My wife says the chairs are fine, but I wouldn’t dare sit on them (I suspect she’s after the life insurance. I wore out my welcome years ago). They’ve been in the garden for twenty years or more. They’re not teak, but some other type of exotic, rot-resistant wood that was going around at the…
Category: water gardens
Preparing the ponds for spring
The pump went out in one of the garden ponds in late autumn, and I haven’t a clue why. Perhaps it was old age. I know the feeling. Replacing the pump was a rare expense for my ponds, that is if the cost of running electricity twenty four hours a day for five ponds through…
After the storm
In the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains hurricane Irene left barely a mark in the garden, with only a few inches of rain and a handful of fallen branches that were quickly cleared. Several lightly rooted plants were knocked askew, but I have straightened and tamped them or left them to work it out…
Tallulah Falls
Don’t tell anyone, but I think that I might be getting a tad too old for this. I’m a wreck, tired, battered, and bruised. At the end of last week my wife and I traveled south to the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia to see our daughter-in-law graduate with her Ph.D. in chemistry, and…
Bzzzzz
For years I’ve made a habit of poking my nose and camera within inches of flowers as butterflies and bees buzzed about, and until a few weeks ago I had not been stung in a great while. Then, wasps that were nesting between boulders bordering one of the garden’s ponds got me several times before…
Summer garden tour – July 2011
Most people with a lick of sense would not be inclined to tour a garden in the heat of July. I will be in Mobile, Alabama next week, and I’m looking forward to revisiting Bellingrath Gardens (below), a beautiful residence and garden that have been opened to the public. I’ll be dripping sweat and fogging…
Planting along the pond’s edge
I see too many ponds surrounded only by a naked border of stone. While a mix of boulders, smaller stones, and river washed gravel can be arranged to mimic the edge of a mountain stream, without plants the pond looks sterile and man-made. I have planted along the borders of the garden’s five ponds so…
Spring pond update
There are five ponds in the garden, and for the first time in years I had to replace one of the pumps this spring. Several pumps have been working without a care for ten years, or at least as long as I can recall. I haven’t a clue what happened. One day it worked, the…
How many plants can be jammed into a garden?
Readers occasionally write asking for wider views of the garden rather than only close ups of flowers, and recently I’ve featured several of these. I often find that when I take photographs of more broad areas that the camera flattens the view so that there is too little contrast, with one plant hardly distinguishable from another. This…
The middle third
The rear garden is roughly divided into thirds, with three small ponds in the top third and thick, jungle-like planting so that one pond cannot be seen from another that is less than ten feet away. Stone paths meander through and two small patios provide vantage points to rest and enjoy the water features. The…
Please don’t sit on the furniture
A few days ago I included a photo of one of the patios where a green leafed dissectum Japanese maple is perched over two lichen-covered wooden chairs. Let this serve as a warning, if you should ever visit the garden, DO NOT sit on the furniture. This set once included a bench, which maybe ten…
Rain, rain, go away
This is getting a little ridiculous! I can hardly walk in the lower end of the back garden. The lawn is saturated, the planting beds are a swamp. and those are the areas that are usually dry. The depression that runs along the lower southern border stays damp through the year from the constant trickle…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 