Saturday, September 4, 2010

sunny and breezy

we are having the most gorgeous, sunny and breezy day here in tennessee...
with mild temperatures in the 70's!!
a Chihuly Glass Exhibition at Cheekwood Gardens last night, which took my breath away,
tonight an Art Crawl in downtown Nashville,
and tomorrow night sitting by a campfire in our backyard with some neighbors.......
one of the best weekends ever!!
and this change in the weather,
is most welcome indeedy.
aaahhhhhh.














i hope you are having a wonderful weekend too.
filled with lots of warm sunshine,
lovely breezes,
art and inspiration,
love and laughter.
xxoo




Tuesday, August 31, 2010

compost and clematis

well, after a long, dangerously hot summer so far...
it's a pleasure, indeed, to have anything blooming, especially on its own accord.
right now, the sweet autumn clematis and cypress vine
are blooming their little heads off!

and i just love it!!
how adorable is this sweet smelling vine of little white clusters...
and i just love how it has scrambled along the chicken wire fence, which hides my
compost pile from the neighbors.

here is the other side of my compost pile...not bad looking either.
quite beautiful actually.

ahhh...
composting.
so easy to do.
good for the environment.
reduces landfill waste.
and a fantastic soil conditioner.


basically you add brown and green stuff into a pile and let it cook.
done.
that's it.

brown = carbon (fall leaves, shredded newspaper, small sticks...)
+
green =nitrogen (grass clippings, food scraps...)

2/3 brown + 1/3 green = the most ideal ratio

occasionally stirring and keeping moist is great,
but here's the deal folks...don't make a big deal over this!
quite frankly, i have better things to do than monkey around with a compost pile (apparently, i have been known to monkey around with monkey grass though...see previous 2 posts)
have you ever seen a forest floor? perfectly composted every year without measuring and stirring and all that fussing. my compost pile is... leaves and grass and garden waste, etc. thrown in a pile and basically left on its own for a year and every year i have wonderful, fluffy, sweet smelling compost.
the end.

this sweet autumn clematis showed up on its own, on the other side of my deck. so i coaxed it over onto the bench. i just love those little surprises in the garden!

this gem is growing in my friends back garden...in fact, i think she gave me my vine, or it may have been our other neighbor who gave it to me. i can't quite remember.......that's cool about us gardeners............we love to share.

my friend
is having a blog party called
where other bloggers are sharing ideas of how we can make small changes to better our world.
please check her out.
and here is a good site with more composting info for you, if you are interested
one thing you should never, EVER put into a compost pile is bermuda grass!!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

more monkey grass

after i took pictures of my monkey grass last week,

i cut some of the flowers and brought them inside to monkey around with (sorry, i couldn't help the play on words).

these same flowers have lasted pretty well, and just started to drop petals today.






















i hope you all have a wonderful week...

love,

E



my friend Z is having another Project Genesis blog party on wednesday.

this is a cool party, where you share something ...something that can make a change...it doesn't have to be monumental...just little tips or tricks to help the environment...god knows we need some

CHANGE.

won't you join Z and me?


Thursday, August 26, 2010

monkey grass

the Monkey Grass (Liriope) is putting on a purple show in my woodland garden right now.
i have used it to soften the border of these gardens with a lush frame,
and to visually LEAD the EYE around the graceful curves of the beds.
repeating this plant throughout, pulls the garden together and creates a restful feel.
a harmonious drift of calming color and texture.






paths bordered by monkey grass leave no doubt which way to tread...
and puts the traveler at ease...























my friends,
i hope you're weekend is a harmonious drift of calm...........
i am joining other bloggers exploring
repetition