southern winter

 Every garden I've started for myself in the deep south...starts out as a thicket.

But... I like to heat and cook with wood... so... it's all good.

 

Spotted this pipsissewa today... while picking up the firewood.

 These little birds like the thicket...

And... leaving all the standing weeds and wildflowers feeds them...

Saw a bird eating this goldenrod seed recently... little bugger flew away as soon as I pointed the camera at it...

By gardening for the birds... I prevent the predation that occurs at bird feeders... and the spread of birdflu and whatever else is going around.

 

I was trying to describe mullein to a non-plant person recently...

I was like... you know... verbascum, uh... that plant that you use when nature calls in the wilderness...

 

The rabbits are eating my kale...

 Here's a fresh planting of collards... maybe the rabbits will let me have some some...

I planted this thistle...

I had a thistle produce bloom a coupla years ago, and I failed to collect seed... I thought that having set seed... I'd get all I wanted... wrong! I had to re-aquire seed for this supposed invasive..

Some actual colour in the winter garden... 

Winter is here...

Things in the garden always get a boost from the cooler temps... just before a killing freeze...

 Horn worm caterpillar on winged sumac... couldn't pin down what critter he was.

 Spectacular Autumn colour in my yard....

 Second generation glass gem... Our seasons are so long... that I replanted the kernels from the mature corn planted in the Spring!

 

Frozen corn stalks...

Frozen Maters

Gonolobus suberosus

matelea carolinensis

Autumn Gold

I'm getting these pics posted a bit late... Last year I posted the golden asters at the end of September...

 Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris)

 Slender scratch daisy (Croptilon divaricatum)

 Goldenasters (Chrysopsis gossypina)

Helianthus angustifolius

Mexican sunflower (tithonia rotundifolia)

solidago rugosa

Yellow Wingstem (verbesina)

Ok... Not gold, but autumn is when the tibouchina shine... 

Unfortunately, tibouchina doesn't seem to be attractive to the pollinators... And while that purple bloom was a show stopper the first time I saw it... over the years... it's kinda lost some appeal... 

Tibouchina is easy to propagate, I shoved some cuttings in the sand one year... and it seems to thrive in my garden... that cold spell last winter didn't faze it at all.

Got 2 inches of rain, and autumn temps.

TV for cats...

Yall know that's a tomato... don't cha?

Start of Autumn

Garter snake... I see this guy a lot....

Buckeye and gulf fritillary visit mexican clover (richardia sp.)

Tri-foliate orange... Contrary to popular belief, I'm finding this orange very edible.
One orange to a half-gallon of water... makes decent orange-ade... One orange juiced into a batch of potato salad... pretty good...
I tried adding an orange to a coupla stewed pears, and adding all the peel was too much... the peel tasted good, but the pears were overwhelmed.

Viceroy enjoying a bit of pokeberry fruit.

Ellen from Using Georgia Natives sent me some pink turk's cap hibiscus seedlings... and they didn't exactly come true... Pink ones & white ones from the 2 I kept... too bad that the ones I gave away ran into the tidy garden syndrome and got weeded out before they bloomed... :(

 Monarda punctata...

eupatorium serotinum

The voles ate the roots of this wildflower over the winter, but it came back in abundance from last years dropped seed.