I do not use it much these days for a variety of reasons but I have a green thumb. Although my green thumb is temporarily on hiatus it is always great to see the fruits of our past gardening labors explode and expand each and every spring. When we first bought our home we had visions of a beautiful green lawn as do many homeowners. Soon after moving in we realized a mossy lawn was more realistic. We have minimal sun so we had to start learning about plants that love shade and the acidic soil that dominates the area. We discovered that our property had erosion issues so we studied different species and planted the ones that would help ease the loss of our precious soil. We have spent many hours planting mostly native flora on our property.

While hurricane Joaquin is battering the east coast and we are having record amounts of rain and flooding in the Carolinas I figured I would take some time to share the multitude of images that we captured of our yard exploding with colors, scents and textures from January through July of 2015. We are blessed to live in Pisgah National Forest and our appreciation for this grows daily. I hope you enjoy these images. All photos were made on our property and most shot handheld with a 50 mm lens.

It all starts for us in January. We look forward to the Snow Drops emerging every year. Although we are still in the middle of winter the Snow Drops always signify that spring is near and that change is coming soon.

The Snow Drops scent is intoxicating. It is a welcome treat and if we are blessed with a warm winter day the honey bees will always seek these flowers out. If there were such a thing I would guarantee that Snow Drop honey would be so tasty!

After the Snow Drops have flowered they grow into a thick and  tall ground cover that help alleviate our erosion issues. — After the Snow Drops have flowered they grow into a thick and tall ground cover that help alleviate our erosion issues.

Next come the Crocus. I did not plant these and they seem to move around in our yard each year because I always have a hard time predicting where they will come up.

In early March things really start happening with the emergence of our Ferns. My favorite is the Cinnamon Fern. Ours are young and growing. Older Cinnamon Ferns are large. They appear to be pre-historic and are common in Pisgah.

That's Grassy Knob Mountain in the background

We love our Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley has to be one of the most fragrant flowers in the world

Wild Ginger is one of my favorite plants. It is native to Western North Carolina. It grows fast and provides a great ground cover to fight erosion. It also has one of the most beautiful flowers you will ever lay eyes on. The flowers are maroon and grow underneath the leaves.

We have many beautiful trees that flower....

Cherry Tree... another flower with an incredible aroma

Our Perennials....

Foam Flower is native to Western NC and grows abundantly in the forest

Hostas anchor our yard. They are hardy and easy to multiply. We have green hostas, white hostas and even some with searsucker leaves. Usually by the end of the summer the hostas become a salad buffet for our local deer population.

We have planted many azaleas in our yard. Words cannot express their beauty.

We are incredibly blessed to have many native Trillium plants. Their numbers increase every year. They are such a unique and beautiful plant.

Trillium start coming up in mid-March where we live

As the spring days pass their leaves turn purple

We have one Pink Lady Slipper on our property. Pink Lady Slipper is a native orchid. It's another unique plant. It is really neat to watch this plant arise.

Karma is a bitch. No matter what you do in life karma is always lurking and keeping you on your toes. As I mentioned before there is a single Pink Lady Slipper on our property. I have always envisioned her having a friend. One day this summer I was riding my bike deep in the forest. The Pink Ladies were blooming and my eyes were peeled for a patch. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bunch of pink plants and hit my breaks. There it was, Pink Lady Slipper heaven. There were at lest 200 plants. Some blooming and some not. I figured this particular patch could afford to donate a new friend to our lonesome lady. I dug one up that was not blooming and put in in my backpack. I rode off thinking I was doing the right thing. I arrived home and immediately headed to our lady excited to introduce her to her new friend. At first glance she appeared different. I saw the two leaves but the flower was gone. Something had decided to make her beautiful flower a meal. My heart sank and I knew that karma had bitten me directly on my ass. I won't be taking any more flowers out of the forest again.

I thought it would be appropriate to leave you with some lyrics from the great John Lennon. Thanks for checking out my blog and stay dry out there!!

“Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you!”