Rhododendron & Azalea

Rhododendron is a good plant to fill in a large space. It is very hearty and beautiful. The dark green sturdy leaves are a sharp contrast to the paper-like blooms. As it is budding, one would think it was a Magnolia bud, but once it starts errupting with its vibrant color, you soon realize its majesty. There is not much fragrance to the blossom, but the show it gives is worth the loss. The shrub we have blooms twice a year, early spring and early fall. If it is planted in an ideal spot, it could bloom periodically during the entire season.

Azalea is what I call a smaller version of the Rhododendron. It is more compact for landscaping to use as an accent below windows. One draw-back to an Azalea is that here in North Carolina, they bud and bloom out usually the same time of the last frost or freeze. This will make the blooms turn brown and shrivel up before it is able to show its true potential.

Both shrubs are resilient to pruning but are absolutely majestic if left alone and natural. One of my best friends have a Southern Living style house where she has both azalea and rhododendron under the front windows. They are the icing on the cake of a true southern estate.

The University of Missouri Extension department has an excellent webpage regarding these wonderful plants....http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G6825

Landscaping Duty For The Day

Here is my 2012 Scion xB - Release Series 9.0. Due to the fact that it sits out in the weather on the side of our house, it was time that it needed a bath and detail job. It was making my house and the landscaping look crappy. After this years overwhelming pollen content in the atmosphere, it was time to wash away the gunk. It should get about 10 more miles to gallon as slick as it is. We had to first cleaner wax it to get the sap deposits that had baked in the paint and then we used a polymer wax to make it shine like its wet. My arm is absolutely a noodle right now from all of the "wax on" and "wax off" (twice I should reiterate).

Cars used as landscaping can be a challenging thing. For example...the picture below...

 

You have to choose your landscaping carefully so that it will not contrast or overpower your home. Look at the lines of your home...see if it is traditional, colonial, Spanish, Mediterrainian, or even Mid-Century Modern. Your landscaping should accent your home, not take over. A little whimsy in the garden is good, but some people just take it to extremes.

 

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most maintenance) I would give having to wash, wax, and re-wax a car an 11 !!!! .......LOLOLOLOL

Creeping Phlox

Here is my Creeping Phlox. It is a perinneal that is also a ground cover, and can be used as edging. It is absolutely beautiful spilling over the edge of a retaining wall. It expands over time, and can be aggressive in its growth. It is very resilient to being repositioned. It spreads very superficially over the layer of mulch but the main bunch is still in the ground where you initially planted it. The flowers come and go all spring, summer, into late fall. What is left is Crayola Green mounds of fern-like greenery.

This plant requires full sun. You can be creative and plant bulbs within the greenery. The bulbs will rise through the Phlox and will appear to be surrounded by a carpet of dainty flowers. You can usually get 3 plants for under 10-bucks, so it's a very cheap and your return on investment will be multiplied year-after-year.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the most maintenance) I give Creeping Phlox a 0.5, because, once you plant it...you're done!

Red & White Grape Vines

These are my grape vines. One is a merlot grape and the other is a chardonnay grape. The pictures show the baby clusters. Once they are established and have a good connection to a climbing trellis, all you have to do is eat the grapes when they are ripe, and in the fall, cut back everything except the mother vine structure


Information from Wikipedia
Vitis (grapevines) is a genus of about 60 species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine. The study and cultivation of grapevines is called viticulture.

Most Vitis species are found in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in North America and Asia with a few in the tropics. The wine grape Vitis vinifera originated in southern Europe and southwestern Asia. The species occur in widely different geographical areas and show a great diversity of form. However they are sufficiently closely related to allow easy interbreeding and the resultant interspecific hybrids are invariably fertile and vigorous. Thus the concept of a species is less well defined and more likely represents the identification of different ecotypes of Vitis that have evolved in distinct geographical and environmental circumstances. The exact number of species is not certain, with species in Asia in particular being poorly defined. Estimates range from 40 to more than 60.
As the season progresses, I will post updates on the growth process throughout the summer. Everyone should have at least one grape vine in their garden. On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most maintenance, in my opinion, grape vines are a 2. The only negative comment I can make for grape vines is that when they are ripe is that they get ripe all at the same time. What you can't eat, try making a homemade wine! How bad is that !!!!

My Salad Garden

Here is my garden of lettuce. Starting from the bottom row is ButterCrunch, the second row is Red Leaf, the third row is Romain, and the top row is the Head Lettuce.

This is my first year growing lettuce. As you can tell, there are a few spots where the starters didn't survive. I decided to begin with starter pods rather than seed because we have alot of squirrels and chipmunks; they have been known to dig up the seeds.

ButterCrunch
Developed by Cornell University, this heat-tolerant, Bibb-type lettuce has quickly become a favorite since earning All America status in 1963. Its rich green leaves, sometimes tinged with red, form a beautiful rosette in the garden that holds well under stress and has good bolt resistance. A good source of vitamin A and phytonutrients. Grows best in full sun, but will tolerate partial shade and even appreciates it in spring in hot climates. For the largest-sized rosettes, space transplants 18 inches apart.

Red Leaf
Good-quality red leaf lettuce will have fairly large, loose heads and thick, "crumpled" leaves. The leaves will be medium to dark-red in color at the ends. The rest of the leafs will be medium to dark-green blending to nearly white ribs or veins. Scratch the stalk and smell. A sweet or bitter smell means sweet or bitter flavor.
Romain
Romaine or cos lettuce is a variety of Greek Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. longifolia) which grows in a tall head of sturdy leaves with a firm rib down the center. Unlike most lettuces, it is tolerant of heat.As with other dark leafy greens, the antioxidants contained within romaine lettuce are believed to help prevent cancer. According to the 2011 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac, the chlorophyll pigment in dark leafy greens, such as Romaine lettuce, may reduce levels of colon and liver cancer carcinogens.

Head
This is a half-hardy vegetable that you can keep growing all season long by planting one small crop at a time. Days to maturity tend to be short. Garden lettuce is far superior, in both taste and vitamin A content, to supermarket brands.Lettuce is a cool-season crop. While you should avoid planting in the middle of summer, you can get multiple crops in spring and late summer. Take extra care if planting crisphead varieties; they will not survive a hot spell.

Helpful Hints From TLC Home
One thing I recommend to anyone who asks me about what they should grow in their first vegetable garden is that they first think about what it is that they like to eat. And people tell me, almost 100% of the time, that they really want to grow their own lettuce for fresh, healthful salads. I don't blame them. There is so much to lettuce besides iceberg and Romaine. What about sweet, tender 'Buttercrunch' or beautiful 'Lollo Rossa'? "Deer Tongue,' 'Sanguine Ameliore,' 'Mascara,' and 'Oak Leaf' -- how could you not fall in love with lettuce, when it offers so much variety and beauty, not to mention flavor? There are actually 5 main types of lettuce: crisphead, cos (Romaine), butterhead, Batavian, and looseleaf. The first four are essentially "head lettuces," forming a central rosette of leaves that grows in on itself. You harvest head lettuces by either cutting off the entire head, or by taking the outer leaves as you need them. The last type, looseleaf, also known as "cut-and-come-again" lettuce, is the one I most often recommend.

I am excited about my lettuce garden as we eat salads almost every night. I will be nice to just go outside in my backyard and cut from fresh. During the season, we will see the growth and progress of my salad garden.

(Definitions, terms, and growing information provided by Wikipedia, Burpee, and TLC Home)

Grandmother's Peonies

 

Hello, my name is Tammy.

This blog is designed to follow my day-to-day "therapy" sessions in my garden.

I will blog about my flowers, trees, vegetables during this growing season.

I hope you enjoy my pictures and my commentaries.

If you have any advise, please feel free to join in "group therapy". 

 

 

 

Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Saxifragales
Family:	Paeoniaceae
Genus:	Paeonia

These are my grandmother's Peonies and I now have them in my yard. They were her favorite flowers. I love this time of year when they bud out and EXPLODE in gorgeous pink beauty and soft, sweet frangrance. There are several things to consider if you wish to have a plant in your garden:

• You can plant Peonies in all light settings. However, they perform best a spot that is slightly shaded (with some direct sun) and where the ground stays moist.
• They come up through the ground very quickly after the last frost of early spring.
• Once they break through the ground, you need to create a support system for each stem as the blooms are VERY heavy and will eventually break the stem if not supported. I use a cage structure that is a section of wire decorative edging that boxes it in.
• If you want to cut the blooms for a fresh flower arrangment, you will need to rinse them thoroughly because little insects love to live in between the petals. They would love to come  out and join you for dinner one evening.
• The blossoms only last a week or so, SO, enjoy them while they last.
• After the blooms are spent, just snip the entire stem back to the ground and enjoy the dark green foliage all summer until the first frost of the fall. The leaves can be used as filler in flower arrangements using the other flowers that bloom over the spring and summer.
• After the first freeze, the greenery will look horrible, so, just cut everything back and cover with mulch to protect the plant over the winter.

Other than these considerations, this plant is a must have in everyone's garden. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being everyday maintenance), the Peony is an easy 2.5.