How about an olive with that tea?

Sounds delicious? Not!!!!! Recently I was commenting to Perennial Gardener Lover about my tea olive and she wanted to hear more about it so here goes.

This is a great evergreen shrub that can get quite big. So when planting, one needs to take into consideration the size. Mine probably get 5-6 hours of sun a day.
Pictured are actually two of these shrubs on both sides of my sidewalk. These are probably 2 or 3 years old. I'm not sure how big they were when originally planted because they were already here when we moved in.

The botanical is Osmanthus fragrans. It can grow up to 20' or more with a width of 6-8' wide. As I said, it is an evergreen with very stiff leaves. Sometimes people are fooled into thinking this is a holly. But this particular varieties leaf edges are fairly smooth.
Besides it being evergreen another great feature is it has the most wonderful, fragrant blooms. It usually blooms spring and fall. The blooms are tiny but really pack a punch!
There are a couple more varieties that I don't have pictures of but they are Osmanthus fortunei and Osmanthus heterophyllus.

The fortunei has jagged leaf margins which really makes it look like a holly. It doesn't bloom as well as the fragrans and gets probably about the same size.

The herophyllus has jagged leaf margins as well but is variegated. I'm not sure about how well it blooms. It only grows 8-10' tall.

So if you are looking for a great evergreen shrub for a large area I highly recommend this one.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a.... no wait! That's a different story.

Well obviously this is no bear. Thank goodness. I'd hate to see a bear in my backyard. Seriously, I was walking around in my yard the other day and saw this little guy flitting about. He finally sat still long enough for me to snap this picture. I couldn't believe what a hairy little underbelly he had. Or maybe it's a beard that is hanging down to his little legs. lol However you look at it, I think he's cute!

Yard Work from Yesterday

Recently I blogged about my poor little plants that were drowning in my bird bath bed. These are some of the throw-away plants from work that I had rescued. Well I felt pretty guilty about letting them sit there and drown so yesterday I dug them up and moved them to a new bed. Okay, they don't look spectacular right now but hopefully with a little sunshine they'll survive. This area is on a small slope at the back of my yard so maybe the water will drain away.

Do you see my new pink knock-out rose on the right? Believe it or not that was a throw-away from work. When I took it out of the pot it didn't have much of a root ball. Hopefully with the rain and sunshine it will do well.

As you can see in these pics I'm going to have to do lots of weeding. Lots of weeds and grass to pull. Lots of tidying up to do. This bed is on the exact opposite end of my Keepsake Garden

Oh well, now my biggest problem is this. What am I going to name this flower bed?

Friday Night Lights!!!

It's football season again! Hooray!!! Okay, you may have heard of this, or maybe you haven't but we folks down here in the south love our friday night football!(Not to say anyone anywhere else doesn't). Sometimes we all just go gaga over it. So, since my honey is a teacher and coach(basketball, not football) we moseyed on over for our 1st home game!

We played our biggest rival who we haven't won a game against in probably over 5 years. Let me tell you there was electricity in the air. Everyone had on their gold and black and was looking fired up. The concession stand was a cooking and the bleachers filled right up. We probably had close to a couple of thousand fans.
The fans and cheerleaders waiting on those Panthers to come running through!
Go Panthers Go!!!The Panthers band was getting down! Remember this is small-town America. To be so small, they do a great job rousing up the crowd.
Yeah!!! We win!! Cow bells were a ringing and fog horns were going off! I screamed so much I'm surprised I didn't wake up hoarse. What a great way to spend a Friday night!

Thanks Perennial Garden Lover

Recently PGL from Perennial Garden Lover gave me this wonderful award. I am truly honored to have this award passed on to me. The rules state I have to pass it along to 7 other blogsites.
Since I know some people don't like to participate in blog awards of memes, please know this is completely optional. I have decided to pass it along to 5 people. They are.......

Becky at Looking through the eyes of Luv

Flydragon at A little of this, a little of that

Meadowview at Meadowview Thymes

Beth at ND Garden Girl

Marmee at Things I love

What a Beauty!!!

Tonight the Moonflower was in all her glory.

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. -Audra Foveo-

The good new is, I don't have to hand water..........

This morning I decided to try to snap a picture or two in-between rains. Gustav is still sitting on top of us leaving us dripping. But I will not ever complain about the rain, I've gone through too many hot and dry summers.

I've not posted much about my bird bath bed because it's not something I'm proud of. I just threw a bunch of plants in it as I obtained them. I didn't bother to modify the soil at all and therefore have a terrible drainage problem. Also, when I started the bed I didn't realize how rain water was going to drain off my yard. It seems to congregate on top and all around this bed. So, hence these lovely pictures.

As you can see drainage is so important to beautiful flowers. Needless to say this is very disappointing but not unexpected. Now I do have some plants in this bed that don't mind wet feet such as Acorus, my perennial hibiscus, a couple of black elephant ears and one other water plant that I do not know the name of. But for the rest I am thinking about digging out(that is if any live) and maybe changing this bed into a dry(or wet) rock bed and not planting anything else in it. I don't know, maybe a fall project?

Rainy Day Project

Okay, if you are like me, you can only sit around for so long before you become bored to death. My husband thinks I'm crazy but I have a hard time sitting around relaxing. (unless I'm at the beach, but that's a different story). I feel like I have to be doing something all the time. So, last Monday it was a very rainy day and I didn't have to work. So, I decided it was time to spruce up the guest bathroom.

Gee, I can't imagine why it looks so darn good!! The walls are actually painted some lovely shade of nothingness. So, that was the first thing to do. Give it a good coat of paint.

Now, I don't know about ya'll but painting ain't all that's it cracked up to be. Sounds like a good idea at first and then next thing you know, your neck hurts, your arms aches, and your fingers are really tired of clutching a paint brush. But somehow I managed to finish that.

Then I threw in a few decorative items and this is the finished product. Funny thing is, I'm still not happy with it. Recognize the angel and sign? Right now, that is their new home. I don't think they like it either.

So, if anybody has any suggestions, please send them this way.