2011 Year-in-Review: Lowcountry gardens and Landscapes

So many gorgeous things to document this year.... The owners of this live oak have been decorating this tree like this for years. The entire area around it is illuminated.

A live oak at the James Island County Park Festival of Lights. I LOVE this idea. Can't imagine how long it took someone to do this!

My daughter and her friend pulled this really old dead christmas tree (frasir fir) out of the marsh and decorated it with sasanqua petals, pine cones, and long leaf pine needles.

"Marsh Christmas tree" ornaments.

Ligularia always starts blooming in early December. The flower stalks stretch out over two feet! The yellow flowers are such a bright addition when everything else appears spent. My blue hydrangea, flowers now dead, take on a beautiful purple shade. I'll cut them back around New Years.

Sasanqua is always in full bloom on Thanksgiving Day. This thing had been running wild and growing out of control so my husband and I cut it back so that it felt more like a specimen. To our delight it produced twice as many blooms this year!

My daughter and I made this little appetizer label out of pin oak leaves.

"Halloween porch"

Folly Beach in July. The dunes are so huge now. Back in the '70s I remember there were no dunes. Now sea oats cover the entire Folly Beach coastline.

Wild morning glories on Folly cover the dunes during the morning hours.

Hurricane Irene brushed the Charleston coast on Friday, August 26. It brought little more than gusty winds, big tides, and a gorgeous sunset.

The last outer band of Irene exiting the coast. Marsh is full.

Sunset as Irene began to move away from the coast.

Back yard paddling during Irene's high tide

This gorgeous live oak is actually in the parking lot of the Bessinger's in Mt. Pleasant. It's so gorgeous.

This gaura comes back up every spring. I love the way it bounces in the wind or sways when a bumble lands.

Another beautiful scenic foggy highway on James Island.

My daughter took this with my iphone from the car on a really foggy morning on the way to school. Spartina grass looks like it was painted.

One of my daughter's favorite reading places in the back yard. My husband made this great swing that hangs from a towering live oak.

Early summer back porch.

Folly Beach shells

Downtown Charleston window boxes in the spring

Spring is back. And so is the pollen!

Clematis has returned. Blooms are a little bigger than last year. Wonder if it has anything to do with the past two frigid winters.

Another great hay rack at Hyams Garden Center. This time they've incorporated a small crimson queen Japanese maple. My daughter loves the little bridge and tiny yard furniture.

We went to Nashville last month and stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. The atriums were spectacular. They literally had an army of gardeners. Not one piece of dirt crossed into the paths, and not one weed was seen anywhere. Some of the palms were more than three stories high.




And I love this photo of my daughter and her friend looking at a gorgeous window box in downtown Charleston. I mean they were truly mesmerized by it and really appreciated its beauty. (million bells, dianthus)

We have 16 oaks in our yard. A small hand full are gorgeous live oaks, which I'm pretty sure were named based on the fact that they're never dormant! They are beautiful how they reach out over the yard like long arms. But they are constantly dropping twigs, small branches, acorns, pollen tassels, and leaves. LOTS of leaves....covered in LOTS of pollen. My poor husband was hit with bad allergies this season, which then turned into a really bad sinus infection. So we decided better to leave them for now and worry about them later. Finally yesterday he got the mower going with the leaf catcher attached and conquered the yard! He's awesome!

And here's a great way to start off the growing season. Some of my previous liriope was hit hard by the cold and looked a bit tragic. So I simply had my husband mow over all of them along with the spent daffodil stalks. A clean slate! Within a week fresh green sprouts started jutting up through the ground.