Life is Emerging

Georgia aster (Symphyotrichum georgianum)

Softhair coneflower (Rudbeckia mollis)
Though it's the beginning of winter in most of the nation, it is not so apparent here in west-central Florida where today's temperatures are in the 70's F well before noon.  As a former northerner, it still takes a bit of getting used to even after 33 years here.  Not that I'm complaining about not owning a snow shovel anymore or a down jacket......
One of my great joys in living here is being able to garden year-round.  I was born to putter around a landscape and I get plenty of time to do that where I now reside. I moved into a blank canvas and for the first time in my life I've been able to truly start from scratch. It's almost amusing when I think that most people landscape their yard to raise its property value. I much prefer having nothing to start with, and if what I am now doing in this rental yard increases or decreases its economic value is immaterial to me. I simply know that it is increasing the value of my life. I need to putter and I feed off of the life it is bringing in.
Today I saw and heard a house wren.  Not the common resident Carolina wrens that reside here all the time, but a winter migrant that I have not seen before in this landscape. It strengthens my belief that things are moving in the right direction. It will be years before the woody plants I am adding reach their full potential, but even small changes have significant impacts. The house wren made that clear. Over the past few weeks, the palm warblers have too. Life is arriving to this landscape I'm working on.
The seeds I've been sowing also are emerging in their flats. It's like Christmas all over again as seedlings emerge from the previously bare soil. Some of these will be added to my landscape this coming spring, but most will end up in other people's landscapes via my hobby nursery that I call Hawthorn Hill. Seed from my landscape, taking the next step to the landscapes of others. Since arriving to Florida in 1987, I've seen a huge increase in interest about native plants and in using them to create living landscapes out of formerly sterile ones, but there still seems to be a knowledge gap about the plant choices possible. Here in Florida, we have nearly 2000 herbaceous native plants that could be considered wildflowers and grasses, but there are barely over 100 that are commonly grown commercially. Together, we need to change that. As gardeners/landscapers, we must arm ourselves better than we have regarding what species we want to use and then we need to encourage the growers to add them to their stock.  I am doing my own share of that through this nursery in my backyard and by the writing that I do. 
I'm excited about spring. If all goes well, I will have about 50 species to share.  One small step at a time.

Rayless sunflower (Helianthus radula)

Wavyleaf aster (Symphyotrichum undulatum)

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