It’s cold out there. I’ve seen colder, much colder, but it’s been a while since we’ve had such an extended stretch of days staying below freezing. Snow has covered the garden for nearly two weeks, and even as the neighborhood thaws in milder temperatures in the next week, snow will linger in this mostly shaded…

I hesitate to mention this for fear that my wife might read this entry (a rarity). But if she did, it could lead to trouble. The plantings on both sides of the driveway entrance are out of control. Occasionally, I debate chopping everything out and starting over, but I greatly prefer lush and overgrown to…

With snow covering the garden for two weeks, I’m becoming increasingly anxious to get out to do something. Shoveling the driveway gets me outside, but this deepens mounds of snow covering hellebores along the drive that could begin flowering in the next few weeks. I refuse to expend additional effort to toss the snow further…

Happily, I no longer wake before 5 AM when I would check the overnight low temperature as I dressed for the workday. This morning, I woke to a toasty nineteen degrees (Fahrenheit) and bright sunshine, but afternoon temperatures are expected to rise to a mild forty degrees. Colder weather will soon return, but I have…

The pristine cover of snow is now interrupted by many footprints, some mine as I walked the garden to dislodge heavy accumulations from arching branches, but also from deer prospecting for their next meal. I’ve recently become aware that the double strength, November application of deer repellent that typically carries through until spring was waning…

Today is the reward for forward thinking thirty-six years ago when this lot, with a short front and deep back, was selected to build our new home. The short length of driveway is quickly cleared of snow, and with a minimum of effort since my splurge several years ago to purchase a plugin electric snowblower…

Berries of the Koehne holly (Ilex koehneana, below) litter the driveway, though these hundreds barely dent the holly’s many clusters. The ripe berries have been dislodged by flocks of robins that are not regularly seen in such numbers, but dependably visit this holly and another equally large ‘Mary Nell’ later in winter. Berries of the…

In my first year since retiring, I’ve obsessively plugged the few remaining gaps in this thirty-five year old, acre and a quarter garden. Any spot of bare earth potentially grows a weed, so every inch must be covered. Of course, this is also an excellent excuse to purchase new plants, so a few weeks ago…

Early flowering snowdrops barely stand above the arching leaves of a sedge that has slowly invaded its space. In recent years, I’ve chopped this area of ‘Evergold’ sedge (Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’, below) to the ground before snowdrops appear, but December flowers make this task difficult without injuring an unacceptable number of flowering stems. Oh well,…

In September, I was thrilled to see thirteen leaves returning from the summer dormancy of cranefly orchids (Tipularia discolor). All but a few were purple leafed, top and bottom, with the typical foliage green with a purple underside. I see a small percentage of fully purple leaves in the wild, so this is a mutation…

What to do on a warm winter afternoon? If you’re a bee, find a hellebore. Tomorrow, you’ll be sheltered from the cold, so load up on nectar. The next mild weather could be days or weeks away. What do I do on a mild winter afternoon? I visit the hellebores in bloom and look closely…

The winter season is a time for anticipation. Today, I monitor swelling buds of Ozark witch hazels (Hamamelis vernalis, below) and a variety of hellebores that will soon open to flower continuously through the winter months. As expected, flowers of camellias are opening (below) after the latest spell of freezes in the upper teens (Fahrenheit)…