Home of the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox and other native plants for pollinators

Monday, January 26, 2015

Winter Interest

In the Middle South winter interest hardly ever means snow!
To keep our otherwise brown gardens interesting all winter we concentrate on the hardscape, we plant evergreens, shrubs with four seasons of interest and even add colorful art pieces. We create gardens that we love and we hope others find pleasing. And we still dream of snowy days that will show off the seed heads and billowing grasses that we've left standing for the critters that live in and visit our gardens.

Every once in a while our snow dreams come true!
It happened this past weekend 
  Middle Tennessee woke up to a winter wonderland...
 Wet, heavy snow fell and covered every thing.
The seed heads stood proudly under the heavy snow.
The grasses bowed to its beauty...
 The four season shrubs were covered in white
The Dancing Tree had a new partner.

Above it all the sky glowed until it was a brilliant blue and then it all began to melt.

Sweet Middle South winter, I love you!

We got the perfect snow fall. It stayed just long enough for kids to play, for folks to enjoy its beauty and for gardeners to take photos, but, not so long that we tired of the inconvenience.

Perfect!
xoxogail

 Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

24 comments:

  1. Lovely winter interest. Love the blue bottles against the fluffy white snow.

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  2. Heidi/ Indiana Woodland GardenerJanuary 26, 2015 at 8:14 AM

    My husband and I are looking for a great place to retire. You just sold me on Middle Tennessee!

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    1. I must let you know that our summers are HOT and Humid!

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  3. Lovely! Wonder if I'll ever get to see snow on my bottle trees?

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    1. Only if it's like this snow~here and then gone quickly!

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  4. Beautiful!
    Have a wonderful week!
    Lea

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  5. Wow! That was quite the lovely snow! It looks like enough to provide some good moisture, too.

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  6. Great shots of the snow! So glad you got the kind that melts quickly and isn't disruptive. I grew so tired of the heavy winter snow when we lived in Massachusetts, it was an oppressive, constant winter threat and got so stressful. Now that we live in Washington state, we get the self-cleaning kind of snow, like yours.

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    1. That's a perfect description "self-cleaning" ...There's no way I could live up north again after 30+ years in the Middle South!

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  7. Lucky you getting snow. We haven't had hardly any this winter. Crazy weather. I do like the look of a snow covered garden. Your bottle tree really pops.

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  8. Here, snow obliterates the winter interest as much as it creates it. But I agree that a light snowfall that sticks to everything is as beautiful as can be.

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  9. So sweet to see this post. Our snow dreams sometimes come true too. I think it's interesting that you and I both live in the middle south, and yet, our climates are so different. I guess that's because we live several states away. Hugs.~~Dee

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  10. That kind of snow is perfect! Lovely, lovely photos, Gail. We've been having those light snows all winter, which is wonderful! Such a change of pace from last winter, when the snow didn't stop and the temperatures were polar. If every winter was like this one, I wouldn't mind it so much. Thanks for sharing your gorgeous photos!

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  11. Spectacular! Even the birdhouse glowed from within.

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  12. Beautiful--a magical winter wonderland! Love the birdhouse--looks like someone has a light on:) I agree with PlantPostings--we've had only light snows this winter, and I'm still waiting for that perfect snow for picture-taking. I'm actually enjoying winter for once.

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  13. Love your delicately intricate winter wonderland photos.

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  14. Glad you got some snow! Looks pretty. Love the blue bottle tree!

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  15. Very beautiful! That does sound like the right amount of snow - enough to be pretty, but not so much you'll be slogging through it for weeks to come :)

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  16. beautiful winter scenes from your garden Gail!

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  17. Snow does look good on you Gail! We do get snow more often up here in Columbus, but still, our winter gardens often look brown and gray like yours. The problem here is that we do get a lot of bitter cold, and without snow cover to protect the plants, you can imagine the problems!

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"Insects are the little things that run the world." Dr. E O Wilson