The holidays in Florida

Sugar snap peas are delish right from the vine.Starting from the point of the knife: oregano, curly parsley, garlic chives, purple & orange carrots, sugar snap peas.It's two days before Christmas and the rains are headed our way, so it was time to harvest some of the Christmas dinner.  The...

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Greens and clear mountains

A quick trip "up the hill" for a meeting found me admiring the clear view of the mountains and a lovely sunset.late winter greens from a previous yearA bonus from this trip was collecting greens (arugula, mustards, kale and turnip greens) from my unprotected raised beds. It's rather remarkable how they've...

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Back to normal?

Finally, our curiously warm and wet days for early December are trending back to normal, after being punctuated (on both ends) by severe freezes.It was 71° yesterday.  Very odd. It's triggering some early flowering, but not like last year oddities, that's for sure.  But I remember a Christmas...

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A lovely hike

A gift of an unexpected Sunday afternoon in the mountains (thanks to a plumbing issue requiring Monday attention) was a lovely hike along a short segment of the Mountains-to-Sea trail, along the Blue Ridge Parkway.Remnant snow made the trail slippery in spots, but the views were lovely.Galax and mosses...

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Another pileated woodpecker

The red oak tree directly seen from our deck has (a relatively recent) old dead branch poking out to the right of the main trunk. It's a magnet for woodpeckers, not surprisingly,-- we've seen downies and red-bellied woodpeckers visiting our feeder frequently,Since the dead branch has occurred, we've...

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Clay County Delegation Hearing and Plan Ahead!

Speaking at the Clay County Delegation Hearing.I spoke before the Clay County Delegation hearing on Nov. 18th. The delegation includes our state senator, Rob Bradley and 2 representatives that claim part of Clay County in their districts: Charlie Van Zant and Travis Cummings. I spoke to this same group...

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Short-day onions & more...

Garlic chives!The winter edible season has started, but not before a couple of last gasps of the fall crops.In doing the research for "Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida," I planted some garlic chives.  I'd never planted them before and was prepared to be underwhelmed, but not so. ...

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Fall sunsets

There have been glorious fall sunsets the last few days.  And the full moon just added to that.This evening,  there was a remarkable sunset below the clouds, with orange illuminating the mountains beyond. Unbelievable.  Of course, I didn't have my camera with me. Nor a phone with a decent...

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A pileated woodpecker

A Sunday morning excursion at the Garden (where I work) found us noticing a pileated woodpecker.Its loud call is distinctive; no, that's not a hawk, I said, and then we spotted the vocalizer, a beautiful and striking bird.Pileated woodpeckers are LARGE, the size of crows. And striking. I didn't have a camera along, but here's a link to the Cornell Lab of Lab to learn more about th...

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One week only: signed books offer

From November 10th to the 17th, I am taking online orders for my books. See the Gift Book Offer page. Maybe you know an avid gardener who would love one of my books for a Christmas present. If so, let me know and I will hold off mailing it until the middle of December and include a Christmas card...

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A remarkable window box

It's such fun to be inspired by a wonderful window box that I saw in Rothenburg ob der Tauber just over a year ago.  Rothenburg is a wonderfully preserved medieval city, but these window boxes, above a cafe on the historic Marktplatz were both current and creative, filled with dried and live plants...

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Sunrise at Spring Park

I went to Spring Park in Green Cove Springs this morning for the sunrise to see the partial solar eclipse. We have too many trees in our neighborhood for a good eastern horizon. What a beautiful morning! The outlet of the spring into the St. Johns Rive in Green Cove Springs.Looking back toward the...

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You can never have too many leaves!

I enjoyed sharing some thoughts about creating a native woodland garden with a class this morning;  this was one of the "slides" that was part of my presentation, showing leaf collections from years past.I love the leaf depot image -- bagged leaves on the old coal road, ready for spreading! Here...

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Bee habitats

I've been thinking about doing some interpretive work around native bees and other pollinators.I was reminded of this wonderful "bee habitat" exhibit that I saw last year in the University of Osnabruck Botanical Garden just over a year ago.  I was a post-doc there (three decades ago) and it was...

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Biltmore walled garden (2)

I've loved seeing how the Biltmore Estate has expanded and experimented with their horticulture over the last few years.  Hooray!It's always been a great place to enjoy the expansive grounds, the wonderful landscape, and preserved viewscapes of the surrounding mountains, thanks to the stewardship...

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A sedum wall planting

A lovely display outside the Biltmore Garden Shop -- I love sedums and it's always great to see how they can be used.Although, they can get around -- they can get established very easily in mulch from fragments -- I just scooped up some last weekend in that category.  H...

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Biltmore walled garden

I never would have thought I'd be blown away by mums, but Biltmore's horticultural staff created an over-the-top design for their walled garden fall display.This photo doesn't really do justice to the extraordinary colors and textures that they've created, and the color patterns, too. (Click to get...

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Vase with dried flowers

I had refreshed this arrangement recently -- it looked so pleasing in this light, I couldn't pass on a photo.  (The flash version washed out the color, so this is the hand-held, non-flash, blurry on...

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View towards the forest (ravine)

We love this view, converted from weedy overgrown ivy-ridden trees to developing native woodland garden.The view from this window convinced us to buy our small house in the mountains, within walking distance of downtown Asheville (and it wasn't even cleared of invasives, then).  We'll eventually...

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Edging project: risks & rewards

Some ongoing fall projects are re-edging the lawn along the back yard and weeding out the shady triangle area. I last edged the shady triangle in the spring, but it's been a couple of years since I edged along the lawn east of the triangle.Risks of weeding with beggar lice or tick-trefoil.Rewards of...

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