faulker042

Please enjoy this original music from The Boys from Carolina . Dobro and vocals: Chuck Schutte Mandolin and vocals: Wright Young Standup Bass: Richard Roach (my husband) Guitar and vocals: Larry Nunnery Banjo: Bob Wilkerson Happy Holidays! Freda, Richard, Garrett and Chris Video by Freda Cameron , Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel .  

Seeds of larkspur, cornflowers, poppies, nigella and flax are sown in the fall for spring and summer blooms. As I walked around the garden, I saw the self-sowing annuals for next spring had already sprouted. It is time to think about sowing annuals for spring blooms. I like to wait until we've had a killing frost before sowing my seeds. There is a frost in the forecast for this weekend. The frost kills back weeds. I pull out the weeds, then apply a mix of organic compost and soil around perennials. The layer provides good insulation and nourishment for the perennials while serving as a good medium for seeds. My success rate with sowing both perennials and annuals from seeds  has been encouraging and it is less expensive than buying plants in the spring. Some perennials, such as flax, coneflowers and rudbeckia, will bloom next year, but the plants may be small during the first year. The nigella (Love-in-a-Mist) sprouts are everywhere! I collected seeds and let hundreds fall to the ...

I must THINK before I speak French. I have a grand plan to practice and learn more of the French language since France has become our annual vacation location. I have repeated this plan for the last few years, but haven't made sufficient progress. I really need to improve my command of the language. Seriously. It's time. With only five months until the next trip, I am setting goals to increase my vocabulary, improve my conjugation of verbs and my ability to converse. I'm also listening to many of the songs of the late Edith Piaf ( La Vie En Rose fame) to make this task more enjoyable. Languages are tedious to learn. I'm easily distracted. My education included four years of French. Taught by a US Southern lady. Drawl and all! Not so good. Humorous, in fact. Slow and drawn-out syllables. My pronunciation is an embarrassment when I speak, but I have found that making the effort is truly rewarding. The French appear to forgive me (and probably laugh when I leave) as long ...

Pink mums perk up the garden for the third year. Autumn hasn't arrived, so the world isn't yet shades of orange, russet and red. The late blooms are all about pink and purple. The cottage garden is hanging on with blooms of mums, zinnias and autumn sage. With no frost so far, the bloom season suddenly improved after the last rainfall. The garden mums are now in the third year. I simply divide the mother plants when they get too large. I plant out the offspring and those are bloom in their first season.  The foliage remains evergreen here in zone 7b. I pinch back the plants until the July 4th to create a mounding shape, loaded with autumn blooms. Zinnias are still fabulous. The butterflies and bees are grateful for the nectar! The Monarch butterflies reared in my garden were grateful for these late zinnia blooms. Six Monarchs recently emerged in one day! It was delightful to see all six sipping from the zinnias. I am glad that I hadn't pulled out the tall, lanky annuals. The...

Geranium 'Rozanne' blooms and foliage work well below roses and coneflowers June 16 2010 "In the third year it leaps" is an appropriate description for the growth habit of perennial geranium 'Rozanne'. The first two years of growth were not that impressive and I had to protect the plants from rabbits. It is now October, and 'Rozanne' continues to bloom, though not quite as heavy as in June. I'm now convinced that I want to keep this perennial going—and if I had more space, I wouldn't hesitate to grow it—rabbits be darned! With a bit of supplemental water through our driest and hottest months, 'Rozanne' never looked unhappy for more than a day. I cut back the geranium whenever she gets too long and leggy. This keeps the mounding shape in check and encourages more flowers. Cranesbill geranium 'Rozanne' can be grown in zones 5-8 in full sun or part sun. I have to provide a bit of afternoon shade here in the hot south by growing it ...

Helen, Freda and Carolyn Gail Carolyn Choi from Sweet Home and Garden Chicago , Helen Yoest from Gardening with Confidence™ and I had a wonderful lunch together. We met at a local restaurant and took our time visiting and chatting. It was wonderful to meet Carolyn as well as see Helen again. Speaking of Helen, if you are going to the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh, October 14-24, be sure to visit the garden exhibits. Take special note of the Raleigh Garden Club's exhibit where Helen, and other members of the garden club, have supposedly worked their magic with moss! After lunch, Helen and her children had to head home, so I took Carolyn to Duke Gardens in Durham. A very pleasant day for our outing! She certainly impressed me with her knowledge of ornamental trees—and speaking Korean to a family that we encountered in the gardens! So much fun! Words and photos by Freda Cameron , Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel .  

I am frequently asked for the house paint colors! Although I try to answer questions sent to me by email, I have a backlog lately due to other distractions. Here are a few recent questions with the answers. What is the exterior paint color used on your house?  I still receive this question quite often due to my past participation on the GardenWeb forums. The sage-gray body color with off-white trim is a custom mix and I posted the formula here: House Paint Colors . A reader who saw the story about my deer resistant garden in the July 2010 issue of Southern Living Magazine even wanted to know the house plan ! While the outside looks similar to the plan, I completely redesigned the interior of our house so that it bears little resemblance to the original plan. Do deer eat zinnias?  The deer tend to leave my zinnias alone until August, when food is scarce. Once they have little food, they will eat the zinnias. I grow Benary's Giant variety. The rabbits, on the other hand, will ta...