Seasonal Celebrations & Lessons Learned


Spring is in the air. Nature is bursting everywhere.



Plum Tree

Today I am joining a new meme, Seasonal Celebrations, hosted by Donna at Gardens Eye View and Lessons Learned with Beth at Plant Postings. The idea of Seasonal Celebrations is to take a look at the seasonal changes in gardens around the world and how they are celebrated. Lessons Learned is a meme which looks back at the lessons your garden has taught you this past season.

Seasonal Celebrations ~ 

Spring comes early to the South. In my garden the daffodils start their parade in February.


The Kwansan cherry trees are show stoppers in my February garden. The International Cherry Blossom Festival also known as the PINKEST party on earth showcases 300,000 Yoshino cherry trees. It is held in March in Macon, Georgia every year. This year is the 30th anniversary celebration .



The azaleas begin to bloom in March and there is no better place to celebrate them than Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. The azalea bowl captures the best blooms in a serene woodland setting.


Including many native species.



The goldfinches are putting on their brighter summer suits. (Correction: this is a warbler ~ thanks to Eve's keen observation!)


And the hunt for the perfect nesting site begins.




Spring is in full swing in March. Everyday there are new arrivals to the party. Please head over the Gardens Eye View to read how other gardeners celebrate their season.

Lessons Learned ~


My winter garden has shown me the importance of structural elements during the barren months. I am looking to add more shrubs and trees  to add color for the gardener, food for the birds and blooms for the early pollinators.

Mother Nature has been very unpredictable this winter bringing warmer days and then some shockingly cold ones.  Our high this winter was 78 degrees and our low was 19 degrees. It is hard for the body to adjust to such fluctuations. Many of the plants in my garden feel the same way as they didn't take too kindly to those freezing nights. At least the plants and the gardener are on the same page on this subject.

With the milder winter we have been able to start many of our garden projects. The first of 5 new raised beds in the kitchen garden has been built.

  5' x 20'


Our old garden boxes were a real chore to install because of the slope so this time around we decided to hire a professional to build them. You can see how severe the slope  actually is with the height differential between the two ends of the bed. It will be nice not to have to bend over all the time when working in the kitchen garden!


There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day for the garden. There are still so many chores to be tackled...like pruning 60 rose bushes. A task that I don't look forward to. Thank goodness it only has to be done once a year.

Stop by Plant Posting to learn what other gardeners have learned this season.

Comments

  1. Love your crisp, colorful photos! Yep, never seems to be enough time for what we want to do!

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  2. Those Azaelas are SO beautiful!! Cant wait to see the finished garden projects!!! Hey, look at that goldfinch carefully! That is a type of Warbler I think!! Maybe I can figure it out or someone else knows! It might be a Pine Warbler. I have a hard time with spring warblers.

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    1. Eve, you are correct that is a warbler (I think a Pine Warble too) and not a goldfinch. I should have looked at the photo more closely as it is rather obviously NOT a goldfinch. The other raised beds are suppose to go in this weekend if the weather cooperates. Will definitely do a post on the completed project.

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  3. Really pretty photos! Spring is such a great time of year! Always need more time for all the jobs this time of year.

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  4. Such crazy weather - today it's gorgeous weather outside in the high 70's, and they're predicting possible snow for Monday!

    Your plants are beautiful. I would love to go to a cherry tree festival sometime. I have a Yoshino cherry that I planted a couple years ago - I can't wait until it starts flowering! Your raised beds are awesome! I, too, have a huge slope in my yard and have had trouble working with it. So much to do now that spring is starting!

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  5. Good lessons. Structural elements are so very important during the winter. I love your new raised bed! Good luck with your pruning, too. And I loved your spring photos. The first daffodils and flowering trees always put a song in my heart.

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  6. Karin I love how you celebrate with daffs and the cherry blossoms...and great lessons...I can't wait to see those veg beds growing...

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  7. I would love to see Calloway Gardens at some point. Exquisite pictures of the native azaleas!

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  8. 60 Rose bushes, wow! That would be a huge project! Viewing your springtime photos is so encouraging. I can only imagine how beautiful all those blooming Azaleas are in person! Gosh, I love Azaleas. We have some here, but seeing them in a large grouping like that must be breathtaking! Thanks for joining in the memes!

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  9. Can't wait to see the 60 rose bushes in bloom. wow! One day I hope to get down to see Calloway Gardens. What a wonderful place.

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  10. I would love to see your Georgian cherry festival. That would be quite a beautiful sight. You are going to have your own rose festival with 60 new roses. And azaleas are a shrub I love, they would be spectacular blooming in the wooded setting.

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  11. Spring has certainly arrived in Georgia.
    I need to get to Callaway Gardens - someway somehow !

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  12. You've been busy building all of those raised beds! Wow! What I miss most about Southern springs are the azaleas and crape myrtles. The native ones are unlike any I've ever seen.

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  13. I had no idea you had 60 roses or a kitchen garden!! Your Cherry festival sounds like it would rival the one in DC. Our builder kindly left us a Yoshino cherry tree in the back yard. Maybe it was to make up for the ugly shrubs in the front. :o) Spring looks like it's off to a beautiful start for you. GORGEOUS photos!!

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  14. Your pictures are just beautiful in this post Karin. I especially like the shots of the azaleas. Callaway Gardens looks like a great place to visit in spring.

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One of my favorite things about blogging is the conversation with readers. Leave a comment and let's get talking. ~Karin

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