The Stepchild Gets Mulch...Finally!

• I wasn't working at the big house or the penthouse today, so it seemed the perfect time to actually work in my own garden. Since I've been meaning to put out pinestraw mulch since March or April, it only makes me about six weeks behind schedule. Fortunately my home garden tends to fall into the categories of "eclectic" and "eccentric," so I'm able to fall back upon that excuse.
  
  I think my home garden is perhaps an emotional response to working in very manicured gardens on a daily basis; "manicured" is definitely NOT an adjective most would use to describe my garden!
  
  Some possible reasons my home garden isn't considered "manicured":
  
• The 300 or so Cleome flowers that have self-seeded themselves since last year, coming up everywhere, including one growing in a crack in my driveway (I adore Cleome, but will definitely be putting out Preen next year);
  
• The New Dawn rose that finished blooming a couple of weeks ago, and is now so large that it threatens to topple its arbor or grab a small child who makes the mistake of walking by (or both);
  
• My Herbal lawn. When asked if I have zoysia, Bermuda, St. Augustine, or Fescue, I simply reply, "Yes;" (But it stays green year round......)
  
• My unique version of Botanical Latin names. I'm not sure why the AHS doesn't list, "Dad's Yellow Iris," "Alice's Monarda," and "Not Ogon Spirea," in their publications.
  
• The fact that my pansies are still in the ground, and actually still blooming their little blue hearts out; The IRS and summer annuals are supposed to be taken care of by April 15 in Atlanta.
  
  As could have been predicted, the rain starting pouring down after I had finished mulching about 25% of the garden beds.......why do I think I'm going to soon be seven weeks behind schedule?
  
  I'm trying very hard to care about being "behind schedule", really I am......
  

Container Mania!

We are currently in the midst of "container mania" at the big house, which means there are a gazillion things in flats all about the pool. I've slowly been chipping away at the major containers, and the first of the spring bedding plants are going into the ground! I am so excited with the "Honey Bee Lantana," with muted pinks, peaches, soft yellows, and whites all on the same plants! That's being planted in the beds under the crape myrtles, where nothing else has the stamina to fight the roots of the trees. Photos to come once it fully opens up.

People keep asking me about container combinations I'm using this year, so I'll get them up on here in the next few days. I'm a big believer that even with the same plants, every arrangement is different, since there is inevitably a different container, and a different "designer's eye" involved. I've borrowed some of my favorite combinations from friends, and find it flattering when people ask me to do the same.

One of my favorites so far for this year: Lion's Head Japanese Maples (Acer palmatum "Shishigashira"), underplanted with "Bonfire" Begonias (Begonia boliviensis "Bonfire"), finished with Creeping Jenny(Lysimachia nummularia "Aurea"). Very simple, very clean, very elegant, and really shows off the tree, which is the whole point.

When Gardeners are Crazier than Golfers

In another life I managed the clubhouse at a very "chi chi" country club in South Carolina. It was there that I discovered how crazy some golfers can be. In the midst of howling winds, black clouds, crackling lightning, and alarms telling them to get off the course, I would inevitably look out my window and see a golfer raising his (iron) club up in the air for that one final shot (Final being the key word here).

Fast forward to the present, when I'm gardening for a living. I garden in three places: "The Big House," a garden I'm truly passionate about, and from which many of these photos are taken; "The Red Headed Step Child," which is what I call my own little suburban garden; and "The Penthouse," which sits atop one of Atlanta's better known towers.

If you've been paying attention to Atlanta weather, you know that we've had pretty major electrical storms last night and today (Until you live in the South, you only think you have seen lightning!) Anyway......guess which day Chuck and I chose to replace all the plants in the Zen garden, way up there in the sky?

After loading the truck and driving into the city, we did the usual "through the gates, down the ramp to the loading dock, unload the truck and go find parking for it, load all the plants onto carts, roll them down the hall to the security desk, up the elevator for a mile and a half, and gingerly walk five trees, four shrubs, eighteen groundcovers, bags of (wet)Erthfood and potting soil, and all our supplies through most of the apartment, through the bathroom to the terrace."

We got to the terrace, and there was ridiculous wind, but that's sort of the norm for that garden. Then it was time to play "Beat the Clock" to remove the old and tired bamboo that's been in the Balinese antique containers for ten years, and replace it with the new plants. (Have you seen the rootball on bamboo that's been potted for that long?)

I'll get to the point and say that this afternoon's best questions from Chuck were, "Do you feel rain?" and "Holy Crap! Have you ever had lightning come so close you could hear it buzz???"

Let's just say the new bamboo is going to look beautiful in those pots for a really long time......