Dirt Therapy

In the early 1980s, a plant breeder by the name of Robert E. "Buddy" Lee, noticed a tray of azalea cuttings blooming during the summer at his Independence, Louisiana nursery. He started experimenting with crossing traditional spring-blooming azaleas with a rare Taiwanese summer-blooming azalea (Rhododendron oldhamii). The result - an azalea that blooms both in the spring and in the fall. I only have one Encore azalea in the garden. They are expensive and I've always found azaleas to be rather temperamental despite the fact that they are reputed to be tailor-made for the South. I've not had any problems growing the Encore variety but the blooms have been a tad sparse. I read that these azaleas actually prefer more sun than their cousins so that could be the reason. But, I do have a confession to make. Call me crazy but I just can't seem to warm up to an azalea that blooms in the fall. In my mind, azaleas are spring flowers and in the fall garden, they look like the...

Just kidding, but I've always wanted to say that! I would like to thank all the gardening blotanists who voted for my blog in the 2009 Blotanical Awards . This morning I discovered that I had won Best Alabama Blog . I appreciate the honor and I'll display my badge proudly!

I was so surprised and excited to hear last night that my photo was selected as the winner of the Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest for September! There were so many great entries (visit the GGW blog to see more) - well I'm just flabbergasted. Thanks so much for their site for having this contest, to High Country Gardens for the prize and for all the nice comments I've received.

The in-laws are coming in from Mississippi this weekend for their annual hair appointments (every 5 weeks) so I'm donning the baking apron and trying a new recipe. This one comes from one of my favorite books at the moment, " Baked " by Southern boys Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (they now live in Brooklyn and own a dessert shop, also called "Baked"). I've tried several of the recipes in this book and they have all been wonderful. This recipe calls for a pie dough that they include on a separate page. I tried it and had a few problems with it but taste wise, it is fine. It was really, really sticky though as I was making it and almost impossible to work with. The next time I think I will try Ina Garten's dough recipe that I use for the apple tart . Or if you don't even want to fool with making your own, I'm sure a frozen one from your supermarket will work fine. Baked’s Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie * 1/2 recipe pie dough, chilled * 1/2 cup ...

We've had lots of rain lately. Last week our rain gauge, which measures up to 5", overflowed. Since then, there has been at least one shower every day. Yesterday, we received 2" and overnight we got 2" more inches. As I was leaving for work yesterday morning, I noticed a mushroom in our driveway. I rarely see mushrooms on our property and of all places, in the middle of a gravel driveway? I don't know anything about mushrooms but I do find this intriguing. I wonder if it is edible?

  Here is my entry for the Gardening Gone Wild Photo Contest for September. The subject is ornamental grasses. This is Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'). The photo was taken last summer in Randy and Jamie's garden .

We've had nice temperatures but it is muggy and uncomfortable outside. The mosquitoes are out in full force! Here is what is blooming in the mid-September garden: First, a few roses - "Hermosa" "Lyda Rose" "Gartendirektor Otto Linne" "Caldwell Pink" Purslane, which I prefer over Portulaca Sedum, more than likely "Autumn Joy" Coleus Begonia "Bonfire" Hardy Orange ( Poncirus Trifoliata ) Chenille Plant ( Acalypha hispida ) Lycoris radiata Mexican Sage ( Salvia leucantha ) Fallopia japonica 'Crimson Beauty' (aka Japanese Knotweed, Mexican Bamboo) Many thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens who started Bloom Day. To see more blooms, visit her blog.

Tonight I will be doing a presentation to the Shoals Wildflower Society about local gardens that I have written about in Alabama Gardener magazine. This will mainly be a slide show of photos I've taken. Here is a sample: Margie Anderton's beautiful wildflower paradise in Killen, Alabama (the article is in the current edition) Leon Perry's azalea wonderland in Muscle Shoals Dee Hubbert's garden here in Florence (this article hasn't been published yet) and Charles Moore's magnificent waterfall garden (also in Florence) There are other gardens as well. Their meetings are held at the Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Florence and their is tons of food and usually door prizes. Wish me luck!

Another gardening season seems to be winding down although the fall garden is always a joy to look forward to. By the time August and September roll around though, my enthusiasm level for the garden is at it's lowest point. I'm sure the weather has something to do with this although I can't complain this year. We've had mild temperatures (well, if you consider upper 80s and lower 90s to be mild) and regular rainfall. However, it is getting dry again and we are back in the phase where it rains every day but not in our neighborhood. I can't tell you how much that irks me... I think a lot of gardeners though are just tired and wiped out by the end of summer no matter what the weather is doing. I am trying to get over feeling guilty when I'm not out in the garden working, especially on a nice day. I probably could use some therapy for that. So, since there is no news on the gardening front, I have been catching up on my reading. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was...

As we get older, do we begin to downsize and want our lives to be more simpler? That seems to be happening in our household and the latest casualty is the Christmas decorating. Our outlandish Christmas decorations are now a thing of the past. Actually, we didn't decorate last year, which was kind of ironic because a local magazine ran a story about our house at Christmas . It all comes down to it all being a lot of hard work and Michael says that he is just not feeling it anymore. He has always been the decorator and the lover of Christmas. He usually starts in mid-September and gets everything up by Thanksgiving. Every room in the house has a tree and garlands and what-nots. Our closets are filled to the max with Christmas ornaments and the storage house out back is packed with the trees. So, I really don't blame him if he is over it. I have to say though that it is somewhat sad for me although I surely won't miss the work and taking it all down which I do since I'm o...