Fairegarden Style

The yellow shrub is an azalea! Seriously!

It must be true that the third time's the charm..my trip to Frances' had already been rescheduled twice when Mr I Don't Garden and I headed over the mountains this past weekend. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather with day time temperatures in the high 60's and the sky a fantastic deep blue. Even though we had missed the big time fall color parade, Fairegarden's color was far from over. Just take a peak at this~~ The hollies are luscious. Just what you hope they will come to be when you plant them in your garden. I love this part of the garden~~It's the front yard and even though Frances let's it be, you can see that the design works very well.

This blogger would be remiss if I didn't show you the famous Fairegarden Muhly~~You have to love a grass that continues to dazzle this late in the season. It is extremely happy in this garden. I have no such success, but there is something in the soil...in those magic pebble river stones....that makes the Muhly grow and set seed everywhere. We met at her favorite nursery,Mouse Creek, to do a little gardener bonding before we even got to Fairegarden. Frances knew how much I enjoyed MC and called to make sure that it was open this late in the season. We didn't have near enough time to see all the offerings of Mouse Creek or chat with the owner Ruth. There was time to find several must have plants. They were gently tucked into the car and Mr I followed us on to Fairegarden. Frances and I wanted to visit and the Mr didn't care...He was along for the drive! Technically, Mr I was my driver! He was a sweet heart for agreeing to spend a weekend with two obsessive fascinating gardeners. Luckily, he and The Financier had met before and it looked to me like they had a pretty good time telling stories and rolling their eyes at us!

Just in case you're wondering what plants I had to have: A non-vining clemmie, Salvia guaranitica 'Argentine Skies' and a really nice chrysanthemum....and an interesting looking new cultivar of hybrid Coreopsis 'Red Shift'.

We had a great visit. We spent time really looking at her garden.

Walking through the garden, talking about plants and checking out the views.Gardeners assessing a garden;)
It was so enjoyable I didn't take nearly enough photos! Blood Grass

We took a road trip to the Bald River Waterfall The waterfall was running heavy from the recent rains and trees looked ghostly when photographing straight into the mist and sun.

Above the falls~~ HeucherasWalking Fern and Seersucker Sedge grow everywhere.
It was native plant heaven!
Thank you Frances for taking us to this special spot.

Bat Faced Cuphea

Visiting Fairegarden was a treat. Frances is delightfully funny,
a good hostess and a truly remarkable gardener. This one you must enlarge!

What makes Fairegarden~ Fairegarden?
Full sun? Great drainage? Magic pebbles?

A cuphea grown from seed

Frances adds something special and deeply significant to the mix...
She believes in doing the very best she can with everything she undertakes.

leaves at the Bald River Waterfall~~more on that in another post.

That's her philosophy.
She's not afraid to plunk a plant in a new spot and move it two months later...
Nor, is she afraid to tackle big projects: I mean big~~like an entire concrete staircase!
Go here to see my post about my visit last year and more photos.
Or creating her own Zen Garden, even trying a new look in the existing lawnette.

Some of us talk about our ideas~She makes them happen!
Not a bad way to garden or live.

Gail

It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.
Marlene Dietrich

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News!

Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

I've had two visits with doctors recently. Last month, the tree doctor made a house call to see a white oak that suddenly dropped 2/3rds of its leaves over night~~It seemed strange to drop so many leaves. My neighbor has lost several oak trees to some kind of fungal disease and we wanted to make sure this oak was healthy. Not the possibly sick oak!

Knock on wood that this tree is fine! Not only would taking a tall oak down mean a sudden change in the garden...it would be very expensive to do. It's situated right next to the front porch steps off the flagstone path. You can see its denuded branches in comparison to the shag bark hickory and oaks that are lit by the setting sun. It's one thing to make a decision to create a sunny garden and remove trees. It's altogether different when the change is forced.

Hammelis virginiana in the GOBN
We have a few leaves at C&L

I met the Doctor at the bottom of the driveway, where he greeted me with a hearty "Hello" and an exuberantly delivered, " Where is your suburban lawn?" As you can see Doctor...there is practically none! Witch Hazels last week

He reassured me that what we were doing~~ Not planting a monoculture of grasses and letting most of the fallen leaves mulch the trees and beds ~~ was the very best garden practice for overall tree health. He shared that he is usually called to a home to see very sick trees in the middle of over fertilized lawns. He and Aaron, the arborist he works with, spend a good deal of their time educating homeowners about maintaining tree health.

We walked around the yard and he gave me the thumbs up on all the trees. Noting that there were a few limbs that needed to be thinned in trees in the wayback backyard. It was late enough in the season that it was hard to see how denuded the tree looked. Most of the trees were similarly denuded by the time he was able to visit. He didn't find any evidence of oozing wounds that might indicate some fungal diseases. He asked if we had done any recent digging around the base of the tree. That's when I told him we removed a concrete walkway and added the flagstones~~ It's possible that the root disturbance and the 2007 drought had combined to stress the tree.
He suggested a conservative plan~~ watch the oak to see what the spring would bring.

The bad news is that it could be dying. But, the good news is that we don't have to take it down immediately.

and,

Yesterday, I saw my orthopedic surgeon about my very sore hand. Several months ago I was diagnosed with de Quervain's Tenosynovitis and was treated with an injection of cortisone. It worked beautifully, but, eventually the pain came back. I have decided to have surgery. It seems to make sense based upon how quickly the cortisone wore off! So on December 3, I will arrive at the surgery center hungry, caffeine deprived, cranky from 5 days off ibuprofin, where I will wait for several hours for a ten minute procedure to release the roof of the tunnel that surrounds the tendons. Believe me it is going to be worth it!
Thanks for listening~~You are the best!
Gail

What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.
Lao Tzu