Grace Cottage Part Two

Welcome back to the extraordinary Grace Cottage. 

Today you will see the side herb garden, the back yard limelight hydrangea garden, 

the log cabin, and other out buildings. 

 All filled with my friend's brilliant primitive style.

It is a photo heavy post so HANG ON.

Get some ice tea. 

Relax.

The prettiest chicken feeder I have ever seen holds court in the middle of the herb garden.

Behind the fence is the back yard. 

The stone patio area was a recent addition.

She has lots of fun decorating inside and outside these buildings.

I apologize for not catching the hydrangeas in bloom and 

that I was out taking photos in the blasting sun. 

This image and all following ones are inside the fence.

A washboard fountain.

I hope you enjoyed this wonderful home and gardens and it's delightful details.

To see Grace Cottage Part One click here.

To see interior Country Christmas House images click here.

In Olive Out news Joe and I have been going to scads of doctors appointments.

 I had an MRI on my shoulder as my Rheumatologist was shocked

 that one had not been done.

 Joe had really bad health news which I cannot go into now. 

We are still mulling his test results over. 

I am one week late with this promised post and am afraid I will be away again this week.
I have Grand Jury duty starting in the morning.
Say a prayer for me that it will not be a long session as I am not feeling as good as usual.

joy and peace

Olive

Flower Garden: June

Welcome to the June garden.

Caladiums grown from bulbs and an asparagus fern liven up

 an old plastic planter I painted green.

Begonias were added to this planter of caladiums.

Petunias are my favorite annual. 

When they get "leggy" simply cut them back and they will bloom once again. 

They take our heat very well.

Bee Balm is blooming in the middle of the flower garden. 

It is invasive as are many of my perennials.

Bee Balm attracts hummingbirds and butterflies so I do not mind it's spreading.

I like my perennials cosy together.

 Wink.

The Nikko Blue Hydrangeas that I propagated desperately need to be moved to a shady spot. 

It is now too late to do that. 

I will move them in the fall.

The flower garden went from part shade to full afternoon sun 

with the loss of our 30 year dogwood tree in the ice storm. 

Gardens are about patience, change, life, and loss.

Linking@Wow Us Wednesday's

happy gardening

Olive

Amaryllis Plus

Amaryllis are now in full bloom in the flower garden. 

All the amaryllis have been forced in past Decembers. 

Then I plant them outside in the flower garden.

The bulb is planted with half of it above the topsoil.

Lynne, my friend, at Irish Garden House mailed me a bulb 

from Michigan which is now growing in the garden.

It will bloom next spring. 

I will definitely photograph the Michigan bulb when it blooms.

Oak Leaf Hydrangea and Coreopsis 

Nasturtiums, in the large planters, will be blooming soon.

 I grew them from seed. 

If you want to try growing a flower from seed nasturtiums are easy.

This part of the garden is pretty wild right now because the primroses are blooming all over the place. I like them and let them wander throughout the other plants.

I have red flowers in many planters this year. 

Red flowers reflect badly in my camera lens but I love them anyways.

What's blooming at your house?

I want to send a big thanks to Kim @ Savvy Southern Style for featuring my Porch House post yesterday on WOW. I am glad so many like the big porch in Madison.

Thanks to Pam @House of Hawthornes who emailed me about the feature whilst I was out of town antiquing in North Georgia.

happy gardening

Olive

Must Love Junk

Hello y'all I'm over at Must Love Junk today with Susan for Saturday Spotlight.

I talk about myself, my career before blogging, my family and more. 

Do come pay us a visit.

Joy and Peace

Olive

Not Going Gently

I have not gone gently into the night after my ear surgery. 

I have been overdoing it perhaps.

The surgery went well. No drama that I am aware of except that 

I was drunk from medicine all day Thursday.

Shelley and I went on a buying field trip Saturday.

 It was a fun but brief trip. I did take Sunday off.

Shelley is a fine traveling companion. 

I cannot convey how much I love that boy.

If  you are wondering about these images. 

They are all mine but in the Waterlogue app. 

I am loving that app. It is the only one I have ever paid for. 

A well spent $2.99.

Not available for Androids yet but I imagine it will be soon.

I am oliveout on Instagram if you would like to see other pics in this app.

More snow is headed for the Deep South.

 I am staying put. Ya'll stay warm.

Linking@

joy and peace

Olive

Flowers: Best Images 2013

I grew all the flowers photographed here except for the little impatients in the last image.

The images are in no particular order but represent my favorites for the year.

Happy New Year

Olive

Flower Garden After Rain Rain Rain

Tiger Lily 

The beauty of this bulb with it's brown freckles amazes me. 

You can plant the little black bublets on it's stem and have more of these next year.

Oak Leaf Hydrangea

I love that it fades to pink.

Nikko Blue Hydrangea

It is fading to a light purple. I have been trying to dry these without success.

 Maybe they are waterlogged this year. Normally I dry bucks of them.

The flower garden proper is overgrown and filled with weeds.

 I pulled weeds for two hours Monday. I can hardly tell. It is disheartening.

Montbretia

I tied it to this wrought iron post and I am liking this look. 

The Talented B gave me the wrought iron post and idea. She is a smart gal.

You can see my Beautiful Weed post about this plant here.

The grass certainly has enjoyed the continuous daily rain for 45 day in a row.

The night our gravel road washed away we had ten inches of rain in four hours. I do not fertilize our grass or fuss over it in any way. We have a huge amount of grass so I merely mow it.  

Can you see the enormous Spider Plant on the right? 

I dug it out of my sister's neighbor's trash. My sister was a little bit alarmed but got over it.

The plant looked rough but has recovered splendidly.

It is thundering now-more rain!

Linking@Be Inspired

Tutorials Tips and Tidbits

happy gardening

Olive

Hydrangeas Arranged Three Ways

 Nikko Blue Hydrangeas are resplendent on the kitchen island in a vintage pitcher I picked up at an estate sale.

For this arrangement I used a flower frog to hold the blooms in an ironstone tureen.

These hydrangeas are in a vintage Magoon's Creamery milk crate {the light in the dining room is awful y'all}. I found this crate at the Magnolia Ridge Farm Sale  in Ridge Spring, South Carolina. There is about two inches of water in high ball glasses in the divided sections of the crate.

 I also have two inches of water in the other containers.

 The flowers will dry in the water and that helps them maintain their color.

Linking@Be Inspired

joy and peace

Olive