august 24

today was a special day in the garden for us, it marked the day that we both finished all of the requirements to become certified master gardeners.  as of this day, we have completed all of the required volunteer hours and continuing education hours to become certified!  we should be wearing green badges at next months meeting.

one of the biggest reasons we favor working in the demo garden is the ambiance.  it is so peaceful.  the sounds of the birds all around us are all that we hear.  on occasion, we have visitors stop by and it is always fun to hear them compliment the garden or remark that they never knew it was here and we always answer as many questions as we can.  today's visit wasn't much different except that darry was lucky enough to catch sight of a fox as it ran through one of the meadows.

a honey bee at work

we picked lots of these apples, now the dilemma; pie or cake???

tent caterpillars near the orchard

a close up of the ugly buggers

an unusual little plant in the junior master garden

hyacinth beans climbing up the bucket gardens post

darry picking weeds in the pepper patch

box elder beetles in the ornamental peppers

the deer have been visiting the garden.  they have eaten some hostas as well as the tuber roses above which are in one of the junior master garden beds.

august 17

butterflies everywhere.  a skipper in the white echinacea and a gulf fritillary on the dahlia


the peppers are flourishing, brown bells and banana peppers
the color wheel garden has filled in wonderfully.  each of the beds is showing off its color.

this plant is tucked in beyond the color wheel garden at the foot of the big red cannas.  the seed pods are prickly and they make weeding interesting.

butterflies flutter by...

When we decided to join the master gardeners, we did so because we wanted to learn as much as we could about gardening.  The idea was to be able to do more and have more success in the garden. Then came the reality of what it took to become certified; all of the classes, continuing education hours and volunteer hours.  We figured it would take us a very long time to complete it all since we both have full time jobs as well as two teenage daughters.  We completed the classes in the spring and in May, we began volunteering in the demo garden.  As of this first week of August, we have almost completed the 40 hours of volunteer work and are almost done with the continuing education hours as well.  When we were looking for a way to work off the volunteer hours, we waited until the weather improved and signed up to work at the zoo in the Croft house garden.  Then Darry stumbled upon the demo garden.  We have lived in the neighborhood for 13 years and were familiar with it but had forgotten all about the master gardeners involvement with it.  We started going on Sunday mornings and before long, we were hooked.  

The setting is beautiful; it's an oasis in the city.  If you were to form a triangle starting at Nippers Corner going northeast to the intersection of Harding Place and Nolensville Road  and then west to the intersection of I65 and Harding Place and finally southeast back to Nippers Corner, the Ellington Agricultural Center would be the center.  Within the Ag Center is the Demo Garden, located behind the UTExtension building.  In this heavily populated area is the most tranquil setting.  Wild life is abundant here; we have seen foxes, coyotes, deer, raccoons, possums, several birds of prey and songbirds of all types. Sometimes, while working in the garden, I forget I am within the city limits because it is that quiet.  

While we are working, we the calls and songs of many birds.  If you are familiar with the Center, you know that the mounted police keep their horses here as well.  The barns have chickens roaming and while we are weeding the beds, we can hear the rooster crowing.  There are many goldfinches, cardinals, bluebirds and woodpeckers in the area and we hear them as well.  Since it is summer, we listen to the cicadas too.  The photos below show some of what we see and hear when we are in the garden.

While taking a water break, I spotted this little humming bird above me.

The bucket garden is flourishing, the eggplants look wonderful.

A common sight in the garden.

Cicada Killer in the butterfly garden.

These pretty flowers were full of bees and skippers.

A skipper taking a drink.

Here a skipper, there a skipper...

Beautiful Swallowtail in the sage.

Carpenter bees are a familiar sight.