Squirrels are less frequently seen at the birdfeeder after applying a pepper sauce to sunflower seeds. A year ago, a recommended switch to safflower seed achieved a similar result, but purchasing fifty pound bags of sunflower seeds and the pepper sauce is considerably cheaper. Birds, from my observation, prefer the sunflower seeds. As is typical…
Month: January 2018
Scenes from the winter garden
No doubt, the garden in winter is more sparse than times when it is chock full of blooms, but it is not devoid of interest. A brief stroll on a chilly afternoon reveals sights that are overlooked with the distraction of flowers.
Don’t expect too much
Yes, it’s fifty five degrees. No, it is not spring, so expecting more than the few scattered flowers of witch hazels, hellebores, and snowdrops is unrealistic. Still, I regularly examine early flowering magnolias (below) and ‘Okame’ cherry for swelling buds, which are not swelling despite this spell of late January warmth, and probably won’t for…
Scheduled for removal
Along with modest new plantings envisioned for spring, a few removals also are scheduled for some mild winter weekend. Two small trees have failed to survive, a small Japanese maple planted in the middle of a vigorous patch of Ostrich ferns, and a Golden Chain tree with pendulous branches (Laburnum x watereri ‘Pendulum’, below). Planting…
A splendid winter day
Today is one of those days, rare days when winter temperatures are just right and I’m itching to get outside. To do something, anything. There are two parts to this equation, weather and will, and only on occasion do they coincide. A prior engagement dictates that the day’s labor will be brief, and no matter…
Work to be done
There is work to be done if flowers of hellebores and snowdrops are to be seen as milder temperatures return. The largest piles of leaves were removed from hellebores before the recent, extended period of cold, when swelling buds were first noticed. While flower buds were not injured by temperatures that dropped to zero, foliage…
Impatient for spring
Is mid January too early to be impatient for spring? In fact, I don’t wish to scoot the calendar forward, but anxiously await milder temperatures after several weeks of cold that has dragged on far too long. Winter flowers are a partial remedy for seemingly interminable winters, but many blooms curl for protection as temperatures…
The return of milder temperatures, and then…..
The vagaries of weather seldom stray from the gardener’s thoughts, and sometimes inhabit his restless sleep. January is often discomforting, bundling against the chill, but also with apprehension that survival of treasures exposed in the garden is beyond his control. The return of milder temperatures in recent days was most welcome after a two week…
A brown leafed gordlinia
Six spindly gordinias (x Gordlinia grandiflora) were planted into clumps of three when it became sadly apparent that a long established Franklinia (Franklinia alatamaha, flowers below) was nearing its demise. Over three years, a rejuvenated spring drenched the surrounding soil (also killing a large witch hazel and holly), and though Franklinia was found in the…
Zone 7, or not?
Evaluating the cold hardiness of plants seems an inexact science, better than guessing, but a process prone to inaccuracies. Many gardeners accurately tell stories of a plant, or several that should have been sufficiently tolerant of cold, but failed in temperatures that should not have been a problem. No doubt, there are a number of…
Adding a fothergilla
Funny how things pop into your head out of nowhere. For no particular reason, it suddenly occurs to me that I must plant a fothergilla into a more prominent spot. Already, there are two in the garden, but in areas where they are least likely to be seen. Why does there have to be a…
Cold and colder
In this frigid, snow dusted garden, large leafed evergreens (aucubas, daphniphyllum, and rhododendron, below) curl for protection as temperatures approach zero. Leaves will return to form once temperatures rise nearer the freezing point, and it is likely that there is no long term harm, though Daphniphylum is only marginally cold hardy for this zone, so…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 