Those of you who "know" me know I moved from southeastern MA to the deep south in 2009, landing briefly in SC, and finally ending up at this house in the Huntsville area 2 years ago. There were borders at the front of the house, and one on the side of the house that faces the pool. The entire 1.4 acre property is fenced, and in the farthest part, a second fence squares off a good-sized area that has become my vegetable gardening area. The property backs up to a wooded creek, and there is plenty of wildlife - rabbits, possums, snakes, voles, moles, you name it.

Learning to garden in the south has been a challenge. Between the red clay - hard as a rock during the drought times, mud during the rainy/tornado season - and the heat, I've had - and still have - a lot of learning to do. Here's what I've done, thanks to winter sowing, in two years. Sorry I don't have more pics to show, but I may get back to that sometime in the future.

In the veggie garden area, I chose raised beds and containers. I currently have 4 3x3 raised beds, and two beds made out of cinderblocks that are approximately 3x8. The plantings vary with the season, but garlic and kale and tomatoes are must-haves. We ate the kale all winter, and I will replant this fall. My garlic is about ready to harvest (this was not wintersown, but direct sown). I have nine different varieties of tomatoes in, all wintersown, and some peppers I had started indoors. My WS tomatoes are setting fruit.

The front beds have trees (a Japanese maple, a birch, and a couple of crape myrtles), a Burford holly, 3 azaleas, 6 spireas, and came with lots of hosta, liriope, and spiderwort. Why people plant trees so close to the house I don't get, but I am not moving them. The Burford holly is also too close - too big to move, but has been pruned way back. I will take pieces of it and site it elsewhere, and hope to eradicate the original over time. The liriope was rampant, I pulled most of it out; ditto for the spiderwort. I gave away all but one hosta (a second one starting to grow back, LOL), dug out 1 spirea, with the promise that I will get two more out this fall. Here's what I now have, thanks to WS, in these beds:

Penstemons - Esprit, Cambridge mix, and murrayanus

Oriental poppies

Shasta, Silver Princess

HHs - Carnival Rosy Red and Queeny Purple - both gorgeous plants!

Montauk Daisy (brought from SE MA)

Echinacea, Kim's Knee Hi

Althea officinalis

Campanulas - medium and trachelium

Dianthus - Fenbow Nutmeg Clove (to die for scent) and alwoodii

Geranium praetense alba

Callas - pink I WS, yellow w/variegated leaves from new neighbor

Baptisia australis

Gaillardia that looks like Fanfare, from a trader's seed

Daylilies, not WS

Miniature rose, not WS

Rosemary, purchsed when we first moved in

Achilleas - Moonshine, and a reddish one

Snapdragons - all WS, beautiful - I love them!

Helenium Red & Gold

Kosteletzkya virginica

Bearded iris (WS, hasn't bloomed yet - maybe next year)

Cerinthe major purpurescens (WS from old seed)

Bachelor Buttons

Amaranthus Oeschburg

Geum, Lady Stratheden

Papaver Flore Pleno

Cleomes, various

Centeratherum x intermedia, Pineapple Sangria

Lysimachia atropurpurea beaujolais

Geraniums - Cedric Morris, Bill Wallace, Confetti - WS this year from old seed

Butterfly Bush, Nanhoensis Purple

Linaria triornithophora

Polemonium caeruleum (bloomed, but failing - maybe can't take the soil/heat?)

Tabacum variegate

Mimulus ringens

Digitalis, cream & lavender

Heucheras, WS from plants from my MA garden

and finally, coreopsis, from the plants in my MA garden, which were WS from seed Trudi sent me when I first started WSing.

The garden facing the pool, which I am working on turning into an herb garden (at least for now), had three large clumps of ornamental grass, a crape myrtle, 6 juniper bushes, and a lot of overgrown cannas. I pulled out all but two juniper bushes (and one more may yet go), put a few of the cannas in large pots and gave away the rest, chopped the crape myrtle down (have to keep pruning new growth each year), and took out 2 of three ornamental grass clumps. I added:

Spearmint (helps repel mice, and we had a problem)

Tansy

Scutellarias, laterifolia and baicalensis

Joe Pye weed

Marrubium vulgare

Rose campion, which was supposed to be lamb's ears (trade seed)

Sweet Annie, which has reseeded

Santolina tomentosa

Gaura, white & pink

Platycodon

Valeriana officinalis

Hypericum ascyron (which I hope is going to bloom this year)

Rosemary (not WS)

Salvia officinalis

Heteropappus Blue Knoll (which reseeded)

Germander

HH, single yellow (needs to be moved)

Parsley, Italian

Althea officinalis

Agastache mexicana (love this! doesn't set much seed, though)

Bronze fennel

Calendula officinalis

Lavender, tall English

Dianthus, Raspberry Parfait

Boxwood (rooted cutting from my MA garden)

Opuntia (I grew this from seed, and it's doing well - so exciting!)

Feverfew, Virgo

Thyme

Rue

French tarragon (from plant brought from MA)

Oregano, True Greek

Dictamnus albus

Monarda citriodora

Viola, Helen Mount

Leonotis nepetifolia

Comfrey

Pineapple sage - WS last year, wintered over plants indoors, and replanted this year.

In addition to all this, I have tons of containers with various annuals & herbs. ALL this stuff, except where otherwise indicated, was WS. It boggles my mind what can be done in two years.

Happy gardening, all!