Dirt Therapy

  It is hard to believe that October is almost upon us. We had a really wonderful weekend with mild temperatures in the 70s and not a drip of humidity. I loved it! Today it is rainy and about 75 degrees.  Yesterday morning I took some photos before breakfast. You will notice that everything is uncommonly green and lush right now. Normally it is parch-dry this time of year and a few drops of rain are cause for celebration. This has been a wet year and the garden and myself are greatly relieved. Looking through the pergola, you might notice something amiss. That would be the rose "Buff Beauty" directly behind the urn. I pruned the heck of it about a month ago. The rose, although one of my absolute favorites, has had a lot of die-back on the lower branches. The rose is also much larger than I envisioned. I wanted a view through the pergola so that the eye could travel past the rose, to the statue of Efebe and to the garden wall farther behind. "Buff Beauty" ch...

On Sunday, we had a busload of 50 visitors from the UT (Tennessee) Master Gardeners! They were a wonderful group of people and left us with a great gift basket full of jams, soaps, books, windchimes, fans, etc. A truly spectacular gift and put together with much thought and care. Thank you all so much and thanks for making the trip! Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Firecracker Vine ( Manettia cordifolia ) brightens the otherwise drab late summer garden with its hot red flowers . The small tubular blooms are profuse and adorn a vigorous but well-mannered vine. (Think Cypress Vine but without the headache of the invasiveness . ) Hummingbirds love it! This plant came to me from my great aunt Lesbie who loved to garden as much as I do. Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

  This is the first time I've grown these bulbs. I just picked them up at Home Depot early in the spring. Gladiolus murielae is also known by a variety of common names including "Peacock Orchid," "Sword Lily," "Acidanthera" and "Fragrant Gladiolus". It is native to the mountain areas of East Africa. They grow about 2 feet tall and bloom in late summer. They are supposedly hardy in our zone (zone 7). So far, not as much profuse bloom as I'd hoped but there has been a scattering of blooms during the past weeks. Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy