Dirt Therapy

I am not a fan of August and I'm always glad to see it go. I have to say though that this August has been a fairly tolerable one. The weather this year has been crazy and it seems like we are a month ahead of schedule. This August has seemed more like September. Maybe this means we will get an early fall and winter? That would be okay with me. We have also been fortunate to have regular rains. We are overdue for some now and it is frustrating that we won't get much from Hurricane Issac. It is also so frustrating to see the color green on the radar over your town but then you go outside and it is not doing a thing. I've been dragging hoses around for the past several days. Overall though, I cannot complain because I know most areas of the country has had it far worse. The garden is tired by the end of August and so am I.  I'm excited about getting some fall color. I hear we may have a significant cold front coming through next week. Bring it on! ...

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Some of the new plants I planted this spring are finally blooming - Buddelia 'Miss Molly' Buddleia 'Blue Chip' Cestrum 'Orange Peel' Cestrum 'Orange Peel'   Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

  Last Saturnday morning, I was taking the kitchen compost out to the bin and I kept hearing owls. I've heard them before but never really investigated further. This time they were loud and clear. I glanced up into the tall thicket of hackberry trees behind our garage and there they were perched on a high branch. We were getting ready to go to Huntsville so I didn't have time to get a proper photo. I grabbed my camera and took this shot which is still dark even after considerable lightening in Photoshop. Last fall, I was at work and Michael was home. He had raised the windows because it was cool outside. He was sewing and said that he kept hearing voices outside the dining room window. It sounded as though people were having a conversation. This isn't that unusual because there is a dentist's office right across the street and people are often talking out in the parking lot. He kept hearing the voices and it sounded as though they were outside the window in the ...

The crape myrtles are really beautiful this year. The prettiest ones I've seen are at the Florence Cemetery. There they have enough room to spread naturally and I love the way they have been pruned. They were at their prettiest a few weeks ago so I'm a bit late getting these photos. I don't know the variety but most of them look the same. I've always thought that I would be perfectly happy with a job landscaping a cemetery like this. The Florence Cemetery is lovely and I go there often. I wish more cemeteries would put more emphasis on the landscape. So many consist of just green lawn. Florence Cemetery is one of the few with stately older trees and beautiful shrubs.    Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

The only Frank Lloyd Wright structure to be built in Alabama is less than one mile from our house. I drive by it often but it has been over 10 years since I was inside. I first saw it when Mrs. Rosenbaum still lived there. At the time, parts of the house was in need of repair and I didn't see every room. This past weekend, our Memphis friend Joann was visiting and she and I took the tour. The above photo shows the front of the house but it faces the back of the property. Wright designed it this way so that the back of the house, which faces the street, would be more private. Here is the view you see when you drive by - you'll notice that the windows are small and horizontal and are placed near the roof. The overhang that you see was a carport. Many vehicles today would be too tall to fit underneath. The house was built by Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum in 1940. Stanley Rosenbaum was from Florence and he met Mildred, a former model, in New York. Stanley's parents ga...

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

A nice combination! Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy