A Coastal Alabama Garden: Early Spring Medley

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Early Spring Medley

The meteorologists were right: March has brought cooler weather. We touched freezing last night. I'm enjoying the more seasonable temperatures but hoping it won't get too cold. It would be a shame to bite back all those beautiful new greens!

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Viburnum

tea olive (Osmanthus fragrans)

rose foliage ('Nearly Wild'?)

Oxalis (purple shamrocks)

winter-sown blackberry lily seedling

winter-sown bronze fennel seedlings

Japanese shrub mint ('Golden Angel')

rose of Sharon leaves

banana shrub flowers

moss-grown hypertufa sphere and variegated periwinkle (Vinca major)

wood sorrel (Oxalis)

mountain laurel flower buds

rose (from Granny's garden)

weigela

crocosmia foliage

'Russian Red' canna

Ipheion (spring starflower)

Dianthus

Welcome!

I'm a lazy gardener located in a coastal county of Alabama, within a short drive of the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay.

My garden is in zone 8b (sunset zone 28), which means we have mild winters, hot summers, and a long growing season. Rain can (and will) fall any/every month of the year, sometimes by the bucketful, and humidity is a way of life.

We can grow a wide range of plants, including subtropicals, but anything that needs a good winter chill is out, and some plants just can't abide our delightful combination of relentless summertime heat and humidity. (Can't say that I blame them, to be honest...)

My gardening style is informal and eclectic. I love old-fashioned plants (and gardens)-- cottage gardens-- and exuberant, jungly plantings. I'm always in search of plants that are tough enough to survive my imperfect gardening practices-- but I'm trying to do better, year by year.

My husband (Donald) and I dabble in vegetable gardening, but it's not a passion. We share our large, fenced yard with two Eskies (American Eskimo dogs) named Trixie and Luna.