Hopalong Hollow....

Hopalong Hollow, where the Blueberries grow sweet, and the moss feels soft beneath your feet.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Straw Hats and Sunflowers

    Reader beware: You are about to be inundated with Flowers. Flowers up to your eyeballs and into the clouds and twining round your ankles; acres and acres of flowers! Are you in Heaven? No, you are at the Sunflower Festival
 I only WISH I could grow flowers like this. The Mistress of this garden is Rena Holt. Once a year, over the 4th of July Holiday, folks come from far and wide to fill a $10 bucket with jolly, fat faced Sunflowers grown on this old farm place in Georgia, listen to music, drink lemonade and purchase art and craft from folks like myself. 
 
 I am in love with Rena's gardens. They are lush, thick, wild-crazy, and wonderful cottage gardens.  She plants  everywhere!.
 She plants in stone piggys,
wheelbarrows,
old farm implements,
more wheelbarrows,
against plain wire fences

and   funny stick fences,
in old window boxes, neath the old windows on an old sharecropper shack.
 You can see the flowers from inside in the old shack,
and in a pot that sits in that old kitchen.
Here is the delightful potting shed where Rena works her magic.
 
 Her runner beans reach for the skies upon bamboo pyramids.
.
Lavender grows with abandon,
and the color purple has it's very own corner.

 I like her motto,"Dull women have tidy gardens".... I like that a lot! I must be incredibly interesting.
I asked Rena how on earth she does all this by herself and she confessed,"I just let the flowers grow and grow from seeds dropped last year, and then, 2 weeks before the festival, I call the garden club to come and weed with me."
 Gee, I wish I had a garden club.
I think she is a bit too modest, we gardeners KNOW how much work all this  requires. 

All I know is, I am planting a million sunflower and zinnia seeds as soon as possible!


14 comments:

  1. Wow! Rena's garden is amazing. Loved your side comments, Jeri :)

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  2. Beautiful sunflowers, cheers Marie

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  3. I wish it was my garden...soooo just like me!
    but then with lots of animals...
    "Dull women have tidy gardens"
    I am sure now I am not dull at all...LOL

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  4. Oh Jeri, what a fun tour you are taking us on!!! I love gardens like this where people invite the public to partake in the wonder and short but sweet life of an abundant summer garden. How are the troops out there, Fiona and her friends? Our little urban bunnies are trying to stay cool in the mud in my garden; it has turned HOT and MUGGY! All is well, my harp is doing fine in spite of the humidity!

    Many wishes to you for a magical 2 months of summer fun!!! Bisous, Anita

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  5. What a delightful, happy post. Rena's garden is just wonderful, and I would hate to leave it. Her gardens are a lot of work, we gardener's know that for sure. Thank you for sharing this, as I felt like I just went on a mini vacation.

    FlowerLady

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  6. WOW ! I would have had a conniption-fit over her garden too ! My favorite thing about the whole post was her sign that reads, " dull women have tidy gardens ". I believe I may make me one that says that ! thanks much, Gina

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  7. Oh Jeri, this is flower heaven!! What a beautiful garden Rena has created.. You should see my raised planter I put in for my lavender... I sure hope they make it.. Ol Peter visits at the crack of dawn to sharpen his little teeth on my beautiful blooms... I have had several talks with him to no avail...
    Enjoy your day
    Blessings,
    Penny

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  8. What a joyful garden Rena has! Your description makes me want to hop in my car and take a road trip just to see it. Thank you for taking us on this wonderful Sunflower tour.

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  9. What part of Georgia? I had a similar..but on a much, much smaller scale..garden one summer..I threw pkgs of mixed flower seeds into the cultivated garden area..I had the best garden that year!! Cosmos, old fashioned zinnia, sooooo many flowers! See my garden pics on my facebook

    Shewurz66@yahoo.com

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  10. My dear fellow untidy gardeners, this garden is in Rutledge, Georgia, about 45 miles south of Atlanta off of highway 20. You really must go next year if you have the chance. I tend to overlook the old fashioned annuals that come in seed packs. I am always concentrating on my perennials, but no more! I am adding dozens of seed packets from here on out!

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  11. How lovely! Thanks for sharing these!

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  12. Ooh, be still my heart !
    What could be more akin to an English garden, than rows and rows of randomly blooming flowers, reaching for the heavens...
    Yes, you are correct, we all know it requires LOTS of work, to make this magic of higgledy piggledy happen, she has my sincere admiration !
    Thank you for sharing such a wonder...

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  13. Jeri, what a beautiful garden. Like you and your friend, I like country garden... then are a messy ,not manicure looking and gives a great sense of freedoom and balance to me. Lovely!

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