Gardening Challenges and Successes

It seems like the more work I do to improve the soil, the worse the rodents get... Stupid voles are having a population spike in spite of anything the cats can do... and they do plenty...

Looking for prey?

Actually... Mom caught this one...

They took turns questioning the prisoner... before eventually eating the evidence...

Got some taters up... trying to out-wit the voles by planting this patch next to the house in the foundation planting... Where the cats poop... 

Poppies are up...

Magenta spreen (chenopodium giganteum) seedlings... Gotta 'preciate food that self-sows...

Returning verbesina virginica ... Yall remember the frostflowers

Peaking Hellebores
And camellias

Spreading Mountain mint (pycnanthemum spp.)

I'm a real fan of this stuff...  it spreads very well, and is a valuable resource to the native pollinators...

 as seen on this video

This winter I found that It worked beautifully to clear my lungs when I had that bug that went around... I googled expectorant herbs and then went out and harvested the pitiful offering of leaves... This year... Ima dry some ahead of time...

Normal weather

Enjoy it while it lasts...

Some camellias have recovered from those single digit temps...

Daffys!

The hellebores are looking good!

Ice

We're still getting this winter weather! Very unusual... when making the forecast, the reporter talked about "first ice storm in ten years"...

Ice covered farkleberry bushes

Oak tree

Joe-pye weed

poke berry stems

Evening primrose

2 inches of snow

A 2 inch snowfall closed down the state... I feel bad for those folk stuck in gridlock traffic in Atlanta for 24 hours or so... I always did hate that Atlanta traffic...

* This pic is from first thing this morning (Jan 29,2014). They've been sitting there all night. Some of the motorists have been out there in their cars for 16 hours.*

The schools didn't bother to open around here... not sure what they were thinking in Atlanta... The Governor is blaming the metrologists... but... He's going to have to take some responsibility... eventually...

 Personally, I listened to the weather report... and paid attention to their warnings to stay home...

I posted a similar picture of my house back on January 2011

A bit closer...

A bird in the bush...

elephant's foot covered in snow. (Elephantopus sp.).
The next day... the birds came to gather seed.

A bird eating elephant's foot seed.
I got a lot of pics of birds in the elephant patch... but the birds are difficult to distinguish from the stems...
I posted flowers from the elephant's patch back in August.

Bluestem covered in snow.

Hibiscus aculeatus

Snow covered hellebores

Bloom peaking out from snow cover... the next day.

sumac berries

echinacea

An early look out at the street.

My rain gage is about full... Not sure if you can measure snowfall that way...

Towhee in brush-pile.

More Winter Cold

It's the kind of weather to stay inside with a nice wood fire....

And a mouse...

I am starting to see some colour again...

While these hellebore are exotic, anything that blooms in the winter is desirable...

And Mahonia... An early yellow...

Finally... a coupla bird pics...

Mocking bird... 

 I can't get those clear feeder shots... I prefer to grow their faves and create conditions they will like.

Gotta look close... Eastern towhee in the brush... their preferred habitat...

Polar Vortex

Brrr....

Got down to 7° here, and all the schools closed...

Record setting cold, and y'all can keep it.... I garden here to get away from those winter freezes.

Picture of needle ice

The frost flowers on the  verbesina virginica  grew (larger) with two consecutive days of below freezing.
Interestingly, the yellow verbesina doesn't develop these.

One more pic of frost. I can appreciate the beauty in this stuff, as long as I don't see much of it...

That nasty cold ruined my flowers.... This hellebore was gorgeous... now just brown.

Also ruined the camellia blooms...

As far as our winter edibles... The raccoons have been keeping the beds dug up, I'm not having any luck (so far) getting cool season edibles to grow... never mind the record cold...