Dirt Therapy

First of all, thanks for all the blog name suggestions! I received some really good ones and I'm making a list. Some of you asked if the property has a name. Not really, although Michael and I have discussed calling it "Shady Pines" because we love "The Golden Girls" and there are actually lots of pines on the property. So, a "Shady Pines" blog? I don't know yet.   A few days ago I posted photos of flowers that were blooming. Now here are some foliage (and berries) shots I took. Ornamental Cabbage (or Kale) ( Brassica oleracea) T he center p art of same plant Italian Arum ( Arum Italicum) Holly 'O S pring ' ( Ilex cornuta ) Leatherleaf Viburnum ( Viburnum rhytidophyllum ) English Ivy ' Gold Child ' ( Hedera helix ) Yucca ' Color Guard' ( Yucca filamentosa) Possumhaw Holly ( Ilex decidua ) Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

The gr a y garden It is a gray cold Sunday and normally I would be in the kitchen baking but I'm having a bit of cabin fever and I've baked enough lately and getting tired of the jigsaw puzzles. I've been wanting to try out my new camera lens so I decided to go out into the garden. It is amazing what you can find in January.  But first, a few tidbits: Website - Since starting this blog, I've neglected my website A Southern Garden .  I'm in the process of updating it and it has moved to a new address. I'm in a quandry about what to do about our Internet service. We've been with the same provider since first getting a computer and our only complaint with them is that you have to have a landline telephone to get service. We would love to get rid of those phones and just use cell phones. At first I thought I would just move my websites somewhere else and then move to another provider. However, a lot of my blog photos are on my server so that would mea...

The number "3" is the lucky winner and that would be Lisa Blair. Thanks to everyone who entered! Brandywine Cottage is a 2-acre garden in Downington, Pennsylvania created by David Culp and Michael Alderfer. Culp shows how they planned and created this lovely garden by combing their obsessive love of plants in design combinations that provide a succession of peak garden moments throughout the year in their Zone 6 garden. Situated at the base of a hillside where 20 houses were to be built above his, Culp first planned for privacy and planted a screen of evergreens. This was followed by a series of garden rooms that includes a rose garden, vegetable garden, perennial borders, a driveway gravel garden, a winter garden, hillside garden and a "jewel box" that provides visual interest right outside the front windows. Culp shares his childhood memories of plants and his grandmother who influenced him and he enthusiastically writes about the plants that he is passio...

Goldfinches outside the kitchen window , taken with my new camera lens. Since I have a big phobia about the number 13, I'm wondering how I'm going to cope with 2013! Yikes. Happy New Year! Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy