Plant Delights and Juniper Level Botanic Gardens

We went to the open house at Plant Delights Nursery yesterday, the focus was on hellebores. It was at least 10 years since I visited there, back then I didn't know what a hellebore was. I do recall spending $125 and getting a box and a half of plants, this time $125 bought a half box of plants. Just about everything they sell is rare and unusual, so one would expect to pay more.

Some impressive gardens don't you think?

One thing that was a surprise was all the trillium in the gardens, never seen so many in all the years I have been gardening.. 

The gardens are called Juniper Level Botanic Gardens

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Meg, bought the above trillium Oconee Yellow, we have a few trilliums in our garden. Maybe one day we'll have a mass of trilliums like shown below.

 I'm a big fan of cyclamen we have maybe 6 varieties in our garden, I added 2 more today, one of them a white blooming cyclamen.

Ok now for some hellebores from the gardens.

Above is a single flowering hellebore.

Here is a semi double hellebore.

Above and below some very nice double hellebores.

 Yellow hellebores used to be somewhat rare, not anymore.

 This semi double I've love to have in our garden one day.

 Below is Penny's Pink we have it in our garden expecting it to open up any day.

Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour part 1

Last Saturday we did the Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour, well 10 of the 13 gardens. The gardens were amazing and so was the other area gardens. My favorite was garden number 1, it utilized a small space and made for a beautiful garden that was done by the owners themselves.

Here is an hardy orchid from garden #1.

I think this was the neighbors gate at garden #1, the yards linked beautifully.

This was the deck with a beautiful arbor at garden #1. The girl is from a local high school one of many recruited as an "Azalea Belle" each garden had 2-3 belles.

The potting shed at garden #1, lovely!

 

Garden #1 had a beautifully bordered bed of yellow pansies.

The front door with really nice planters at garden #2

Nice dripping pot under azaleas at garden #2.

Small gazebo at garden #7

Garden #4 had a really nice border and Azalea Belle.

Garden #4 nice fountain and Azalea Belle.

The most awesome potting shed I have ever seen, great touches as seen in the three photos below.

Garden gate from garden #5

Garden #7 had a handmade trellis with coral honey suckle and Lady Banks roses planted together. Really nice combination as both bloom at the same time.

 One of the borders at garden #7, loved the recycled doors!

The swing with fountain at garden #7

The fire pit with fiddle playing azalea belle made this garden visit extra nice with the live music.

The home owner done gardens were the ones I liked the most. We visited one moneyed garden where it was obvious the owners probably did not know which end of a shovel to use. Everything about the house was custom and the garden followed the same suit, being built by the builder or the builders landscaper.

Garden update December 01

The cold frames were planted November 18th kind of later than we usually plant. Just too busy with other things. Glad to report the kale and spinach are growing fairly fast and the carrots and lettuce is just coming up. Meg picked up some Swiss Chard seeds and we hope to make a spot for the chard and some rainbow carrots. Likely the new seeds will go in a smaller cold frame the second graders built last year

Friday I brought home a yard of compost and today I started using it. Planted 100 crocus bulbs I picked up at Lowes for 75% off. Also finally planted the last 4 big hellebores we dug up this summer when we moved Meg's parents. The camellia we dug out of Sharna's yard in Wilmington was planted today as well. Last weekend I planted more crocuses, pansies and 30 or so mixed daffodils.

A new huge project is being planned here! You might know I'm a handyman/builder and I just have reached the point where I need a decent shop. I have a 12' x 16' shed that is slam packed with tools and left over lumber and plywood. So we are in the beginning stages of planning a 20' x 24' garage shop. I'll do all the building except the wiring and shingles.

Placing the work shop here is a small problem, but we think we have a site in mind that is handy to the house and extending the driveway. Removal of at least three big trees will be required, one will at least be good firewood it is a big oak. We plan on getting a building permit.

While looking for a place to build the work shop we found the first ever blooms of our
climbing aster we planted 4-5 years ago and never had any luck with it.

 This climbing aster Aster carolinianus is supposed to be a native here, climbs to a size-able 10 foot plant. Bees and butterflies love it. I found another plant last summer and planted it in the garden. Last week I found a huge 3 gallon climbing aster at the Durham Garden Center and planted it under the screened porch, hoping it'll climb up the side of the porch.

The chickens are doing fine, no eggs yet. They let us hand feed them sunflower seeds. Meg has brought them lots of compost (apples and melons they love) from the school. Manny the cat has almost followed me into the chicken yard a few times, he just enjoys following us around the yard.

Bench and raised beds

We worked in a garden for a return customer this past week. Rarely do I get gardening work like this as a handyman/builder. Very pleased to build this bench and raised garden beds and paint them purple!

This project came about from a trip to Italy my customer made last year. She returned with these beautiful 2 x 2 Italian hand painted tiles. The tiles were to be used as an accent in her master bathroom, never happened. So she had these tiles for about a year and really wanted to use them for accents. Finally we added 4 of the tiles to the purple garden beds and 2 of them to the garden bench.

Here is the 12 foot long purple garden bench. I used twice dried pressure treated lumber that is ready to paint right from the lumber yard. The lumber is called Cox Lumber it is not sold in the big box stores (you need to dry their lumber 4-6 months before painting). It is expensive a 2 x 6 x 12 costs $4 more a board to give you an ideal. We primed the bench and them painted with a very high quality paint from Sherwin Williams.

When I took these photos it was 97 degrees, the purple paint was too hot to sit on. The only draw back I could see on this beautiful bench, I love colorful things anyway.

The previous photos did not show the accent tiles I routed into the bench as show above, one on each end of the bench seat. First I made a template with a scrap of plywood and secured it and routed in the cut out to install the tiles. Set them in latex caulk and painted it in.

Above shows the higher quality of the Cox lumber, barely any knots to speak of. One might ask at what angle did we tilt back the bench backrest, it was 15%. You can see the outriggers under the bench with the back supports bolted together with 2 1/2 inch galvanized carriage bolts. Everything is mounted on 4 - 4 x 6s concreted in 2 foot deep. Very comfortable to sit in believe me!

Above is the raised garden beds, one is 2' 8" x 16' and the other is 2'8" x 20'. They are made with Cox lumber 2 x 10s staked in the ground with hidden 2 x 3 stakes. We lined the inside of the boxes with left over rubber roofing to keep the chemicals from the treated lumber from leaching into the soil. The tops were made with 2 x 6s cut down to 4 1\/2 inches wide and screwed down about every 10 inches. We regraded the site by hand and added the creek gravel and medium river rocks in the foreground. The slate patio had been there a long time, the space was not really used with no furniture to sit on.

Here we go the job complete it just needs plants and water.