There is a Sun After All!

At the moment it is 57 degrees and sunny outside, and the meteorologists have promised this is the first of many days when we'll see high 50's or even warmer!  The sun has been out all day, and it has been the perfect day for working on the stepchild garden!

I had three yards of "flower mix" delivered this morning, and a group of us spent a few hours tidying the big mixed border in the front and topdressing the whole lot.  Four of the "garden angels" from the Master Gardener group were here, helping to get things ready for the tour in May.  What would have been a miserable task alone got finished in about four hours, and people got to do things they loved doing.  Alice was the pruning maniac, reshaping a bunch of the hollies and the buddleia, while Carra, Tony and Debbie cleaned up all of the nasty winter brown stuff and then topdressed.  The last of the "Eye of the Tiger" Dutch iris that I found in the garage finally got planted, and there are lots of signs of life all over the place.  Part of the tour requirement is that I have things in the beds labeled.......since I don't usually remove things that self sow, we're making SLOW progress in that process.....

In the back, Chuck finished the last of the trim work on the Not Shed, so it's ready for the final paint job and accessorizing.  The driveway was the "paint studio," getting a couple of flea market benches, window boxes and such done in the rusty brown finish that we've decided is going to be the color for all of the metal this year (except the fabulous purple chair from Murphy, which would never look the same in brown.....)

The Tour

“Of course you can look at my garden if you’d like to consider it for next year’s tour……”

“Why not?” I thought, “this will motivate me to finish some of the things on that list.”

Reality check! There are at least one hundred items on that list to finish by May! Some of them are as “simple” as painting the house!

In all seriousness, I really am flattered that my garden is on the short list for next year’s Cobb Master Gardeners tour, and it really will give me the motivation to tie up lots of loose ends…..not sure the house will get painted, but certainly the doors will get a new coat of color. (At least that nasty sweetgum got cut down a couple of weeks ago, so I'm making progress.....)

Perhaps the most notable feature about my garden is the 120 foot “mixed” perennial bed, that wraps the corner of the property. I know that tradition dictates that a perennial border is supposed to be in the back of the garden, but I have sun along the street in the front of my house, so that’s where the perennial border went!

Over the past few years, it has filled in beautifully, and looks pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. There is a sheared evergreen hedge that runs down the middle of the bed, so it provides a great background for the colors. The problem, of course, is that many perennials really don’t come into their own in Atlanta until June, and the tour is in May.

At one end of the border there is a pretty substantial arbor, which is quickly becoming engulfed in a combination of New Dawn Rose, Golden Celebration Rose, and Roguchi Clematis, all of which should be blooming for the tour. (This photo was the day of installing said arbor, since the New Dawn kept pulling down the old Smith & Hawken arbor). Where the bed turns the corner, there is a Doublefile Viburnum Standard that is about 12 feet tall and should also be in full bloom in May. There really will be a lot of perennials showing off their stuff for the tour, but I still want a little more "oomph."

The challenge is finding some really cool perennials to add into the mix that will be peaking in mid May. Any ideas? I have tons of iris and hydrangeas that will be blooming, so I’m going to try to stick with highlighting blues and bronze colors. This other photo is “Eye of the Tiger” Dutch Iris, which will be blooming in five different spots of the border. So far I’ve only thought about adding in drifts of annual coleus in some of the bronze colors, but I’d love the input of some other clever garden folks!

Sometimes Even I am Left Speechless

My friends say that my personality is "animated," and as you might have discovered from reading this blog, I tend to go on about certain topics, and often venture off into thirty or forty different directions. Sometimes even I can be rendered speechless.

Yesterday afternoon I was doing some volunteer gardening for the Cobb Master Gardeners, at a place called The Center for Children and Young Adults. In a nutshell, it's a residential facility for kids (ages birth through 17), most of whom are from abusive or neglected backgrounds; as with most government facilities, they get "less than nothing" from the state budget, so they are hugely dependent upon donations of goods and services. Since 2001, Maureen Locke and Toni Moore (two amazing women and fellow MG's) have been working away there to develop gardens and gardening programs for the kids.

I had agreed to do the containers for the summer, including a number of pots that have been donated over the years, and a big fountain in the courtyard that no longer works or really holds water. I came with a somewhat disjointed collection of what annuals could be scrounged and what was in clearance at the garden center, intend upon making something presentable from the lot.

When I arrived, I met a young man who lives there, who wanted to help. Like lots of teenagers, he was fairly reserved, and it took some coaxing to engage him in conversation. We worked side by side for a while, me asking questions and him giving one word answers. I was careful not to pry, since I am clear that this young man has probably lived a life that I can only imagine.

Then I asked what he wanted to do with his life, and he said he wanted to be a landscaper. When I asked, "Why?" his face just lit up, and the tough guy persona disappeared in a flash.
He responded with, "Because the world is plain and not always pretty. I don't know why anyone wants to live with plain. I want to help people make their lives happy and beautiful."

In this young man's hands, the motley assembly of plants truly became beautiful; he placed each and every plant with such care, getting up a few times to stand back and view the large fountain from the angle visitors and residents of the Center would see it. For the rest of the time we worked, we were in sync, as he quietly questioned his choices of plants and looked for reassurance.

I have the pleasure of working in some pretty fabulous gardens on a daily basis, and am always aware of how lucky I am to do what I do for a living. I must say, though, that the defunct fountain filled with "step child plants" is one of the most beautiful containers I've worked on this season. I can't wait to see how it fills in over the next few months. (He is going to handle watering and maintaining it).

White Bean & Fennel Soup

I made a soup for the Master Gardener Intern class today, which is a recipe I make with some regularity at home. Since I've gotten five email requests for the recipe today, I decided I would just list it here. It is vegetarian, freezes beautifully, and like most soups, gets better with a day of aging.

White Bean & Fennel Soup

2 lbs. dry Great Northern Beans

1/4 c. olive oil

2 heads fennel, cut in half and thinly sliced

2 large onions, chopped

1 T. chopped garlic

12 c. vegetable stock

3 lb. red skinned potatoes, cut in chunks

1 c. dry sherry

3 bay leaves

2 t. cayenne

Rinse the beans, picking out any that are discolored, leave to drain in a colander.

In a heavy soup pot, heat the oil, add the garlic, onion, fennel and spices, and saute until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the beans and vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and leave for one hour.

Return to a boil, and simmer approx two hours until the beans are soft. The fennel will virtually "melt" into the soup during this process. Check every half hour or so during this process, and add water as needed to keep the beans covered. Add the potatoes and sherry and cook 20 minutes longer, until potatoes are cooked. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper as needed.

For all of you cooks who MUST change a recipe (you know who you are), at least try this as written first, then tweak it if you must. I'm sure this recipe could support other veggies, other spices, etc., but it's one of the few recipes that I actually make exactly as written every time, and it gets great reviews.

Greetings from the Garden!

As a means of introduction, let me give you a little bit of information that will explain the title of my blog:

I got my education as a chef, and spent about 25 years in the “high end” catering and country club world. I was always an avid hobby gardener, first on the coast of Massachusetts, then in Charleston, and later in Atlanta. My gardens ran the gamut from a little rose garden in Salem, Massachusetts, to a 30th floor terrace in midtown Atlanta.

A few years ago, I decided it was time to take the plunge and get serious about gardening, and I slowly transitioned out of the party business. That’s a whole story in itself…..

Now I spend my days working as a private gardener, with most of my hours being at one large residential property. The estate has a great mix of woodlands, formal gardens, organic vegetables and herbs, and a pretty cool Victorian-style greenhouse. Since I’m a big believer that one’s profession should follow one’s passion, this is a perfect job for me!

When I’m not gardening for someone else, I’m nurturing my own little suburban plot, focusing mostly on perennials. I’m a Georgia Master Gardener, so I volunteer about 150 hours a year with different garden-education related projects around the area. I also teach a program on container gardening.

When it comes to gardening, I think we have an obligation to help each other make the world more beautiful. I would love to see this space develop into an active conversation about what’s going on in my garden and those of others, sharing experiences good and bad, sharing new insights (and perhaps some old ones that are tried and true), new products we each might encounter, gardening events, etc. It would be awesome to develop a space that nurtures gardeners as much as gardens!

Tim