On the Eastern side of my house is a woody area that slopes down the hill to a creek
that runs into the Back Bay of Biloxi, which in turn flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
As far as I can tell, this land still has its virgin trees. This land across the Bay from Biloxi
used to be accessible only ferry. Word has it that a man named Popps ran the ferry.
The land across the mainland wasn't developed until the middle part of this century except for
a few farms. It was "out in the country" and basically undeveloped.
Now, this area is well-developed, and to take the place of the ferry, a causeway was built,
and since then, a modern bridge which raises to let tugboats and sailboats traverse the Bay.
The road that runs through here is called "Popps Ferry Road", and the bridge "Popps Ferry Bridge".

Enough of the history - on through the garden!

There is a treasure trove of neat vegetation on this side of our property. We have Live oak trees, pine, sugar pine, black oak, sweet gum, pin oak, huckleberry bushes, magnolias that grow up on their own, honeysuckle vines, palmettos, American holly, muscadine vines, Pawpaw trees, and cedar trees. These are all natural. We used to have a beautiful Dogwood tree until the last hurricane spawned a tornado that knocked down lots of trees and it was a casualty. We also used to have safaris trees, but they dwindled away. Things are always changing in nature. There used to be some small Safaris trees, but these seem to have disappeared. Wish I could find one of them around to transplant back to the area.
Plants and trees we added are persimmon trees (from seed, which are now bearing persimmons),
fig trees, Sweet Shrub, Wild Azalea (transplanted from across the street), English dogwood, azaleas, and hydrangeas.
It's a really neat place. Most of it is really thick, while the outer edge is cultivated (sort of).
We've been named a National Wildlife Habitat mainly because of this part of our property.

Same area, earlier in the year, a year after we cleared some underbrush to rescue some azaleas that had gotten lost in the wilds to the Beautyberry which took over and overwhelmed the azaleas. This photo was taken in early spring before the fig trees (branches to right) and Sweet Shrub (branches at lower left) leafed out. The cedar tree was caught in the same hurricane that ruined a lot of trees in the far back.
We had to pull it up with a wench and prop it up to try to upright it after the small tornado bent it over.
Things grow fast here, don't they (see first picture taken during the summer)???

 

Dividing the woods garden from the house are two fig trees, a Live oak, the sweet shrub, and a butterfly bush. The fig trees do bear fruit, but we seldom get much of it.
The birds feast regularly on them early in the mornings before I get up (I'm not a morning person!).

 

Strange as it may seem, birds have helped to spread other natural plants from around the area to the woods garden. Not present when we first built on this property, we now have Spider Wart, beautyberry, and poke berry plants.

	This is my wild azalea plant. I absolutely love it. It is also called wild honeysuckle azalea. In the spring of 2001, I "acquired" two more wild azaleas from a vacant lot across the street that is doomed for road expansion. They are planted in the woods and in the Secret Garden. I figure I just saved two beautiful plants from extermination.
The Beautyberry is beautiful, but for some reason the birds don't touch it. It spreads like mad through the root system, and if you don't watch out, it will take over an area, as they once did to the azaleas in this garden.
	These palmettos were all over the place when we built our house. They apparently are very native to the area. They stay a small bush size.
The Sweet Shrub was planted by me. It came from my parent's yard, who got their start from my aunt. It is a typically Southern plant. It has dark maroonish-colored "flowers" that bloom in the early Spring. They have a heavenly scent. It is both sweet and spicy. It's wonderful!
	This Spider Wart grows wild, and its seeds are apparently spread by birds. They "appeared" in my yard and have spread to the woods garden. They grow wild around this part of the country. The blooms don't last long, but are pretty. Once they stop flowering, the stalk left is unsightly.
Honeysuckle blooms in the Spring. Honeysuckle is a wild vine that spreads like mad! I have wonderful childhood memories of these sweet-smelling flowers. You can actually eat the nectar from them. Here's how: Pluck an individual flower from the vine. There is a tiny "stopper" at the base where it is connected to the vine. Carefully twist the little end off and gently pull the stamen through the stem of the flower. As it passes through, it acts like a little "syringe" that pulls the nectar through. You can see the drop of nectar at the tip of the stamen. Tough it to your tongue. The more ripe (yellowish tan) the flower is, the more nectar there is, and the sweeter it is. Nectar of the Gods!

	Early Spring brings on tiny little dark green-brown flowers which are hardly noticeable on the Pawpaw tree.
Here is what the Pawpaw fruit looks like. They never get to ripen because the raccoons and possums get to them before they can. How do I know? They simply disappear during the night. Often the soft branches of the tree are broken because they can't bear the weight of the animals. Once, years ago (before the woods animals discovered they were there), I actually got to taste one when it was nearly ripe. It turned a pale yellow, and has a flavor similar similar to a banana although the texture is different. Word has it that it is going to become cultivated because it is very nutritious.
	Persimmons are native to this area; however, I didn't have any, so I planted some persimmon seeds and they grew and grew. A few years ago they started making persimmons. If you've never tasted a native persimmon, you've never lived! They are so good! Persimmon trees are easily raised from seeds, but they take a long time to bear fruit.

I've begun introducing more plants into my woods garden.
I've decided to keep the "weeds" and unwanted sprouts and vines cut back with an occasional mowing, and let the leaves that fall remain as a carpet and to help maintain the ambiance of
a woods garden and to create mulch.
I've planted more azaleas near the edge of the yard, and last year planted some hydrangeas just under the fringes of the trees in the woods garden. In this climate, hydrangeas in full sun would wilt too often. I've added the lacy varieties and the antique varieties. Should have good photos next year. They bloomed this year, but the blossoms were not very spectacular.

 

In the back of the woods garden, in a little clearing, I planted a bigleaf magnolia. It struggled for three years and almost didn't make it, but it is now starting to grow. It may take years to bloom, but when it does, it will look like the flowers I photographed elsewhere.

Well worth the wait, huh?

(Update: Hurricane Katrina's saltwater surge killed my magnolia. It was just too young and fragile, and the heat after the storm and lack of water doomed it. We dug it out from under a pile of rubble that had washed in from the bay, and it seemed to do well for a while, but it really saddened me when it finally died. These magnolias are not native to our area, but can be found further north in Southwestern Mississippi.)