winter snow… open yurt with pavilion in background. Back to the kind of winters we had for the first 20 years I lived here. The minimum went below zero for the first time in over 10 years, and snow on the ground for weeks.

new trails…I started last winter, and we continued into the spring (see below) making a path through the woods from one side of the garden to the other. This was party of my original vision for the garden forty years ago; what finally kicked it in gear is that all of the hemlocks on both sides of the garden have been killed by an insect, so the paths will open up new areas to garden. More about this in my recent blog.

smilax… an early spring job was to harvest about 50# of greenbrier (Smilax rotundifolia) for Heron Botanicals. It is used in preparing a medication for Lyme’s disease. An opportunity for the apprentices to earn some $

Lester and Joe (Kansas Joe) rebuilding kitchen add-on roof. The outdoor kitchen extension was trashed – again – by a falling limb. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have built quite so ‘in the woods.’ A big limb falling 50 feet can do a lot of damage.

new tent platform on ‘hemlock hill’…Hemlock Hill was a grove of hemlocks on the ridge overlooking the garden. Now the hemlocks are gone; we used the trunks to make a path and some terracing. More on this in my recent blog post: http://mountaingardensherbs.com/index.php/paradise-gardening-update/

new pathways on ‘hemlock hill’… (class from Raleigh builds trail)..

Juliet Blankespoor of Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, filming for her online class.

squirrel corn… spring ephemerals…

Spring hike…

Ramps!

duck yard…

duck yard completed, ducks in their pond…. Anconas, which we got from Duck Dance farm..

Joe and Fox (Daoist Traditions) give students a tour of Chinese herbs..

Salvia przewalskii. dan shen… planting bedfulls of chinese herbs….

Campanula americana..

Codonopsis tangshen, with Nettle (dog) in background.

Thatching with Miscanthus…

Good fruit year… plums, asian pears, apples….

new beds with boards along drive…

Workshops thruout the season… here, Joe guides a group thru the garden… yellow flower pictured here is Patrinia, a chinese herb in the valerian family.

winecap mushrooms coming up from mulch… (alongside bitter variety of jiao gu lan)….

lobster mushroom, wildcrafted…

bare root plants being prepped for shipment.

reconstructing edge of drive… solar panels pictured here, along with solar shower tank and former compost area in background…

‘Kansas’ Joe returns… amongst other projects, he fixes up our wood fired oven (amazing what a good cleaning will do!), and helps to finish off the big pond, which has been several years in the works.