Kerria japonica pleniflora

This fountaining shrub keeps it's green stems throughout winter. This spring it is spectacular!

It is up on an old dumping ground for large garden discards that has formed a berm. Now after several years & covered in leaf fall & mulch  it must be a fertile spot.

These golden pom-pom flowers appear again in fall but not as abundantly

Daffodils

The daffodils are so abundant this year. Must be all that rain we have had the last few months.

They seem taller & more robust. The trouble with daffodils is hiding the rejuvenating foliage until it dies down. It has been determined that tying the leaves in knots & other neatening methods is unhelpful  for feeding the bulbs. On the driveway Miss Huff lantana ( you can see the stems I left for winter interest) is now starting to grow & will soon cover the daffodil foliage.

Barrett Browning & February Gold are happy next to the concrete driveway.

Anemones & Christmas Tree

In the fall I found a seedling red Cedar tree (Juniperus virginiana). For years I have cut branches of one of these, that is growing into the Black Gum tree on the property line, for our Christmas tree.
I have concluded that I will run out of cedar branches in the next couple of years so potted this seedling for future Christmas decorations. Yes, I could buy a tree but since moving to North Carolina 20 years ago I have embraced the idea of these somewhat prickly country Christmas trees.
The squirrels, of which I have many, regularly dig into my pots. My solution was to cover the bare earth in the pot with pine cones. Then I went to Terra Ceia & found some irresistible Anemone coronaria bulbs. So, I pushed those into the soil around the future Christmas tree. I read these are not too good in containers, but never to be put off by someone else's opinion, I planted them anyway.
Here is the result

Lady Banks Pulled Down the Trellis

Huge wind storm on Wednesday, even a tornado watch & the garden sustained some pretty significant damage. The Lady Banks Rose that had grown huge finished off the trellis that had become rotten.

I am cross that this happened before it bloomed but it was getting out of hand & I am sure the landscapers on the other side of the fence will not miss it's whips across the face as they mow by.

I took some cuttings as this is the white version so a bit more scarce than the normal "lutea' or yellow one.

The daffodils in the spring border underneath might better now.

Also the Parsley Hawthorne Crataegus marshallii was blown down & looks rotten at the base as if the area is too wet for it. It suckers but I had pruned it to a tree form. This plant has vicious thorns so a shrub version is not really welcome. We shall see what happens there. I will miss those flowers too just starting to swell.

Hairy Bittercress

After the recent rains & temperatures up & down my earth is very loose so Monday I spent most of the  day weeding in the circle. Easy pulling even of the multitude of tree seedlings came out with all root attached. It seemed as if I pulled  3,000 of the hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) but probably only 300.

This weed goes to flower, & then seed of course, when it is so tiny you almost don't recognize it. If left to produce seed as you pull it the seeds scatter far & wide.

I was somewhat amused (but only somewhat)  to find this website on edible weeds from New Zealand. Julia recommends eating the darn stuff, apparently in the brassica family, & others do too. If I have complete failures such as my Brussel Sprouts this winter, which did not produce sprout one, I might have to consider this as a veggie too.

If you want to read about weeds as veg & get the recipe here's the website

http://www.juliasedibleweeds.com/general/bittercress-a-warming-winter-weed/

Red Buckeye Update

We are having the most amazingly warm weather here in eastern North Carolina (77F or 25C on Christmas day) More warm days are promised & it looks as though we will not see frost until the first of next year although we have experienced frost earlier this season.

In early November I posted about the seeds of my Red Buckeye that I collected & potted up.
Of the seven seeds, three were dug up by squirrels even though they had chicken wire over the pots. Is there squirrel wire I wonder? Anyway after battening down the said wire no more raiders have gained access.
We have had a very wet year, well above 60 inches of rain which is a lot even for us.
This what I found in the corral by the potting shed this morning.

Looks like 3 have or are germinating they must think it is spring.
One I think I planted upside down & that looks like a root  at the top.
(Yes, there are cyclamen seedlings in there too.)
 What to do?
 These seeds are supposed to need stratification (winter cold) before germinating. Shall I put these in the potting shed to protect them for the cold still to come or pile leaves over the top of them where they are outside? Decisions, decisions.....

Collards in the rain

After two weeks away a day of rain.

 Just at sunset in the garden to cut some collards for dinner.

Spied these self seeded beauties yesterday growing through a bed of chickweed in the old veggie garden. Probably helped by germinating next to the compost they are twice the size of anything I purposefully planted.

Probably should have 'photoshopped' the utility pole out of this photo (if I knew how)

 but would it still be real?