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SLOW GARDENING BOTTLE TREES GARDEN HEARTS FUN and WHIMSY |
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Felder's Garden Heart book is out!
and Felder's Bottle Trees and other Garden Glass book is out! SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILS
_____________________ FELDER'S FUNKY STUFF Green/Lazy/Cheapskate Garden page
Slow Gardening (R) For a short video on Slow Gardening click here
THE TRUCK GARDEN Planted in1988 and driven over 500,000 miles _____________________
. __________________________ ELBERT TAYLOR Felder's first horticulture guru from Indianola, Mississippi "Chief" taught me everything about plant propagation, and a LOT about Life... _________________ ___________________ Relaxing on my front porch... (Figure made by Felder and Rita Hall for his Scarecrows and Other Yard Folk book)
JIM POWELL TRANSCENDENT URBAN GARDENER CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF JIM'S GARDEN
(WARNING: Nudity, Violence, Obscene language, Drugs, AND MORE) TO ENTER you must agree that YES you have an adolescent/bawdy/off-color sense of humor CLICK HERE
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Photo taken at Terra del Madre,the biennial Slow Food event in Turin, Italy Felder during 2010 winter solstice Darwen Tower, Northern England (photo by Matt Donnelly appeared in Lancashire Telegraph newspaper) _________________________ Felder participated in the 2011 winter solstice at STONEHENGE Felder's interpretation: PEG HENGE (feel free to improvise your own, and send photos) including the 2011 winter solstice at STONEHENGE __________________________ Judging hanging basket competition in Claverly village _____________________________________________________ DALE CHIHULY GLASS SCULPTURES AT THE DALLAS ARBORETUM AND BOTANICAL GARDEN _____________________________________________________ TOUGH PLANTS for SOUTHERN GARDENS Click HERE to go to a page of "LISTS" that includes popular, tough, low-maintenance plants NOTE: Cool Springs Press published my Tough Plants book series that includes titles for the South, North (Midwest and New England), California, and Florida. All are available from online bookstores... Chrysanthemum 'Clara Curtis' also known as Country Girls and Ryan's Pink _________________ ____________ LABYRINTH LAWN!! (A spiral is a very simply labyrinth - a one-way path, as opposed to a puzzle-like maze with turns and choices.) (STUPID "LAWN RULES" - HAVE FUN!!) Here is a small daffodil maze, and a larger daffodil labyrinth designed by Felder for an Arkansas schoolyard):
Labyrinth - single path winding to the center and back out Maze - a puzzle with choices, some which lead to dead-ends (Most mazes are made with high hedges so you can't see where you are going) FOR A NEAT ALTERNATIVE TO THE TRADITIONAL MANICURED LAWN, SCROLL DOWN TO THIS "MEADOW LAWN" LINK RIGHT BELOW: A call for a practical approach
__________________________________ WHAT A BLAST !!! FELDER and his Green Truck with the bottle trees and stuff growing in the back were the GRAND MARSHAL of the 30th Annual MAL'S ST. PADDY'S DAY PARADE 5th largest St. Patrick's Day parade in America - 50 floats, countless marching groups, and 70,000 attendees PART OF FELDER'S ENTOURAGE The Fabulous DOO-DAH DOLLS The Garden Arch in the garden ...and as a truck accessory Stephanie Dwyer, who created the bottle sconces for Felder's truck, made an entry arbor for his garden which was temporarily put onto the green garden truck for the parade as a backdrop for Felder as he tossed beads and MoonPies® from the back of his truck... The float that followed, overstuffed with Felder's friends, included the largest bottle tree in the known universe...
That was ONE FINE PARADE! __________________________________ HOOOO-EEEEEEEE !!! What's that bad smell in Felder's yard? It's the flower of his Dracunculus, sometimes called "corpse flower" because it smell like... well, something dead. It smells that way to attract pollinating flies, but even my brown dog goes out of his way to avoid it... The bulb-like plant is perfectly winter hardy in Mississippi gardens. Below: Daughter Zoe (when in her teenage GOTH phase) and our shady backyard "voodoo lily" (Amorphophallus 'Konjac')
Zoe and a titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) - world's largest (and smelliest) flower - at a North Carolina botanical garden greenhouse...can you see the tears in her eyes from the stench? __________________________________ GARDEN CRITTERS REPTILES FOUND IN FELDER'S YARD __________________________________ Felder's newly-redone backyard flower bed and a tabletop plant collection
__________________________________ Felder as a Green Man For the Green Man link scroll halfway down the page ________________________________________ The art of boogering up a plant well Click here for examples from around the world ________________________________________ FELDER'S GARDEN HAS STONES... LOTS of them, all sizes, all uses... ________________________________________
_______________________________________ (It ain't just a trashy Mississippi thing) Click here for photos and how-to _______________________________________ FELDER'S FRONT BACKYARD
Rusty and I live in a one-room cabin behind my "regular" home (which is rented to some medical students), which suits us fine. The garden is tiny, but includes many dozens of different plants and garden art. There is a flagstone and raised wooden walk all the way around for better enjoyment in all weather. Here're some shots of my new kitchen addition, which I call the Cornbread Chapel (Praise heaven and pass the butter!)
First wall adornment ________________________________________ ELEMENTS OF A SOUTHERN COTTAGE GARDEN _______________________________________ Easy WATER GARDENS Felder's Front Garden _______________________________________ ORNAMENTAL GRASSES FOR A FEW OF FELDER'S FAVORITES
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Listen to Felder Rushing and guests on MPB Radio every Friday at 9 a.m., and rebroadcast Saturday at 10 a.m., on The Gestalt Gardener "...gardening is as easy as frying bologna..."
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Gestalt Gardener Haikus from Listeners:
No rain out west here Central Texas drought again watering pumpkins - Matt Evans, Austin Texas
"Crape Myrtle & Company" by Diana Shaw, Mobile Alabama: High-born pink inks the Blank green leaves below it, thus Publishing its blushes. Nine in the morning, Waiting for Felder to come on. Okra in the pan. - Ken Brown, Grand Bay, Alabama Tomatoes netted. Squirrel invades, is run off. Leaves fertilizer. Rotting pine tree falls, Brown bark splitting off, decay. Stillness on the ground. - Ken Brown, Grand Bay Alabama I compost with glee, dirt under my fingernails. These are not travails! - Hilary Shughart, Oxford MS
No rain for twelve days. In the birdbath fat doves splash. Daylily hides the cat. - Linda Campany, Columbus MS
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NATIONAL HEIRLOOM EXPOSITION Here are a few shots I took in early September between my lectures at the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, California, including gourds, tomatoes (including a variety-tasting I conducted), and a vegetable-carving chef...
Tomato tasting
Chef carves veggies _________________________________ Squirrel Scare device by Jim Barnett of Natchez
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GLASS FOREST blows bottle trees away! While spending my usual summer in a Crown cottage farm in the western Midlands of England, I made a side trip to Germany to photograph a stunning forest of trees made entirely of glass (with some supporting metal and fasteners). I had read about this for years, and finally just "up and went" - rented a car out of Munich, and headed off into the Bavarian Alps to the little medieval village of Regen where this fantasy has been constructed. Click on this link to get more photos of a real glass forest!
_________________________________________________ GOT BEES? . For information on beekeeping, check out the Mississippi Beekeepers Association website: ___________________________________________________
NO BEES? Here is how to hand pollinate squash: Find a male flower (grows on a simple stem), peel off the petals, and dab its pollen in a female flower (on the end of an immature squash).
This works on all kinds of squash, cucumbers, and melons. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________ *DISCLAIMER Neither Felder nor MPB receives compensation, products, or services in return for anything mentioned on this site or on MPB's Gestalt Gardener program. Any promotion done on this site is soley at Felder's discretion, based on his honest, unbiased experience or observations - with no strings attached. Really. ___________________________ _____________________
GOOD GESTALT GARDEN WORD: Terroir - French word used in wine and coffee, denotes how characteristics of a place (soil, climate, etc.) impart themselves onto something... It's what gives something (gardeners, gardens, garden styles) our special "Sense of Place" _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Most gardeners are daunted, not dumb." "Lightening up doesn't necessarily mean lowering your standards." "I DO care what the neighbors think... it just doesn't MATTER!" "Doesn't matter what you do, or how you do it, your neighbors are gonna talk about you ANYWAY." (this quoted aloud and credited to Felder by Martha Stewart) "Life already has so many boundaries and pressures - why add more in the garden?" "Salsa is good for your body; tomato gravy is for your Southern SOUL." (Plus, a little grease in the diet helps you slide through the humidity better.) _______________________________________________________ GENERAL PHOTO STUFF (updated every now and then) ___________ GREEN MEN Carvings of mysterious foliate faces are found throughout Britain and western Europe, mostly in churches and cemeteries for more Green Man images click the photo above _____________________________ Felder's Mississippi Winter Garden ____________ Felder's rented English Farmhouse in Winter the cottage (circa 1800) scene from bedroom window
shrubs outside door and along the ancient hedgerow
snow covered cemetery cherub and "hoar" frost (strands of frozen fog) along the hedgerow footpath to Pattingham village ____________________________ Gaudi's cathedral, Barcelona ... Fabulous 'Graham Thomas' rose named "World's Favorite Rose" ___________ WORM COMPOSTING INDOORS
LIRIOPE
GREAT VINES FOR SOUTHERN ARBORS AND TRELLIS
Clothespin Tombstone in Middlesex Vermont
ROADSIDE "FLOWERS" IN NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA TRUCK CROP ON EASTERN LONG ISLAND NY ___________ WATERMELON FESTIVAL IN MIZE MISSISSIPPI
SEED SPITTING FELDER AND THE QUEEN. ________________________ University of Tennessee - Jackson Succulents Garden ________________________ Wanna See a Little Lawn? Click HERE for Felder's New Lawn
Doris Foscett's Agave in bloom - Canton MS
Can't we all share with one another?
More Agaves from Felder's Photos
Felder's variegated agaves and bronze Dyckia and the agave atop his "green roof" arbor with blue bottles Felder's "Green Roof" Entry Arbor (for details see link at upper left)
Felder's "Rain Harvester" Porch Roof (for details see link at upper left) ____________________
Rusty the Howling Spaniel that eats my hats
Important message from Klaatu and Gort ___________ _________________________
PARTLY PERSONAL There are tens of thousands of highly intelligent, well-raised, educated young men and women - their names are not important here - who are real heros because of what they suffer day after day overseas in our military. Few can imagine what they are going through, especially considering that they are there as volunteers. These men and women find rest whenever and wherever they can.
I am asking that you think about them as unique and beloved, individuals as real as any son, daughter, father, mother, husband, or wife. And please - perform whatever ritual you have at your heart's and soul's command to bless all these young men and women at their job, and wish them - and their loved ones - comfort as well as strength. Whatever it takes for them to finish their terrible work and come home safe. And remember: They are real people. They are not numbers. Who they are, and what they are doing right now, is precious. _____
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