Thursday, May 28, 2009
Matching Home Gardeners with Local Food Banks
Contact your local food bank and encourage them to register. Then let all the "tomato growers" in your neighborhood know that they have a destination for their surplus produce.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Athens Select
You will "meet" the other two some other time. They are a Begonia and a Verbena.
Gaura & Peace
Gardening on Memorial Day 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Basil
Sweet Potato in Bloom
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Wild Geranium
The Wild Geranium, or Cranesbill, will probably still be in bloom if you make it up to the Hike Inn next month, but if you miss it then, you will have to wait till April/May again next year.
Virginia Sweetspire
Mountain Laurel
Azalea
Moore from the Hike Inn
Len Foote Hike Inn
The Rhododendrons flanking the entrance of the Len Foote Hike Inn displayed splendid blooms on May 15. This pink one on the right and an equally spectacular white one on the left side of the steps leading up to the office, first of four buildings that make up the inn.
Following a conversation about Georgia native plants and their importance in our world, I promised to post a list of nurseries where native plants can be purchased on this blog. The list is far from complete, but here it is:
Bannister Creek Nursery
3769 Rogers Bridge Road
Duluth GA. 30097
770-497-9905
http://www.bannistercreek.com/
Nearly Native Nursery
776 McBride Road
Fayetteville, GA 30215
770-460-6284
http://www.nearlynativenursery.com/
Wilkerson Mill Gardens
9595 Wilkerson Mill Rd.
Palmetto, GA 30268
770-463-2400
http://www.hydrangea.com/
Walker Nursery Farms
2024 Walt Stephens Road
Jonesboro, GA 30236
770-471-6011
http://www.walkernursery.com/
Autumn Hill Nursery
4256 Earney Road
Woodstock, GA 30188
770-442-3901
http://www.autumnhillnursery.com/
Buck Jones Nursery
7470 Hickory Flat Hwy
Woodstock, GA 30188
770-345-5506
http://www.buckjonesnurserywoodstock.com/
Buck Jones Nursery
689 Grayson New Hope Rd
Grayson, GA 30017
770- 963-8227
http://www.buckjones.com/
Thyme After Thyme
550 Athens Rd.
Winterville, GA 30683
706-742-7149
http://www.thymeafterthyme.com/
Pinebush Nursery
3332 Highway 106 South
Hull, GA 30646
706-789-2344
http://www.pinebushnursery.com/
I also promised to list the books I brought with me last Friday, to help in our discussion; here they are:
Georgia Gardener's Guide, by Erica Glasener and Walter Reeves.
This is the book that started me off on the path towards becoming a gardener. Its information and advice are indispensable for the novice gardener and ever-helpful to the veteran.
The Southern Gardener's Book of Lists; The Best Plants for all your Needs, Wants, and Whims, by Lois Trigg Chapin.
From "vines with showy fruit", to "perennials for poor, sandy soil", to "shrubs for alkaline soil" and everything else one can imagine putting in one's landscape, this book offers a multitude of choices for every soil condition and Southern location.
All About Georgia Wildflowers, by Jan W. Midgley.
There are, I am convinced, no wildflowers in Georgia that are not in this book. Everyone who is interested in wildflowers needs to have this book on a shelf at home - and take it off often!
The Curious Gardener's Almanac; Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom, by Niall Edworthy.
Practical, whimsical, overflowing with good advice and trivia ("Americans consume 30 pounds of potatoes per person per year, 25 percent of which is in the form of French fries."), this is a book to curl up with when it's too hot, too cold or too wet to go out and garden.
Rain Gardening in the South; Ecologically Designed Gardens for Drought, Deluge, and Everything in Between, by Helen Krauss and Anne Spafford.
The newest book of which I am a huge fan! The authors will be speaking at the October 17 Georgia Master Gardener conference at Gwinnett Tech in Lawrenceville.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Blackberries
Now in its second year, I expect this bush's crop will be at least four times what it was last year.
See that little Dutch Iris underneath it?
My garden looks good this morning!
Dutch Iris
I thought of that this morning, when I stepped outside with my cup of coffee for a quick look around my garden. Here is the first Dutch Iris in bloom! It and others around it sit underneath a blackberry bush that is fully in bloom at the moment.
Tara Dillard is known to say that one of the nicest aspects of a perennial garden is that even though many plants only bloom for a short period of time, "every two weeks something new opens up and gives a garden a totally new image". In my garden, the Bearded Irises are now almost all gone, so it is nice to have the Dutch variety take their places.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Best Perennial Plants for Georgia Gardeners
"Best Perennial Plants for Georgia Gardens. Or: how to keep your garden beautiful if you have no time, no money and only a little water."
Actually, with all the rain we've had lately, water worries are not as prominent this year as they have been in the past few, but we are still under watering restrictions in Georgia and sooner or later a drought will come back, so invest in a rain barrel! There are many available from local "Big Box" stores and on-line vendors, but I believe in "buying local" and supporting local small businesses, so my rain barrel has come from Karen Alexander in Suwanee, whose telephone number is 770-813-0271. This is also where the "no money" of the subtitle comes in -- Karen's rain barrels are not free, but they are a lot less expensive than those you see ubiquitously advertised.
This is my Georgia plant list for sun:
Bearded Iris
Coneflower
Daylily
Garden phlox
Gaura
Goldenrod
Joe-Pye weed
Russian sage
Sedum
Shasta daisy
Verbena
Yarrow
And this one for shade:
Astilbe
Begonia
Calla lily
Cardinal flower
Columbine
Heuchera
Fern
Ginger Lily
Hosta
Lenten rose
Snakeroot
Woodland phlox
Two resources for locally-grown plants for your garden:
1. The Farmers' Market in Hoschton (exit 129 off I-85 north - one exit up from Chateau Elan) is open every Saturday from 8 AM to 2 PM and has expert vendors with great plants, including lots of herbs and lots of flowering annuals and perennials. Call Dan Graves at 770-861-7232 for details.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Does Size Matter?
Another Bearded Iris
Common Sage
A few years ago, one of my children asked me if I wanted any plants for my garden, for Mother's Day. I told him I'd love to have a Pineapple Sage. When he arrived, carrying a nice, but small plan, he told me he had not been able to find a Pineapple Sage, but hoped this "sage" would do. Well, it certainly did! It's come back year after year and its blooms are among my favorites in the garden. So much so, that I've added half a dozen new ones this year, for lots more lavender blossoms in the future!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Bearded Iris (2)
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Viburnum
O.K. - one more today! This no-name Viburnum, flanked on the left by Lavender and on the right by Sedum (with just the tip of an Astilbe showing above the right bloom), is blooming its sweet heart out - becoming more attractive by the day.
Salvia Mai Nacht
The Russian Sage is coming back nicely, but the Brazilian Sage, bought last year at the State Botanical Garden in Athens, is gone. It was a beautiful plant, but I did not know until I got the thing home and did some research that I learned that its hardiness only goes as far as Zone 9. My subsequent contact with the Garden resulted in a comment that "here in the Garden, some survive the Winter and some don't". Well, mine didn't and I am not happy that in Zone 7B such a plant was offered for sale (with a $6 or $7 price tag) without adequate information about its habitat.
Meanwhile, I just added 3 Salvia microphylla 'hot lips' to my landscape ($2 each, from the Gwinnett Tech plant sale of a few weeks ago) and they are doing great.
Lesson: it may be wiser to stick with $2 plants and leave the more expensive ones for others to buy . . . :-)
More Blooms Today
Bearded Iris
In my garden, unlike the gardens of friends and neighbors I have visited in recent days, the Bearded Irises are late. But now that they are beginning to bloom, they are spectacular. On a warm morning, after a good night's rain, I was thrilled to find these fully opened blooms today. Another variety is doing its best to unfold its blooms as well, so there may be a picture to be taken again tomorrow.