faulker042

A. Japanese iris. May 2013 B. Japanese iris. May 2013 Compare the two photos. Both clumps of iris are healthy and happy. But if you look at the companion plants, you'll guess which one is mulched with gravel and which is mulched with ground hardwood. Iris "A" is planted between a hedge of rosemary and butterfly bushes in the sunny gravel garden. The gravel garden was installed in 2011 and I've not had to add additional gravel mulch around the iris. A little raking or leaf blowing is all that is required to keep the gravel garden looking tidy. This spring has been cool, but even in the hot 2012 spring, the blooms were just as lovely. A month ago, I cut the clump in half to share with my son as it has grown so well in this location. The iris is planted in the dip that makes a dry stream, so in heavy rains, the runoff water is channeled here. Iris "B" is planted with astilbe, flowering tobacco and bee balm in a part shade garden where I use ground hardwood mulc...

Container hosta nestled between nepeta and Japanese painted ferns, growing beneath a tree-form Encore® Azalea. May 2013 Gloomy. Misty. Chilly. Where do I live? Not Seattle. North Carolina is having a cool spring. To find a bright side to this weather, I walked in the garden with the camera. Colors show true in photos when the skies are overcast. On a typical, bright sunny morning in my south-facing garden, it is difficult to catch the true bloom colors as the rays of the sun cast a yellow-orange glow. I compared the two conditions in this photo post in 2009 . So, I'll stop complaining about wearing a raincoat outside and running the heat inside and share today's garden highlights in the lowlight. Perennial blue flax, grown from seeds originally sown in 2009, continues to return or self-sow. Flax is a favorite and I have two varieties that, when transplanted early in spring, are welcome fillers in bare spots. Otherwise, I let it go where it sows as the slender foliage takes up l...

The cottage garden, bare compared to previous springs,  is ready and waiting for blooms. April 27, 2013. Any complaints about the weather where you garden? The cool temperatures, while delaying the blooms, provided the perfect weather for preparing the garden. I don't feel as rushed this year and gardening has been more enjoyable. It isn't ninety degrees already. Sixty and seventy degree weather could be worse as other parts of the country have been flooded and experienced late snows. Looking at photos from 2006-2012, peak spring bloom in the cottage garden happened in the first week of April.  Still waiting for blooms, but the plant foliage looks healthier and happier than ever. The centaura varieties (in the photo below) were tiny new plants in 2012, and now, they're starting out huge! In a future post, I'll tell you more about  centaurea gymnocarpa "Velvet Centaurea" as it blooms. It's one of my new favorites and hope it meets my expectations. Silver l...

Losing or breaking my iPhone while in the garden has been a concern when I carried it in my back pocket. Turns out, a travel accessory that I've had for ten years turned out to be the perfect way to carry my cell phone and seed packets in the garden. My undercover travel pouch keeps my phone handy, dry and free from dirt. Mine is old enough to be made of nylon and has three compartments (intended for a passport, foreign currency, etc.). Newer styles are typically in silk and I have one of those, but decided the nylon is easer to wipe off. Made to wear around the neck, I wear the pouch in a cross body style beneath my shirt so that when I'm weeding, it doesn't fall in my way. The neck strap is adjustable to the length that works best for an individual. Undercover travel pouch can be used while gardening. I discovered that the pouch is also the perfect size for stowing seed packets. Although I don't need to carry meds in the garden, it could also be used for something lik...

It's not a secret. I'm not embarrassed by it. I have an orange section in the deer resistant garden—seldom mentioned on the blog because it's so darn difficult to photograph the plantings together as one unified design. When one bloom looks great, another is declining. Orientation: To the left of the plants in the photo below, is the red and white garden seen here . The yellow St John's Wort divides the two color themed gardens. Not because I planned it that way, but because I didn't want to move this glorious shrub. Bees literally bathe in the pollen of the St John's blooms. It self-sows minimally and I'm always scouting for seedlings to use in other sections of the deer resistant garden. The orange garden is on the east side of the house, receiving full sun until very late in the evening during the summer. This garden is watered only when I'm establishing new plants. All plants are drought tolerant. The plants are shown in order of bloom. The orange ga...

Deer resistant garden. May 2012. I've been gardening with my deer friends since September 2005 when we built our home. Deer resistance varies according to the availability of food in the wild and the population of both the deer and humans (new construction removes habitat).  My definition of deer resistance is this: If the deer nibble the plants, but the plants bounce back for my enjoyment in the bloom season, the plant passes the test. See that pretty Yucca 'Color Guard' in the photo above? The deer nip the tips in January and February when food is scarce. But the leaves recover and the plant blooms on schedule in May. That's what I mean by deer resistant, even though the yucca looks a bit scruffy as I write this post on a cold January morning. In the photo below, note the mounded Spirea 'Neon Flash' blooming in shades of pink. Once in awhile, the deer will pick a bloom, but overall, I don't miss a few flowers during peak bloom season. The spirea blooms for...

Waterfront Park in Charleston, SC. Nine A. M.  (looking away from the sun) January 13, 2013 A forecast promising sunny days and temperatures in the seventies was enough of a temptation to put us on the road to Charleston, South Carolina. With a drive time under five hours from our home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, we spent little time debating our getaway destination. We stayed in the historic district where it was convenient to walk through the streets (a few remain cobblestone) in the French Quarter and South of Broad, including the famous Battery. We got caught up in the game of "which house do you want to buy?" as we wandered along the shady streets and drooled over the architecture of homes from the 1700 and 1800s. It was "Restaurant Week" in Charleston, but the crowds weren't bad. We enjoyed a great dinner with coordinating flights of wine at  Social Wine Bar  on East Bay Street. We stopped in during the early afternoon and made our reservations for eve...