 1950's house again. This time we walked into the back yard. There was this white swing and these tall bushy hostas a few blooming flowers the bones of a past garden. We sat down in the swing and rocked back and forth as it started to grow dark. I realized I could love this house. It was fall when we moved in. I could not wait for spring to see what was in that tiny garden. Come Christmas we took the artificial tree to Goodwill and bought our first real tree together. Strung lights took pictures from outside and inside. It was like everything was waiting.
In march we were moving the leaves and branches from the corner of the yard and there were iris just poking out of the ground.
In april the bushes started filling in. Like a small sigh when everything started blooming. I realized I was learning a lesson with this house. A jewel doesn't always show it's self immediately. Sometimes it comes to shine from the work you put into it. From the love that once was. Somthings last forever, some things are reborn and some vanish from us leaving only a memeory. Love is the only thing eternal. I never met the people who owned my house. I'm told most of them had passed away,the daughter was living far away. I find things like flower vases in the basement old metal arbor buried in the ground. I can tell you this house was full of love and is full of love now. This gift of love from a God that knew my heart. He put my husband in my path and now this house. There are no accidents...all planned and good or bad with lessons attached. I look around and I know. He's alive!

Plantaurama save the trauma

There is a plant for all seasons and a plant for all spaces. When we first bought our house we were faced with the saddest thing. Two planters on the porch with dead grey dusty rosemary. I plucked out the two and gave them a proper plant funeral, down behind the azelea bushes. Most people don't realize you have to pick your plants for the space. Get alot of hot dry sun don't plant Pansies~they need some shade and moisture. Got a shaded porch plant shade plants but if you forget to water...alot do something that can take it. Plants are like people they have personalities wants and needs. Since we take them out of their natural surroundings it's up to us to supply their needs. Water, sun and soil with the correct balance of furtilizer and ph sounds complicated but it's just a matter of being willing to learn. If your planning on growing anything get your soil tested it's fairly cheap and allows you to amend the soil so you get good results and fewer heartaches. Know that you will have problems. Nature is harsh. A beautiful row of plants that you spent days planting, watering and nurturing can be eatten by a squirrel or bunny in minutes. My family call me squirrel obcessed and spend a lot of time sending me Foamy, the squirrel jokes because I once clocked a squirrel with a potato for eating my iris bulbs. (I hate squirrels they're rats with fluffy tails.) Get a kind trap load it with...iris bulbs or peanut butter and take them far far away...........The further the better.

Big Plants Big Containers

You can grow large plants in containers. Squash, zucchini larger vegitables easy to grow on a deck. Make sure they get plenty of sun at least 8 hrs of sunlight. Plant marigolds with them to cut down on bugs and ickies. I use long handled tweezers to pick off bugs I don't like and I drop them in a jar to be identified. If they are good bugs they go back on the plant, bad ones...dumdedumdum daaa! If you can't handle bugs you can't have a garden! Remember you want to eat this stuff so no toxins! You will get a pest problem but try buying lady bugs or praying mantis, or a insecticidal soap. READ THE LABEL of anything you put on the plants! First you'll need a 5 gallon container one plant per container, gravel and a bag of miracle grow potting soil or potting soil and slow release fertilizer. I like to put Squash on a standing plant stand and let it draps down or you can put it on an arbor. You want to do two plants to let them cross pollinate. add about 1 or 2 inches gravel making sure you don't block the holes in the bottum of the pot. Put in the potting soil leaving about and inch from the top. Plant the flower per instructions on the label. Let them vine down and water once a week twice if the soil feels dry! Use your fingers it's your best gauge. If it feels dry water it if feels too wet cut back on your watering . Soil should feel moist not wet. You can eat the flowers too. Stuff them with some cooked italian turkey sausage lightly saute and serve them over a nice lightly sauced pasta. Not just good but ready for guests!

squish squash

Pots and pans...

There is a lot of argument over flower pots. Some say terracotta is the only way to go and some swear by plastic and resins. I say be more creative than that. I have a project for you. you'll need tool dip and plaster. Stuff a pair of old sneakers or shoes (with a hole in them or drill your own hole) with newspaper. Pack the newspaper tight so it keeps the shoes open wide. Paint the outside with plaster and let dry. Once it's dry take out the paper and pour some tool dip on the inside. Make sure you roll it around til it coats the inside well. Let it dry then paint the outside with latex paint. any kind of crazy design you like or one bright color. Now throw in a few rocks for drainage, making sure the hole does not get clogged. Put your dirt in and plant it with some mint, basil, candytuff or any small spilling out type of plant or flower. This is fun and you can show the kids as grow in the spring or do a "family of shoes" and line a walkway. It's one of those everyone can help projects. little kids can stuff the shoes and paint. Older kids can help with the plaster and tool dip. Do this project outside on a spill zone where messes are allowed. Plaster cracks so put them away in the basement in winter. As for whats the best pot to plant in? I like terracotta for smaller plants but the larger the pot need the lighter I go. Resin is strong and light. Just think that you usually have to move a plant a couple times and with dirt, water and plants it can get HEAVY! I like creative planters too tin cans old interesting jars. Be creative and have some fun! Next blog selecting plants for a balcony garden...

Growing lessons

I'm gazing out my kitchen window watching the down pours. We had tornado watches and gold ball sized hail in surrounding areas. I gaze out my window at the mist of rain and the damage done. I see a few flattened plants, blossoms scattered across the ground and a few branches of the trees scattered about. Having a garden teaches you things. I recommend it to any parent having trouble with a child or someone seeking peace. Sometimes just watching something you make together grow, sometimes a perspective difference and sometimes seeing nature at it's most brutal can teach too. The thing is sitting side by side in the dirt planting seeds or sprouts silence and listening you learn things about yourself about each other. I have memories of sitting beside my grandmother. There is a skill to breaking beans. you wash them and then you break them in half taking the string the fiberous part off. Both of us talking about anything that came to mind sneaking bites of raw beans. We were commenting on the world or the family and really talking. How many times have you had a conversation with your child that you remember? I have remembered these things all my life. My memories are part of me I cherish. Building them with your child is important. Building them with your inner child is important too. Love is not out-dated neither is the ability to sit still and watch the beauty in the world. These are things every child needs and every parent should teach. A quiet moment alone with someone who just loves them teaches you to share. A moment alone to learn you can love yourself. A moment to teach yourself nothing is ever truly destroyed but transformed in to something else. I miss you Mamie. See you in the garden.

Gardening 101

Some people make things look harder than what they are. What I learned about plants you can fit in one sentence. I will give it dirt and water and watch it grow. When I lived in an apartment we longed for a garden. We put out containers of flowers and railing planters and expanded even over to outside our neighbor's apartment. I was loath to throw away old potatoes, avacado seeds and yes the tops of pineapples. I wonder if my old neighbor still has that three foot pineapple plant that out grew my sunroom and found his. My boyfriend bought me things that ended up out in the gully behind the apartment because no one complained. we and our neighbors ended up with a lovely little flood plain garden. It flooded every now and then if the storm was a good one. The steps we made would disappear and we'd watch as the flowers went under water and miraculously reappeared sometimes in other places.
I learned yes you can grow kale and rainbow chard in a pot if it's big enough. The best tasting tomatoes are grown dangling just off your balcony and you eat them like apples. You better pick them all if you are in an upstairs apartment with neighbors below. I grew basil that begged to be pinched and eatten with tomatoes, purple sweet onion and mozzarella a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
I also learned even in a city you can find a quiet spot to grow something and find a little peace among the kudzu.