Posting pictures of their snow fall from the last few days that is. Snow is an infrequent visitor to our area. Some winters we get a dusting and every once in a while we get dumped on. Saturday we got dumped on. I would guess we got about a foot of snow.
Now remember, this is Southern Virginia. We have lived here 18 years and whatever snow boots I brought with me from Germany have long since disappeared. So I donned the closest thing I had to snow boots and took my camera and the dogs down the street.
This is Seaford Road about noon. It is a two-lane road with ditches on either side for drainage. You do not want to slide into the ditch.....some places it is about 3 feet deep.
Once back from the corner I looked around my garden and found all sorts of great photo-ops. Here is new growth ready to pop on the Clematis 'Miss Bateman'. A few spent blooms from Hydrangea macrophylla 'Nikko Blue'.
And who could resist the Nandina domestica berries with the red foliage and a blanket of snow?
In the former vegetable garden the Rosemary looks stunning against the snow and one lone Zinnia stem remains standing.
The snow kept falling as did the temperatures. Ice formed on the creek and the snow covered a good bit of the ice.
And of course there was more frolicing in the snow by my four legged companions.
Stay warm everyone!
Earlier this week we went to South Carolina to look at the house, pick interior colors, choose light fixtures and talk to our landscaper.
The house is really coming along quickly. The Hardie plank is on, the roof is shingled and they are ready for the stacked stone to be applied to some of the front areas.
We walked through the house with the electrician to get a count on how many lighting fixtures were needed, the walls look like they are filled with spaghetti before the insulation and sheetrock. Our contractor and his subs are really nice folks and very easy to work with.
This will be the view we wake up to every morning.......
My day was really complete talking to Wyatt, our landscaper. He installed the riprap and is installing a flagstone patio, sod and irrigation, foundation plants, preparing the large (and numerous) garden beds. He and I have gone back and forth with lots of plant material ideas and how to keep a natural look to the garden. The lot slopes to the water, so we have some tiers and lots and lots of areas under the trees we were able to have as garden beds. There were some beaver damaged trees that needed to be removed. I am happy we were able to keep a good number of trees.
The flat spaces are going to be sodded (remember we have three dogs and they need a place to run). The debris along the riprap was washout from upstream. There were some big rains and the lake level rose 3 feet in one day.
From the dock you can see the house and the landscape coming into shape. The flagstone patio is at lake level and I think will be a super place to sit and enjoy the lake. The white sticks are the irrigation pipes with the sprinkler heads. You almost can't see where the grass will be as it is on the level area. The banks along the water are both garden. It is the full sun area I have to garden, most all the rest of the yard is shade or part shade. We are using as many natives or minimum care plants as possible. Deer walk through our yard to get to the lake so that is something we are keeping in mind with plant selection. Flowers and fragrance and foliage color......oh the possibilities!!
As we talked with the lady at the lighting store (one of our last stops) we kept a close eye on the weather. The original plan was to get our stuff done then relax for the rest of the day and drive back to Virginia today.....Saturday, you know, the day all the snow and ice plowed through the mid region of the country. We changed our plans and headed up the road midafternoon. After a short stop to see one of our kids in NC for a cup of coffee, we made it home by 10 PM, well ahead of the storm.
This morning when we woke the ground was white and when I let the dogs out they loved it!
Skyler must have made a million snow angels, doggie style-
And Newton and Monroe and Skyler were frolicing and having a grand time.
Glad we made it home and have no need to go out today. It continues to snow, I think we are about to 10- 12 inches. Did I mention we don't own a snow shovel?
Jury is still out with Windows Live, this was done without.
The American Holly is a wonderful evergreen tree to have in the landscape. A native tree the Eastern United States, its range is zones 5-9. A mature tree seldom exceeds 50 feet tall with a 15 to 25 foot spread. This pyramidal shaped tree is a slow grower. It can handle some shade though the female tree has a better berry production if planted in full sun. It can be seen as a single or multiple trunk. As others in the Ilex family, this tree is dioecious, having male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers on separate trees. The flowers are small and inconspicuous emerging in the spring. For berries to be produced it is recommended for a male tree to be planted within 200 feet of the female. A male tree can pollinate more than one female. (no comment!) The berries are actually drupes. Each drupe contains four seeds encased in a hard shell. The berries are produced during the summer, starting green and turning red as they mature.
The berries are a food source for approximately 20 varieties of songbirds, mourning doves, and turkeys. Migratory birds are credited (blamed) for the wide range of hollies. Cattle have been known to eat the foliage. The tree is a shelter for birds and small animals as well as a food source for the larva of the Elfin butterfly.
The name opaca means dull, not glossy. The leaves on the American Holly are a dull dark green with spiny tips on most leaves. There are some leaves that have only the spine on the tip of the leaf. It is alternate, ovate, and evergreen. The holly is used in the United States as Christmas decorations in wreaths, garlands and other arrangements. This can be traced back to the early settlers finding the American Holly similar to the English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) which has been used in Europe for centuries as a symbol of Christmas.
The problems (disease and insect) are minimal. There are fungal diseases (remove diseased fallen leaves), chlorosis can occur when the Ph levels are high and Tar spot which appears as yellow spots on the leaves in early summer. Spider mites, leaf miners, and scale can be found infesting hollies.
The light grayish brown bark on the trunk is always smooth, no matter the age of the tree. The wood is hard and is used in a wide range of items – piano keys, handles for tools, scroll work, small furniture, inlay work, violin pegs and many other items. More scientific information can be found on the Silvics manual, a resource put out by the Department of Agriculture. If you are interested in a long list of cultivars the University of Florida site has a great list in addition to far more information than I have shared here.
I read about using Windows Live Writer for blog postings. Jean at Jean’s Garden recently had a post about this. I thought I would give it a whirl and see how I liked it. Windows Live Writer is a free download (I am all for free!!). With Blogger the editing page has such a small window it makes it difficult to see the arrangement of photos with text. I sometimes use MSWord 2007 to publish my posts, you get all the auto correct aides within Word. For some reason I can’t load my photos in Word and have them show up on the blog. With Windows Live I can add my photos directly from my hard drive into the post. Additionally, if I forget to tag my picture I can add a watermark with my name. The photos can be clicked on to see in a larger screen. I still need to do a spell check but it is easy within WL. I will continue to use my hidden blog to see how the posting looks on the web. I use the same template on my trial blog and I can make additional adjustments if needed. One nice thing about using either WL or Word is I can publish directly and all my hyperlinks are intact. If you copy and paste from a document to your blog editor, the links don’t come along. Have you used Windows Live? Do you like it? What features do you especially find useful? Not sure about using it for every post, but it does have lots to offer. I have only explored a few of the functions. After trying to get the photos lined up within the post I have a bit of a learning curve to conquer.
