Dirt Therapy

My birthday was last week and I received some nifty gardening related gifts. Michael's aunt, cousin and a good friend pitched in and got me this wagon - I guess that is what you call it - and I was excited to get it. My wheelbarrow is on its last leg and I'm sure this little guy is much stronger - they say it will hold 1500 pounds! I had hinted to Michael that I needed a new pair of lopers and he went beyond the call of duty and gave me these which feature an extension - you rotate the knobs and it will extend a foot or so. I had never seen any made like this and I'm sure they will come in handy when I resume the pruning of Rambling Rector .

A rare event in my neck of the woods and we all go nuts. It started around 2pm and was still coming down at 5pm. Most of it is melting though. I managed to take a few shots when I got home from work before it got too dark. You can't see it falling in the photos - how do you photograph falling snow?

I'm fascinated by winter blooms. Over the past years, I've learned that gardening in the south is really a year-long event and everything doesn't necessarily close up shop in winter. Why did it take so long for me to notice this? I've always loved camellias and have a lot of them in my garden but I'm still discovering other winter interest plants as well. The above photo is Daphne Odora which I bought on a whim at Home Depot two years ago. After I got it home, I looked it up in my books and did some research on the Internet (I always purchase the plants first and then worry about where it will go later) and read that it wasn't an easy plant to grow. Now wouldn't you know it has performed admirably in a location where a lot of other plants have died? This is an area behind my garage filled with hackberry trees and very dry soil. I'm still having a hard time deciding what to do with this area. I wanted a native woodland garden but the dry conditions are pr...

Back in November, I was discussing our plumbing woes and thought I'd post an update. In a nutshell, our entire sewer line is being replaced because of old clay pipes that are being clogged with roots. We found a plumber who agreed to hand dig the line to avoid disrupting the landscape and he even came up with a different option that none of the other plumbers had mentioned. He suggested placing a pump in our basement and installing a new line that would only be 2 feet below the ground surface as opposed to 7 or 8 like the old one. (We were told that the "pipe bursting" technique, which I had high hopes for, wouldn't work for us because the lines had to be within 15 years old and laying on a gravel bed - whatever!) The work started the week before Christmas and is still not completed, mainly due to rainy weather (I'm not going to complain about that!). Our estimate was 5 days work but in all honesty, the work hasn't bothered us that much. In fact, we (so far) ...