I Am In Love!

Yes, I am in love! I am in love with Magnolia soulangeana!

This beautiful tree has many common names, eg. Chinese magnolia, saucer magnolia, tulip tree, none of which adequately describe its majestic beauty. Still, a rose by any other name...

I adore the pink hues bursting forth from the buds in early spring, giving way to showers of elegant pink and white petals. Its display is never long enough though. Still, whenever I come across one of these garden treasures, I am reminded that spring is on her way after a [very] long slumber.

 

 

I am planning on adding a saucer magnolia (how I was first taught to identify it) in my backyard this spring. In fact, I am removing a hillside flowerbed just to accommodate it. It will be a better fit and the flowers will be transplanted in other areas.

 

This tree has its share of problems including fungal diseases and pests, however, in my experience beauty always requires hard work.

Screw It!! I'm Gardening!

I haven't had much to blog about lately because its been too cold to go outside to do anything useful. That is, until I came across this funny meme the other day. Using it as my inspiration, I decided to update the area around my front bird bath with a few snapdragon and dianthus plants.

It will be weeks before they fill in and start producing lush blooms. Still, I feel like I've knocked one thing off my garden list in spite of the weather. And it beats looking at a brown patch from my office window.

Carry on fellow gardeners. 14 days till spring.

Beyond Ready for Spring

Last weekend in SE Alabama, we were temporarily blessed with 70+ degree weather. It was incredible playing in the backyard in short sleeves after weeks of frigid temperatures. The only problem was the view which looked like this:

 

 

Weeds, compost in various stages of decay, dormant perennials, dead annuals, and way too much brown. Ugh! Even sadder, the arbor for which I had great plans didn't survive.

 

I never did get around to cleaning my garden tools, which is my least favorite task, but I did make note of all the changes I'd like to make in Spring. Maybe I'll spend this cold weekend sharpening and oiling those pesky, but necessary tools.

More Eye Candy

After my latest blog entry, I realized that I forgot to include a few photos of these beauties. There are habanero peppers on the left, red bell peppers on the right and brown turkey figs below. Yum!

 

Blooms I'm diggin' right how include Mexican heather, marigolds, bougainvillea and queen's heart.

 

My marigolds have done so well, I wish I had planted several pots to display on my porch for fall instead of purchasing very expensive mums.

And this post would not be complete without a shot of my assistant photographer T-Roy.

 

Happy Gardening!

Goings On in my Garden

It's been a good gardening year thus far. This spring, my young forsythia plants bloomed and my amaryllis multiplied. I was tickled pink!

This young viburnum has had some struggles. A few years ago, my husband accidentally scalped it with the weed eater. Undoubtedly it would have been easier to replace it, but sucker that I am [feel free to substitute sucker with stubborn] I wanted to see if pampering it would help it recover. Well it did and to thank me, bloomed beautifully this spring.

We also had wild plums and blueberries!

A friend of mine gave me an old arbor which I plan to use next year to train muscadines. Those are strawberries in the hanging baskets and tomatoes on the vines.

 

Some of my beautiful flowers including day lilies, crape myrtles, sunflowers and spider lilies.

 

My son and I planted a single watermelon seed in 2012 which produced a massive vine with tons of juicy watermelons. We get volunteer vines every year since from the composted seeds. They were not so sweet this year so I don't think I'll keep any other volunteer vines that come up. It was good while it lasted!

In the next few weeks, I hope to purchase and plant pansies in the front around the birdbath and fire hydrant. I'm also thinking about planting a winter garden. We'll see.

Here's hoping you have enjoyed your garden as much as I have mine. :)

Lawn Enthusiasts

I'll be the first to admit, I don't care much for lawns. Sure, I'm grateful my husband keeps ours mowed and moderately green but for the most part, I think it's wasted flowerbed space. So it was with quite a bit of humor that I discovered my neighbor winterizing his lawn by hand...during a torrential downpour.

I suppose he's saving himself a step since most fertilizers require a good watering to work. Still, that's some A+ dedication right there. You go guy!

This is the start of a beautiful relationship...