Gardens – Oh, the Places We See . . .

Seen and Noted 2018: Our Most Viewed Posts of the Year

It was about this time last year that those nice folks at Gallivance (Terri and James Vance) published Best of the Blog: The Top 10 Faves, and ever since then, we’ve wondered what you, our readers, would find fascinating among our ramblings for 2018. After all, we’ve been near (our home town of Knoxville) and […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Dense

It’s only in early spring that Magnolia Soulangeana blooms in profusion. But when delicate pink blossoms burst forth, that dense, full-on blooming is something not to be missed. As the first pink starts to show, I brave early morning chill to note blooms in their infancy. Sweater weather in East Tennessee with a sweet reward. I […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves at Savage Gardens

Savage Gardens, nestled quietly in the Fountain City area of Knoxville, Tennessee, on a summer’s day. Cool. Calm. Curvaceous. For more photos of curves, check out this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Curve.

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Taking the streetcar to Jacques-Imo’s for Real Nawlins Food

Sometimes there’s a side benefit to foraging for local cuisine, especially if you’re a tourist in New Orleans. And who doesn’t want Real Nawlins Food? We sure ’nuff do, so whenever we visit, we duck out of the French Quarter to a favorite place of ours — Jacques-Imo’s on Oak Street, at the far end […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Earth

This week’s WordPress Daily Post photo challenge began with a quote from Wendell Berry: “The Earth is what we all have in common” and ended with a request for writers to share their vision of glorious Mother Earth. Well, even though we all have earth in common, it seems to us that some people just […]

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons

Every spring I look forward to seeing the one flowering tree I have behind my house come into its own. With just a bit of nudging, my glorious White Star White Magnolia bursts forth before any other of its kin have even awakened from winter slumber. But not this year. You see, winter in our […]

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The commanding gardens of Dr. Alan Solomon, a Dogwood Featured Garden 2015

(We are re-publishing this post from 2015 since Dr. Solomon’s garden will be open for touring as a Dogwood Arts Featured Garden again this year, 2017. For more information on times and location, click here.) Perhaps one of the most magnificent areas in the Knoxville area, Dr. Alan Solomon’s gardens opens up a forest of […]

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Suzie Hall’s Dogwood Open Garden 2015

One word could pretty much sum up the garden of Suzie Hall in South Knoxville: woodsy. One of the many Dogwood Arts Open Gardens that allowed visitors to roam freely through a private space during the Dogwood Arts Festival designated times, Suzie’s garden is unique for its shade gardening opportunities and natural elements like boulders, tall […]

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The Dogwood Featured Garden of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick

After visiting the stunning West Knoxville garden of Lane Hays, I continued the tour of the 2015 Dogwood Featured Gardens in South Knoxville at the home of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick. With so many people (locals and out-of-town visitors) having the same idea, a remote parking area was set up in a vacant field out […]

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Lane Hays’s Garden: A Dogwood Featured Garden 2015

Although it’s been several years since we last visited the lovely gardens of Lane Hays, we relished the thought of spending quiet time roaming this extensive lakeside property artfully enhanced by Lane’s vision and creativity. Set on the banks of Fort Loudon Lake in Knoxville, the gardens were begun in 1992 using natural elements of […]