Evergreen Gold in the Garden

Evergreens come in many colors. Gold foliage brightens up the winter landscape when Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Mops' (Japanese Falsecypress) is paired with carex oshimeensis 'Evergold' (Sedge).

A grouping of three of the shrubs and three sedges beside the stream in the waterfall garden provide a nice display that is visible through the windows in our garden room.

This place in the stream is the favorite drinking and bathing spot for birds. This is a southeastern location in our garden, receiving morning sun year-round.

Even in the cold of winter, the birds will wade onto the stones in the shallow stream and take an enthusiastic bath. Since the waterfall pump runs all the time, the water never freezes.

Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Mops' (Japanese Falsecypress) grows in full or part sun with a height of about 6 feet and width of 5 feet. It is hardy in zones 4-8 and is evergreen (gold foliage). The golden stringy branchlets droop to form a compact pyramidal mound.

Carex oshimeensis 'Evergold' (Sedge) is for sun or part sun, growing about 1x1 feet. It is hardy in zones 7-9 and prefers well-drained soils. This is an evergreen sedge with green and cream variegation along the center of the leaf blades.

In the spring, Spanish bluebells bloom among the sedge and shrubs and then disappear after blooming. The foliage of the 'Golden Mops' and the sedge is brighter in summer through fall and turns to a burnished gold in the winter until spring.

Not shown in the photos are the evergreen companions of cotoneaster to the left that hangs over the edges of the waterfall rocks, cryptomeria japonica above the waterfall, and a burgundy loropetalum to the right behind the third 'Golden Mops' shrub. Other plants in this garden include osmanthus fragrans, Lady Banksia rose, as well as calla lily, creeping jenny and acorus that are growing in the stream.

The waterfall garden is based on more foliage than blooms since it is also viewed from inside the house. All of these plants combine colors and textures for year-round interest. Container plantings are used on the patio to provide blooms as well as more foliage plants.

Photos and story by Freda Cameron; First photo taken in December 2008; 2nd photo taken April 2008;

Garden Inspiration: Farmland to Flowers

What do you do when your land is devoid of trees, but covered with wild Bermuda grass? Shari Britt's land had probably been farmed in a previous life and had been taken over by the grass. Shari says, "I cannot just kill, smother or till the grass to create new planting space."

Shari has to manually remove the sod to clean out all the roots and runners of the stoloniferous Bermuda. "My precious planting space has been hard won and has slowly increased over the years. If I am not vigilant the Bermuda will creep in and take over quickly."


Shari's efforts are shown in the above photo with a large grouping of Miscanthus 'Cabaret', Chrysanthemum 'Single Apricot Korean', Mexican Bush Sage, Buddleaia lindleyana on the far left. Not easily seen in the photo is a Viburnum bracteum 'Emerald Luster' on the far right. The scale of the plantings fit with the scale of Shari's yard.

The success of Shari's gardening is well known to those of us who participate on the Garden Web Carolina Gardening Forum. Shari gardens in zone 7b of North Carolina. Like many of the forum participants, Shari attends the plant swaps to trade her own plants with other gardeners.

According to Shari "I don't think I have to tell you how much Garden Web has meant to my gardening. The plant swaps have given me so many plants to grow and experiment with and my garden just evolves with the general goal of privacy in my back yard and less grass to mow."

Another example of Shari's gardening is her vignette of Canna 'Musafolia' with Powis Castle atremisia, Mexican Bush Sage, Eupatorium coelestinum (hardy ageratum) and Salvia 'Indigo Spires'.

Shari is not only winning the battle with the Bermuda, but creating interesting designs with her plants. Shari has a way of combining ornamental grasses, shrubs and perennials for year-round appeal. Just mention a yucca to most gardeners and they are unsure of how to successfully combine the perennial in the garden.

Using a yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge’ as a focal point, Shari adds orange daylily 'Trial By Fire', white Rose Campion, Salvia transylvanica and the ornamental grass, Kalamagrostis 'Avalanche' for a stunning combination in her full sun garden. Shari's daylily photos always draw accolades from her fellow Carolina gardeners.




Like many gardeners, Shari spends a lot of time photographing her gardens. She says "I'm just a byproduct of the digital age that discovered another facet to the hobby of gardening. I spent on average 30 minutes a day taking pictures through most of the growing season this year- making myself late for work more often than not because I would lose track of time."

Fascinated by the idea of using her garden photos on a calender, Shari started browsing her photos. She ended up with 400 potential pictures in the first round!

Since Shari loves to create CafePress® items for herself, she hopes others will like the items, too. CafePress® makes it easy to set up shop. Shari says "I am just beginning to explore what I can create and offer for sale there. I have no doubt that my products offered for sale will be a progression of new and different items- hopefully improving along the way."

Shari has two stores on Cafepress. Her SDB Garden Photography includes calendars, mugs, shirts, totes, pillows and other items featuring photos from her garden. For those who love daylilies, Shari features the perennial on the items in her Daylilies4U online shop.

Browsing Shari's online stores, I must say that her flowers look fabulous as wearable art and on other items!

Story by Freda Cameron. Photos provided by Shari Britt. Click photos to view larger images.

Christmas Movie Winners

11 & 91 were the winners in the Christmas (New & Old Classics) so would:Leah- At the moment, The Santa Clause. I just watched it again and it'scute.not.a.ship{at}gmail.comShelly- Elf cracks me up. And I love Joy to the World.Please email me at homemom3@gmail.com with your address so I can get these sent to you. Thank you.

~*A Few More Kitchen Pictures*~

I can't thank you all enough for the many visits and kind comments you left on my last post...I'm so overwhelmed!!!

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I inadvertantly left out a few pictures that I wanted to share for the Christmas Kitchen Tour...here they are:

This is my chalkboard...it's one of my all-time favorite things in the kitchen. I absolutely love having a chalkboard to write little notes and sayings (I know there are a lot of you sweet blogging friends that have shown neat ideas for chalkboards).

Here is the word PEACE spelled out with twigs that I glued together. I then used decorative ornament hooks to hang them on my curtain rod.
I know that some of you have tried Martha Stewart's glitter, well a few days ago I tried it for the first time and all I can say is WOW...I'm hooked...this stuff is amazing! If you haven't tried it before, I say RUN, don't walk, to your nearest Wal-mart to get some and give it a try. You'll be hooked like me!!!
I've been on a search for new cannisters...I was getting very frustrated because every set of cannisters I looked at wasn't what I was after. I finally found what I was looking for...at Walmart...they were right under my nose all along and I didn't know it!!! They were very reasonably priced and I think they have a nice old-fashioned feel, which is what I was after.
Ok, this wreath is not in my kitchen, but I wanted to show it to you anyways...I found it at JoAnn's last week for a few bucks...I added the ribbon...I bought two of them to hang on my laundry room windows. I showed my laundry room tour a few posts ago...Click Here if you'd like to see it.*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Melissa from Little Things In Life gave me a Kreativ Blogger award. Thank you, Melissa...I appreciate it! I always have a hard time deciding who to give these awards to so I'm going to dedicate it to all of you sweet, creative blogging friends in blogland!

Organizing Photos with Keywords

Every flower gardener that I know takes hundreds of photos during the growing season. How do you easily organize all of those photos? There are a few technical tips to reduce your frustration.

For this discussion, let's assume that KEYWORD=TAG.

Keywords can be added with the following software:

1. Utility software that came with your camera to transfer photos to your computer.
2. Photo organization software that came with your computer, or that you downloaded or purchased.
3. Web photo storage software (such as Google Picasa®)

Most software comes with basic keywords to help you get started. These are general keywords like FAMILY, VACATION, HOLIDAYS, BIRTHDAYS, etc. The software will also allow you to create new keywords, probably with an EDIT KEYWORDS option.

You may have to spend a bit of time adding keywords to your hundreds of photos the first time. This may take a few hours. Afterwards, you can add keywords as you download photos from your camera to your computer or with the organization software.

Right now, your photos are probably stored in FOLDERS on your computer. The FOLDER name may be the date that you took the photo, or you may have created a folder name such as SPRING, SUMMER, VACATION, etc.

To use a keyword, you do not have to move your photos!

A keyword will help you search for, and display, photos with the same keyword. In other words, if I use the keyword PERENNIALS on photos in different folders, then search for PERENNIALS, those photos will be displayed.

You may add more than one keyword to a photo.

For example, I could use three keywords to describe one photo of a purple perennial that is located in my butterfly garden. If I search on any of those keywords, I will see that photo.

• PERENNIALS
• PURPLE FLOWERS
• BUTTERFLY GARDEN

Since I also grow ANNUALS:

• ANNUALS
• PURPLE FLOWERS
• BUTTERFLY GARDEN

Search for PERENNIALS-- see all PERENNIALS, no matter what color the flowers or the location in the garden.

Search for PURPLE FLOWERS-- see all PURPLE FLOWERS, PERENNIALS and ANNUALS, in all locations in the garden.

Search for BUTTERFLY GARDEN-- see all flowers and all colors that are located in the BUTTERFLY GARDEN.

The keywords that you use need to mean something to you.

I have COMPANION PLANTS as a keyword to represent a photo of a group of flowers that I like to plant together. I use PERENNIALS as a keyword; I also use ANNUALS and BULBS as well as the names of the location in the my garden, such as COTTAGE GARDEN, FRAGRANCE GARDEN, RAIN GARDEN, etc.


If you have added keywords either with your camera download software or with photo organization software, then those keywords should carry over if you upload the photos to the web.

Most web photo storage sites allow you to add keywords or tags, too. If you uploaded photos without keywords, you should still be able to add them to your photos. Look in the HELP section for instructions. Once you've added the keywords, then you don't have to remember which folder has your photo, you just search for the keyword and display only those photos.

If you are a blogger, then you may want to add keywords on the web to indicate the topic that relates to the blog story. For example, if you write stories about FALL COLORS, then you may want to add that same tag to your online photos.


As for the software that I use, my Canon® camera software utility has the ability to add keywords. On my MacBook® computer, I use iPhoto®. On the web, I use Google Picasa®.

Once you've completed the initial task of adding keywords to your photos, then you'll find it so much easier and faster to locate the photos stored locally on your computer or in a web photo storage package.


Photos and story by Freda Cameron. Click photos to enlarge. All registered and trademarked product names are owned by those respective companies.

Win Christmas Movies!

Homemom3 is giving away two different sets of movies, one is The Classic Christmas Movie Collection and the other is the NEW classic Christmas Movies. Now only two winners will get this so you have to get in on this now, oh and did I mention there is only one day to enter.Okay, in my local paper I read how some people are actually trying to BAN Rudolph songs and others don't want their kids

All Creatures Great and Small

I was organizing my many photos and started grouping the wildlife photos in an album. Winter is a great time to reflect on everything that goes on in the garden. Here are a few of our creatures.

Monarch butterflies stop by our butterfly garden, a certified Monarch Waystation. This Monarch Caterpillar is munching on asclepias tuberosa. Agastache 'Blue Fortune' is a favorite nectar perennial for Monarch butterflies.



The Black Swallowtail Butterfly uses our garden for both host and nectar plants. While this one decided to visit us on the front porch, I have bronze fennel in the butterfly garden that serves as a host plant for the BST cats.



A Red-banded Hairstreak on the chaste tree (vitex) in the butterfly garden. The Swallowtail butterfly is common in our area. We have butterfly bushes (buddleia) throughout our gardens to serve as nectar plants.



"Godzilla" is a regular in our garden. He hangs out with us on the front porch and is always showing up nearby when I work in the garden on sunny days. He's easy for us to recognize due to a little scar on top of his head.



The fawns, born in our woods, stay in our garden and meadow during the day while the mother doe goes foraging for food. I suppose were the fawn-sitters. The fawns born here aren't afraid of us and don't run away until we get very close to them. These little ones are now much larger and have lost their spots.



Frogs and bullfrogs live in the stream and waterfall. They don't like to be approached and will jump into the water whenever we walk by.



A Purple Finch waits for a turn at our bird feeder that is located in the butterfly garden during the winter months and a hummingbird feeder in the summer. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were plentiful this year. The hummingbird feeders are scattered about the butterfly garden, the waterfall garden and a garden room window.



The bee and wasp posed on the flowers for me when I visited another garden in July.



Our gardening greyhound, Charm, takes a break inside with a few of her many stuffies. She doesn't tear up anything, so there are many little stuffies residing in our family room with her.



Photos by Freda Cameron