GardeningSouthern-Style: A Downhome Perspective on All Things Southern

Dr. Walter Van Fleet

Still my favorite rose. But I need a rooting!

I have been watching gardening videos while recuperating from Covid. I was sad that Dothan had nothing for its unique environment. And then I stumbled on to Megan Watson's channel. She has inspired me to start my own. Mine will be much different because I am an old lady looking for beauty with as easy as possible maintenance. Having other gardeners as friends is definitely motivating. Christie and Shelby Thomley helped me with that 2 acre lot on Cherokee that Joe and I once cared for. We met at Rayfield Vester's Master Gardener Class.

Our new home has a much smaller lot, but the gardeners here in Grove Park are serious. I have never seen a bigger sunflower than the one grown by Saundra Jordan and Wiley Jordan. Reva Carlise's cottage garden inspires me with the tour of her cottage garden by the street and her own "SHE SHACK" in her back yard. I rode by Michael Bailey and Catherine Griffith Bailey old home later bought by Sue Marie Shealy Coe and Mike Coe (I don't think they live there now, however.) and got inspired by the most beautiful hydrangeas -- White Annabelle or Limelight? (Not in Grove Park) Judy Bailey Wise brought beautiful camellia blooms to a club meeting and that inspired the camellia garden that will happen just as soon as things cool off a bit. I took Molly and Megan to PC's Nursery and hand delivered the list of camellias he will design my camellia garden with.

Of course, my mother as usual is the greatest inspiration of all. She loved her yard!!! She particularly loved daylillies and would go to Headland every year to the Daylily nursery there. I don't think it still exists, but I have found one owned by Randy and Sharon Pilcher called "In the Neighborhood Daylilies" http://www.intheneighborhooddaylilies.com. Mother started me off right. She started a little girl garden club, the Daffy Dillies, in the polka dot playhouse she made out of an Airconditioner container. I look forward to going to Ozark to pick up my daylilies, although they do deliver.

Saturday my little buddy, Molly, went with me to Dothan Nurseries. The first thing we spotted was a Miss Molly butterfly bush, which we definitely HAD to purchase because Molly even brought her butterfly purse, so of course it was meant to be. I am developing a butterfly garden so that was a must have along with the Yarrow I bought. I always tell John David Boone that coming to Dothan Nurseries is next to heaven for me. I also want to start a rose garden, but I have given my heart to David Austin Roses and sadly they do not deliver to Alabama. (Wonder why?) I do have a granddaughter in Panama City, so she may have to deliver to grandmother. That granddaughter Lily Butterworth, loves succulents. I must admit her affection has rubbed off on me. So one day when I was just cruising the Net I found a spot that made the most beautiful arrangements of succulents. So, of course, I ordered one.

Let me share with you something Molly and I found out! Dothan Nurseries now has a shed under which John David's garden fairies will build your container garden for you. And, if you love pretty pots as much as I do, you must go there. They have the broadest variety of pots, old fashioned flowers, etc. you will find. I brought my friends from Panama City there when I took them on a tour of the Botanical Garden. They were suitably impressed. One thing that I had to leave at our old house was the Doctor Walter Van Fleet rose that Marion Hall rooted for me. It is the ancestor of New Dawn, but a bigger bloomer, I think. As you all know, Marion designed the Camellia Garden at the Botanical Garden. Her mother, Eleanor Grant, (also the name of a camellia Marion propagated) propagated many camellias. All kinds of garden jewelry awaits you at Dothan Nurseries as well. I did a little web work for Rhoda Boone at one time there at Dothan Nurseries when the web was brand new and they were kind enough to trust that early endeavor. That was when JoAn McFarland with Dothan Nurseries did a Monet Garden in my front yard.

http://www.southern-style.com/a_southern_monet_garden.htm. I ordered Larkspur, zinnia and poppy seed yesterday and plan to make a grand effort in my back yard. I will see how this You Tube stuff works and share with you what I come up with here at the new place God has planted me. I finally got out of the chair and have done a little preparatory digging. Don't forget to subscribe to Megan Watson's gardening show. I look forward to learning from her! Southern Living needs a gardener in this area. Linda Vintner is in Oklahoma, Garden Answers is in Oregon, and Jim ..... is in North Carolina. If they are looking for a volunteer, my hand is waving!

After spending my Covid quarantine watching garden shows on You Tube, I have come out the other side determined to get out in my garden and do a bit of designing. I think every gardener brings some of their gardener parent with them into the garden. I go through a garden and see aspidistra and remember the great host that flourished under my mother's fig tree. I brought a lot of those aspidistra home to Cherokee for a shade garden there. Whenever I see a fig tree I think of Mr. Conti's fig tree in his yard from which he gave us an offshoot. I also think of Mr. Conti when I see red poppies because I planted some in my Monet Garden in the front yard. They grew in a mass and he would come and stand and remember his childhood in Italy where they grew in masses like that. (Bought poppy seeds yesterday. Eden, I think.)

I treated myself yesterday with a trip to Lowe's where I bought more than I could plant this morning. I figure a little bit at the time and perhaps my garden will achieve the Jean Burson design (everything she loved planted wherever she felt like putting it.) 

I plan to turn the playhouse into my she shack/potting shed as soon as Tex Rankin can come and add French doors, a deck and pergola to it. 

These are pictures of my current yard along with the after I envision

Imagine A gravel path from the driveway pad around the right side of the house through the gate lined with camellias. 

As you come in the gate there is now a fence and some very nice evergreens. 

Now imagine a hydrangea hedge in front of those evergreens. 

That hedge leads to the building formerly known as the playhouse now converted to a She shack with French doors, a deck and a pergola 

Behind the playhouse a nice shady area then becomes the garden staging area with an 8 foot potting bench a table and some comfortable chairs (or a hammock). I want to plant scuppernongs on the pergola. I have a fun picture of my mother, Jean Gillis, with cousins Naomi Kennedy and Joe Jernigan, getting snockered with scuppernong wine. Both my mother and Joe's mother had a scuppernong arbor. Apparently it is a southern lady thing. "The Recipe"

Behind this central bed, I want a shady spot just to hang out with my dogs GIGI and soon to be LOLA (a ShihPoo coming from north Alabama at the end of the month) and Cecily's dogs, Honey and Lacy. 

A gravel patio from the She Shack to the Gazebo

Behind this central bed

From here you look back at the house. To the left of the brick patio Gigi has worn a path toward the fence where some neighbor buddies gather. The gravel path will come in the back gate and veer to the left to follow this path to the brick patio. 

This would be the newest incarnation of the Monet Garden once in my front yard. I will fill that bed with mushroom compost to make sure it is rich enough for my vision. I have ordered poppy, nasturtium, Larkspur, and zinnia seeds. I will find a way to get the David Austen roses.

This brick patio will be beautiful with tables and container gardens like this one. 

I will plant a Mr. Conti fig tree in the front yard to mask the ugly utilities. An olive tree just adds interest, I think. And Citrus trees need to be a part of every garden these days just in case hard times arrive. A garden needs to fill several human needs--a passion for creating beauty, productivity, sociability, and a mental and physical challenge.

This is where I plan to put the "pottager" aka kitchen garden. Right now there is a pittosporum there I considered removing, but those are good for flower arranging. Behind that white chair that was Mother's and needs painting, but I used it to sit upon to pull weeds. Behind there is the butterfly garden. It has a giant Elephant ear that will be removed. I planted a Japanese Magnolia there in the spring and it was beautiful. I love it. Mother and Daddy had one right outside their window and they watched the same birds next there year after year. Drew built me the voting bench at the fence. I LOVE IT!

This is the elevated garden planter 8 ft by 2 feet I plan to put there in font of that white bench. Fruits and vegetables can be grown in containers. 

The Butterfly garden will be dedicated to birds and butterflies. 

This will be my gravel patio. 

Hopefully this will be a beautiful expanse of green grass. 

I will probably scallop in front of these statues and plant maybe daylillies there. 

The first year Joe and I moved in we planted Magnolias along the back fence. PCs also planted those drift roses in front of the Gazebo and in front of the front fence. We had to take down several river birch because of their intrusive roots endangering the foundation of the house.

We need more trees in the back yard and I am thinking of a flowering cherry, a pink dogwood, and a white dogwood along with a lot of shade loving plants along the back between the Gazebo and the playhouse. 

We had a Bartlet Pear on Cherokee that was quite productive. I think I will plant one right outside the gate where one of those trees came down. 

This is the plan. Step by step. We will see where this will go.