Why can't I fix lawn mowers?

It seems all my life, I been at the mercy of mechanics. All this week I have tried to get the 2 and one half acres of grass mowed. I have both a lawn tractor and a small push mower. I messed up one of the pulleys on the tractor. The mechanic repaired it with a plastic pulley. It lasted about 15 minutes before the plastic unraveled, or whatever plastic does. This morning I had to make another 25 minute drive, and hopefully he can replace the idler pulley with a metal one. On the push mower, I bent the blade on pine tree roots.
I let about 1 and one half acres have a meadow in the spring until the clovers stop blooming, or until I can take the growth no longer. It's time to mow. I have to mow it twice to get it all.

Finally I ordered by Leatherleaf Viburnums

I ordered two leatherleaf viburnums from lazyssfarms.com. Hope they make the trip down to the deep south fine. It is unseasonably cool today. But it will be hot before they get in the mail.

Do you have a Shade Garden?

I am presently re-reading George Schenk's "The Complete Shade Gardener". Of course I had forgotten almost everything. I did know of what few shade perennials I had, I
had to be on the lookout for snails and slugs. If I see them I go buy some beer and let them get drunk. I figure it's a humane way to get rid of them. And it doesn't
hurt any beneficial insects. If some gets spilled on the hostas, no harm done. Anyway I plan to be planting more shade loving perennials soon. I think I may even
do a squidoo lens on the
Shade Garden.

According to Schenk, the shade garden got it's start in the desert as an oasis. In Greco-Roman times, it became and atrium.
Any way I enjoy my shade garden, even without much color, perhap I'll enjoy it more
with some color.

Tomatoes in Pots

I must get to work on my vegetable garden this weekend. We should have no more frosts. Right now it is filled with clover. I must dig up the soil once again.
This year I plan to have corn and zucchini, plus squash, bellpeppers, okra, and English cucumbers. Also I will plant some marigolds and zinnias. This year
I am planting my tomatoes in pots and putting them on the patio. Where I have
been growing them, they do not seem to be happy. Hope it works out with pot culture.

Visit to Petals from the Past

I went to Petals from the Past in Jemison, Alabama near I-65 last thursday. It was a nice cool day. I got vegetable and flower seeds, tomatoes plant, bell pepper plants,
and a couple of shade perennials. My cousins in Decatur, Alabama have just redone their home, and plan to have someone change the landscape. They live on a wooded lot
on a small mountain. They wanted color, so I suggested doing a woodland garden of
perennials and such. So I found that they had a great deal of choice, if they would shop at Petals from the Past.

I bought some Polemonium reptans- with a lovely blue flower, and an Astilbe 'Deutschland' - an early white low growing variety of astilbe, for my shade garden.

Why is it so hard to find leatherleaf viburnum?

When I was a student in ornamental Horticulture in the late 60's to early 70's, I became quite fond of Leatherleaf Viburnum. A fellow student whose father had a nursery in north Alabama, gave me a plant. I was so proud of it. It looks so great with the solid green Aucubas and the Mahonia bealei it was placed near. Somehow it died during the 20 years I was in Mobile.
I found a online source, http://www.lazyssfarm.com/ located in Charlottesville, Va. I plan to order one next week.

Armand's Clematis

My Armand's Clematis was beautiful all winter until a late freeze in March turned all the leaves brown and zapped the blossoms. The guy who I bought it from said it should be putting back out in about 2 weeks. Thank God for small things. I was disappointed not having the blooms, it smells so good.

Wednesday morning we had winter in spring. Of course I shouldn't complain, because there were snowstorms in the midwest.

Perry Lakes Park

If you live anywhere close to Marion Alabama, visit Perry Lakes Parknext weekend, especially if you would like to see hundreds of Carolina Silverbells (Halesia carolina) in bloom. It such a lovely underused native. The park has many interesting trees, lots of bald cypresses, a bird tower, the cahaba river, a great place to picnic and spend the day. And anytime, it is beautiful.

Spring's here, can summer be far behind?

Except for the bad weather goings on, Spring is a wonderful time, and tomorrow it starts for real.
Hopefully we will have no more freezes. All my Armand's Clematis leaves are brown. And it was getting ready to bloom. I hope it puts out new leaves. Last week we were having 80 degree weather. Only a month or so away from 90. The only place I want to be in 90 degree weather is inside or laying on a beach somewhere with a nice ocean breeze - like South Beach, Miami.

When I was young, I loved summers. Now I like them only in Maine or Martha's Vineyard. Oh how nice it would be to have a summer place on Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket. They are both
so charming.

The Meadow Garden

The meadow garden has come alive with clovers. It looks so meadowy this time of the year, before I find it necessary to attack with the lawn mower. After all, I do not want to be able to see a snake before it sees me. It looks as if an impressionist painter has gotten his hands on an acre of ground. The violet vetch is blooming, plus the ever so green four leaf clover, and most spectacular of all - a tiny blue clover that hugs the ground. I wish I knew the name of it. Next month the crimson and yellow clovers will be abloom.

I made my order to woodlanders today

I just went on the website http://www.woodlanders.net/ and ordered nine plants. Many were favorites of Elizabeth Lawrence, who wrote A Southern Garden. A Souther Garden is a great read.
Any way I order a flowering apricot (Prunus mume), a single-flowering kerria(Kerria japonica 'Shannon'), and a fetterbush (Lyonia lucida), which are among her favorites plus 6 other plants. The 6 other plants are 2 sweet box (Sarcococca), a cabbage palm, a double-flowering yellow oleander, a 'Yellow Berries' Nandina, and a black jetbead. In the book Passalong Plants, by Felder Rushing and Steve Bender, an essay is written on "Yellow Berries" nandina, and an essay
is written on the black jetbead.

Bald Cypress - A Great Plant

Every day on my way to Selma, I drive by the local family doctor's house in the country about 8 miles south of our little town. Across from his house is a lake with bald cypresses growing in the
water close to water's edge. It is such a picturesque site. Wish I had a pond to put some in. I might grow one in my meadow garden, however. Either that or a Canadian Yew.

The Bradford Pears and Redbuds are blooming in the Northern Fringe of the Black Belt

The Bradford Pears are all white in Selma and so are the Redbuds. The large Daffodils are blooming also. Most of the old fashioned yellow jonquils have quit.

Divide perennials and bulbs with friends

A great friend and his wife came to my garden yesterday. It was great fellowship had
in dividing monkey grass, bulbs,and perrenials, digging up seedling redbuds. Part of the immense pleasure in gardening is sharing your plants. It's good for the environment, spreads the different species and varieties around, and gives your perrenials room to grow, and you bulbs more space to multiply.

Bipolar Gardeners out there?

Yesterday I had to go to Mobile for a physical. After I had driven about 100 miles
southwest, I got to the point where the redbuds were abloom. It was a great day in
Mobile, and I was able to get home before the rains.

Every time I think spring has sprung, the fates prove me wrong. Of course we have
had freezes even in April. But so many camellia blossoms, and many other plant
blossoms will be zapped. For it is suppose to rain again this afternoon, and
tommorrow will be cold. Early Sunday Morning it is suppose to get down to 28 degrees.

Today I was doing research on bipolar disorder, and found more funny articles by
akeejaho. I thought there were no gardeners who were bipolar. At last I've found one
with a brilliant sense of humor, into finding natural foods and such to manage his
brain chemistry, responsible for mood swings.

Rain, Rain, Rain

The Black Belt of Alabama got plenty of rain in February. March looks as though it will be a rainy month. My garden got 2 inches of rain last night. It's great but it
would be nicer without all the fireworks display. I guess God is into Theater.

It's a blooming black belt

What a pleasant drive I had to Selma. Selma is the largest town in Alabama's Black Belt. Not only was the weather picture perfect, but
every way I cast my eyes, they was some shrub, tree, or bulbs blooming. The forsythias, flowering quince, daffodils, and chinese witch hazel or
Loropetulam is all blooming. I saw what I believe to be wild plum trees also blooming.

It must make a difference -that is humidity

Well the dryness of the air Wed. night, even though it got down into mid twenties,
must have saved the blossoms on the saucer maqnolia, camellias, and other plants from
turning into brown. Thank God for small things.

My morning walk

One of the first things I did this morning was to take a stroll in the garden. I was on the lookout for frozen camellia blossoms and frozen saucer magnolia blossoms.
Although it went down into the mid twenties, everything looked fine. Perhaps it was
so little moisture in the air.

Anyway, once I get home this afternoon, I intend to take further strolls in the garden. Hopefully the blossoms will be pink, rose, red, vermillion, and not black.

Does hope spring eternal?

In spite of two years of summer draught and almost endless hours spent with hose in hand, I greatly desire to plant more new plants. There are so many plants, so little time and space. It's hard to imagine weeks of 100 degree weather with abundant humidity. Last year I think we had 13 days in a row of 100 degree temperatures.
And despite that I lost a fetterbush and a Red Star Chaemacyparis, I plan to plant new ones, plus things I have never tried - like having a palm tree in the black belt,
a cabbage palm. I think there use to be one in our town, but I haven't seen it lately. Was it my imagination?

Another Freeze

My Saucer Magnolia, I thought was safe for a few days. But if the weatherman is right
- either it gets zapped tonight or tomorrow night. Everything gets excited during the
Indian summers, and then an artic chill knocks them down.

Spring Chores

Not only do I have many blooming things to look forward to - there are some things I
wish I could put off another 6 months. The oil must be changed in the push lawnmower
and the riding lawnmower. All 800 trees and shrubs need fertilizing, plus all the
bulbs that have made for a glorius spring, need a few shots of bulb food.

Yesterday I picked up pine cones. What a pain. However so many great plants like growing under pine trees.

Plenty of Rain this week

Well we have gotten five inches of rain this week in our garden. I guess the lettuce
and broccoli are enjoying it as well as all the other plants. I hope this summer we will get as much rain as we have gotten in February.

The lovliness of Rosemary

The nearness of spring is in the air. It seems as if you can smell it - what with
all the jonquils, oriental magnolias, flowering quince, and spireas blooming, etc.
My rosemary is beginning to bloom for the first time.

March, year before last, my mother and I visited the Alabama Shakespeare Festival
Theater and gardens, which is part of the Winton Blount Cultural Park. In the
Bard's Garden there were hedges of rosemary with their exquisite blue blooms. And to be sure, the smell is divine.

Dangerous Living around here.

Each year it seems to be getting more dangerous to live in the southland. It's not even tornado season, and there have been so many. Prattville, a town just outside
of Montgomery,Al. was the scene of much devastation this Sunday. It was truly a miracle that no one was killed as in Tennesee a few weeks ago.

Saucer Magnolia is fine, unless in full bloom a hard freeze comes

Our family doctor's front yard has a beautiful saucer magnolia that was in full bloom
last week when a hard freeze came. It now looks dreadful. Thank God, our saucer magnolia in the woodland garden fared much better. Only a few blooms were frozen. Hopefully when more blooms open, they will not be frozen. The fragrance is as wonderful as the huge blooms.

Drats -the Farmers co-op had no buttercrunch lettuce.

The farmers co-op had no butter crunch lettuce. I had to settle for an iceberg lettuce. I guess I
will have to continue my search. Also I couldn't resist buying some strawberry plants to plant
in the vegetable garden, really a mixed garden. You can plant the repeat blooming strawberries
in zone 8 in February.

Have you heard all the buzz about green tea and it's health benefits. Green tea is harvested from Camellia sinensis, which means Chinese Camellia. Also black tea and oolong tea is also made from the same plant. You can grow this camellia in the milder parts of the U.S. - to
zone 8. If you live in a colder climate you can grow on a balcony or patio and bring inside when it freezes, or grow in your green house. You should wait until plant is 3 years old before harvesting the leaves for tea.

There's more to gardening in the deep south in February than pruning roses.

I must stop at the local Farmer's co-op and buy some broccoli plant and butter crunch lettuce.
Butter crunch lettuce is divine. I don't know anything about the cultivar except that it is
wonderful to eat.

Lady Claire is late for 2nd year in a row.

My camellia, 'Lady Claire' , a japonica usually begins blooming in early Fall. With the exception of one bloom around New Year's day, it waited until February this year. I wonder if the recent drought had anything to do with it. For we have had two summers of drought.

Spring is in the air. Not only can you smell the fragrance of the winter honeysuckle,also known as 'Kiss Me At The Gate" you can also admire the blossoms of the winter jasmine, the berries of possumhaw, a blackbelt native, and the other hollies plus nandinas. In our woodland garden, the smell of the old-timey jonquils and the saucer magnolia is heavenly, and as an added bonus a feast for the eyes.