'Winter Interest' and Season Confusion

Recent magazine articles and blog posts have made much of "winter interest" in our gardens, including the advice to leave spent flowers on the plants until next year's spring weather announces a new season. Suits me! I've generally done that for years, certainly with my pretty Sedums. This year, the Iceplant has been allowed to keep the remains of its flowers also (less work for me'!); it's nicely tucked in under the leaves of the Maple above it. Grown from a seedling in a 4-inch pot, it is now several feet across - and still growing.

This Daisy missed the memo that it is November; it's blooming either 6 months late or 6 months too soon (among some of that mint I've got to remove; yes, I was warned not to plant mint directly in the garden - keep it in pots instead - but I love mint iced tea in the summer!), and it's a cheery sight on a cloudy day with falling temperatures.

A Perfect Day - but still no rain . . .

Yesterday may well have been the most perfect day since I left the city behind and bought “a cute little house in the country”.

After a few e-mails and communications with two clients right after daybreak, I went outside with the 3-cup “Buongiorno” coffee mug an employee left behind in my office more than two decades ago, I made an inspection tour of my garden and came up with a plan for the morning.

Then I head this persistent, intermittent hissing . . . . from the sky above?

A balloon!

I had noticed several of them overhead Saturday morning, on my way to co-hosting a “plant clinic” at a Big Box store, so I was not entirely surprised. Instead, it was very nice: a balloon race two days in a row! That first balloon was followed by three more and I saw two additional ones at tree-top level in the distance, but their launch did not seem to happen today.

Saturday, I bought the first supply of Violas for my winter garden. Yesterday morning, it became quickly clear that planting them would be a challenge. Unless memory fails me, last Friday marked 3 weeks without rain. The soil is so dry! Even with watering once a week (more frequently for my patio and porch plants), there is not a speck of moisture to be found in the soil.

Nevertheless, I pulled up three Angelonias (huge, still green, but with few flowers) and replaced them with some of the Violas. I also dug up three Daisy “babies” from a backyard clump that had become too large and put them in the same border. Keeping my fingers crossed for next spring!

For Wednesday, we have a “20% chance” for rain – fingers crossed again, trying toes as well! – so further planting will wait. But clean-up work is ongoing, with old stems from perennial Salvias removed, invading Bermuda tendrils dug up, “Farmer’s Organic” mulch added, pine straw added, and watering here and there.

The afternoon ended with a glass of wine, a pear and a handful of pecans in my garden. It’s taken six years, but I can now boast of having a shade garden – sort of. Small though it may still be, I sat in the shade of one of my maples, with birds singing around me, pale yellow butterflies (and an occasional orange one) flitting about, the buzz of bees in the mums and swamp sunflowers behind me, and it was a good afternoon.

Maybe the best day since leaving the city in the distance, certainly for a gardener who is still a novice at the craft.

Winter in North Georgia

The bright red Dwarf Nandina is the only vibrant splash of color in today's dismal winter landscape; even the bird feeders are covered in snow and ice! The Helleborus is frozen, as are the Dwarf Indian Hawthorn and the Hollies. Those pathetic "jellyfish" things are Daisies. Anything with a cold-hardiness lower than 6 may not have survived last night's freeze and tonight it's supposed to get colder still. Now I know why Svetlana and Galina moved here from Siberia. It was not necessarily the business climate that attracted them; it must have just been the climate! They are probably feeling like they're back in their former home today. Brrrr!