I was not fully immersed in gardening as a kid. I do remember some irises that were planted on one side of our house. I loved it when they bloomed, and I couldn't walk by them without breathing in deeply their heavenly scent. We lived on a couple of acres, so my parents tried things here and there like fruit trees, strawberries, and muscadines. My mother attempted a vegetable garden but because of her Lupus, she was extremely sensitive to the sun and constantly fatigued, so the garden was too difficult to maintain. I'm told I got my green thumb from my maternal grandmother. She was a farm girl and could grow anything. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her growing up, because she lived a few hundred miles away from us. My earliest memories of her were when she lived in an apartment/condo. She couldn't have much of a garden, but that didn't stop her from container gardening. When we visited in fall or winter, her windowsills were full of plant cuttings like coleus or impatiens she was saving to plant in her next garden. A couple of years before she died, she went to live with my uncle. She had plenty of room for a garden then, and I remember a few summer visits, being in awe of the beauty she was capable of creating. Gladiolas were her favorite flower, and they were stunning! Unfortunately, my grandmother Osburn passed away when I was only 13, long before I would discover my botanical passion. I never got the chance to glean all of that wisdom from her.
The summer after my freshman year of college, I got a job as a cashier at Lowe's. I worked both the indoor registers and the ones in the outdoor garden center. I LOVED being out in the garden center! Even though it was hot and miserable, I just loved walking around checking out the plants when business was slow. I enjoyed hearing the guy that was over the garden center talk plants. I picked out a couple of indoor plants for my new college apartment, one of which was a ficus. At home, they looked great. Then, I moved back to Clemson for my sophomore year. Within a couple of weeks, the ficus had dropped all of its leaves. The experienced would know that it was just in shock, because ficus plants don't like to be moved, but I didn't know that at the time. I was crushed and, thinking it was dead, I threw it out. I figured I must've done something wrong and I didn't have the knack for this gardening thing. About a year later, I was married and living in a different apartment. We had a little patio out back that got a good bit of sun, so I decided to experiment with plants again. I bought a few cheap window-box-sized planter boxes and planted some annuals. I had great success with those, so I regained some confidence.
The next few years were full of moves, our biggest from South Carolina to Nashville, TN, then to a couple of different locations around town. In 1997, we bought our first home, but soon after, I became pregnant with our first child, so I was a bit preoccupied. In 1998, just 3 months after our son was born (I don't know what we were thinking), we bought a fixer-upper on 4 acres. The property was gorgeous, and the previous home owner had spent years terracing the little mountain our house sat on and building old-fashioned rock walls as far as the eye could see. I didn't know much, but I could tell the yard had great bones. Lots of beautiful mature trees and hundreds of daffodils and irises. We spent a year gutting and remodeling before moving in in 1999. We had a landscaper friend help us design and plant a rather large planting area in our front yard. Beyond that, I didn't do much in the yard for the first seven years we owned it; I was too busy being a stay-home-mom.
In 2005, once my first child was in school and our youngest was in a Mothers-Day-Out program 2 days a week, I decided to try my hand at some gardening. I had huge success with dividing and transplanting the tons of daffodils, irises, and daylilies around the property. I also tried several pots around our front door, and adding to the bed that had been landscaped when we first moved in. The more I tried, and the more success I had in my experimenting, the harder the gardening bug took hold. Eventually, I was reading all the books I could get my hands on; that is, when I had moments where I wasn't busy parenting or working in the yard. I Tivo'd every gardening show that came on HGTV, attended the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show every year, went on any garden tour around town that I heard about, and, the epitome of garden geekdom, joined an online plant swap. I even wore a floppy straw hat and bright yellow gardening clogs. I considered entering a Master Gardener program to learn more (I'd still like to do that some day). I divided irises until I had more than one human should, so I began to give them away to my friends, even to random strangers on Craigslist. I earned a reputation among my friends as a "plant expert", bless their little hearts.
As much potential as this 4-acre property had, the prospect of maintaining it was rather daunting. I'd come up with all kinds of ideas, but was easily overwhelmed. Projects were started, but keeping them all looking great was just too much for one person. So when the opportunity arose to move to a house in Brentwood where the schools were better and we were closer to our church, but the yard was more than half the size of our current yard, I wasn't completely heartbroken. If we'd lived in Madison long enough, MAYBE I'd have been able to make it into the showplace I envisioned. But, it was far more likely I could succeed with a more manageable property size. An acre and a half sounded just right for me. Luckily, we were able to rent out our home in Madison, so we still owned all of the plants there. I dug up what I could and transplanted them to our new place. It's taken a couple of years to whip this yard into shape. My father-in-law and his wife were the previous owners, but they rented it out for a couple of years while they lived in Hilton Head before we bought it, and, though my husband's step-mom is quite the gardener as well, leaving me lots of great stuff to work with, the yard got a little out of control while it was being rented. I'm finally getting familiar with the sunlight and soil I have to work with here and I'm on my way to restoring the yard to it's former glory.
Last fall, I happened to see on Facebook that my favorite garden center, Bates Nursery, was hiring seasonal help. I jumped at the chance to work at a place that brought me such joy. I was there over the fall and have been brought back for the spring. I'm working in the annual greenhouse and with the perennials. I water, unload plant deliveries, organize the tables to make room for ALL OF THOSE PLANTS, and answer customers' questions. I knew a little coming in, but I'm learning SO much more every day. I eavesdrop as much as possible when our greenhouse expert (Debbie Scales) is dropping some knowledge on the customers. What a wealth of information that lady has!!
My gardening knowledge came about with LOTS of trial and error. If you see my yard and think I have all this brilliant landscaping ability, really what you're seeing is the results of a lazy gardener. I'm VERY low-maintenance, and tend to plant stuff that's tough to kill and pretty much guaranteed to be successful for me. Gardening isn't as hard as you may think; if you know what conditions you live with (sun or shade, dry or boggy, good soil or not so good), you can find a hardy plant that thrives in your environment. It's all about putting the right plants in the right locations. I appreciate that so many of you trust me to answer your gardening questions, daunting though it may be. I hope to share some pictures and explanations of some of the successes I've had over the years, as well as share the information I learn while working at Bates.
The summer after my freshman year of college, I got a job as a cashier at Lowe's. I worked both the indoor registers and the ones in the outdoor garden center. I LOVED being out in the garden center! Even though it was hot and miserable, I just loved walking around checking out the plants when business was slow. I enjoyed hearing the guy that was over the garden center talk plants. I picked out a couple of indoor plants for my new college apartment, one of which was a ficus. At home, they looked great. Then, I moved back to Clemson for my sophomore year. Within a couple of weeks, the ficus had dropped all of its leaves. The experienced would know that it was just in shock, because ficus plants don't like to be moved, but I didn't know that at the time. I was crushed and, thinking it was dead, I threw it out. I figured I must've done something wrong and I didn't have the knack for this gardening thing. About a year later, I was married and living in a different apartment. We had a little patio out back that got a good bit of sun, so I decided to experiment with plants again. I bought a few cheap window-box-sized planter boxes and planted some annuals. I had great success with those, so I regained some confidence.
The next few years were full of moves, our biggest from South Carolina to Nashville, TN, then to a couple of different locations around town. In 1997, we bought our first home, but soon after, I became pregnant with our first child, so I was a bit preoccupied. In 1998, just 3 months after our son was born (I don't know what we were thinking), we bought a fixer-upper on 4 acres. The property was gorgeous, and the previous home owner had spent years terracing the little mountain our house sat on and building old-fashioned rock walls as far as the eye could see. I didn't know much, but I could tell the yard had great bones. Lots of beautiful mature trees and hundreds of daffodils and irises. We spent a year gutting and remodeling before moving in in 1999. We had a landscaper friend help us design and plant a rather large planting area in our front yard. Beyond that, I didn't do much in the yard for the first seven years we owned it; I was too busy being a stay-home-mom.
In 2005, once my first child was in school and our youngest was in a Mothers-Day-Out program 2 days a week, I decided to try my hand at some gardening. I had huge success with dividing and transplanting the tons of daffodils, irises, and daylilies around the property. I also tried several pots around our front door, and adding to the bed that had been landscaped when we first moved in. The more I tried, and the more success I had in my experimenting, the harder the gardening bug took hold. Eventually, I was reading all the books I could get my hands on; that is, when I had moments where I wasn't busy parenting or working in the yard. I Tivo'd every gardening show that came on HGTV, attended the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show every year, went on any garden tour around town that I heard about, and, the epitome of garden geekdom, joined an online plant swap. I even wore a floppy straw hat and bright yellow gardening clogs. I considered entering a Master Gardener program to learn more (I'd still like to do that some day). I divided irises until I had more than one human should, so I began to give them away to my friends, even to random strangers on Craigslist. I earned a reputation among my friends as a "plant expert", bless their little hearts.
As much potential as this 4-acre property had, the prospect of maintaining it was rather daunting. I'd come up with all kinds of ideas, but was easily overwhelmed. Projects were started, but keeping them all looking great was just too much for one person. So when the opportunity arose to move to a house in Brentwood where the schools were better and we were closer to our church, but the yard was more than half the size of our current yard, I wasn't completely heartbroken. If we'd lived in Madison long enough, MAYBE I'd have been able to make it into the showplace I envisioned. But, it was far more likely I could succeed with a more manageable property size. An acre and a half sounded just right for me. Luckily, we were able to rent out our home in Madison, so we still owned all of the plants there. I dug up what I could and transplanted them to our new place. It's taken a couple of years to whip this yard into shape. My father-in-law and his wife were the previous owners, but they rented it out for a couple of years while they lived in Hilton Head before we bought it, and, though my husband's step-mom is quite the gardener as well, leaving me lots of great stuff to work with, the yard got a little out of control while it was being rented. I'm finally getting familiar with the sunlight and soil I have to work with here and I'm on my way to restoring the yard to it's former glory.
Last fall, I happened to see on Facebook that my favorite garden center, Bates Nursery, was hiring seasonal help. I jumped at the chance to work at a place that brought me such joy. I was there over the fall and have been brought back for the spring. I'm working in the annual greenhouse and with the perennials. I water, unload plant deliveries, organize the tables to make room for ALL OF THOSE PLANTS, and answer customers' questions. I knew a little coming in, but I'm learning SO much more every day. I eavesdrop as much as possible when our greenhouse expert (Debbie Scales) is dropping some knowledge on the customers. What a wealth of information that lady has!!
My gardening knowledge came about with LOTS of trial and error. If you see my yard and think I have all this brilliant landscaping ability, really what you're seeing is the results of a lazy gardener. I'm VERY low-maintenance, and tend to plant stuff that's tough to kill and pretty much guaranteed to be successful for me. Gardening isn't as hard as you may think; if you know what conditions you live with (sun or shade, dry or boggy, good soil or not so good), you can find a hardy plant that thrives in your environment. It's all about putting the right plants in the right locations. I appreciate that so many of you trust me to answer your gardening questions, daunting though it may be. I hope to share some pictures and explanations of some of the successes I've had over the years, as well as share the information I learn while working at Bates.
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