Dirt Therapy

I love to bake so if it is too hot (or too cold) to be gardening, I'm often in the kitchen. Here is another recipe from Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) and it is one of our favorites. It doesn't really look like a tart because I used refrigerated pie crust and decided to use the extra piece as a topping so it is more like an apple pie I suppose. The first time I made this, I did it exactly the way it reads , and even did the crust from scratch as well. It turned out beautifully - with the apple slices fanned out on a flat crust. This time I was a little lazy so used the refrigerated pie crust. French Apple Tart Ingredients For the pastry: * 2 cups all-purpose flour * 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt * 1 tablespoon sugar * 12 tablespoons (11/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced * 1/2 cup ice water For the apples: * 4 Granny Smith apples * 1/2 cup sugar * 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, small diced * 1/2 cup apricot jelly or warm sieved apricot ja...

The front lawn is divided into two sections that are bisected by the walkway that leads to the front door. I've been frustrated and disappointed by numerous attempts to grow grass here so I've decided to do away with the grass and cover the areas in gravel pathways and mondo grass and other shade-loving groundcovers. This weekend I finished the smaller area and I think I'm pleased with the results. What do you think? Before - And after - Now, on to tackle the other side which is double the size. More to come!

The past four days have just been glorious! A cool front came through on Saturday giving us highs in the lower 80s and 50s at night and no humidity. This is a rare occurrence and I believe the weatherman said this hasn't happened in forty years. I've been enjoying it to the hilt and got quite a lot of garden work accomplished. After spending Saturday morning doing some major pruning, we drove to Huntsville with some friends and visited Bridge Street Town Centre and it was so nice to be able to walk around outside without breaking out in a sweat. On Sunday, I started working on the front lawn renovation that I wrote about earlier . I have decided to use mondo grass (two different types, the dwarf and the slightly larger one) to blanket large areas and do gravel walkways around those areas. I might also do some areas with pachysandra and possibly asiatic jasmine (although I'm not sure if that plant likes shade). One depressing aspect of this job is how expensive it will be. ...

The mid-July garden is quiet, hot and sticky. At least the plants seem happy, thanks to a generous rainfall last weekend. Not many blooms to show on our annual bloom day - but a few of interest. First, my favorite container plant this year is Begonia "Bonfire" - all of a sudden I have a liking for orange. It is growing in a pot with variegated Blueberry Flax Lily ( Dianella tasmanica ) that we bought in Florida last fall. The blooms on the begonia are a little sparse. This begonia actually blooms more profusely in full sun. All of the lilies have finished blooming with the exception of this late one. This is Oriental Trumpet Lily "Black Beauty" Clematis "Betty Corning" Coreopsis "Limerock Ruby" Blackberry Lily ( Belamcanda chinensis ) getting ready to open Euphorbia Corollata and Salvia Coccinea "Hot Lips" Agastache (Hyssop) Lantana Italian Arum ( Arum Italicum ) Plume Poppy ( Macleaya cordata ) Phlox Money Plant (Lunaria) To see what i...

This is what I've come to call the front lawn area. Here's the story - I've just about eliminated all the grass on our property. I can now mow all the grassy areas in about 30 minutes (this is better than 3 or 4 hours that it used to take when we had no garden, just lawn). However, I did want a large grassy area in the front of the house to give the eye a rest. Heaven knows there's so much going on that the eye needs it. Well, I may as well forget that idea. It is shady here and worse, three red maples spread their hungry shallow roots all over the place. I have tried just about every grass known to man. I thought I had the solution when I planted fescue two years ago. It was beautiful that winter but it died the following summer. Fescue doesn't like our summer heat. I could replant it and water it daily in the summer but we don't have a sprinkler system and I know it would not get watered even with my best intentions. I've thought about making a gravel path...

The hydrangeas have been blooming for about 6 weeks now but they are beginning to phase out. Some of them will continue blooming through the summer. That is, if we ever get rain again! So, as Norma Desmond said, "Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!" " Angel's Lace " " Big Daddy " - he didn't bloom at all last year. There has been 3 or 4 blooms this year. Sometimes it just takes them a while to get going. "Charm" - this has been one of the prettiest this year and full of blooms. " Mme Emile Mouiller e " - another favorite, this one is almost white and ages to a light blue. " Purple Tiers " - this year we are calling it "Pink Tiers". " Sister Therese " " Snowflake " - a gorgeous oakleaf. This is Hydrangea Aspera , somewhat of a novelty and one that you don't see often. When we were going through our hydrangea madness phase and thought we had to own every cultivar known to man, ...