Faire Heat

I had read a headline online, "Record Heat Grips Southern States" and heard some grumbling from Florida, but that was not going to deter me from leaving the cool mountain highlands for a trip down to the low valleys of Tennessee. I put on shorts for the first time of the season, packed a cooler with liquids and made good on a rendezvous with the sweet and generous Frances of Fairegarden, Tennessee.

It was indeed sunny and warm. Not the best light for picture taking of gardens or of a welcoming front entrance. Not that I entered this way as a guest. Instead I was taken round back and through the corridor of the "revenge on the tall people" and the gardener's rear entrance.



Of course I had to admire the stacked rock facade. Just look at all those uniform flat rocks. Straight edged rocks, what a concept.



The heat was on and the garden was bursting with life. When I first stepped out of my truck, I was greeted by the sweet fragrance of dozens of blooming lilies.



This deep port red one in the black garden caught my eye.



What is this? A purple aster blooming in the summer. Frances told me it was a New England Aster and it would re-bloom in the fall. Some of that would be nice in the sunny utility meadows. It does not look like any of our fall blooming blue asters or what I call the New England Aster here. Aster confusion is typical.



A nice cool spot in the shade of the tall pines with 'Annabelle' hydrangeas in full bloom.



Even the juxtaposition of the fiery daylilies against the cool white couldn't break up the shady cool and calm feeling in this corner.



At the end of a day that passed rather quickly, we gabbed quite a bit about many important things, we posed and hoped for the best. I had gotten a bit sweaty gathering and unloading a few things.


(Photo by the Financier)

Back home on the cool mountain top, a well had apparently been drilled as deep as it needed to go. The next disturbing process is to run the water and electric lines all the way down to the cabin.



Buckets filled with all kind of choice plants were also brought back to the cool high mountains. Fairegarden is a true smorgasbord and the head gardener generous to a fault.



More on them later, since I spent the day planting most of them and starting the repair and cleanup of the flower bed the new well took out.