Spring is just around the corner. This year it seems like winter and spring have been taking turns in our neighborhood weekly. The temperature has gone from below freezing to close to 50F and back down again every week. Our tulips have started to push themselves above ground. I wish they wouldn’t do that. There is at least a month and a half of winter … Continue reading Early Crocuses
It’s still very cold here and I cannot do much in the garden aside from filling bird feeders and changing water in the birdbaths. But there are a lot of activities with regard to gardening in the house. The plant catalogs are piling up as well as weekly if not daily email from companies I have ordered from in the past. New issues of garden … Continue reading Hellebores
The weather forecast for a foot of snow last Sunday didn’t become reality however the temperature has dropped down to 0 Fahrenheit plus windchill factor of -20 Fahrenheit. Icy rain water from Sunday turned into solid ice on all surfaces. Our driveway, from which we cleared wet snow & slush off and salted, still became skating rink. Wherever I look there is either frozen snow … Continue reading Winter Birds
Winter is a great time to sit back and enjoy the emptiness in the garden. Our garden is not quite empty since I left a lot of seed heads intact for the birds and insects. Some brush piles for them to take refuge in from the cold, situate here and there. Still, it’s much emptier than during the growing season. Winter is also a time … Continue reading Winter: Planning Time
Happy New Year 2019 everyone As I have been doing since my childhood, on the first day of the year: I wake up early to watch the first sunrise. And, for the past few years, on the morning of January 1st, I also capture an image of the sunrise. No matter how pretty or moody the sky is, it’s worth getting up early to watch the new … Continue reading New Year, New Dawn
Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy and healthy holiday. Â Continue reading Happy Holidays
Raising More Monarchs This Year: As much as I want to complain about the heat and heavy rain, the garden seems to enjoy it. Â The lawn that I haven’t invaded with extended garden yet is lush green. Â Vegetables and flowers are growing profusely. Â Except for tomatoes, the heirloom types don’t do well at all. Â And insects, they follow their food in. We are happy to … Continue reading Monarch
The Color Of Summer Staying away from social media for almost two months proved very productive. Â I don’t mean to offend anyone who has been reading my blog or bloggers I’ve been following but I needed time to reflect, get things done and read books. Â I did get a lot of things done, have read more books and even started baking again. Â Now I’m back, … Continue reading Hibiscus
A Successful Split One of our hives swarmed last month. Â It wasn’t a surprise, but I didn’t expect them to do it this early since the weather has been seesawing with cold temperatures, rain or wind. Â I put off inspection of the hives because of the weather. Â I knew from the last inspection that the hive in question came out of the winter with a … Continue reading After the Swarm
In A Cold Climate There are many types of jasmine and most of them prefer warm weather. I love jasmine and refuse to be deterred by cold weather. When I lived in an apartment I grew a couple of Arabian jasmine (Jasminum sambac) on the windowsill as there was plenty of sun on that side. Now I’ve moved further north and have a garden, I … Continue reading Growing Jasmine
Petals and Wings 