First Post

It has been colder than normal this winter, so I have missed getting outdoors and doing my usual winter gardening tasks. We were lucky in Charlotte, NC to get a white Christmas (evening).  The day after Christmas my garden was covered with a beautiful blanket of snow.  I measured the depth at 4 inches.

The last several days have warmed up enough to allow me to work on the greenhouse. I have plants in it, but I have a couple of openings that need to be filled with stonework.  Today I took pleasure in making a closer inspection of the garden. I found plants that continued to thrive in the cool temperatures and under the snow.

It was fun seeing the variegated Ranunculus 'Buttered Popcorn' looking (photo above) looking fresh.  Several clumps of narcissus are beginning to emerge not knowing that it is much to early to wake-up. The blooms on the new sasanqua 'Mine-no-yuki', however, seem to be brown...maybe frozen?  The foliage seems to be OK (photo below). 

The temperature was a pleasant 65 degrees and the sun came out after it rained all morning. I didn't notice any of my neighbors doing work outdoors.  I guess we get accustomed to it being unpleasant and remain indoors in spite of the nice weather.

Since the lawn in the front garden had been difficult to grow (too much shade + too much competition for water from the giant White Oak), I thought I'd test the idea of converting part of the lawn into a moss carpet.  The moss has thrived in the joints between the walkway paving stones (below).

Today I scraped-up a few 'plugs' of moss that had 'volunteered' in other parts of the garden and planted them in several of the bare spots.