Spring Rain is Great for the Garden!

Here in Georgia we have enjoyed lots of spring rain! It has been nice to be able to plant so many additions to our garden this year. You see, for the last few years, we have been under severe drought. Summer before last, we lost every single bigleaf hydrangea we had, and they were well-established shrubs we'd had for about 10 years! Needless to say, we've been planting only drought tolerant plants since then. But even drought tolerant plants need water at first to get off to a good start. And water from rain is the best! So each time rain is in the forecast, I'm out there planting again. Our new plantings consist of the following drought tolerant plants:

• Oakleaf Hydrangea
• Evergreen Azaleas
• Native Azaleas
• Hellebores
• Rohdea
• Aspidistra
• Spirea
• Juniper

We've also planted a number of Camellias, since we're getting all this rain. They'll be drought tolerant too, once established. The photo shown was taken at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. A lake is one thing we lack here at Shady Gardens. Perhaps one day we can install one of those manmade lakes...