LONG TIME GONE!

HELLO from your Garden Daddy and welcome back to the garden home! I apologize for my not being with you for many days. I have been very wrapped up with the now finished and very successful 2009 LANA Holiday Home Tour and the aftermath of that as well as hosting a few friends over on several occasions this past week. The house has never looked better and with much publicity before, during and after this tour I have not only been on the phone almost constantly but have been consulted for ideas, etc. from this garden home. I will share a photo from VIP Magazine that a professional photographer took one day here recently for the tour article on my home. This is looking down from the staircase over the living/dining area toward the front entry and porch, showing the table centerpiece of 3-dozen red roses.

But I am back and hopefully with only 12 days till Christmas Day and about 18 days till New Years I am counting on things rapidly returning to normal here and taking down the holiday madness here inside and out and getting on with my winter gardening and the preparation for the spring planting and revamping of my vegetable garden and some slight rehabs to the shade garden as well. I anxiously await the end of this holiday season more than usual I imagine due to the fact I have been dealing with it almost nonstop since about the 3rd week of August really and it is really time for it to be done and over with. I usually want it to last longer but not this year. I want to get my sun room undress with holiday fashions and get it in use for my much longed for reading & tea room this winter. And then just enjoy the fruits of my long, hard labor this past fall and just spend some time finally enjoying my home and doing it alone without all the rush, crowds and extensions of holiday fair that I have shared this year with so many people.

Okay, enough complaining about NOT having enough alone/down time right? So on with gardening for this time of year. For those of you who are avid gardeners you already know that one must mulch in this season, especially those tender perennials that need their "feet"kept warm. I cannot stress this enough. Pile it high-high-high on those tropicals you are trying to hold over and pray it works here in our unusual Zone 7 (really, Jackson, TN is in an unusual place here in Tennessee...we are almost at times Zone 8 during the summer and often end up a Zone 6 in winter).

Anyway, I will leave you today with this seasonal thought in mind: Remembering the "first gift of Christmas"...it was neither wrapped up with a bow nor trimmed with bright shiny tinsel nor decorated with candles and holly...it was dressed in rough, hand weaved cloth, laying on prickly hay and was crying for HIS Mother. A divine night, before the break of a new and glorious 'morn. Remembering the first gift of Christmas...(tmm)

JUST TAKING A LOOK AT YOU THIS WEEK

HELLO from your Garden Daddy at the garden home! Today in the neighborhood we had a city-wide "sweep" where city officials come down each street & alley and look at yards, homes, alleyways and side streets looking for homes in disrepair, neglected yards, vehicles on blocks/abandoned, etc. I introduced myself to 3 of the gentlemen who were roaming the area and talked to them about some issues as I see them in this area. They were happy to have some insight from local homeowners, and since I am our newly assigned L.A.N.A. block captain I felt it was important to meet these guys doing this "sweep" and give and get input. Both things took place as I had wanted it to.
I was able to take a few minutes, a VERY FEW minutes, and get outside today and at least look at my garden in the back of my house. I have so many plans for that area but with everything going on for the next few weeks, almost until Christmas day itself, all I had opportunity to do was just take a look and do about 5-minutes of pine straw raking. I have 6-large, very old pine trees in my back yard lined up like little tin soldiers. They are old and tall and sway when the wind blows but I love the straw they leave in the fall for the great natural mulch it makes and the shade they provide for my azaleas and ferns in my deep shade garden. Plus they make a good line in the break in between my neighbor and myself, blocking our roof views somewhat.
I am working on the final preparations for the L.A.N.A. Holiday Home Tour this coming weekend and when it is over I plan to sleep late the days I do not have to work next week and then prepare for the holidays to arrive with gift wrapping and some light baking and making my own holiday one of peace and quiet for awhile.
Till our next time together I want to leave you with the following gardening affirmation:
"For me, gardening is a form of prayer. Most people have an awareness of life and death, but few have an an awareness of life, death, and life again. Gardeners do though. " by Kaya McLaren

NEWS FLASH: GARDEN HOME MAKES LOCAL HEADLINES

HELLO from your Garden Daddy at the garden home. THIS garden home made today's, Sunday, "Homes Galore" homes section - front page and inside page of our local daily paper, The Jackson Sun! If you will go to the site attached, you can see the photos used in the feature and also the little piece I wrote (I'm in print!) for the tour booklet or at least part of it anyway along with some photo captions the Jackson Sun used on their own from a printed questionnaire I filled in while the shoot was going on. HOW EXCITING! So if you have time and opportunity, please visit the attached site and view this garden home on display. Thanks to all who believed enough I could pull this off and for all the encouragement and support!
www.jacksonsun.com/homesgalore (Click on todays date, Sunday, November 29, 2009 article)

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HELLO from your Garden Daddy here at the garden home! I could not let this day pass without having a few comments about Thanksgiving and being thankful. Here is a list, partial of course & in NO order, of my "thanksgiving blessings":
Waking up to a wonderful world every day!
My good health.
My family...ALL of US!
My Daughter.
My "Max" (...the sweetest boy ever).
Having my own home.
My daily work(s).
My friends.
The ability to express ourselves without reprisal.
Most of all I am thankful daily for just "being"!
So I leave you this Thanksgiving 2009 with the following thoughts & some history in mind:
Venison for stew and roasting,Oysters in the ashes toasting,Geese done to a turn,Berries (dried) and wild grapes (seeded)Mixed with dough and gently kneaded~What a feast to earn! Indian corn in strange disguises,Ash cakes, hoe cakes (many sizes),Kernels roasted brown...After months of frugal living What a welcome first Thanksgiving There in Plymouth town.
Poem by Aileen Fisher
*The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food.
Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.
In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.
Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.

HERE IS A SMALL PREVIEW OF WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SEE ON THE HOLIDAY HOME TOUR

HELLO from your Garden Daddy at the garden home! So many have requested to see a shot or two of the garden home decor for the upcoming LANA Holiday Home Tour. So with much pressure to provide such and some tickets already sold and more I have to sell I will give you a small glimpse into the treat you will see here in the garden home for that event! Here is a shot of my bedroom dresser area with twin trees on the sides and a nice picture of my dining table, set for 8 with the 2-doz roses I made up this morning for the two days of photos for both VIP Magazine & our local paper, The Jackson Sun. I worked up some 4-dozen red and 1-dozen white roses this morning as well as a few bunches of large lilies for this picture taking event.

So I leave you with your ongoing daily gardening affirmation: GARDENING: One yard at the time!

2009 TENNESSEE MASTER GARDENER INTERN PROGRAM CLOSES WITH MIXED EMOTIONS

HELLO from your Garden Daddy at the garden home! Yesterday was so bitter-sweet as we closed the last session of the 2009 TN Master Gardener Intern class with everyone feeling both relieved and disappointed it was over for this group. Our last class period was taught by our director and long-time UT Extension agent, Mr. B. W. I have learned to appreciate this man so much and admire his dedication and life of teaching, learning and directing many-many people in our county and in the great State of Tennessee.
The first half of the class covered the area of garden pest. Caterpillars, aphids, misc. other garden pest and their associates. The last half of class was on wildlife damage control as in raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, deer, Ferrel dogs & cats, etc. Then as we disbanded, most of us were saying our goodbyes and making plans to meet up in the near future and there were a few who merely left and those will probably be the ones to NOT see this to the end. Now we have to complete our volunteer hours and our 8-hours of continuing education time. I have about 5.5hrs of my continuing education hours and about 8.75 hours of volunteering hours out of the 40-hours needed for my graduation. I will have some in just after Christmas with the "Chipping of The Greens" which is when the city picks up the left over, thrown out once growing Christmas trees and take to a central location and then use the city equipment and chip the trees up for mulch, etc. That will be several hours I will work and add to my time. I will have my time in by graduation time in February 2010 but in order to graduate then I would need my hours in by the end of 2009. It cannot happen this year but I am well within the time frame and will be finished by March 2010 and can start my next years hours for continuing membership in the MG program and make the later 25-hours go by fast when spring hits and new beds and plantings start and the spring plant sale at WTREC.
Anyway, work continues here at the garden home for the 2009 LANA Holiday Home Tour and I am well on my way to be in good shape and able to maybe enjoy next week and the week after finally. The VIP Magazine will be here tomorrow afternoon for photos and The Jackson Sun will be here on Friday morning at 10 am for their shots as well. All I need is a live tree to cut up for the greens and then I am almost finished and then put a few lights up outside and I am finished except keeping things neat and tidy....neat and tidy! I hope I do not disappoint anyone and it is a good and pretty as I think it is!
I leave you & all my Master Gardener interns today with these sage words: "Each of us must climb our separate mountain To reach at last our own extended view. We can be no more than what we are, Yet that is quite enough for us to do. The world is far too great for comprehension. And so we only know what we can know. But given the abilities we're given, That's still a long and weary way to go. Yet on the way, how beautiful the moments! How good it feels to have some skill or art! How wonderful to pause in awestruck wonder At what must fill the unsuspecting heart!" By William Byrd

MASTER GARDENER INTERNS GO TO THE BIRDS

HELLO from Garden Daddy at the garden home! I apologize for not spending time with you this week as time is looming for the LANA Holiday Home Tour and there is much to do. Meetings, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning are getting this garden home in shape finally. As of yesterday, Sunday, 11/15/09, I am FINALLY in a good place here. I got the dining table set and ready for vignette shots when necessary. Almost all I really have left in a big way is to obtain a fresh-cut Christmas tree, or for you newbies....a "holiday" tree, to cut up for use of the greens around the entryway, mantle, staircase, etc. uses around this garden home. So maybe I can spend a little more time with you in the coming weeks.
Last week was this Garden Daddy's birthday and my daughter and her Mother took me to lunch and then shopping! I have lost so much weight this whole year, in a good way finally...not yo-yo'ing, that I needed some new clothes and I got some outfits to wear not only during the home tour but on past that. Really, just a birthday pitch, right?
But really last week was all about the Master Gardeners. We met on Tuesday & Thursday last week and on Thursday we had two class studies. The first part was on disease management, taught by our director, and the second part was bird identification, taught by Mr. TS, a long time Master Gardener and avid bird watcher. This gentleman brought us slides he set up that coincided with a tape he made of the same bird calls. It was very interesting in both classes as we learned about viruses, molds, galls, etc. and then had the enjoyment of hearing and visually seeing many birds that are local to our area.
With only one more Master Gardener class to go for tomorrow, Tuesday, I cannot believe the entire 45-hour class time is over. Now all I have to do is finish my volunteerism and next Feb. 2011, I will actually graduate. There are two guys in our group that have not only finished their volunteer hours but have also finished their 8-additional hours of continuing education. Most of us are not able to do that due to other obligations, work, etc.
I am finishing this on Tuesday morning as I head out the door to work this morning at 3:20am. I hope everyone is sleeping tightly and warmly. I heard Monday from The VIP Magazine & our local paper, The Jackson Sun, setting up times late this week for their photo spreads on my house for the home tour coverage. I understand that one of those articles will feature only my home and one other out of the 10 that are on the tour. I feel really honored to have this happen at this time. I have never been one to be in the limelight but more behind the scenes sort of person really, saving this writing site. But as my middle brother told me yesterday, "...just pretend you are a leaf in a stream, and just enjoy the ride".
So I leave you gardeners with this thought in mind today, my LAST Master Gardener intern class: "Not because of victories I sing, having none, but for the common sunshine, the breeze, the largess of the spring. Not for victory but for the day's work done as well as I was able; not for a seat upon the dais but at the common table." Charles Reznikoff