FLOWERY FEBRUARY

 "Late February days; and now, at last, Might you have thought that Winter's woe was past;

So fair the sky was and so soft the air."

-  William Morris

The Cheerful blooms of Prunus mume ' peggy clarke ' are a welcome sight in my garden and the bees love it as well.

I have two large beds of these early blooming Hellebores.  Even when not in bloom they have exotic tropical-looking foliage.  Hellebores bloom for 2 months.

Edgeworthia, aka, Chinese paper bush has a beautiful flower and incredible fragrance.  When the blooms die a tropical looking leaf appears.

And of course what says Spring more than the first daffodils ?  These escaped my neighbors yard and spread to mine !  I hope that they continue to naturalize and fill the garden.

                           

                             Although it doesn't bloom until later, I love this wine-                                     color Euphorbia that looks great all year round.

                             'ascot rainbow ' euphorbia's foliage is also colorful

                              all season.

    How a garden looks when its NOT in bloom is more important to me than when it is.  I have something in bloom or leaf all season.   The golden shrub above is 'sunshine' privet and keeps its color and leaf all season.

Moving on to March and the beginning of Spring.  Looking forward to developing my veggie garden and adding a lot of pollinator plants to my roadside garden.

JANUARY'S MIXED BAG

 

   

              HAPPY NEW YEAR !

It seems to me the older you get the faster time passes.  Here we are in a brand new year and this January has been, as it often is, a mixed bag when it comes to weather -first Spring-like temperatures and bam ! a whole week of below freezing, which is very hard on the garden, especially those that are beginning their bloom cycle.

   The daffodils are hardy and despite the freeze managed to bloom on schedule.

Some of my camellias were frozen in the bud and the hellebores were limp from the extreme cold. My most anticipated blooms in January are the beautiful pink Prunus mume 'peggy clarke ' which also attracts lots of bees.

 

It, too, suprised me with its hardiness and bloomed right on schedule.

New year, new plans for the garden. I have to replace most of my asters due to a rabbit that's taken up residence in the sweet garden.  My garden companion Odie, a Schnauzer-Poodle mix, is on the job and sniffing out the rascal.  I'm planning to plant more asters this Spring and keep them saturated with bunny repellent and hot pepper spray.

One of the best noses in the business-Schnauzers.  Here Odie is sniffing out a bunny that devoured my asters. He's also chasing voles.  I've been spraying their tunnels with castor oil which seems to help.

I think its more important how a garden looks when it's not in flower and I add lots of evergreens and texture so that it's interesting in every season.

January is the coldest month here in central N.C. and I'm always happy to see it leave because it means that Spring is just around the corner.

DECEMBER AGAIN A CHILD

"December finds himself again a child
Even as he undergoes his age.
Cold and early darkness now descends,
Embracing sanctuaries of delight.
More and more he stares into the night,
Becoming less and less concerned with ends,
Emblem of the innocent as sage
Restored to wonder by what he must yield."
- Nicholas Gordon

How did it happen that we are now deep in December the last month of the year? This year passed so fast. We celebrated my husband Simon's 90th birthday and even though he is frail from Chronic heart disease he still tries to enjoy each day as it comes.  We both feel so fortunate to have our immediate family around us as we enjoy our life in lovely North Carolina.  

 This month has been extremely mild with temperatures in the 60's and even 70's and I enjoy sitting on the deck and admiring my still vibrant garden.  I know that this will soon be impossible as the coldest month -January is just around the corner and its weather is very unpredictable.  

Late-blooming Japanese mums are still blooming in my December garden.  Now is the time to take a break from gardening and make plans for the coming New Year.   I want to plant more vegetable this Spring and I have lots of seeds to scatter in my wildflower roadside garden .

Farewell to December and hello to the coming New Year.

Life and Death in November

 

...   "

And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died 

The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side.

In the cold moist earth we laid her 

down when the forests cast the last leaf And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief: 

Yet not unmeet it was that one like that young friend of ours 

So gentle and so beautiful should perish with the flowers. " William cullens Bryant 

November 1st was to be a day of celebration as my husband and I marked our 61st wedding anniversary.  To our deep regret it was also a day of sadness as our beautiful niece Cindy who was more like our 3rd daughter, passed away from a long, arduous battle with cancer. 

In Cindy's memory I am going to plant a butterfly garden in the Spring.  A butterfly symbolizes transformation and beauty in such a short-lived life. Their brief appearances and delicate nature also represent the fleeting nature of life.

In my butterfly garden I am going to plant a deer and rabbit resistant mixture of wildflowers as well as long-blooming, tall zinnias, agastache, butterfly bush, goldenrod, and butterfly weed. I already have one of the best butterfly attracting flowers -Lantana.  

Each time I see a butterfly I will think of you, Cindy, and the beauty you brought to us in your short life.

The Second Driest October on Record

 "October is nature's funeral month.  Nature glories in death more than in life.  The month of departure is more beautiful than the month of coming - October than May.  Every green thing loves to die in bright colors."

-   Henry Ward Beecher  

Despite the lack of rain this month my drought-tolerant autumn sage and Korean mums are thriving.  This season has been feast or famine -the terrible floods that struck disaster to Western North Carolina and now, the second driest October on record.  I've lost count of how many notices I've received from the water department on my unusually high use of water.  

Summer-like weather has continued and the lack of rain prevents me from adding plants to the garden.  I miss my purple asters which were eaten by my neighbor's rabbit.  I purchased some netting and sealed off it's entry in the chain-link fence that separates our yards.  

I'm praying for rain and a cooler November.

  

    My 'sheffield ' mums attract many types of bees and will continue their blooms into November.

A September to Remember

 "By all these lovely tokens 

September days are here,

With summer’s best of weather

And autumn’s best of cheer."

-   

Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885

After a very hot, dry August we were bless with ample rainfall.   In September I review  the garden and make notes of what I want to grow for the next season.  The plants have really struggled with the summer drought but the hardy ones made it through.  First we had too much rain, followed by very little rain and extreme temperatures.  My beautiful Daphne 'odoro ' succumbed to sudden death  syndrome which I think was from the excess rain.

Disaster struck North Carolina's western area with Hurricane Helene's floods destroying entire towns and killing many poor, rural area residents.   It's so heartbreaking to look at the damage that was done.  This is a very unusual event as hurricanes are not common in the mountains.  Thankfully many people and organizations through out the country have come to the aid of the flood victims.

On a visit to the garden center I spied an unusual variegated Lorepetalum, aka, Chinese fringe flower , and decided to get it for a partly sunny area.

     

       'Jazz Hands ' Lorepetalum has gorgeous variegated foilage that's evergreen.  In the Spring the bright red fringe flowers appear.  It is a hardy carefree shrub.

Since my backyard garden has matured I can now turn my attention to the roadside garden that fronts my driveway.  I've already planted it with deer and rabbit-resistant plantings but want to add more bee and butterfly perennials with a long-blooming season.

Just a few of my deer and rabbit-resistant  perennials in the roadside borders-Shasta daisies, wormwood and Brazilian verbena.  

In addition , yarrow, autumn sage, little bluestem, lantana, rosemary, oregano, goldenrod, black and blue salvia,  mums, carex, japanese roof iris and catmint have survived with little attention.

I ordered one thousand seeds of 'Robinson's red ' mum, picture above, and will sow them in late April/early May.  This is a long-blooming, stunning perennial.

Looking forward to the cooler days of October, a wonderful month in the garden.

The Song of August

 "The brilliant poppy flaunts her head

Amidst the ripening grain,

And adds her voice to sell the song

That August's here again."

-  Helen Winslow

               

 A corner of my boulder garden with Autumn Sage, Korean mums and Euphorbia.

 

Surprisingly August brought much needed rain after a very dry July.   To my dismay I discovered all of my asters were chomped down to the ground by a neighbor's rabbit.  I had to teach my gardening buddy the Schnoodle Odie the word "rabbit " and now he dives among all the plants to try to catch it.   The rabbits from the neighbor's yard can squeeze through the tiny openings in a chain-link fence !  Now I need to come up with a more effective strategy to deter them.  This is war !

We are still having one of the hottest summers on record with daily temperatures in the upper 90's.  Although I water deeply but not frequently some plants just can't take the Southern summer heat.  The hellebores that line my driveway beds had many leaves turn brown and die but as they were already thick and needed thinning out.

I also lost a dogwood and an azalea to the heat but overall most of my plants survived.

The hummingbirds continue to seek out their favorite flowers -autumn sage is their choice and it is very long-blooming .  I decided to add two nectar feeders for them and they are now swarming around their new found source.

Another pest I discovered in the garden is voles.  I'm spraying with a mixture of castor oil and cayenne in an effort to stop these destructive varmints.

I see that the extended forecast for this September is quite delightful with a lot of cooler days and nights which will give me a chance to replace lost plants and add new ones.