Gardening is truly a backyard passion for Laura Sheets.
"My garden is in South Carolina on the warm side of zone 7B, with partial sun and sandy soil. I work in an office, on a computer, for many hours a week, and I spend as much of my free time as possible in the garden. My (teenage) children's friends find it odd that I'm never inside. They are always questioning and making remarks to my children – "How can your mom find so much joy in the back yard?" and "I see your mom is out in her natural habitat!"
I was once asked to give a class on shrubs, and the organizer asked for a biography. I felt a little inadequate when I saw the horticultural credentials of the other presenters – from being a Master Gardener to a doctorate degree. Mine was along the lines of, "I've killed a lot of plants over the years…" I have finally figured out what grows well for me, but I'm not done experimenting! I love japanese maples, conifers, hellebores, daylilies, hydrangeas, lantana, coleus, and the list goes on and on."
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Comments
Hey Laura - There is nothing wrong with good old 'trial and error' and killing a few plants if you are continually learning in the process. And your wonderful wooded garden is testament to the fact that you are an excellent 'student' of gardening. I hope your children say that have a talented, fit, mentally active and creative 'mom' (how is that for an Aussie getting into the swing of lingo in your neck of the woods?) when their friends question your outdoor recreational activities. Cheers, Frank
Beautiful garden!
Diane, Your time spent in your natural habitat is paying off big time for you. All of your photos are terrific & your back yard overview with the small island & the front corner are outstanding in my opinion. Good work & good luck, Joe
Laura, I would much rather attend a presentation of a hands on, home gardener sharing stories of her sweat equity successes and failures than someone whose claim to fame is a horticultural degree. In picture#4, I was struck by what looks like a healthy and full clump of aloe in the lower left corner and then a nice sized Agave in the background...are these hardy through the winter for you? I couldn't tell if they were in containers. I love the plants sharing the stage together in the last photo...the dainty ferns compliment the big blue blooms of the hydrangea so nicely.
Thanks for your support! The Agave is hardy for me. I believe it is an Agave ovatifolia "whale's tongue" that I got from Plant Delights. As for the aloe, it is one of the plants that I dig up in November before frost and overwinter in a sunny window in my garage (which only gets down to 40 deg in winter), and I replant outside in April.
beautiful, i too love being in the garden
Totally jealous of your woodland setting. Everything is so pretty.
Yes, some people like an ocean view, but I'm happier with a woodland view!
Your gardens are beautiful and that Japanese maple is a stunner. You've created a lovely paradise...keep on with the trial and error as the effects are grand
Laura, you have created a backyard wonderland! Is coleus hardy where you are? If so, I'm jealous. The dark tradescantia is a wonderful foil to the petunias? in photo #4. I agree with Michaele, I would rather listen to someone who gardens like yourself! Great job! And good morning, Frank!!!
Greetings Rhonda - Your early 'bird' postings are very impressive as our mate Kev. has previously commented. I had to escape from my watching brief and comment on Laura's absolute cracker of a garden. Cheers from Oz
Hi Frank! GPOD is never the same if you're not part of it! G'day!
Lovely to hear from you Rhonda. I come out of the woodwork now and then, and stir the pot a little. Hope you guys don't mind the side issues/comments.
I won't refer to the elephant in the room again though. Linda and Kev. have already summarised the situation well with their tactful comments. Cheers, Frank
Laura, your hard work has made such a beautiful landscape! It's as professional as I've ever seen. I love how you haven't crowded plants into areas. It allows one to see the beauty of the whole plant. I'm in love with maple trees even though I only have one. Gibbs Gardens in North Georgia has an amazing selection of maple trees and has been very inspiring to me. It's worth a trip in the fall to see them.
Wow, I just checked out the Gibbs Gardens website - I can't believe I never heard of threm. I'll have to make the trip!
Hi Laura...you have done a wonderful job in your piece of paradise! You don't need a title just a passion for gardening, willing to accept failure to learn from and a desire for creativity! You've got all that! Hopefully your youth will see and desire what you have experienced! Enjoy your beautiful gardens!
Wise words Jeanne!
Laura, you have a beautiful garden.
I had read a wonderful article on gardening recently, and the author said "gardening is bringing a creative vision to life without knowing if it will work. The point is the exploration; success is a bonus"
You have definitely achieved success with a balanced design and pleasing textures and plant selections. Well done.
Yeah it's all about the journey Kev!
Absolutely, Frank. The best part of every day is getting home from work, and interacting with the plants. My plants love to be moved around so they can make new friends.
Interesting Kev - more than your politics over there. Oops did I say that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't even go there. It's like a bad reality TV show.
Sorry about shaking the tree Kev.
Yes! Experimenting does keep gardening exciting. I especially liked your corner orange/purple garden with contrasting leaves of succulents and that chunky mulch.
Beautiful garden, Laura. It's no mystery why you want to spend so much time in it since it looks like such a peaceful place to be especially after a day of what sounds like stressful work. I especially like your back yard with all of that shade. Thanks for sharing.
I especially like your "edging" with the daylilies. Grouping them together on the edge looks so much better than lining them up in a row (which I must admit I have done) I will race to the yard and correct that gardening mistake!
If you want more inspiration on displaying daylilies, check out the garden shots on Tim Bell's daylily website or, better yet, visit his garden in Valdosta Ga. I was lucky enough to tour it and found it to be really beautiful, with much of it edged in daylilies.
Very, very nice. I'll need to look at your photos longer when I'm not at work!
I love your garden! Do you have deer in your area? I'm in the suburbs of New Jersey and the deer have decimated my landscape. So frustrating.
I understand your frustration. My neighbors feed the deer! They eat dessert in my garden! After the year they ate all my daylily flowers, I started making an egg/water mixture and flicking it on their favorite plants with a pastry brush. That needs to be reapplied after rain. A fence the neighbors put up interrupted their traffic pattern and that helped a lot. Unfortunately, the rabbits found the garden this year!
Laura, your beautiful garden speaks to your gardening credentials, earned the hard way like most of us. Love the wooded site and the cannas backing up the day lilies. Too many of our youth have no connection to nature, and that is unhealthy both physically and mentally. When we all played outside and got dirty as kids, there weren't so many allergies, for one thing. We are all part of nature, not apart from it, and the sooner we learn that the better. Enjoy your beautiful creation and hopefully the kids will learn to appreciate it.
Nice comments about youth of today and allergies etc., Shirley.
Laura, I'm currently building a spreadsheet of all the plants I've killed (some were premeditated). The list is pretty epic. Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden.
Oh, I hope you'll share that list with us, Tia. I'm sure we'll all recognize many of the names and have committed our fair share of planticide on them.
Gardener is just another name for plant killer. Your yard is beautiful and reminds me of a neighbor's when I was kid. My sister and I often wish we could revisit that yard the way it was in the 1960s. I'll bet some of your young visitors will do that with your gardens later in their lives.
I would love to know the name of the coleus under the Japanese Maple.
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