I’m adding watermarks. Just wanted to see how this looked. Ok, it passes my test.

Don’t forget to use perennial Gaura in your container arrangements

Instead of using Iphoto for Mac to resize your pictures, put them in powerpoint. Lots easier.

Looking over your photos quickly and with your eyes squinted reveals similar colors. When I opened my photos last night to try and categorize them, I decided to list them by color, then plant, and lastly would look good with another combo. That is really 4 copies of the same picture. The hard part is going through [...]

jodi delong at Bloomingwriter up in Nova Scotia made a list of plants she didn’t care for. Her blue poppy was at the top of that POST……or was it?. I was surprised. She links back to Stuart of the great gardening BLOTANICAL.com world. He wrote this POST on his 5 most hated plants. Do we [...]

I searched for a picture today that heals yesterday’s poor judgement on my part. Here is a truck bed full of birdhouses made by a local craftsman. It symbolizes how I feel about our community of bloggers. We feed off the same ideas and bounce ideas off each other. We are grateful when finding a [...]

Ila Hatter’s Mission Statement from her site Wildcrafting Ila Hatter’s mission is to tune people in to the many ways they can make Mother Nature’s pantry and medicine cabinet their own. Hatter does not forage the woods in the hope of making a profit.  “In my case, I’m not gathering things to sell but instead [...]

Murder your weeds or kill them? Murder is a direct attempt to kill due to a calculated plan. Murder will take a life on purpose. Killed just happens.  You could run over the plants with your car and kill them accidentally. Which style do you use in your garden? Right now I’m prepared to be [...]

Bring your troubles on cause I have a place to get rid of them for good. Stop and be still. You will hear the horses pulling their evening meal out of the ground. Listen to them quietly chew with their sideways chomp. See their eyes half closed and feel your eyes closing to. Give up [...]

This is Tonte. It looks a bit different than the previous post doesn’t it? The light of day can change as can your monitor or a thousand things. Here are some of the Crapemyrtles I like to group together. I’m not fond of the orange red but any of the pinks will do.  Most Crapemyrtles [...]

A Valentine Crepe don’t you think? Lagerstroemia x ‘Tonto’    common:Arbol de Jupiter ‘Tonto’ I love the color pink in my garden. And because I love Valentine’s Day, the color will always makes me think of that day. Do you have special plans for February 14th?

Me and MrD have a conversation half way through the video. Today was a good shed working day as the weather was awesome . I videoed MrD and my oldest son  while  they worked on the shed and MrD worked on it by himself today. He’s putting siding up now. We are a little behind [...]

Please stop asking me trick questions with an overloaded intent just because I live in the South. We are back home in the South since my husband’s retirement from the Air Force.  My husband and I lived for several years at both West Point, New York and The United States Air Force Academy in Colorado [...]

Click on the image to see a larger picture. Here you see an artist rendering of The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum.  In the previous post, I showed you my renderings for Edgewood Cottage’s landscape ideas. The museum is to be built just behind Edgewood Cottage.  I am hoping that Edgewood Cottage will receive [...]

—–You will have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see the full design.—— I’ve been working on this cottage for weeks. Even with my new Mac, adding the elements has been slow. This is a cultural center and a museum will be built behind it. North Carolina pottery is made from the [...]

My kids are clever and steady. No golf balls were hurt during the shooting of this incident. There are no strings or glue. Can he do a 5th? Can he? Awwwww! He didn’t make the 5th one. That’s my son who has all the patience in the world. We were on vacation and having a [...]

You wouldn’t believe who taught me to wear make-up. This is me in the 11th grade and the year I joined the Air Force. It was 1975/76 and I was born in 1958. My parents had to sign for me to go in the Air Force cause you had to be 18 to join. I [...]

I have many a fond memory of standing here admiring the shade plants. Standing here in the cool mist of the hose….or is it the gush of water from the leaky hose? Who cares when it’s humid and hot. I looked forward to watering time. Anytime is watering time if you work around little pots [...]

I’m not going out there in 10 degree weather to dead-head the violas. Today, I have only pansies and violas showing their little faces. But it is bright and cheery. There are a few Coral Bells and other evergreens showing their winter faces as well. They pansy above looks beat up doesn’t it? We had [...]

Blotanical is getting hugely popular. I used to be able to read all my favorite blogs and then visit the new folks in the same night. Stuart at Blotanical.com is attracting blogs to his site like butterflies to a lantana and buddleia. Are they signing up because of my Bronze Fennel pictures? No, it’s probably [...]

The geraniums have been planted and soon the first bloom will appear. One of my favorite things about working at a nursery was seeing the first spring bloom. It was always the geraniums. Of course, we had to snip it off. I always felt so badly taking off the bloom it had worked so hard [...]

China is from Replacements.com All the china is from Replacements.com In the previous post, we discussed the way I use objects of interest to decorate an arrangement. Here are more of the flowers I’m considering to go with the china plate I have chosen to use as my focal point. All the flower pictures came [...]

The plate picture complements of Replacements.com Try to get both the above pictures in your monitor at one time. See how nicely the plate colors match the flowers. See if you can use the light green in the arrangement or some place near. The two pictures above are part of a window box collection I [...]

Ignore this! It’s for google.

This is a well equipped kitchen from the early 1800′s complete with a bit of indoor plumbing. It is modern if you consider what a few miles west would get you. The West was still clearing land and the folks were living in sod houses in some prarie locations. This is the kitchen of Mrs [...]

I built a planter out of old windows this year. My neighbors loved it and thought of me every time a window was discarded. I was given so many windows that my new gardening shed will be made of them. The garden above was enclosed with old windows and kept out the  bunnies and deer. [...]

Hush now or you’ll wake the quiet of winter. Hush now so winter can sleep and store energy for Spring.

Don’t do this. I didn’t have the heart to remove it but was scared to death someone was going to sue me over thorn attacks. I get hair brained ideas sometimes and figured I would attach it to a trellis somehow grow it up over the top of the porch. The canes would not cooperate [...]

All summer long they bloomed and bloomed, never needed deadheading, were resistant to disease, and the deer didn’t like them. My beds are amended with lots of leaf mulch, Espoma Plant Tone and Rose Tone,  mushroom compost( at least a yr old), and fine bark chips where needed to break up the clay soil. The [...]

Come down here where the bees be. Color Spires Agastache by Proven Winners is another bee, butterfly, and hummingbird treat. These are very long blooming perennials. Cherry Million Bells love to dance along with the Color Spires. It is also known as Hyssop. There are quite a  few varieties of Proven Winners Agastaches. I think [...]