Always Growing

This post, “Inspiration” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

One of the nice things about going to a botanical garden is that it gives you many ideas for your own garden.  While most of us can not afford to do things on the grand scale that these gardens do, it does inspire you to try new combinations or placement of plants on a smaller scale.  At least I am thankful I do not have such a large area to tend.  I have enough to do just keeping up with my suburban garden.  Though to be honest, if money was not an issue, I think I would love to have the space (and the gardeners) to have something just like a botanical garden.

As you can see from the above picture, Saturday’s garden show at the N. O. Botanical Gardens allowed everyone to see how lovely the gardens are at this time of year.  Even with the crowds, we were able to stroll around the grounds and see everything without people obstructing the view.  While I will not be placing such a large statue in my garden, I am thinking about a smaller statue or a large pot for the center of my circle bed.  Instead of water sprays, I may try sky pencil hollies.  I am still mulling over some changes to that bed, but I think I may do something to give a similar feeling as this picture shows.

Because I am in a suburban area, and Louisiana is flat and doesn’t really have rocks or boulders, I have always felt that if I put in any kind of water feature, I would want to have a reflecting pool.   Something akin to the above photo since I am not wild about the ponds most landscapers put in because those ponds would look great in a rocky or mountainous area but not in flat Louisiana.   I have found all kinds of great ideas at the garden show, but, unfortunately, did not find the financing for them.

I did get inspired by the show, and today I was able to put in a full day in the garden.  I continued cleaning out the overgrown property line area and was able to do about another twelve feet.  In that section I  planted a white lace cap hydragea that I had rooted and about six pieces of varigated shell ginger that a friend gave me. 

I also planted the daylilies I bought at yesterday’s garden show - Vanilla Fluff and Misty Mayhaw.  I planted the pink salvia and the red million bells I bought over the Easter holidays, the clematis crispa I bought about a month ago, and Tropical Sunrise canna that my sister just gave me.

Today I realized, that every now and then, it is nice to take a tour of a large public garden for ideas and inspiration.

 This post, “Garden Show” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

We had a great time at the Garden Show that was held in the Botanical Gardens at City Park.  The Rose Garden (pictured above) was gorgeous.  Even I was surprised at how many plants were in bloom.  New Orleans is only about 30 miles south of us, but it is a zone higher.  Their Louisiana Irises were in full bloom, and ours are just showing buds.  Lilies were blooming, and ours are hardly showing buds.  There were many more examples of their being ahead of the northshore when it comes to bloom times.

The picture below shows a spring flower bed in all its glory.  The timing of the show could not have been better.  All the visitors got a great view of what can be done in the fall to make spring spectacular.

This is a picture of a bed backing up one of the many beautiful statues that are in the Gardens.  Even with all the thunderstorms we had last night, the gardens were wonderful. 

I did restrain myself and didn’t buy too many plants like I did at the fall show.  I just bought two rex begonias and some daylilies.  I’ll show pictures of them and other sections of the Gardens on another post.  Right now it is off to take a hot shower and then do some reading in bed.  It has been a long day.

This post, “Arbor” was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana 

The winter time really shows where improvements need to be made in a garden.  It is said that one of the most important elements to an attractive design is the garden’s “bones”.  When people first start designing their gardens, they often do not think so much about the permanent things like evergreens, benches, arbors, etc.  I was no different.  The first spring and summer everything looked great.  There were a few perennials and many annuals to fill in the empty spaces.  Then the autumn and winter came, and there were practically empty beds with just mulch and a few small evergreens.  I quickly realized I needed “something” - especially for height.  One solution was an arbor.  My daughter gave me a cedar one for Christmas.  We put it up in the early spring on the side of the house in an opening between a row of azaleas and a yew.  It was just what was needed.  The next year I planted a white Lady Banks rose on it, and placed two urns with purple fountain grass in front of it.

This lasted about two years, and then in 2005 Hurricane Katrina came through.  I had moved the arbor up next to the house to try and protect it.  This proved to be ineffectual.  A pine tree was knocked down and hit the arbor.  It was crushed, and I was crushed.  With all the more pressing things going on after Katrina, replacing the arbor was low on the list of priorities. 

In the spring of 2006, the quest for a new arbor began.  I never could find one I liked, or the ones I liked were very expensive.  I searched all the garden and big box stores.  I went on the Internet.  Still no luck.  Then for Mother’s Day 2007, my daughter came through again.  She found one on the Internet identical to the one she had given me earlier.

The new arbor is pictured above.  Soon the rose was tied to it, and the urns were placed in front of it, just like before.  Now, that side of the yard looks even better than before.  After getting the first arbor, I realized how much I had to work on the bones of my garden.  After about four years, things are looking better. I’ve put in more shrubs, small trees, benches, and paths.

Now, if I can just find a replacement for the arbor in the back yard that Hurricane Rita took out…..