Beach Planter Ice Damage

BY SKEETER

 When Ice Storm 2014 hit us here in my GEORGIA GARDENS, I feared for my little Palm tree.

 Some of the palm fronds were clearly damaged. I have seen many large Palm Trees, Sego Palms, etc. completely destroyed from the several days of being under that nasty sheet of ice.

 But my little Palm still looked alive to me. With a Sweet Gum Tree sapling growing right in the middle of it.

I decided that it was time to give the Palm a good clipping. I clipped every single Frond with damage and even took it a bit further by removing anything remotely close to the Heat/AC Unit.

 In the process, I was bit many times by the Palm as it is covered with sharp Thorns! Had I known this thing would have produced thorns, I would have thought twice about making this purchase as I do not like anything that bites back. Na, I would have more then likely made the purchase anyway knowing about the thorns as I needed a Palm in my Beach Planter. I do believe in time the Palm will shine once again after the BEACH PLANTER ICE DAMAGE, In the Garden... 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Formosa Lily

BY SKEETER

  The Beach Planter continues to grow here in my GEORGIA GARDENS. Click HERE to see a follow up and link to its beginnings.

 A bargain find Flamingo has landed.

 These bargain found Frogs call the planter home as well.

 This photo was snapped on June 4 with the Formosa Lily about the same height as the Palm...

 This photo was snapped July 22 with Formosa Buds showing as well as a Sweet Gum Sapling in the middle of the Palm.

 This photo was snapped on Aug 2 while the Saint held up the top heavy plant. Ha, the sapling returned in the Palm as I have failed to pull the root but rather snapped it off.

 These beauties came to my garden by sneaking into a gift of Canna Bulbs passed along to me by sweet Lola! 

 I do believe this Formosa Lily is about ready to be divided.

 We stabilized Lily to the stake so it does not fall to the ground.

 She is full of Pollen.

 And holding onto raindrops with our plentiful Summer rains.

I cannot Thank Lola enough for this FORMOSA LILY, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Beach Planter Follow-up

BY SKEETER

It has been a while since I shared the Beach Planter with you. Yes, I have a little beach in my Georgia Gardens. Click HERE to see how this garden began.

  I thought now would be a great time for a revisit as the Formosa Lily is in full bloom! Lola, thank you so much for this wonderful gift that keeps on giving to me year after year!

I just love this lily and how tall the thing becomes.

A banana tree once was here but it was moved after Tina posted on how they can damage a house's foundation. In the spot was placed a Silver Fan Palm back in 2010. The Palm survived a freak ice and snow storm as did the Lily. The base got a fresh coat of sand this spring and the Crab came to life with a bit of color added as well.

I just love this lily as it is so darn beautiful glowing in the sun shine! Here you see the most blooms of her yet. At this rate, we shall have to make a change in time as I know she will outgrow this planter. I can see a future BEACH PLANTER FOLLOW-UP, In the Garden... 

 Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Busy Busy Busy...

BY SKEETERSpring is a busy time here in my Georgia Garden. I am currently working on cleaning out all of the planters and adding fresh Cypress Mulch. The planter above is the Angel Trumpet Planter. Click Here to see this Planters Beginning. I added granite rocks around to hold the mulch in place. I also added the birdbath as to have height. Once the Angel Trumpet gets large enough for height, I may remove the birdbath. If the Angel grows around it, I shall keep it in place. Lilies and Salvia are growing taller each day.
I also enlarged this planter. The Azalea's were starting to grow outside the planter.
I added this piece of wood that the Saint found and saved for me. It looks like a piece of Drift Wood but it is not as we do not have a lake by our yard.
He is such a sweetie pie to think of me when finding such things.
This little planter has been enlarged a bit as well. The Royal Princess Nandina is giving me some saplings so I made room for them to grow. I also dug out a couple and placed them into the Semi-Formal Garden. This is where my beloved Skeeter Kitty is buried.

Today I worked in the yard for 7 hours pulling weeds, mulching, planting annuals, etc. I am working so hard as we have company coming in a few weeks. During the week of The Masters Golf Tournament, we have 2 couples coming to stay with us from England. We want to open our home and show them some good old Southern Hospitality. I am working really hard to get my gardens in a state that I can be proud of them. I know they will not compare to an English Garden but I am sure they will enjoy the surrounding beauty while relaxing at the patio in between golf games. So needless to say, I will continue to be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Nesting

By SKEETER
I sit at my computer and look out into my Georgia Gardens and what do I see? Very difficult to spot so I shall zoom in for you...
Little Cottontail has a mouth full of leaves and Liriope (Monkey Grass).
Bunny ran around the stump and was doing something in the tall Monkey Grass.
I once again zoom into the area for a peek as to what is going on.
I put off my plan of grass mowing so as to not disturb the cute critter. Once the sun was beaming into this area, I noticed that he/she had moved on to the woods. I went outside to discover this. Can you see the rabbit hole?
Little fluff ball was making a nest right in the middle of my Liriope Planter!
I would love to have baby bunnies in the garden but after pondering this for a while, I decided it was not best for baby bunnies to be in our yard.
Not for fear to my plants, I can always chase them around. I would more then likely find the babies succumb to the claws and teeth of my buddy OJ kitty or Zip the Rat Terror, I mean Terrier. So I sprayed the area real well with bunny deterrent, sigh. There will be no NESTING, In the Garden...

If I spot a Monkey in this planter, I will let him/her be as it is after all Monkey Grass...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Faux Fence

By SKEETER
It did not take me long to decided what to do with the empty uneven stump in the middle of my planter. After reading the suggestions from you wonderful commenter's, I rushed out the same day to the garden center! I put two pots of pretties together taking Darla to heart with her suggestion. Spike and ivy now adorn the stump with some Viola's for color. Your voice is heard in my Georgia Gardens! I also dug up some of the Vinca from the ground and added it to the round pot. The long pot has the ivy. Hopefully they will grow soon and hide the green tie downs to the pots. I sure hope the pots are accepted in this spot. The squirrels love to chase each other around the stump as if a merry-go-round.I was stuck inside the house with being too sick to go into the gardens for 2 weeks. I longed to be outside but knew it would not be best. I was not sick enough to sit still though. I took up painting. Ha, a painter I am not but I had fun creating and playing with the paints anyway. These are gourds I grew two seasons ago and am just now getting around to playing with them. They are painted, now what to do with them???
I also painted small birdhouses. I finished the last of them last night while talking on the phone with my mom. She wanted to know what I was going to do with them but I told her she had to wait until today's Blog to find out. Can you spot the one I called Halloweeny mom? So here is my grand idea for a project we took on this past weekend. (like the planter was not enough) The Saint replaced our front entry hand railings to the house last summer. I would not let him trash the old ones as I knew in time I would come up with some idea to recycle them. He cut the spindles square for me. He drilled a hole into the bottom of each one and installed a piece of Rebar. We put them into the ground and I topped each one with a birdhouse.I put them along side the Entry to the Semi-Formal Garden. A sort of faux fence. I have always thought the Entry was a bit lonely and needed something. I neglected this garden last year and have decided it is time to give it some attention. I think this is a good start.
I am in the process of taking out the planter where I once put herbs. I plan to divide lilies and extend them on down to the last post. I have ideas running in my head as to what I would like to do here.








While in Tennessee last May, as the rains were coming down, I stopped by the Humane Society's big Yard Sale. I found such bargains as these saw blades. I believe I paid a mere dollar each for them! The cats you see on some of the post were picked up at this Yard Sale also. Can we say bargain...


Look where I put the saw blades! I am dealing with a dry cough now, which is driving me nuts. But that is not keeping me down. I am enjoying creating such things as this FAUX FENCE, In the Garden...
HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!
Note, I will be off the blog for a bit. Everyone enjoy this awesome spring we are having....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Planter Rehab

By SKEETER:
I am sick of being sick! Anyone else ever feel this way after dealing with sickness for two weeks? I decided I had been out of my Georgia Gardens long enough. I took a box of tissues and off I went with my runny nose to the yard.

Our first project was to rehab the planter where the Oak Tree was taken down last fall. This was a 90 foot (if not taller) tree and it was too close to the house for comfort. One similar was hit by lightening and I feared this one was next. So down she came along with 3 other trees in this area. You can see another stump in the background. With such a large tree to cut, it damaged the rotting timbers to the planter of Liriope below. New timbers and we are ready to rehab. Two piles of split wood waiting for the free taking! Our woodshed is full and our pile for backyard campfires is plenty so we are giving the remaining wood away.
We found the same type timbers and decided to go with that as it would make things easy. So we thought anyway. See the end of the old planter? It was jointed by a slice of a timber knocked into the ground.
Well, funny thing, when we replaced the timbers, they were shorter then the old timbers. Ha, consumer beware! Timbers are now a bit shorter probably to save money for the company manufacturing them. Grrrrrrrrrr... No problem, I had an idea and the Saint put it into motion. We made forms on each corner. Not pretty forms but doing this on the cheap and quick.
Each corner was a different size.
We had a bag of quikrete on hand and picked up an extra bag just in case we would need two. Of course both bags we had were small and the Saint had to make a quick run to town for one more bag to finish the last corner. We never calculate properly with bags of anything. Like gravel, sand and quikrete!
Amazing how adding water turns this power, sand, gravel mixture into concrete.
Once we had our oatmeal just right, we poured it into each form.
I had four tiles laying around and decided to top off each corner with one for a bit of interest.
The next day, we tapped off the forms and Bingo! Perfect corners for our new planter. They are just the rustic look I was hoping for!
We now have a new one of a kind planter! This is last years Liriope with a slight hair cut before we started placing the timbers. In no time at all, it will cover the sides of the planter. What is that on the stump and what is the Saint doing by the grill?The Stump has a beautiful black cat face on it. Thank you so much Lola for this wonderful gift. It took me a while but I finally found the perfect spot for it! I can see it from my sun-room windows. The birdbath is not staying there. It was just there for the meantime. Question, Should we try to cut the stump top even or leave it as this? The Saint likes it as is for some reason when I would prefer it level to hold a plant. Hum, I could put two plants and stagger them. Ha, I may have just answered my own question.
Ah, the Saint was grilling some awesome chickens! We have enough left overs so I don't have to worry about cooking dinner each evening this week. I can play in the garden and not have to worry about dinner as it is already there waiting for the heat up.

There you have it, a PLANTER REHAB, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden