Very nice!

Your side of the mountain looks nice. I take it you're in western NC, and I'm wondering how much snow you typically get? How deep does the frost go? We've been covered with snow the past few weeks, with more falling as I type. It would be so nice to garden year-round.

Yes I am in western North Carolina near the Tennessee border. When compared to other folds of the local mountains, I am in Siberolina. I get more snow than the rest of the county. Amounts vary from year to year with the storms passing through, but they tend to melt off within three to five days. In a long cold spell, the ground might freeze 3 inches deep. Only one winter was there a snow pack that lasted more than a month.

I garden in between snows and actually do the annual chop down and the bulk of forest gardening kind chores over the winter. My off season is fall after the paths don't need anymore weed whacking.

I would consider that climate benign and garden conducive. I’m sure there are gardening challenges, but I can understand how western NC has grown in population — for good or bad. Is the local forest healthy?

Overall I would say the local forest is healthy with a great deal of intact native ecosystems. Half the county is part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There has been growth and we are beginning to get the overflow from Asheville as gentrification there drives prices up, but it is still largely rural. My closest neighbor is a cow.

There are issues of course. A decade ago the Wooly Adelgid decimated the Hemlocks. We lost maybe 100 trees on our land creating a hole in the forest big enough that a few years ago a helicopter spent two days hovering over us looking for pakalolo. A predator beetle was released and the Hemlocks are coming back. The Emerald Ash Borer recently arrived and that is not good.

Closer to town you are more likely to find invasives in the forest on certain mountains like burning bush, privet, English ivy, bittersweet and multiflora rose. That is a more concentrated thing close to people than a widespread issue.

The forest around me is certainly healthy enough that I have every kind varmint that should be here and then some - pigs and coyote. Hunting season which is now, deer and bear, gets a bit nerve wracking because I live in a known sweet spot for deer. I get swarmed by hunters. My own private deer hunter swears there are still mountain lions up here and the elk from the park have been migrating out. I may see them soon.

Thanks for the description. I've got plenty of invasives, but no pakalolo...that I'm aware of...

The Under Garden is all ready for winter. Growth of the conifers and evergreens is slow but sure. There was a bad wave of the needle cast of Blue Spruce in gardens this year. Mine were sprayed quick and spared. So far.

With a little snow frosting on top.

Yikes! I have heard about the Spotted Lanternfly and knew it was headed this way. I'll have to read up on the particulars. I see insects traps set by the state(?) every year on my commute. For what I don't know. The Emerald Ash Borer is here now and quite busy.

Anything but underwhelming.. Cool Christopher. Its been fun seeing the progress of the garden over the years.

Anything but underwhelming - I'll take that as a compliment Michelle. For many seeing this online, driving by and even a few in person the question may be, What is it? I hope you can see a faint and growing echo of your heather garden that I saw here so many years ago.

So lovely in the winter. Great to see the bones of the garden. I imagine you have to prune constantly!

Zero pruning is involved with the dwarf conifers and the small Yucca filamentosa. In the growing season the evergreens and conifers get skylights. Come winter, the wildflower meadow they grow in gets the annual chop and drop to the ground. Compared to a conventional mulched bed landscape, the input and maintenance of this is quite minimal.

The Under Garden was looking quite fetching yesterday afternoon in the overcast light before the Christmas Eve Storm. Tomorrow I wake up to snow and 14 degrees.

One thing that has not grown at all for me is Emerald Spreader Japanese Yew, Taxus cuspidata 'Monloo'. It just sits there. The diagnosis is it does not like my acid soil - lime has helped - and three springs out of four the new growth gets frozen. How can you not grow a Yew?

I ponder adding another low growing conifer or evergreen in its space. The yew can stay on in apparently natural bonsai conditions. Color and texture are important. Wanting a deep forest green. I already have Juniperus conferta and Cephalotaxus harringtonia 'Prostrata'. Is there such a thing as a groundcover pine other than Pinus mugo ?

Very nice to have a project that has so many options.

fwiw: Taxus taunton, a spreading yew, has done very well up here.

Keep up the good work! :-)