With the unusually warm weather that we’ve had this spring, my tree peony is blooming extra early. I adore regular peonies which bloom a bit later in the season and love having a tree peony to enjoy before the big regular peony show. The deer don’t touch this plant which makes it a must for…
Epiphyllum, also known as Orchid Cactus, is a jungle-leaf cacti or leaf-flowering cacti native to Central America. My grandmother gave my Epiphyllum to me when she moved from her house into a retirement home. Each spring I await its glorious blooms. The photograph below was taken last Sunday. This past week I’ve watched the buds…
For the past couple of years, we’ve focused on improving our home’s curb appeal. Projects have included: a new driveway, parking area, and patio; steps leading from the patio to the basement; extending several landscape beds; installing irrigation; and last year, killing every blade of grass in our lawn to eradicate my enemy, Bermuda grass,…
Each year I anxiously await the blooming of my Christmas Cacti. I don’t take especially good care of these plants and even with my abuse, they reward me with blooms year after year. The pink cacti were gifts from friends when my dad died in 1997. The plant with the peach colored blooms was my…
November gardening has mostly consisted of mowing and raking at our house. After that’s been accomplished, we haven’t had energy or time for much else. One thing that I must soon do is to clear away my now dead vegetable plants and store the posts and tomato cages for next year. The garlic that I…
After over a month of enjoyment, my front porch mums were ready to be replaced. Pansies would be a nice choice, but the deer will not leave them alone in this location, so I didn’t want to try that this year. I wondered what to use to spruce up this area and then remembered pumpkin topiaries…
Having four distinct seasons is one thing that I love about life in Virginia. I prefer warm weather but fall is here, so I may as well enjoy it. Each season brings something different to my flower beds. These fall blooming Crocus were given to me by my grandmother. They send up pretty green foliage…
Not the kind in the sky, not the Katy Perry kind, the Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ botanical kind!It’s fireworks season in my yard! Beautiful Goldenrod is exploding with its arching yellow blooms in several of my beds. This is a great plant for my yard as it is deer resistant. It’s a bit invasive but easy to…
I first noticed Beautyberry on a drive home from the beach one September weekend about ten years ago. I saw a bush in a North Carolina yard with a purple berry that I’d never seen. When I got home, I researched and discovered that it was a Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana. Beautyberry grows in my area…
I’ve been looking for new pots for my front porch for the past two summers and couldn’t find any that were just right. I had two perfect pots from Harper’s Statuary and Water Gardens in Harrisonburg that my mom gave me long ago, but one broke two winters ago, forcing me to use two other concrete…
I hope that all is well with everyone who was in Irene’s path. We were too far west of the storm to suffer any damage although we did have high winds and received a bit of rain. This morning I peeped out the window to see how many sticks I’d need to pick up post-storm and was…
I have not had the pleasure of mowing grass all summer as we have been without a lawn since the end of May. Instead, I’ve spent many an hour spraying Round-Up trying to get rid of my number one weed enemy, Bermuda Grass, aka Wire Grass. This is tenacious stuff. It spreads with underground runners…