Some Little Gardens in Leiper's Fork.

The first two photos are of the same home. One shows house plants summering outside on the lawn in front of the empty greenhouse. The porch is for ferns,and feeders, for American flags and caladiums- a jumble of beloved plants. And I am sure none is loved more than the blue mophead hydrangea, which never blooms reliably because so often late frosts cut it down.

The blue-trimmed cottage has pass-a-long plants that came with it. The owner was watering when I stopped, and she said the cottage once belonged to Lark Foster, a garden writer who taught classes at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens here in Nashville. The plants were interesting. The tall spikes are Hedychiums, the tropical ginger. The garden's owner told me they were from her grandmother's garden. I grew Hedychiums for a decade in my Bellevue garden. I found them hardy but frustrating ,since some bloomed so late that frost came before the flowers did.( Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge).

Beneath the gingers there were balsams, an old time annual related to impatiens. Their owner said they came with the house. "Even when I weed them out and throw them away, they come back where I tossed them", she said.

The white house with the white porch and the statue hound was charming in a more designed way. Flowers were secondary to shrubs and grasses, to paving stones and statues. This had a sitting porch where sitting came first. And sweet tea.

The Aurelian lilies in the next photo are as tall as I am. Their owner was reading and sipping coffee on her porch. She has had the lilies for several seasons, but they have never grown so tall. She thinks it was the flood. She had water a few feet deep in her house and yard, and her friends came and helped her pump it out. She says two people in town died in the flooding.

I wanted to explore a road out to the library and Community center, but the road was along the creek, and there were signs that warned me to proceed at my own risk. I turned back. And after a good breakfast at The Country Boy Kitchen, I left Leiper's Creek, wondering all the way back what small town or city neighborhood or country road I could explore next-