Here it is. Our main dahlia garden in February …
Oops, my mistake. Here it is. Our main dahlia garden in February … Continue reading The Dahlia Garden In February
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A little bit of snow doesn’t stop flowers from blooming in Chicago. Official snow measurement so far is 17″, and that may be all as the sun is shining. Almost no snow in some areas, huge drifts in others.
Earlier today…
Happy snow!!!!!!!
I distinctly remember saying ‘Well, it’s your garden too, so buy it. I don’t have to like every plant we have.’ What was I thinking?!?!?!?! I was not so much thinking as being the voice of inexperience. I was the one looking at the scrawny pot of zebra grass, fully expecting it to turn into not much of anything. WRONG. Fast forward a few years. I distinctly remember saying ‘There was an end of season sale on grasses. I bought 16 of them!!!!!!!!’ I may have been inexperienced when I made the first statement, but the 2nd one proves that I am teachable. Grasses have become a mainstay in our yard. They offer unsurpassed winter interest, are beautiful whether snow covered or not, they are likely to offer shining seedheads on a sunny day, and billowing plumes on a windy day. The zebra grass we brought home many years ago has grown, as you can see below.
Here is how ours looked back in 2003. You can see the distinctive stripes that make a name of zebra grass ever so appropriate. So when you see these sad looking scrawny plants at the nursery this spring, don’t hesitate. Buy one, or buy 16. It’s grass. It will grow back.
The curly branches you see are a little bit of heaven for birds. The branches are excellent for the birds to perch on while they wait their turn at one of our feeders. This year I’ve been lamenting that our bird feeders are all but empty, and we have now seen the hawk that is helping to make it so. We’ve added two Christmas trees near our feeders thanks to Scott’s suggestion at About.com. One tree was ours, one tree Mike ‘appropriated’ from a neighbor. I personally think he should have waited till after Christmas, but the decision was not mine to make. About.com also has an article on the best foods for birds in the winter. We did make a classic gardener’s mistake – underestimating the size of the mature plant. Curly wants to be about 8′ wide and tall, and is fighting it out with a tanyosho pine. Both are now too big for us to be comfortable moving them. The battleground is not a pretty site, as the pine has become misshapen by Curly’s proximity. The pine may win yet win the war … the contorted filbert has been showing signs of Eastern filbert blight. By the time you see the signs, the plant has probably been infected for a year or two and the prognosis is not good. Mike removed the infected branches, which is why Kevin was able to provide us with this striking photograph. I couldn’t bear to part with the beautiful branches and I am sure to find a use for them someday.
Contorted filberts aren’t much to look at in the summer. They strongly resemble Cousin It. We love ours even then since the birds flock to it. Filberts want full sun, and we give it no special care. We do prune the occasional straight branch that pops up. Appropriately, I will categorize under the Work Less tab as well.
Could this be the only kind of bird in my Chicagoland garden this winter? Throughout the year, our yard is usually a haven for birds. I know they need food, shelter, and water if they are going to grace my yard. What they seem to need this year, is….. Continue reading OhWhatAWednesday – Gimme Shelter
It takes no magic at all to put an arrangement like this together. Whatever puzzle pieces I find in the yard, and however I put them together, it just seems to work. So please don’t hesitate to give it a try yourself! The branches and the coal bucket of dirt waited in the garage till I had time to put them together. If you can’t get to them right away either, be sure to leave them in the garage or you’ll have a frozen bucket of dirt to thaw.
Ours gets sun all morning and part of the afternoon. It will grow with less, but don’t expect much in the way of berries. I hardly ever water it. I certainly do enjoy it, especially this time of year with a clear line of site from inside the house. Stop back next week to see what else is looking good in my garden even in winter!
It’s the morning of Christmas Eve. Unbelievably, everything is on schedule and in control. Now there’s a miracle for you. That will all change when John and Heather get here with Alexandria. For us, this Christmas is all about the baby. Our granddaughter is 18 months old. She is joy, excitement and energy wrapped up as a little girl. Among her gifts is one I think will be a favorite – a big box. It is wrapped and has cut-out windows. Little kids always seem to like the box best anyway, so I went right for it.
As I start my Christmas Eve, I’ll tie back to the theme of this weekly series and tell you what looks good in my yard this week. That would be the crèche. I wish you a happy and blessed Christmas! Carol
Are you looking for one last really really good Christmas gift for the gardener in your life? Here it is – a birdbath heater. Ok, so maybe its one last really really good gift for the birds in your yard. Either way, the gardener, non-gardener, and the birds will enjoy this one for years to come.
The heater is lurking behind the rock in this birdbath. This heater allows us to keep water in the birdbath all winter long. Operative words – keep water in the birdbath all winter long. Without a heater, water in a birdbath can freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw. You get it. The birdbath will likely crack by spring. When we aren’t using a heater, we take the top of the birdbath off and lean it against the base. (We being Mike.) Decorative, though no longer functional. With a heater, you’ll need to Phil the birdbath, or turn the heater off when there isn’t any water. A heater running when there is no water in the feeder is a bad thing. We move our birdbath closer to the house in winter. (We again being Mike.) That allows for the cord to reach, and for us to see the birds. We have feeders nearby (Christmas idea!). There is also shrubbery there as the birds need a place to perch and to hide. Give them an environment and they will come.
Structure, structure, structure. Lacking, lacking, lacking. I’ve learned a lot since this picture was taken in 2003. Even then, I knew enough to title it ‘Back 40 needs structure’. The ‘Back 40’ part of the name was easy. This yard is so big that we refer to that corner as the back 40. As far as the rest of the name, ‘needs structure’, structure was sorely lacking. I had wanted a flower garden when we started this area a few years before that. In the fall, I diligently cut back most of the vegetation I did have. The combination of just flowers and everything cut back gave me the farm field effect. Flash forward to the first snow now in 2010.
Structure, structure, structure. Yes, yes, yes. Certainly, God gets credit for the snow. But even a fresh snow in 2003 would not have helped. It would simply have morphed into a snowy flat farm field effect. At that time, I had jumped in as fast as I could to summer color. It worked. But looking out the window the rest of the year was boring. Let me make that Boring with a capital ‘B’. And it wasn’t going to get better till I invested in the larger ticket items I had avoided thus far. No more! I know that I need something tall, like the pines. And something even taller, like the aptly named Miscanthus Giganteus grass. Even the annuals and perennials are not cut back if I think they will add winter interest, especially when snow covered. Yes, it is fun to buy pretty flowers. When spring comes next year though, step back and look at the big picture. If it looks like my yard in 2003, think again!
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