the Backyard B'zmany hands make light work!

This year marks the second Christmas we have spent as a group, and as such, we’re a little short on traditions. However, we may have hit on one that will stick this year! As a group we went to see the Horizon Theatre’s production of The Santaland Diaries, and it was a rousing success.

For anyone who hasn’t seen this hilarious play, it’s taken from the David Sedaris book, “Holidays on Ice” and details his somewhat unwilling and humiliating experience as a Christmas elf at Macy’s. It’s a three person play, and the versatility and energy of the actors, Harold M. Leaver as Crumpet, Enoch King and Megan Hayes as everyone else, is unmatched! This was the third time I’ve seen it, and it is always fresh. Every year they add some details relevant to what’s going on in today’s news, but the gist of the story is unchanged.

The intimate venue encourages audience participation, and one unlucky – or lucky, depending on how you look at it – person is usually singled out and made a part of the play. It is bawdy and sarcastic, and not at all suited for children, which is why we liked it so much!

At the end we forced the cast to have their pictures taken with us, and it even looks like they’re having a good time!

Professional actors, all. We hope to see it again next year! It runs through January 1, 2012, so there’s still time for you to see it! Just contact the Horizon Theater box office and get yourself a ticket. Who knows, you may start a tradition of your own!

Our task this meeting was to take the dry creek bed that Suzi had started some time back and bring it to the level of excellence that we have come to expect of the B’z.

Runoff is a frequent problem in yards with a steep slope, and in Suzi’s yard the runoff from the downspout and rain barrel overflow needed to be directed and not allowed to just cut a gully through the yard. Suzi had begun to try to take it in hand, but it was a daunting task for one person and it was understandable that she had been putting off dealing with it.

Where we began. Lots of rocks, but no real organization going on here!

The first step was to move the old weed blocking material out of the way and till the path intended to direct the runoff. Then the dirt was mounded on the sides and sloped toward the middle. The whole trick of the thing is to make it look natural and not like a sluice.

Here you can see the tilled path and the beginning of the rock placement.

You need to be a bit of a Rock Whisperer to get the rocks placed so that they look like they were deposited there naturally. You must overcome your need for order and neatness, and embrace a little chaos. Keep in mind the natural streams you have seen, and allow the sloppy edges in nature to be your guide.

Here you can see the mix of large, medium and small rocks that form the edge of the dry creek bed.

“Where did these rocks come from?” you may wonder. Well, some came from Nancy’s yard in the area she calls the rock garden because rocks just sprout up from the ground there. Some we dug up from Suzi’s yard or relocated from other areas. Any unattached rock is fair game as far as we are concerned, and we are not above stopping on the side of the road to pick up a worthy specimen from the ditch.

Here's one we dubbed The Fanny Rock because, well, see for yourself...

All of the toting and hauling and rearranging paid off big-time in the end. Some plants and some big chunks of the pine trees that fell in the yard one rainy, windy evening were relocated and the results were even better than we anticipated. Sometimes we shock and surprise ourselves, and this was, I think, one of those times. We were amazed at the transformation – the best part of every meeting! And we could hardly believe how easy this was to do.

Can you believe the difference? This went from blah to WOW!

Another thing we have fun with is what we call “gilding the lily” which is where we add the little touches that put the design over the top and really bring in the “oohs” and “ahhs.” Here a red chair adds some pop to a corner that wasn’t even noticed before.

This scene is so inviting. I want to take my iced tea out there and wait for it to rain so I can see this creek bed in action!

Practicality comes through all we do, too. Suzi needed a path across the creekbed for a wheelbarrow or mower to traverse, so we took some of the flattest and largest stones and made a path that won’t stop the water’s path, but will allow her to get from one side to the other easily.

Functional and attractive - does it get any better??

We all agree that the B’z meeting days are among our favorite days of the month. When we began this adventure we never realized that it would be just as much fun to work in someone else’s yard as it is to work in our own. The synergy of ideas that we have when we all come together is what makes it such a transformative experience – for the yards and for us! Each of us contributes a unique perspective and a unique talent, and we are all important to the process. I would recommend starting a group like the  Backyard B’z to anyone. But you would be fortunate indeed to find a group of women as fabulous as our four!

It was with great anticipation that I looked forward to the monthly meeting of the B’z. It was my turn to benefit from the group effort and boy did I need it! I have a 3/4 acre lot, which didn’t sound like much when I moved here from my 2.25 acre lot, but is a lot to take care of alone all the same. My brush pile is at the far back right hand corner of the lot, and the front of my little plot of ground slopes up from the street quite a bit. So it’s a hike from the street to the brush pile, and I soon get worn out from the trips.

Also, I prefer working in the back of the house where I am out of sight and not under scrutiny by the constant parade of cars and neighbors. So needless to say the whole front area has been sadly neglected since my one big effort in spring when I discovered that my neighbors had been allowing their dogs to use my juniper bank as a restroom all winter. After collecting a good sized grocery bag of dog poo on just the left size, I walked away in disgust and abandoned all effort.

My trees belch sticks and branches every time a puff of wind stirs, and the ivy on either side was conspiring to cross over, join hands and eliminate the driveway altogether. The juniper was advancing over the orderly row of stones toward the street, and everything had generally run riot and misbehaved. It was, in a word, a mess.

Street view. Depressing!

As I got ready for the day, Stealth Cat (Stealthius incognicatus) watched me with a jaundiced eye. When I took his picture he accused me of trying to steal his soul and stalked off indignantly.

Whose idea was it to plant ivy? I can’t believe they still sell this stuff in garden centers and people continue to fall for it under the mistaken idea that they can control it. Ha!

The ivy plague advances.

I’m a person who likes things neat and tidy, I love a clean edge. But you sure wouldn’t be able to tell from my front yard. My neighbors have no idea that the back yard is a paradise. All they see is this weed pile disguised as a mailbox bed. I’m so sorry!

My untidy mailbox bed. Oh my.

So these were the challenges that stood before us. We gathered at around 10-ish in the morning to enjoy some coffee and freshly baked blueberry scones on the screened porch, then hitched up our sox and went to work. Jane loves to cut down trees, so I asked her to take out any of the small trees in the front that she thought she could handle. I have too many trees as it is, and don’t want to encourage anymore oaks or tulip poplars. The dogwoods and Japanese maples can stay because they grow slowly and stay small. I also had an abundance of drooping and dead branches hanging around. We dubbed her “Lumber Jane” as she labored all day to clear the view and turn my front into a deer park.

Suzi, Sharon and I spread out to attack the edges and clear all the fallen branches and sticks. We must have hauled six tarps or more of debris to the back! Suzi observed that even if you don’t have time to weed a whole bed, if you get the big obvious weeds and the edges done, it improves things by 100%. Very true. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the big picture and give up before we start, but even a little effort can be rewarding.

But believe me, this was no small effort! We reclaimed the edges of the driveway, the edges of the mailbox bed and the edges of the juniper bed.

Wow! What an amazing difference! Just look at those edges!

Now my house doesn’t look like a neglected mess from the street. Hm, someone might actually believe a gardener lives here. Curb appeal plus! I’m shocked at how bad I had allowed it to get.  It slowly spun out of control, but with the help of my wonderful comrades-in-arms it’s restored to its former glory, and even better than before. Now if I could only get the trees to drop their sticks into a bag I’d be all set. Soon the leaves will start falling again, and I’ll be mulching night and day to try to keep up. That’s why I love my Worx leaf mulcher! It spins leaves into garden gold! Finally I can use them for something instead of just creating a mountain in my back yard.

Oh look! There IS a mailbox there and not just a weed pile!

I’ll use those leaf shreds to mulch this mailbox bed, and all the other beds, for the winter. The leaves will break down and enrich the soil, then I’ll cover them with pine bark mulch or mulch from my mulch mountain donated by a local tree service.

I still don’t like working in my front yard, but maybe now I’ll be able to at least keep up with tending the edges and pulling the big weeds that stick up. If not, there’s always my next turn with the Backyard B’z!!!

Last Sunday was the monthly meeting of the world famous Atlanta Gardening group, the BYB’z! and it was a hot one. These Southern summer meetings are always dicey. You never know how unbearable it will be, and it’s important to stay hydrated! We met at Sharon’s in the lovely city of Cass, GA, and were there to help her get her weeds under control. No, not her WEED, her weeds! Here’s what we started with:

This is the kind of thing that makes you tired.

We all face this: weeds have taken over. How is it that during the drought in Georgia which plagues us seemingly every year, when all the plants we love and have paid good money for are threatening to keel over, or have already bit the big one, the weeds thrive and survive? I guess that’s why they’re weeds. Maybe. Well, they are no match for the B’z in any case.

Oh now we feel better!

That didn’t take long at all. When four determined women are on a mission, anything or anyone had better get out of the way, and this includes chickweed and crabgrass, not to mention blackberry and greenbrier. While working to dispatch the weeds, we talked about the books we had read recently (House of Sand and Fog, Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Teacher Man to name a few – we are all big readers) and the merits and demerits of each.

The thing about us is that we have so many things in common that we never lack for conversation. Another hot topic was things that surprised us about this group after we had been into it for awhile. One thing we never expected was how much fun it would be to work in someone else’s yard! As it turns out, it’s just as much fun as working in our own, and more, actually!

On to the next area: Along the fence, where we envision a cottage garden of lilies, daisies, black eyed Susans and the like.

Someday this will be a riot of color!

We have vision! Someday this will be gorgeous! Gardeners have faith galore, that’s for sure. Who else can take a barren piece of red clay and shale ground and create an oasis of beauty? We worked on this until lunch time, I’ll show you how it turned out in a minute.

Meanwhile, one of our favorite pastimes, besides gardening our brains out, is scrounging. No yard sale, thrift store or junk pile is safe from our creative eye. We look at things not as they are, but as how they could be. This is very useful for finding unique garden art, but sometimes isn’t so good when you’re dealing with real life. Note this fabulous use of cast offs and 99 cent bargains:

Isn't this grand?

After lunch we attacked the fence line with renewed vigor. We took the pole saw to dead branches and discussed how a row of azaleas would make a fine floral wall along the tree line. Isn’t this an improvement?

Much nicer vista now!

All of us are artistic, you really have to be to be a gardener, I think. Suzi paints, Jane quilts and paints with words, I make jewelry, and Sharon is a collage artist. We forced her to trot out her latest creations, and judge for yourselves, but we were blown away by their awesomeness! Here’s one that rocks my socks off:

Wow! Just. Wow.

And then there is this one:

Love the garden theme on this one!

We also spent a good amount of time lounging in the lovely sitting area we helped create for Sharon during our first meeting here, and discussing the possibility of an upcoming Bitchezz, oops! I mean B’z Book. That’s right, my friends, we could be on the road to a collaborative masterpiece. It’s all really hush hush, so don’t tell anyone, and seeing how many comments as we (don’t) get on this blog, I suppose there is no danger of word leaking out. Ha!

Speaking of that, we would really LOVE for you to comment on any and all of our posts. Just scroll to the bottom of any individual post and there you’ll find a little box set up JUST FOR YOU! We want to hear from you. We want to hear from your friends, your relatives, and your relative’s friends! And Lyle Lovett, we’d really like to hear from him. He’s from Texas, you know.

Next meeting will be at Nancy’s where we will be trying to make some sense of her driveway and front, as well as beating the ivy off the trees and spreading mulch. Bet you wish you could be there. Sorry. But I’ll write all about it so you’ll feel like you were there!

I am a patient gardener. I grow shrubs from cuttings, knowing that in just 3 or 4, or 5 or 6, years, I will have a wonderful lush shrub where there are now only four leaves protruding from the ground. I am also big on plant rescue. Just like some people have 14 dogs and 8 cats because they can’t stand the thought of an animal being homeless, I have been known stop the car to pick a houseplant from someone’s trash because I know it still has some good years in it. It just needs someone to love it and bring out the best in it, someone to believe in its greatness. It’s kind of like codependence, with plants.

I also love to shop what I call “death row.” Some local big box stores and garden centers have racks of bedraggled plants, one step from the grave, marked down to practically nothing! I patrol these shelves all summer, and so my garden, much like my closet, isn’t a perfectly planned and coordinated whole as much as it’s a mish-mash collection of things I love. And although I’ve learned to pick up objects at yard sales and mentally walk through my house wondering where I’ll put it, and if not finding a spot, leave it, I have no such discipline with plants.

Who can resist the siren song of a Nikko Blue hydrangea for $4.00?? Crape myrtles for $2.00? Sign me up! I once bought a ton of bags of bulbs at the end of the season for 50 cents or $1.00 a bag. I potted them all up and the following year wandered around mumbling to myself, “Now where am I going to PUT these???” But there is always a spot somewhere, and if that spot doesn’t work out, it can be moved and moved again if necessary. That’s the beauty of gardening, it isn’t an exact science, and a garden is never “finished.”

When I worked in landscaping a fellow project manager stopped by one day to see how my project was coming along. In the back of his truck I spotted 3 bedraggled Knock Out roses that had been planted in the shade and were replaced with something more suitable for the situation. “What are you going to do with those roses?” I asked. “Take them back to the shop and throw them in the dumpster” was the answer. “Oh no you’re not!” was my indignant reply, “I’ll take them home with me!” And I did. I put them in pots to allow them to recover their root systems, and they became part of my garden rescues.

My mom and dad could never stand to see a leaf fall from a plant without putting it in soil or water to start a new plant, and I have inherited their tender heart toward the struggling and unwanted plants of the world. So even if my garden isn’t a coordinated, meticulously designed showplace, it satisfies the rescuer in me to see that those who were given a second chance are gratefully thriving there.

It never fails. The rains of April raise our hopes that this year will be different! This year we will have ample rain, spaced just right! Days of steady rain, or even better, steady rain at night at just the right intervals to keep our hydrangeas hydrated and our lilies lush. And then sometime in mid-May the spigot is turned off and we look in vain for rain.

By the beginning of June we’re outside watering morning and evening as the ground turns to hardened dust and our poor perennials try to squeeze out a bloom with precious little resources. In the winter I swore I was going to install soaker hoses this year so that I wouldn’t have to stand outside fighting mosquitoes while watering, watering, watering. But here it is, June again, and did I buy soaker hoses? No.

How long has it been since we had a good soaking rain? Two weeks? Three? Saturday there was a nice “pop-up thundershower” as the weather folk like to call them. But then back to day after day of 90 degree temps and sun, sun, sun. It’s enough to make you want to take out the hydrangeas, who seem to be problem drinkers, and install some tee-totaling cactus. Well, almost.

Fortunately last fall I had a tree company dump a load of shredded mulch in my driveway, and spending day after day in the spring spreading it 3″ thick all over everything now helps keep the ground cool and retain any moisture that might stray into the area. It attracts good earth worms to aerate the soil as well. Other than that, how do we cope with the effect of blistering heat on our gardens day after day? How much time do you spend watering? Do you have any tips or tricks for keeping your parched plants happy?

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as they say, and one woman’s weed is another’s cherished garden flower! This year I am exulting that I was finally successful in getting Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota – wild carrot) to grow in my garden. I’ve been trying for years, but never succeeded in getting it to (ahem) take root.

It is extremely drought tolerant and attractive to butterflies, Caterpillars of the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly eat the leaves, bees and other insects drink the nectar and predatory insects, such as the Green Lacewing, come to Queen Anne’s Lace to attack prey, such as aphids. Its fluffy greenery and pretty white lace cap make it a beautiful contrast to the strappy leaves and colorful flowers of the lilies.

I first noticed how great it looks with lilies while driving local back roads. The orange daylilies that grow wild in this area, called “ditch lilies” by locals, are often intermingled with Queen Anne’s Lace and the effect is stunning. I coveted it for my own yard, as I have quite an extensive variety of lilies. So last year on the way home from work one day, I pulled over and dug some up. (You know you’re a rabid gardener when you keep a shovel and plastic bags in the back of your car at all times to facilitate digging up something on the spur of the moment.) I ignored the funny looks I got from passersby who, I’m sure, were wondering what this woman in dress clothes was doing digging on the side of the road, and scored a huge clump of the precious plant.

At home I rushed to change clothes and immediately planted my trophy. I pampered and nurtured it all summer. When it went to seed in the fall I spread it all over and hoped for the best. To my joy and amazement it has begun to bloom among my own lilies! There are lots of little plants coming along, and I dote on them like they were favorite children, which, they kind of are. To see lilies, Monarda (bee balm) and Queen Anne’s Lace mingled together in my garden is a goal I’ve had for years and years. The combination seems so right to me!

I think we all have favorite combinations of plants that were inspired by something we saw in a magazine, or maybe by a friend or relative’s garden. What are some of your favorite combinations and where did you first get the notion to put them together? What “weeds” do you like as garden flowers? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and I think Queen Anne’s Lace is as sweet as any rose in my garden!

This month’s meeting was moved to accommodate Father’s Day next weekend, so we’re meeting a little early. Bowing to outside pressure, the name of our group has changed to the Backyard Beez, or BYBz. We feel this makes us more fit for public consumption. Some have been reluctant to share our garden adventures for fear of offending with our name, so now we are cleaned up and ready for our close up.

June’s meeting took place at Jane’s and we forgot a camera, so you’ll just have to imagine how bad the befores and how good the afters look!

Our task was backyard clean up. The yard has gone a little bit wild, so we have to tame it down again. This included bagging piles of limbs, cuttings and vines that she had in the back yard. Not exciting, but one of those tasks that is brutal and punishing if you have to do it all by yourself. We hauled about 15 bags to the street at the end of the day! We also cleaned up a little area she can see from her martini corner (am I allowed to say that?) or, if you like, her breakfast deck. This area will be made into a butterfly/hummingbird garden so she can enjoy their activities and antics while sipping an adult beverage in the evening.

Another garden pest was taking over the entire area – honeysuckle. We pulled up reams of it, and Sharon creatively fashioned some of it into a wreath as she pulled it up! We fought yellow jackets, poison ivy, and billions and billions of tree seedlings, but at the end of the day we prevailed! The area was nice and clean, ready for butterfly bushes and all manner of attractive new plants. We placed a bench against the fence and decorated it with a birdhouse and some found pots. A pleasing view and a good day’s work. I only wish we had pictures to show. Sigh.

This is a re-post from another garden blog (http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2010/01/in-which-we-hope-allan-does-not-break-a-leg.html#comments). How I wish I had known about this – I would have LOVED to see Allan shake his groove thang!

Begin re-post:

No, our friend, writer/grower/horticulturalist extraordinaire Allan Armitage has not lost his mind. He doesn’t even have Night Fever.  Rather, Allan is putting himself out there to support an important cause. See his note, below. On a non-dancing note, I am very excited about a recent introduction of Allan’s: the “Athens Yellow” climbing dicentra. It climbs? And it’s yellow? That’s enough to make me feel like dancing! Maybe not the The Hustle, though.

To My Friends in Horticulture:

I know this is hard to believe, but I have been asked to participate in the Athens-area chapter of Dancing With the Stars—as a star! I would not have agreed to make a fool of myself, except that it is a major fundraiser for Project Safe, a terrific organization working to end abuse against women. The world is a tough place for many, and having a support group like this makes a huge positive difference. For those of you not familiar with Project Safe, read more here.  Recently this organization has experienced an unprecedented rise in demand for its services. More than ever it relies on  local community events like Dancing with Athens Stars to provide financial support.

I am practicing hard for the “Audience Favorite Award” which is given to the couple who receives the most votes, both during the show and in the months leading up to it. I will keep everyone involved as the dance date, Mar 21, approaches.

So I am asking for your votes, not for me but for Project Safe.  You can laugh at me while giving.  Here’s how it works:

Each vote is $1 donated to Project Safe, and voting early and often is definitely encouraged!  You can vote in several ways. Voting through the website is probably easiest. Go to the site and click on the Dancing with Athens Stars button. You’ll see my name and my beautiful and talented partner Liza Pitts [shown with Allan, above] as couple #9.

By the way, I will be doing The Hustle.  I never heard of The Hustle, but there you go. I will keep you up to date here and on my site.

—Allan Armitage

Hats off to Allan and I hope the gals at Garden Rant don’t mind the re-post!

This month it was Suzi’s turn to harness the power of the Beez at work. We had an honorary Bee in attendance: Dana!

Dana provided all the lovely photography for this entry. She also brought some terrific food to share with us! We want Dana to come back again and again!

Our project this month was to provide some clarity for Suzi. Path-wise, that is. Sometimes we allow everyday obstacles to slow us down. We recognize them as irritants, yet somehow continue to live with them. Gardening is a lot like life.

Suzi had an area in front of her house where she frequently walked, yet she was always getting smacked around by an out-of-control weeping cherry tree and tripped up by some gardenias who were muscling their way in front of her. There was no clear path to the hose either; she had to step around various plants to get to the spigot. Adding to the general chaos, her tree-form lorapetalums were seriously out of round.

Enter the BYBz to fix things up! But first, a photo-op.

Photo op for Beez

So, here is what we started with:

Something must be done. First: Out with those gardenias. There are four in this spot. We think we’ll leave one.

The cool thing about the way we BYBz work together is that we each find our own job once the plan is laid out for us. We all seem to gravitate toward different things, so there’s never any bickering over who gets to dig out the gardenias and who gets to prune the lotapetalums. We pick a job and do it without a whole lot of discussion. Just one of the very many reasons we rock!

We get right to work, and we frequently have to be coerced into stopping to eat lunch. One of the rules we made when our group was first formed was that the only thing the hostess had to provide was water. We were to bring our own lunch and so not burden the hostess with feeding us. However, that’s one rule we all seem to love to break, as feeding each other is lots of fun, too! This time lunch was especially yummy, as Dana contributed a wonderful bruschetta-like treat, and Suzi contributed greens for a salad from her garden. Fresh peaches from South Georgia made their way to the table, too. Yum!

After our lunch break, it was back to work. We had cleared out the gardenias and settled them in their new homes, along with some hellebores (common name Lenten Rose) and iris, pruned the cherry tree back, and now it was time to create a pathway.

Then we re-purposed some stepping stones from another part of the yard.

The stones are set, and ground cover will be grown around them. Doesn’t this look better? It feels like a real path now, and the flower garden seems like more of a garden somehow.

It was a productive and fun time, as usual, and we never cease to be amazed at what only four women can accomplish in one day. It certainly never seems like work! Don’t you wish YOU could be an honorary Bee for a day? Well, maybe you can. Just ask!