From our ever-loyal, multi-gifted Ozark Hillbilly:
Summer is past,
All our blossoms
Have gone to seed.
The acorns have been laid to bed
And the cordwood is stacked and seasoned
Awaiting Winter’s first kiss.
Blanketing summer’s forgotten toys.
and I wait, warming my bones by the fire.
***********
What’s going on in your garden (wrap-up / memories / planning), this week?
Bonus holiday closeout content:
Long before a clever marketer turned it into a Christmas staple, the Aztec and Maya celebrated the colorful shrub for its medicinal value https://t.co/Sgkteae9Wk
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) December 27, 2022
Baud
Cool images, Ozark.
Blech New Year to you.
Wyatt Salamanca
OT
Hi AL,
Did you get any sleep or simply stay up all night?
Your Coronavirus updates have been an invaluable and amazing resource!
Would you consider writing a post describing the methodology you adopted for this massive undertaking?
Your update along with Adam’s Ukraine update are two of my most valuable news sources,
so I’d be curious for any insight you could share about you produce it.
Thanks for these great photos.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Beautiful pictures Ozarkhillbilly!
raven
Great shots bro! I’m glad I don’t drink, I don’t know how I’d feel this morning!
knally
Lovely words to accompany the pictures.
One solitary primrose flowering in my garden, but more buds to come, and I can see the shoots of the daffodils just poking through.
OzarkHillbilly
Thanx all.
I am way behind on everything garden related, but even so I find myself perusing the seed catalogues for this years selections. Talk about putting the cart before the horse…
Jeffg166
Only 78 days until Spring.
Did not cut the banana plants to the ground in early fall to see if the trunks would winter over. In mild years they do. They did not this year. When the Arctic freeze pulled out Friday they collapsed to the ground. Chopped them up and they are now in the compost pile.
Starting to look at seeds. Found something called Clarkia. Never heard of it. A wild flower. Might try it. Lots of varieties.
Albatrossity
Thank you for this. A lovely way to start 2023!
opiejeanne
Poetry in word and picture. Thanks for giving us this gift on the first day of this new year.
kalakal
Great set of pictures. Thank you
delphinium
Lovely photos and a wonderful way to start off the new year!
oldgold
After a harrowing experience in last week’s winter storm from hell, that featured a frigid and frantic call to 911 to extricate me from a dangerous roadside situation, I decided to leave the outer rim of the Hardy Twilight Zone and fly to Ponce de Leon’s peculiar peninsula.
Upon arrival, I found my sunny, sandy, seaside shack in satisfactory shape, despite Ian’s recent whirlwind visit. In particular, I was pleased to find my garden, A Slice of Heaven, to be fully recovered and blooming colorfully. I owe this to the fact, that unlike West of Eden, its prosperity is not dependent on my gardening skills and labor.
If I observe anything amusing, like the dating habits of wealthy octogenarian MAGA men or early evening snowbird culture, I will be reporting in.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly: Leafing through the seed catalogs is a very important new year ritual.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: The seed catalogs are arriving daily here too. Tempting, tempting. Not even letting us rest like our gardens. You captured the sleeping landscape so well it’s a poem in pictures. 😘
Anyway
Nice pics, thanks for sharing. Happy New Year to jackals everywhere.
Kay
I’m moving my garden to Michigan this year- part of my extremely slow move to Michigan :)
I’m excited about it- much sandier soil which is easy to work and a smaller property that is nearly a blank canvass other than two shade trees I put in ten years ago which are just starting to get some size and provide some shade. Next I’ll put in smaller, flowering trees. Two or three crabapples and a redbud. I’m not going to do “foundation plantings” (shrubs around the foundation of the house) because I’m just sick of that and want a different look that is centered around trees, a kitchen garden and an herb garden.
TerryC
Thanks to everyone for sharing the lovely garden pics. If someone could help me figure out how to, I’d like to share some one of these days.
I mostly grow trees, reforesting formerly tilled farm acreage into the shape of two 18-hole disc golf courses. For business tax purposes (because I have an LLC to support that hobby), I often order next spring’s trees at the end of the year. So I’ve just spent several days agonizing and ordering.
This year my bare-root tree planting focus will be on wildlife edibles such as Paw Paw, native Plum and native Persimmon with a handful of expensive things like larger trees hopefully to be more people food than wildlife – but who ever knows – like several rust-resistant Apple varieties, Buartnut and Chestnut.
WaterGirl
@TerryC: Send your photos and whatever text you have to Anne Laurie by email. It’s super helpful if you name your photos something descriptive, and if specific pictures are related to specific text, make sure that’s clear. “redbud tree.jpg” for a filename and add “insert redbud tree.jpg here” in the proper place in your text.
Here’s the email address: anne-laurie at balloon-juice.com
If that’s too cryptic, click on Contact Us in the white menu bar up top and you’ll get more details.
J R in WV
Great end of fall photo set, thanks so much fellow hillbilly !!!
And Happy New Year to all ~!!!~
munira
I love this – beautiful and poetic. Thank you.
StringOnAStick
@Kay: It’ a good thing to skip the foundation planting idea, it isn’t good for the house foundation to have roots pushing at it, especially if the plantings are large shrubs. It also makes painting the house a real PITA.