Announcements!

The sweeeet new green nursery flier thanks to Kevin, my design wizzard!


You'd never guess what is going in the third studio space next to keith - A TATTOO SHOP! and yes, it is very "country" as in REDNECK! I met the guys yesterday and they seemed nice enough... I'm just wondering what it's going to take to get this place to pass a health inspection...

... maybe they should start by getting rid of the disgusting old mattress! Shucks, if this place was in NYC it would be a squatters' paradise!




It's almost blooming! Who says you can't transplant a poppy! This one dug out of one of the garden club ladies yards is about to busta move in the front flower bed... Life is good!

making babies...

I had a whole bunch of out-of-control jades and other succulents (my nerdy friend Mark loves this plant classification - purely for the word "succulent") desperately in need of potting up and cloning... I call it cloning, basically I mean cutting up the branches or leaves and making new baby plants...


Here are the mamas in their new pots....


...and the new babies in their new pots...


I also put these "wandering jewels" (the purple ones!) and Swedish Ivy into hanging pots. I had made these babies from big giant mamas who had come from Brooklyn, and now reside on our porch. Very much happier from being trimmed up!

Around the nursery...

Sempervivum throwing up a flower spike!


Japanese Maple, Cunningham Fir, Pieris Japonica "Mountain Fire" and a varigated Hydrangea everyone loves but is afraid to buy!


One of my most favorite ferns, Sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis, is actually quite tough... I often drive past a really great patch of it in full sun and then it was mowed and *boom* back and raging! Might I say...
FERNTASTIC!


This is a garden salvia I transplanted into one of my flower beds in the front... these butterflies (I'm not sure of the species) are everywhere & everyday I have to capture and release several who get caught in the nursery, banging themselves silly against the window.


At first I thought petals or blooms from another plant were falling and getting caught in this Dwarf mondo grass (dwarf mondo - how's that for a botanical oxymoron?!) but no... it's actually blooming!

Wesley's garden

My first real design gig in Asheville is for my old boyfriend Wes. He owns a very cute bungalow in town which he has completely renovated and he has also built large stone terraced gardens and patios in the back. We started on the front, since that's the first impression people get when they pull up... It's part sunny, more shady closer to the house.
Here you can see: Oakleaf Hydrangea, Cimicifuga racemosa, TN Ostrich fern...

... Mahonia, Cornus Kousa, Seersucker sedge (a native here!), hakonachloa, maidenhair ferns, varigated polgonatum...


...Epimedium, dwarf polygonatum, aruncus...

stuff...

We found this cutie sleeping on the side of the house! I think I woke him up while taking these pictures... bats are so great for eating massive amounts of bugs every night!

Ironically, my dear friend Diana got me this rain gauge in the middle of a crazy heat wave/drought! We haven't had rain for weeks! However, as I write this there is some booming thunder outside and Bandit has run off to hide in the bathroom under the sink... I told my roomie, Rob, we need to learn some rain dance moves! He waters his farm with rainwater collected from a gutter system set up on one of the outbuildings.

I pass this crazy moment in excavation every time I drive to my friend's trout farm & I love it! It's literally on the edge... What the hell happened here?


Uh-oh... any last words pal? He was squarshed immediately! On my zinnias that little f*%$@r!


ooooooo... Cosmos "Bright Lights" also planted around the nursery fence.

Happy Summer Solstice!

It is officially summer and a truly gorgeous day here in Brevard! My friend Claire, who previously owned 'The Extended Garden' up the road, came by and bought one of my super-coolest-plants-in-the-nursery-at-this-moment: Maple Leaf Hibiscus... What can I say, she's got a good eye!

I'm celebrating the first day of summer with a photo tour of the Zinnia in the garden... Zinnia are one of my favorites and they are planted all along the fence of the nursery! YAY! Bouquets are slowly invading the homes of those I love...



This picture is a bit washed out - the variety is called "green envy" and it is a very pale limey green - looks amazing as an accent in a bouquet with the pinks and reds.... mmmm....

sad day...

My landlord announced a few weeks ago that he is putting the property on the market... lucky for me he is asking$400,000... for barely an acre and a building that could more easily be bulldozed than renovated... I'm not too worried about it, if I have to move, so be it! That's just how it goes when you don't own your space.


At least the sign matches my car! ha!

stuff...

I love this shrub, Mahonia bealei, growing here in a surprisingly stunning planting at one of the local banks! Mahonia grows in the shade, has beautiful leathery leaves, blue berries and pretty yellow blooms....



white squirrel sighting in the front yard! Yes, he does seem to be staring me down, notice the grey squirrel sneaking up behind him!

Being a huge Jack-in-the-pulpit fan, I had to have this print from a local antique store...


Foxglove love...

Blooming!

Papaver somniferum, Opium Poppy, sown at my friend's house... They'll never get enough sun in this location to form proper pods that could be milked... but they sure are pretty!



These daylilies, Hemerocallis fulva, are often thought to be natives, when in fact they were brought over from Europe in the late 19th century as an ornamental. The thick tubers spread rapidly and are edible! We ate them like potatoes and fried up the blossoms as well in herb school... The beautiful bursts of orange line the roads, each bud opening for only one day and then wilting. We have a beautiful patch in front of our house... Maybe ten years ago, when I lived in Fairview NC, I dug up hundreds of these where they were going to be demolished due to road widening construction, and transplanted them to a friend's property. He had just carved a very steep driveway into the side of his mountain property and the daylilies grew in and created a mass that keeps the steep slope from washing out.


This is the bloom of the Castor Bean plant, Ricinus communis, a native of tropical Africa cultivated for the oil found in its leaves... the seed is very poisonous! I just like it because it looks weird and Dr. Seuss-y!

My super craft open sign/bucket in action!



Rabbit (my landlord who operates earth movers and does all sorts of other random stuff...) put in a new spigot for me to use from the well up the hill. Now there's a great empty strip ready for some wildflower mix! Not to mention my superduper new blue spigot!



Rabbit also brought me this great piece of a log he found at Skinny's logmill! woohoo! I'll be planting something in there!

My new plantings along the fence!

what's blooming in the nursery...

Echinacea transplanted from one of the garden club ladies' gardens... planted in my permenant perennial garden in the front.



Delphinium grandiflorum...



Digitalis grandiflora...



Larkspur... when the blooms mature they can be squeezed to expose the hidden "spur".

Brevard North Carolina is absolutely beautiful! I passed some great barns on the way to visit a friend...



Flame Azalea, Rhododendron calendulaceum, in full bloom! This native lives up to it's name brightening the woods.


The Asheville area is having an erruption of 17 year cicadas... Not where I live, but north of Asheville, at my friend Diana's house, the buzz can be deafening! They come out every a7 years to live above ground for 4-6 weeks... They are everywhere! And being still something of a city girl, I am not down with big bumbling helicopters of this sort... when one landed on Diana and she calmly brushed it off, I screamed... she laughed... I was not laughing, in fact, I was quite paranoid after that....


Maiden plant buying voyage of the new Subaru, christened "Bubble", to Jack Young Greenhouses where I completely overloaded, but got some great stuff.... Castor bean plants, Maple leafed hibiscus, pawpaw trees...

photo credit: SPP (yes it's way better without the flash!)