Need Wildflowers?

The first time I walked the paths of the Howe Wildflower garden at Cheekwood Art and Gardens I felt at home. It was on hillside, with tall canopy trees, understory cercis, oakleaf hydranges, hypericum and wildflowers. It spoke to me in a sweet whisper~"You can make this garden on your little slope..."

Since that long ago time, I've been striving to have a garden that made me feel as at home as the Howe Garden.

Coal in the Garden of Benign Neglect

The annual Wildflower Sale to benefit the Howe Garden is where you'll find me on Saturday morning. You can never have too many native plants and certainly never too many wildflowers!

• March 26 Native Plant Sale
• 10:00 am until all plants are sold!
  Featuring native plants that thrive here in Middle Tennessee, this springtime Cheekwood tradition is sponsored by the Garden Club of Nashville, and benefits the Howe Wildflower Garden at Cheekwood.

Springtime at Clay and Limestone

Hope to see my local gardening friends there today~

xxooGail

This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011.This work protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.

If You Squint Your Eyes

This will probably be the only snow we will get this season, so here is my official blog photo.  

The photo is taken from the porch steps and if you  look closely   (squint your eyes and use your imagination), at the end of the walk is our driveway.  Directly across the driveway is my official wildflower garden. The wildflower garden was my first native plant garden and the reason you will find me waiting in line for the Howe   Wild Plant Fair to open each year.  This year it is March 28-29. at Cheekwood.    I'll be there.  Hope to see you.  

As long as I have your attention!  To the left of the sidewalk is a small bed of native shrubs, spring ephemerals and perennials. In its former life it was a badly landscaped foundation bed sitting in front of one of those worthless bricked in planters (a dry sunless place) that are ubiquitous to this neighborhood.   There is a good mixture of everygreen plants...PJM Rhodos (Olga Mezitt), Christmas Fern (polystichum acrostichoides), foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia)  and phlox divaricata (May Breeze).  There is also a  woody shrub,   my all time favorite native shrub Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia).  Sprinkled throughout are  grape hyacinth bulbs, miniature  dafs and Trout lily.    We planted River Oats (Chasmanthium  latifolium)  and Christmas Fern in the planter...both ought to survive, I just hope I don't regret planting the river oats....they are very thuggish and reseed madly.  

I love natives and recommend them to folks whenever I can!  They make sense...and they survive in my yard.  But when you see my garden you will notice that there are plenty of non native plants.  So don't think I am anti non natives....it's just my prefered  choice is native.

I have only seen the  new and improved  foundation planting/bed in the fall.  The color was lovely.  Can't wait to see how it looks in bloom this spring. 

Thanks for letting me ramble.

Gail