Dirt Therapy

I guess most of you heard about another round of tornadoes that swept through Alabama this past weekend. This morning I learned that fellow bloggers Randy and Jaime at Creating our Eden was in the path of an F3 tornado. They were not hurt and their home is okay but many homes in their neighborhood, as well as their garden, was destroyed. You can read his post here . My thoughts are with them during this difficult time.

{{{This post was written for my website A Southern Garden }}} Winter Honeysuckle Lonicera fragrantissima Mature Height: 6-8 ft. Growth Rate: Fast Soil: Average, well-drained Light Requirements: Sun/partial shade Foliage: 1"-3" yellow-green leaves appear after flowers, darkening with age, semi-evergreen in milder climates Flower/Fruit: Small, creamy white flowers appear in late winter. Red berries appear in spring. Fragrance: Intense Hardy to Zone 4 Imagine this - you are walking through a cold, barren, winter landscape and all of a sudden the air is filled with a strong lemony fragrance. You have discovered winter honeysuckle, a delightful old-fashioned shrub that has the distinct characteristic of blooming when most plants are dormant. I first became aware of this shrub at the university where I work. There is a large hedge of them planted on campus and one day, just like I described above, I noticed the fragrance before knowing where it originated. A sprawling and leggy shr...

I saw the first daffodil of the year today -

“Color in the Garden” is the topic of conversation at the Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop at GardeningGoneWild.com . I think February is a good time for this. Maybe it will bring some temporary relief to us bloom-starved gardeners. Color is probably the main reason most of us like flowers and gardens in the first place. Some gardeners take color seriously and use it carefully to create harmonious palettes in their gardens while others don’t think about that and just throw everything together. I don’t think it matters either way because your garden should, first and foremost, be pleasing to yourself. Some may not care what others think (and they may be the most contented gardeners) while others may fret about what their neighbors might be thinking. I suppose I fall somewhere in the middle here. My garden has a somewhat wild look, especially in the dog days of summer but I’m not too concerned about what my neighbors think. On the other hand, I would be a nervous wreck if I knew Penelop...

Well, today's weather made me eat my words from my last post. It was sunny and reached 60! The ground was too wet to do any garden work so I picked up sticks and other debris from the wind storm we had a few nights ago and looked at plants. Do you wonder if people who are non-gardeners notice the beauties in the winter landscape? I got my camera out and took a few photos: The Chinese Holly 'O'Spring' is always beautiful, no matter what the weather is like - I wrote about the Winter Daphne in a previous post - it just gets prettier! If you want winter fragrance, plant Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) - it is such an unexpected pleasure to catch a whiff of this in the dead of winter. Viburnum 'Spring Bouquet' - Abelia 'Francis Mason' - I only found one camellia in bloom - 'Governor Mouton'- Mossy bricks in the vegetable garden - I have a fear of bamboos - this is the only one I have (Pleioblastu...

It has been so cold and dreary lately and Spring is like a distant memory. Our patience should be rewarded in just three or four weeks with scenes like the following (fingers crossed) -