Spring is EXPLODING at the nursery! Here are some shots...


Apple blossoms


Kwanzan Cherry


Rhody about to bloom


Nothing like fiddleheads!


Columbine

Columbine blooming in one of my hyper-tufa rock gardens.


Another trout lily in the backyard.


My faithful friend & petal head!




Birthday gifts of rhubarb and saved seeds: California sunflower and Blue Hubbard squash!

A pretty image

'Nature Girl' by Graham Carter

what's growing on

in my gardens...





Celandine Poppy! A shade grower and sign of spring.


The rosemary has been blooming for weeks!


Honeysuckle is ready to bloom when the temperature gets just right!

My new job!!!!

I have started working at A Garden on the Hilltop here in Brevard NC. It is a beautiful garden center with a full plant nursery! We have a shop with garden related tools and gifts and the yard is all shrubs and trees right now, but soon the perennials and annuals will be coming in! I have already used my "tab" to buy a Vitex Agnus-Chastus! Danger... let's see if I actually make it home with a paycheck! I am working holding down the fort for my boss, the owner John, a very nice man and have a lot of leeway as far as arranging plants and planting in our permanent gardens, and I will also be doing landscape design for our landscape company! YAY!

LAying stone

Thanks to a kind donation from my friend Keenan who works at the stone yard, I have begun a beautiful path from the driveway to the walkway/ front porch. It's a lovely Tennessee sandstone leftover from some big job that ended up in the "free" pile... It was quite a bit of weight for the old Subaru, but she brought it home! (After we put some air in one of the tires!)



Starting the dig in...


The other side of the front yard...




I found tons of these big nasty grubs & squarshed every one! (with the shovel! not my bare hands!)



Handsome fellow!

Emergence

Some seeds starting to poke their heads out of the soil... germination station in full effect in the basement!



Sunflower!




Cucumber

Happy Vernal Equinox!!!

OH JOY! THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING! I am beside myself and will be spending a large portion of today planting stuff in my garden... I have some misc plants, who have survived the winter, left over from closing up the nursery last year.


This is a shot of our kitty Soloman, sleeping in the sun up against the rosemary shrub (must smell heavenly!) I spottedd him through the greenhouse window, therefore not the clearest photo!


Wild cherries gracefully sweeping against the edges of the woods....


Grape hyacinth


An incredible treasure... the entire back of the lot is covered in trout lilies! They're amazing!

Pure Evil

This article is completely insane! You May Be Arrested Soon For Growing A Tomato. All I can say is clearly this woman is a complete asshole....

I digress...

I finally learned to knit this January, thanks to my amazing teacher, Astrid. This is my first sweater! I must admit, it has become a bit of an obsession and other things, like folding the laundry, fall by the wayside...

The Biltmore House

Paphiopedilum, Lady Slipper Orchid

Inside the hothouse

Big cactus!

Magnolia bursting open... YAY spring!


Winter honeysuckle (smelled great!)

Happy Full Moon!

Spring is around the corner when the Earthstars pop out of the ground! These crazy fungi are Gasteromycetes, or "stomach fungi". Their fruiting bodies are a stomach-shaped sac filled with dry spores. They are related to puffballs.




When it rains, the outer two layers of the peridium split and uncurl, forming a "star" with 4 to 12 rays. The inner layer of the peridium remains a closed sac. The rays spread with enough force to push aside leaves, raising the spore-filled sac above surrounding debris. Sometimes the rays even lift the earthstar high enough to break the connection to the parent mycelium. The rays close when they dry, and the sac lowers.