No Longer In Zone Denial!

You know when most people say that, it means that one winter finally came and got them and now they realize why it is that they are indeed in Zone xx.  Well, haha! I was right and NOT in zone denial. The Zoning authorities were.  Since I moved here I have thought again and again that despite my Zone 8b official rating, I am in Zone 9a.  Not so much by what freezes here in the winter, but what WILL NOT UNDER ANY circumstance grow here through the summer.  You of temperate zones might not notice, but many many many garden plants end their 'hot' zone at 8.  Now technically Plant zones really are more about the freeze, but still, I have been extremely suspicious.

And now, all I can say is: I could have told you this three years ago.  The peninsula of downtown Charleston is in zone 9A.  The new area plant zoning map:

Sure, its the world's smallest zone area ever, but I KNEW IT!  Plus, in 3 years, including one of the top 10 'coldest' on record for the area, my yard never got below 26 degrees.  Last year the lowest was 32. Only for 2 days.  SO there!  We are regularly 5-10 degrees warmer at night in both winter (yay) and summer (ugh horrible), than 5 miles in any direction from home.

Now I have go tell all the lemon trees and brugmansia trees around town the news so they stop having to justify their existence. 

Still Life With Cat and Drill Cord

A Plant Combination Idea

I'm sitting here inside today, waiting for the (thankfully only) outer bands of Irene to whip my little garden to a smushed up mess.  All the potted plants are inside though, and my statue is tipped over to the ground so it won't come out of this looking like the Venus de Milo or Winged Victory.  I have potted roses inside, so the house smells quite lovely.  However, Siggy went absolutely bonkers last night which resulted in the Garfield-ification of several plants.  (sigh)

What goes on when you are upstairs sleeping....

Anyhow, back to the point, while I was moving in my pots yesterday I was looking around at what was fried to death and what was really working, and it dawned on me that I had a really good plant combination going on out there:

Rose bushes and 4'oclocks.  They both love the full sun, and just as the bottoms of the roses get a little blackspotty and lose leaves, those 4 o'clocks are growing taller and filling in every available space underneath.  Plus they tend to sprawl outwards a little underneath, which is nicely hidden by the sturdy rose stems.    Of course right at the moment I can't take a picture so you'll just have to trust me, but here's one from about 2 months ago where you can barely see a white one coming in under the roses.  Sorry that's the best I've got from inside here.

I have spent the past 2.5 years slowly trying to select only the dark pink 4 o'clocks out of original seed packets I put down and its slowly starting to work out.  I still have some whites too, which are nice at night, but I've eradicated the yellows.  I also steal seeds from the sidewalk 4 o'clocks that I see that are the fuchsia pink color.  It is a near 100% match for the 'red' version of the knockout rose and, well, I'm telling ya! Its a good combo for the late summer garden.   Mine reseed easily and they require no care, but don't also seem to mind the extra water they get by being with the roses.

One thing I will say though, they really do need full sun.  I have some planted in part sun and its just not the same. I'm thinking 6+ hours minimum.  And for those of you who haven't been near them before, they have a distinct smell at night which I love.

I hope everyone in the path of this storm has a nice safe weekend.

Just give me something to talk about...

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick stop by to say I'm still here and will pick up my regular blogging shortly.  Its mega summer here and just like last year, July and August produce next to nothing to talk about (as all I do is try to keep things alive and try to stay indoors as much as possible!)

Anyhow, September is coming and I'm starting to imagine good things.  Talk to you all very soon!

Image Courtesy of Shorpy.com

Love ya, Jess

You Know What I Hate?

I have a problem in my garden.  Last year, it was a little problem, something was cutting round and oval holes in fleshy new rose leaves on my Madame Alfred Carriere rose climber.   I did a little research because the evidence is pretty specific... I mean really? How many bugs cut perfectly round and perfect little oval holes in your plants?

There is just one and I can tell you who does it: Leaf cutter bees.  They use it to create nests to grow more leaf cutter bees.

This year, in March, when all the new leaves were leafed out, they did it again, and much worse this time, decimating 100% of the new growth on the MAC rose, and also completely decimating all the new growth on the Carefree Wonder rose.   But, I sighed, they are good for the garden otherwise, and its just the first flush of leaves so I'm going to let it go.   Well, ahhemmm!  Those little bastards DO IT EVERY 2 months on the dot.   This is the single thing that does the most destruction to any plant in my garden.  And it has to stop NOW.

It actually is rather aggravating as I'm going around looking for solutions to this problem and every website keeps saying, "aw but the little things are great pollinators, aw, be THANKFUL they are in your garden."  I feel like smacking those authors.   And frankly, IT IS COMPLETELY A LIE that chemical insecticides won't kill these little creeps, because they will, and frankly, its one of the reasons that they think the bee population might be going down.  Though I think this might be gross speculation (experts will tell you they are stumped as to what is actually causing this, as bee's lived quite fine through years of DDT), I'm personally not a fan of killing off bee's myself, and I'm pretty sure insecticides in any form for any reason isn't the greatest of ideas.

But people who should know better need to stop talking out of both sides of their mouths.  And lying about it saying, 'oh, they don't eat the leaves, they use them as nesting, so insecticides won't do any good' is an insult to my intelligence.  And frankly it can backfire too, when lets say someone thinks that they are going to use insecticides to get rid of some other garden pest and then it wipes out the bee population.   No insect needs to eat a pesticide for it to be effective, they nearly all work on contact.   Its why they highly recommend you wearing gloves when handling the stuff - they're pretty sure you aren't going to drink the stuff, but its dangerous to get it on you.

And when is the last time you received a rose from the nursery with 100s of little round holes cut out of the leaves? Right, never huh?  So there IS a solution, and it isn't live and let live!

Anyhow, this madness has got to end, because my carefree wonder shrub, in a half a day has lost 50% of its leaves.  We have a long growing season here, and the bees reproduce every 60 days, so we cannot live in peace, because they obviously don't understand when enough is enough.  And no, I'm sorry, if any bug or disease was completely defoliating your plant you would not think warm and fuzzy thoughts about these cute little creatures.   The balance of rose leaves vs leafcutter bees in my garden is not sustainable, as they are going to kill the damn roses.

So does anyone have a good effective suggestion before I go and actually pesticide the hell out of these two roses?  I really would prefer not to pesticide even two plants, but I need this to stop.  The Mac rose is a climber and it isn't reasonable to 'cover' it.    And searching out 'rotted' wood and removing it is laughable too, I live in Charleston, land of faded grandeur and glorious decrepitude.  Everything is rotting, constantly.  I'd have to pull out the neighborhood.

Oh, I'm young and angry today.

A Walk In The Woods

Enjoying their lovely summer weather, everyone in the garden blogosphere (particularly those in New England and real England) keeps posting about their wonderful jaunts into the woods, and all the ferns, and ladyslippers and cute flowers they keep encountering on the way. I can imagine the temperate air with the breeze in my face, and I can smell the damp leaves and hear the brook in the background.

But here, I can't.  I drag out my air machete to chop through the air so humid it now has atomic weight, the high pitched buzz of mosquitos sings in my ears and the sweat is dripping down my...everything.  The air is completely still, and let me check, oh hey not bad, 97 degrees.

But still, for the blog, I too must go for my walk in the woods.  I don my alligator repellent tshirt, and head out in my trusty black car (I bought this car before I became a card carrying member of the South, OBVIOUSLY), and I zip over a bridge.  (Click all pictures to enlarge to pretend you are here with me - trust me it makes a difference.)

(Hey, I'm serious! do it!)

Ah, the woods!

Marguerite (my post inspiration) commented last post that its easy to forget how different each of our climates are, because as things are all relative, we all complain about the cold when its cold to us, the hot when its hot to us.  I also stubbornly plant a garden thats not really all that indicative of what a lot of people grow around here.   Ick canna, be gone!

Anyhow, the woods here are beautiful in their own way, sort of a vampire way, its true, but still very beautiful and they are filled with cool stuff too.  Not hills, dales or valleys mind you (the highest point around here for 500 miles was that bridge we crossed to get to these here woods, at a whole 30 feet)... but we do have ruins!

As hard as it is to believe, vestiges of the civil war still exist around here and this one, at least, has taken on a roman ruin quality.

Okay, moving along, lest the mosquitos give us some fell disease, what else do we have... oh, swamps!  The word sounds awful, and we are now supposed to use the politically correct 'marsh' (which doesn't sounds any more appealing to me than swamp, and like the swamp cares what we call it), BUT they are also truly very pretty.  And more filled with wildlife than anyplace else I've ever been, this side of East Africa.

Our swamps are filled with cypress and tupelo and the water is stained black because of it.  Not that you would want to go swimming in it anyway... there is no such thing as fresh water swimming around here, unless its lined with blue plastic.  All freshwater is inhabited by alligators and really mean turtles.  I'm not kidding.  Those cute little things can kill! They have dinosaur claws too.  There's also these fish that jump backwards out of the water, called mullets, and well, they probably can't hurt you, but you know what they say.. you are definitely a little backwards if you're caught sporting a mullet. So for life, limb and social acceptance, its just best to steer clear of the fresh water altogether.

So, there you have it.  My little walk for today is complete.  I hope you enjoyed it, cause I don't plan on going without AC for this long again until late September when it gets back to being a great place to live around here!

Beyond the Picket Fence

With a few exceptions, which can only be completed when it cools down, and of course some tinkering, the garden in the white picket fence is chock full.  For now, I can do no more.  I still have to replace the hedge screen hiding the hideous and huge furnace, which also requires replacing the fencing there, but that will be done when I can be outside without risk of heat stroke, severe dehydration and possible death.  It involves digging up privets, digging a bunch of post holes and doing this amongst a front row of roses which I don't want to dig up if I don't have to.  So, yes, definitely putting that off.  Its funny, I almost never take pictures of that view, because despite how pretty the roses are, the rest of it is such an eyesore I pretend it doesn't exist.  But the dang photos don't seem to have my brains ability to edit out all the stuff you don't want to see.

So anyhow, instead of doing this, I'm moving on to the next garden at Chez Children of the Corm, what will be hereafter forever known as 'the parking garden.'  Here is the inaugural 'before' shot.   What lies here now is a very large pecan tree, some runaway lirope, and while now underground, a seriously beautiful amount of Summer Snowflake (Leucojum Aestivum).  These have populated this area en masse pre-Jess, and bloom in February, one of the very first things out of the ground.   The rest of the space, and even under those weeds, all around the tree is gravel.   I've mentioned that this house used to be a college rental and there are still many vestiges of these days, like encasing a tree in said gravel.

My plan, which is ill-formed at best is this: plant things that are extremely drought resistant.   My second plan is try not to do too much damage to all the summer snowflake bulbs hidden there.  My third plan is that I need to get that gravel up, and it is a doozy of a job.  However one that can happen 30 minutes at a time each morning.  Because of the compacted gravel it cannot be shoveled, and even the hand trowel doesn't get too far. Its all about the hand cultivator and the hand.

Final plan is I got my mom to donate a host of drought tolerant daylilies when she divided them. Woohoo, and I accepted delivery a few days ago.  This area gets only morning sun, so we'll see how that goes, but I can envision a swath of daylilies here next year, can't you?  Isn't my Mom cute with her little labels, knowing how I can't stand not knowing what things are? She's made them waterproof for me so I can just stick the stick in right beside the plant when done.

Famous, at last!

Well, as of a few hours ago, and without my knowledge until my blog statistics went through the roof, my statue became famous because it showed up on the front page of Apartment Therapy.  Yes thats right, this picture was snagged and if you check right this second, you'll see its still on the front page if you scroll down.  (here's the direct link)

As a longtime reader (and former NYC resident) who has been reading that blog since infancy, I am smiling like a cheshire cat.  And for those of you who followed the statue selection saga you know how I agonized for a year about trying to find a statue that would be tasteful.... well this article is about just that, tasteful garden statues!   Pshew... I fell in the right category.

Yay.   Here's the winning pic again: