Gardening time

If you've followed my blog for a while then you know that I enjoy my garden as much as my sewing room. Not more. I'd need a gardener to enjoy the garden more than the sewing room. But, short of that, they are two of my favorite places at home. Just a month ago, it looked like this.

These violets just jumped out at me this morning. My mom gave me one clump about 15 years ago and now I have them everywhere. I keep them in large pots with trees and other large plants as a ground cover and to let me know when the pot needs water. And, they spring up in the ground from everywhere. They'll bloom constantly until first frost, even when the temp outside is over 100*. They are NOT "shrinking violets" but are a hardy perenial down here.



This is what I laughingly call the kitchen garden. Potatoes, tomatoes, snow peas in bloom, sweet golden peppers, lemons and some flowering shrubs and perenials to make it all look pretty. I'm about to put in a row of carrots right next to the snow peas. they should be getting green growth about the time the snowpeas are finished.


This is the daylily bed. It is jam packed full of daylilies and huge purple cannas and elephant ears and my three new shrub roses. This bed will come into it's own in about May.

And, this is my sitting area. I can sit here, in the garden, or in the swing and look at the garden. That tree on the right is a lemon and the two trunks on the left are crabapples that are just finishing their bloom. I should have plenty of apples for a full jar of jelly this year. Last year, I only got a half jar, but it was yummmmmmy!

This is the closer to the sitting area. The mailbox holds a few gardening tools. A pair of clippers and a trowel and pair of gloves. They stay dry and I don't have to walk to the shed for a quick tool fix. I love to come out to the glider and sit and sew or knit. The birds are coming in and Sydney has committed to keeping the feeders and baths full. We've seen doves and grackles and then the bluejays, and now the cardinals and even a few finches. Won't be long and the hummers will be back. Still just a bit cool for them.

This is the bed that Sydney and I worked on last year. She complains that it is too green. Green is fine with me. Flowers are nice, but the greenery makes things look so cool when it's 107 and there's no breeze. There will be flowers this year. Not a lot because this is a shade bed. But, some flowers.

That's my garden. Eleven years in the making to get it to look old and worn like the southern gardens I grew up seeing. My gardening theory: buy it cheap and stick it in the ground. If it's not happy, move it. If it's still not happy, get something else. I say that even though there are some things that get moved regularly, still trying to find that right place where they'll grow for me. But, I think that's part of my controlling nature. The only thing I've given up on is azaleas. They just will not grow for me down here. But, that's okay. I spent years trying to control them and get them to grow. Now, I spend that time on a 13 year old.

I miss Elizabeth Taylor already. It's been so long since we've seen her, but to know that she's gone for good is heartbreaking. My favorite of her movies? Cleopatra, of course, but more favorite are Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf, Summertime with Katherine Hepburn, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. We watched Summertime not long ago and I tried to explain to Sydney how she got that tiny waist and why there were no undergarment lines; layers and layers of silk, darling. Undergarments they don't even make anymore.

Have a great Thursday. I'm already looking forward to the weekend.

Lane