Bloodroot is in flower!

It's such a joy to see the bright white flowers of bloodroot after a long winter.  It's one of our early spring flowering natives, along with hepatica and trout lily.It's done well in our emerging woodland garden, too.clumps of bloodroot along the front pathAfter slowly amending the soil with mulch...

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U.S. Virgin Islands and local food production

view towards St. Thomas from St. JohnA second trip to the Caribbean has me pondering (again) about local food, food self-sufficiency,  and vegetable-growing (hmm, where are they).  Not to mention supplies of anything else.Apparently, between 95-99% of food is imported in the U.S. Virgin Islands...

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Supporting pollinators

With the increase in use of neonicotinoid pesticides in "routine" propagation of garden perennials, there's definitely been a recognition that it CAN be an issue in some plants producing nectar, pollen, and/or leaf tissue harmful to pollinators. The Xerces Society has brought this forward -- how comprehensive a problem it might be remains to be seen.The bottom line is that neonicotinoids have...

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Finally, time to sow!

It's taken forever this winter to finally be time to sow.  It could have been last weekend, but I was busy doing other things, and I knew soil temperatures were still low."blank" raised beds --now sown with peas, beets, lettuce, and greensBut a beautiful weekend and signs of spring popping out...

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A trout lily adventure

The beautiful trout lilies put on quite a show,but only for a few weeks in the spring.I first heard about Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve at the 2010 Florida Native Plant Society Conference in Tallahassee when Dan Miller made a lunchtime presentation. He told about how he a few others had saved a unique,...

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Spring is popping out

From daffodils to Oconee bells, flowering has commenced.  Hooray!The Asian cherries in the median of our small city's entrance are in flower (after being coaxed into early flowering last fall); daffodils are up everywhere in our "yard" --not planted by us, but echoing past gardeners, as do the crocuses.In the Garden, the first Oconee bells are in flower, too.  At the end of February, it's...

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A lovely witch hazel

I'd thought that the glorious winter flowering witch hazel in front of our mountain house was a Chinese witch hazel, until reading my garden blogging friend Janet's post about Hamamelis vernalis (hmm, maybe it was on FB?).  I couldn't find the reference for a link -- but thanks, Janet, for pointing...

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