Kyna's Winter Landscape

I decided that since my blog is quite new, I would post some pics of my yard and gardens in their winter state.

I use the term 'winter' loosely, as most of the time the temps are mild and there is no snow. My old Canadian friends have resorted to name calling when I use the term 'winter', and therefore I resort to smugness. :)

I believe my smug look is quite formidable, yes?



Mr. A had this house built in winter of 2002/2003, and the gardens were a clean slate. There was only one existing tree on the property, and it was a Sweet Gum tree.

Behold the Sweet Gum!


Sweet Gums are nice looking trees, but extremely messy trees. They drop a carpet of spiky balls in the growing season. This random resourceful person has turned them into a Martha Stewart-esque holiday delight:



My husband has a stepson from his previous marriage, Michael. When the boy was little, Mr. A would make him clean up the Sweet Gum balls as punishment. Michael is now 32 years old, and I find that story highly amusing :)

But I digress. Mr. A quickly removed that tree from the front yard. Which gave us a grand total of zero trees. He says he loves trees, as long as they're in someone else's yard. :P

When I arrived from Canada 4 years ago (which is a crazy story in and of itself), I wasn't able to work until the immigration people told me I could. I decided to fill my time with gardening, something I had never dabbled in before. I couldn't stand the treelessness and flowerlessness of the landscape any longer!

I was so amazed that I could plant a bulb, and in the spring, a daffodil would magically appear.


The only thing is, I haven't had a lot of money to make my garden and yard everything I want it to be. It seems like the project is forever 'in progress', which is probably a good thing. :)

Anyway, here are the winter pics (I took them two weeks ago). That way you can see the transition of my yard from winter to spring to summer to fall and then winter again. And hopefully, some of you will be helpful and give me some great ideas for what to do with the place as I go :)

Our yard is completely fenceless, the only barrier between us and the neighbours being a hedgerow (which the neighbour planted).

The front of my house (east side):






The rear of my house (west side):




The master bedroom windowbox and 'Endless Summer Hydrangea' (west side)




'Goldflame Honeysuckle' (west side)



The back vegetable garden. My husband made this way too huge for our needs...we're planning on overhauling the thing this spring. Maybe making it into a smaller, raised bed. This thing gets blazing, full day North Carolina sunshine:


The south wing:


I don't have anything planted on the north side. I'd like to remedy that this year, and take advantage of some of the day's shadow for a part-shade tree. And maybe a hosta garden :) If they can handle all the slugs....O_O