cover crop

i never tire of photographing seedlings. 

they are so inspiring- how they start form a tiny seeds, then pop up and eventually grow into mature plants.

this year, we are planting a cover crop of buckwheat on half of the veggie bed. our veggie bed has grown so large that it takes alot of time to tend. while we love every minute- and every bite- we are scaling back, slightly.

we planted half of it in this cover crop and will till it under at summer's end. then we'll switch ends for planting next go 'round.

we'll see how it goes...

moonflower, for free

whew, we have been busy in the garden, hence the irregularity of posting the last week or so- our apologies...

we found some moonflower seed pods on the vine, leftover from last year. we will soon be starting these in the greenhouse to transplant in the same spot. they grow along the fence that lines the veggie bed.

moonflower seeds need a little coaxing- the seeds like a little soak in water before planting. if you have ever encountered a moonflower's beauty or scent, you will know it is worth this little bit of extra effort.

rose

today i was doing a photo shoot and plucked this rose from outside my studio- it found its way into the pictures, both for beauty and for purpose...

when we moved in there were many roses here- all are old fashioned ones, many are unnamed to us. 

but we enjoy them all the same!

tulip poplar

a large tulip poplar sits on the street next door to our house.

it drops these beautiful 'flowers' that have light green petals with orange tips. the sidewalk is covered with them.

really pretty...

ocean flowers: impressions from nature

someone was asking about the book ocean flowers that i talked about here.

it is out of print, but is so wonderfully beautiful. 

it was the companion to this exhibit at the drawing center in nyc a few years back...my mom and i saw the exhibit together and soon began making light drawings in her garden and in mine, together.

the exhibit& book trace the different methods of cataloging specimens from nature- from drawing them to making inked plant prints to light drawings...on view were indian scientific illustrations, plant prints in varying shades of brown and sepia and black and light drawings from anna atkins and fox talbot and others.

here are a few of my favorite pages from the book, but there are many more. my mom keeps her copy open on a lectern- every so often she changes the pages, it is that beautiful. i keep mine by my bed and flip through it over and over.

enjoy.

Greasy Meat

We had a little visitor the other day. This little opossum was cruising our front porch for food and found the cat food later that day. Haven't seen this critter since. Heard the meat is greasy.

native azaleas

in our garden we have many native azaleas. 

rhododendron austrinum &  rhododendron canescens are the two prominent ones. 

we intend to plant more now that we have some holes in our landscape from the tree loss inflicted on us by the snowstorm. 

this joy+ride

some photos from the garden over here.

Poppies

Celandine poppies have been spreading all over our yard since we began clearing out privet and cherry laurel a few years ago.  The native poppies are early bloomers that take advantage of the sunlight hitting the forest floor before the trees leaf out. These are the last of the blooms as the canopy fills in for the year.

Rainy Monday

Another rainy day this spring which is fantastic for our drought stricken territory. I wish the wind wouldn't blow so as we have been preparing to be on the Piedmont Gardener's garden tour this weekend. Anyways, hoping for a sunny day so the hardy begonias will be on display.

datura pods as sculpture

i have a habit, somewhat to lee's chagrin, of creating little vignettes throughout the house,

often with things that have come in from the garden. 

here, some datura pods hang on a nail on our porch- 

they are full of seeds and we will plant these soon, but since last summer, they have hung here.

if i could cast them in bronze, i would.

we heart sweet potatoes

lee went up to the co-op to get sweet potatoes the other day. 

they are awaiting planting on the porch.

they are so simple to grow- just start with good organic sweet potatoes, cut them up into pieces & plant, then you dig them up in early fall. each small pieces turns into clumps of branching tubers, most of which are full-grown sweet potatoes.

from few, come many.

lee makes multiple sweet potato pies every year- his grandmother's recipe.

Azaleas

I stumbled across a tee vee yesterday in the bbq joint and heard the announcer babbling about some guys stroking their little white balls around a course in Augusta. They kept talking about the scenery and the pretty azaleas. In their honor (aim for the cup boys).

Home Invader

One of the most lovely things about the spring is finally being able to fling open the windows and doors and get some fresh air. 13 years on and still having failed to install a screen door leaves our house a little open to whatever creature wanders, flits, crawls, or flies by.  Case in point, this moth cruised in the other day and then spent the remainder of the afternoon banging its head against a window screen before finally finding the door. I guess the lamps were too exciting.

tree peony, part two- working my way around a flower

tree peonies are similar to regular peonies but they have a woody stem and like to stay put in one place. year after year the woody stem grows taller and they put out buds and blooms. they open a little earlier than other peonies, and did i mention that each bloom is about 8 inches across (if not larger...) and they smell heavenly?

yes

the freezing temps came and went and these flowers are the better for it.

Peony

Our tree peony is blooming at the moment and has several buds stacked behind this flower. I think this is the national flower of China. In any event, it is slap ass beautiful.

will they be here tomorrow?

forecast calls for 30 degree temps and a rain/snow mix tonight. this is bizarre, but typical for our area the last few years. a seesaw of weather rocks us back and forth, back and forth. we had an 80 degree sunshine-filled day on saturday and now this.

here is our stand of snowball viburnum a few days ago- they are about ten feet tall and covered in these apple green flowerheads that resemble hydrangea blossoms. they will eventually turn white and full, but for now they sit tightly on the stem and are this fresh shade of green.

we will see if they make it through the chill tonight.

Catching Rays

We saw this little fellow, a gray rat snake, catching rays on the greenway down by the Oconee River last Sunday. We often find these in our yard. A good rule of thumb about snakes in north east Georgia-if it has pits on the nose (a pit viper) and/or cat like eyes stay away. It is poisonous. This snake has no pits on the nose and has round,black eyes so it is not poisonous and quite probably beneficial because it dines on rodents. In any event best to let them all go on their way when you cross paths (and take a picture).

Andalusia

We finally made it to Flannery O'Connor's farm just north of Milledgeville. It was a wet stormy day as we drove south and the dark clouds moved low across the sky, flashing lightning and spitting rain. Kind of added to the atmosphere of the outing really. 

The property is dotted with these white iris (which the foundation has for sale) that seem to have naturalized through the yard and into the forest edge.

Actually the forest edge is creeping a little closer in everyday. This large barn towards the rear of the property is slowly being rendered into the ground. Several of the other barns and out buildings are even a little closer.

Flannery O'Connor's bedroom and the room where she wrote is on the lower left side of this photo. Her desk was set so that her back faced the two windows onto the screen porch. Her view? The back of a chifferobe that her desk abutted. 

I happen to be reading her collected short stories right now and as I grew up in the Piedmont I can see the landscape in her stories. I know the humid summers, tree crowded small roads (as if Mother Nature is taking that little ribbon of asphalt back right now), and fields blocked out of the pine woods.

We headed off for Sparta via Linton to get home to Athens. We crossed no wine dark seas on this little journey but innumerable red clay choked streams jumping their banks. We did stumble across Glen Mary up on a grassy hill but that is story for another day.

seed census

lee finished our seed census this morning. 

he sorted the ones we had ordered, ones he had saved from years past in his cabinet, 

and ones we have had in our freezer for a very long time. 

now, we will see what will germinate...