friends & enemies

Elizabeth II

When I was little, my great-grandmother, (her name was Mabel, we called her Grandma-Great) would walk me around her yard and tell me all about her plants. As an eight-year-old, this made me want to gouge my eyes out, I found it so boring. She was very passionate about the flora she had collected over many years. I once saw her smash a slug with her bare hand. She ground it into the cement and let out a humph. I think for her, it was a personal attack for a slug to eat her plants.

She had two huge oak trees with my grandfather's navy hammock slung between them. A natural spring well bubbled up near the base of one tree and the water was ice cold even in August. A lilac bush climbed the rain pipe on the back of the house and smelled so sweet and strong that as you lay in the hammock with dappled light on your face, you felt you might become intoxicated. As I've said before, I grew up in Mayberry. I think my grandmother, with her magical garden, "planted" the proverbial seed in me to love plants.

I can't remember what this plant is called. It's little blooms are super fragrant.

Okay, so on to the friends and enemies. I HATE, really really hate grasshoppers. I'd rather have a cockroach crawl across my foot than one of these nasty, crunchy bugs. We went to the nursery last weekend and Thom was begging for a treat. He choose a bag of ladybugs. Ben and I were more than happy to have them. The aphids are out in full force!

This little SOB was eating my "Voluptuous" rose, but I was too afraid to kill him.

Here is my newly planted garden. Look at the row of radishes. We planted the seeds only a week ago!

My Don Juan rose grows on a trellis on the front of the house.

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.... People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back." ~Alice Walker





This Chris Everett rose has been shaped into a tree and is potted on the back patio.

This one's called Henry Fonda.

And last, but not least, my foxgloves and birdhouse.

So now you have had the Mabel Campbell tour of my garden. I hope you don't want to gouge your eyes out.