What's In Your Garden?

Now that Spring has sprung for most of us it is apparent that we like to grow many things in addition to orchids. I thought perhaps we could use this thread to post what's growing in and around our gardens. I grow mostly vegetables and herbs with some simple annuals added to the mix. Since most of our property both in Atlanta and at Maypop is wooded we enjoy the trees and wildflowers in the natural scape. Our veggie garden runs along a wooded hillside There are hundreds of sweet shrubs spilling out of the woods and down the banks.

Jim, you're making me drool with the tomatoes. I'm about two weeks away from some grape tomatoes. We are growing a dozen varieties this year, mostly heirloom.

Anyway, I'd love to see other orchid friends' gardens if you have a mind to share.
Laurel

This sounds like a nice thread Laurel. I would like to show my orchid buddies a bit more of my gardens. here is a view of the north side of my home to include some azaleas.

Jim

I am blessed to have an acre on a lake just north of Tampa. My small lake connects via canal to a much larger lake and then to even more lakes. This picture is from my backyard looking across the lake.

Jim

This is a picture of my rose garden. As a master gardener, I give talks on roses at several of the Tampa libraries.

JIm

Oh Jim, that is spectacular! Are those Karume or Indica azaleas? Those are my favorites. I grew up on a lake in North Miami Beach and still take my canoe out when visiting Dad. We can't grow azaleas in Miami; too hot.

Here's the state flower of Georgia, the Cherokee rose...

Ha ha, cross posted my wild rose to your fancy ones.

Here is my lion-head fountain in the middle of the backyard.

Jim

This is a picture of the front of the house from the street.

Jim

Wow! Great photos Jim - you live in a gardener's paradise!

Joanne

Cool thread!! Great to see your gardens, Jim. Love that fountain! Laurel can I see more of your homes/gardens?

A bit more here. These gardens start so bare!! Wait till August!

Kathy, I am just learning how to use a camera. Graduated from auto focus to manual this week :). Never realized how much work was involved when asking DH to upload a few dozen or so photos!

We are on a wooded lot, way set back and on the hilly side of Atlanta. The house is a contemporary cabin with a kite-shaped main roof. One story is bermed on one side into a hill. A lot of multi-level glass in a rustic interior. This is a view from my bedroom of the front yard (don't throw stones). I'll try to post some new exterior photos this evening.

Azaleas and viburnum on our hilly lawn.

Cool!!

These are wonderful pictures. I also enjoy getting to know your gardens. Here is my golden rain tree in bloom last summer.

Jim

Here is my agapanthus.

Jim

This is a picture of my house from the lake.

Jim

First, I want to say, thanks for sharing. I'm hoping more people will add as their Spring happens. I'm not encouraging fancy displays. Love seeing the ground in progress. There are definite differences down here. One of the bigger differences I've noticed is how everyone up North uses markers, mail order and is so aware of their varieties. Here it's more like, 'come and get it or it's going in the dump' (right Jim?). It's just a viburnum or a tulip or a rhodie or a magnolia. We just picked it up on the roadside or from a neighbor's lawn garbage. Brings new meaning to "dumpster diving"!

Kathy, your garden looks incredible. Is that a weeping cherry? It looks old. Did you plant it?

Jim, thanks for all the photos. Your house situation looks like what I grew up with in North Miami Beach. Dad's there, 89 years old and cannonballing in the pool! Can't do a thing with that man :). I go down to visit, swim in the pool and machete the yard.

So here are some Atlanta photos. We don't really have a garden per se. The terrain is challenging and we like to have an oasis in the middle of the city.

We come in from a court, down stone steps and on to decks. Gardening is usually peripheral to the woods, in pots and raised planters.

View from our sloped lawn.

Here is the entrance. I have a little pond/fountain. When people park and come toward the house, the can hear the pond before they see it because the back fountain wall is driveway curbing.

Beautiful Laurel! I love that pic of the entrance. There's a Frank L Wright thing about it.
I have 3.3 acres, woods, stream, sauna. Renting the house now and living in the barn. The cherry was well established before I moved here (prolly 20 years old).

I've always dreamed of having a barn but never owned a property large enough. We could have done that here in Florida but opted for lake front instead. An acre on a lake was all the budget would allow.

Laurel, you have a beautiful spot in Atlanta. Are you northeast of town?

Here is a picture of my alamanda from last fall. It was hurt badly by our freeze on Jan 3rd but is coming back from the ground.

Jim

This is another type of allamanda called Cherries Jubilee. I had two plants and lost one but the other is coming back. I replaced the dead one as I love the color of the flower.

Jim

What's in my garden? Well, right now, at 5 pm, lots of SNOW and hail; we even had an earlier thunder and lightning storm. They're forecasting 10 to 25 cm of snow tonight (4 to 10"). I gotta move. LOL.

Joanne

Kathy, I used to live at the barn, not in the barn. Always love those great renovated barn to house abodes. If I lived in a barn I'd put in a wood cook stove and live happily ever after! I'd move the sauna in there too. BTW, is that a weeping cherry?

Nice alamanda, Jim. They are hosts for saddle back caterpillars. Watch out! That's a sting that keeps on giving. Do you know Atlanta? We're smack dab in the city. That's why the woods are such a treat. Sadly, we are stewarding a (lost) cause. We drive in off the street, cross a bridge, and then it's us, some neighboring properties that are also wooded and the wildlife that's being pushed into this small space. We're in the N.W quadrant.... the Sandy Springs/Buckhead neighborhood.

Atlanta has some true micro-climate differences. We used to live on the N.E. side, east as the crow flies, and grew very different plants. We lean towards the foothills on the West side of town and plants more suited to the Piedmont grow here. Here is a wild flame azalea. They sport in colors from gold to peach to orange/red.

Laurel

Here's the kitchen in the barn. (Yes, it's a weeping cherry.)

It looks very comfy.

Jim

Can I move in with all of you?
This is a great thread!! Our place here in NJ is average, right now I am in the process of ripping out most of the overgrown border in the backyard and replanting it.
Last year DH started up a bog garden by placing a bathtub into the ground. We planted different Mosses last Fall and they look really nice now. I picked up today some hardy Pitcher plants, I hope they work out well.

Is that a Stickley rocker? It's beautiful. Is there room for me, Jim and Ursula (I get the rocker)? Do the orchids get the rest of the barn?

Ursula, I have a tub up at Maypop that I want to turn into an outdoor shower with yard art landscaping. This lifetime is proving a little short for my plans. What pitchers are you looking for? I have Dutchman's pipes.

Jim, regarding the fountain, we have two antique garden lions. We do a big New Year's Day party. I move the lions to the front door, which automatically looks funny with our cabin, tie helium balloons around them and put ice packs on their heads.
L

L

Laurel, no way on stickley but a good imitation. I often eat breakfast in the rocker! The orchids basically do get the rest of the barn!! LOL. Ask Ursula! They are in my waiting room, my office, and the art studio!!

Here are my silly statues. These falcons are always keeping an eye on the stair garden.

I won't be moving the fountain Laurel, it weighs 1800 pounds. It took three guys and a fork lift to set it up.

No falcons for me as this neighborhood is ruled by a red-shouldered hawk. Here he is on watch.

Jim

Here is a nice view in my backyard.

Jim

So pretty. Makes me want to stroll around Jim. (People say that about my garden, but all I see is the weeding, etc to be done.

I just took my camera for a walk around the garden. This is a plant called yellow belles or yellow elder. It has come back from the ground after the freeze.

Jim

This is my butterfly garden. It is mostly scarlet milkweed, lantana and pentas.

Jim

This is a closeup of the pentas.

Jim

And the scarlet milkweed.

Jim

This is a plant called jacobinia.

Jim

Here is a double hibiscus. The plant is huge, well above the roof line.

Jim