Our second stop (the first was Graceland, and you don't want to know) on the Red Dirt vacation was Biltmore, the palatial estate created by George Washington Vanderbilt II, and still owned by members of the Vanderbilt family, located in Asheville, NC. The only word which comes to mind is amazing. Could you call this sumptuous house and grounds home? Would you want to? This was our second visit, and it didn't disappoint. The Red Dirt kids were duly impressed as we drove in through the wooded acreage, and the house burst into view. While we drove, we heard the strangest whirring sound, like our car was having trouble. We stopped, shut off the engine and listened. The whirring continued. It sounded like the Martians had landed in a 50s "B" movie. I looked for a flying saucer floating in for a landing. The sound made my skin crawl. At...

Before leaving on vacation, most people prepare by getting someone to pick up their paper, feed their dog or cat, and get the mail. Before we leave, I am always in a panic because I need someone to watch the garden too. If I had my choice, I'd only travel during the months between November and February. However, this philosophy doesn't coincide with school. Over the years, we've tried an automatic watering system which worked with my soaker hoses. After that first summer, it quit, and we never replaced it. Opening all of the zones at the same time didn't work well because the hoses watered at different rates with older hoses being more full of sediment and slower. Lucky for me, this year, our nephew, C., has offered to house sit and watch over my baby plants. As I led him through the garden yesterday, he seemed to think...

I probably wouldn't grow any David Austin roses. My fingers hate typing these words, but it's true. My six or seven David Austins are more trouble than they're worth. If they get disease protection and lots of food, they bloom heavily in the spring and then, nothing . . . until fall. It's a little like exercise after forty. You have to do it, but there's not much to show for your effort. If I built a new bed, I would fill it with nutrient rich soil and hardy (USDA Zone 6 or colder) disease resistant roses; the kind I don't have to hover over like an anxious mother nursing her child through a bout of Scarlet Fever. Think of The Velveteen Rabbit. Instead, I would choose plants that thrive on baby bird care. You feed them in the spring and then shove them out of the nest after a...

For Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, I would like to introduce you to my rosey friends from across the pond. Not Jane Austen, the writer, and her family members, although I'm a big fan. No, I'm speaking of the David Austin roses I've accumulated over the years. This is the beautiful soft, petal pink, 'Heritage.' I think she looks like cotton candy, but I guess the name isn't as romantic. Seventeen years ago, the first three David Austin roses came to my garden. When I opened the Jackson & Perkins catalog and saw photos of 'Heritage,' 'Gertrude Jekyll' and 'Graham Thomas,' I knew I had to have them. Not knowledgeable about antique roses, I had never seen anything like those blooms. That spring, after paying $24.95 per rose, I received a large box filled with three bare-root twigs. I planted them exactly as directed, and they thrived. The following spring I...