Gardens at Bayonne

  Gardens at Bayonne is proud to support the Stories from the Journey project, from Never Remove the Cornerstone author, Byron Coleman, also an instructor with the Discover Your Roots Free Family Research Seminar  (https://discoveryourrootsga.org/), with this great fundraiser program with the Fayetteville, Georgia Tidal Wave Auto Spa. Tickets may be purchased from any Gardens at Bayonne representative at the bargain price of $10.00, entitling the bearer, a $30.00 value car wash!  The current lowest price for a car wash at the Tidal Wave Fayetteville, Georgia location lists for $12.00! It makes sense to get a ticket, just to get a premium wash for $2.00 less than the basic wash.  Win, win! "Oh I don't wash my car at those places, I wash my car (or have it washed) by hand, Byron!" Great! Donate $10 to the cause and 'gift' the ticket to someone like me, who frequently visits the Tidal Wave Auto Spa! Kevin Brake, Tidal Wave's Site Leader and I appreciate your supp...

  Do this as if it was ‘sacred’—It is! Aunt Bertha had moved from the Trem é to the East New Orleans neighborhood we called ‘The Goose’ along with my mother, step-father and four siblings in the Spring of 1964.   Shortly after her husband, Gus (Uncle ‘Tand’), her sister, Dora (the one called ‘Shosh’), and Shosh’s husband, (George) passed away before 1960, Aunt Bertha came to live with my mom’s young family in the yellow house in the Tremé. Aunt Bertha, one of my maternal great-grandfather’s (Peter) sisters was seventy-six years old in the Fall of 1968 when she was still a ‘strong walker,’ but at this point, she demanded one of her great-nephews as an ‘assistant’ on those, now less-frequent walks to ‘take care of her business’—pay utility bills, eye doctor, ear clinic visits, and so on.   The fact was, she still could outpace me and most of my siblings as well as my Uncle Bennie’s, so we all were less than eager to accompany Aunt Bertha on her grueling ‘appointments o...

It’s your story. Have you joined in the conversation? Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) storytelling project AMERICAN PORTRAIT is a collection of stories contributed by people all over the country – a portrait designed to show and explain what it really means to be an American today. And that story may have drastically changed over the past few weeks or months. With a health pandemic and countrywide protests, this national storytelling project is more important than ever – it’s a recorded history. So even if you took part in the project earlier, we encourage you to go back and look at some of the new prompts. If you are just getting started, it’s easy! Go to  https://www.lpb.org/americanportrait  to see the simple instructions on how to upload your entry

The Word of the Day (WOTD) How powerful! A single word. That single word is borne out of a single thought. How appropriate that the first word selected for this maiden effort is: ephemeral e·phem·er·al /əˈfem(ə)rəl/ adjective 1. lasting for a very short time. "fashions are ephemeral" synonyms: transitory, transient, fleeting, passing, short-lived, momentary, brief, short, cursory, te mporary, impermanent, short-term; More noun 1. an ephemeral plant. The idea that a solitary word invokes, subtly, an effort to understand what is meant at the moment the word is presented. Communication at an elementary level; transmission, initially presented in written form, reception by another, often gently coaxing an attempt to pronounce the lone word. The real magic in this exercise, occurs when both the transmitter and the receiver endeavor to define the word! The embryonic word offers an explosion of the thought connected with what began as a single uttera...

About eight years ago, I planted a four-foot tall kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) in the rear of the center garden at the rear of the property at Ciel sur terre.  Then life happened!  First, I got busy with foster parent training, then with fostering three beautiful young children.  If, that wasn’t enough distractions to cause me to neglect all gardening tasks, I underwent a quad-bypass heart surgery in the spring of 2015!  The weeds were relentless and soon all evidence of the small ornamental tree had succumbed to the more hardy English ivy and wild blackberries.  I had accepted the notion that many gardeners realize many times in their artistic experience—some things you plant will not survive, no matter how resilient they are—face it! As with most gardeners facing the death of a favorite plant, I mourned briefly and swore off planting another one of these lovely gems.  But to my surprise, last week I glanced out of the dining room window, west through th...

Farewell 2016!  Greetings 2017! Seven generations ago the Bayonne name began on a journey in this country.  As quoted by my friend Neil deGrasse Tyson:  "It's time to get going again; come with me!" Fascinating things are happening everywhere and the camellias and  hellebores are in bloom in Southern Georgia!  I even witnessed redbud (Cercis canadensis) in bloom at the entrance of one of our county's high schools! Camellia Japonica "Jupiter" Helleborus "Double Pink" Here at Gardens at Bayonne, we have embarked on the "quest" to display color in the garden all year round!