And Good For Pollinators Too Aside from the beautiful fall foliage colors there’s not much color elsewhere. Chrysanthemum seems to be abundant in autumn but I’m not a fan of it. I associate it with mourning. It’s commonly used in funerals and to arrange on a wreath. So, I don’t plant chrysanthemum in our garden. We still have plenty of choices for autumn blooming plants … Continue reading Late Season Flowers
A Good Time For Planning: Flowers For Pollinators I Snow came down two days ago accumulating just three inches. Today the garden is still covered with snow and the temperature dropped down to just above 10°F. It’s a perfect winter day for bird watching through the patio door. Since the ground is covered with snow and the sources of water around here have turned to ice, they congregate around our … Continue reading Too Cold To Be Outside
Ode to a Honeybee In Late Autumn We are having a warm autumn this year. The daytime temperature is still hovering above 50° F on most days but drops back to slightly above 30° F at night. We had frost for a couple of days early on in the season which killed off most of the garden. So there is not much left for the bees. Honeybees … Continue reading Last Resource
Late Autumn Did we really have a summer? Briefly. Most of the leaves are gone now and the plants are ready to take a rest. But some plants in the garden are still pushing out their last show of the season. I envy some of them when I do garden chores in a sweatshirt in a bracing chilly wind and see them with their bare branches … Continue reading What’s Left
Still Blooming Heading toward the end of summer when not many things are blooming whether because of high temperature, humidity, pouring rain or drought, there are still some diehard flowers that never disappoint me. Garden Phlox, Black-eyed Susan, Echinacea and Alyssum just to name a few. There are also some low growing shrubs and lovely weeds, yes weeds – that is what they are categorized. … Continue reading Dependable Summer Plants (continued)
A New Life Cycle Begins After months of bone chilling cold and several feet of snow, Mother nature finally eased her grip. The temperature has been increasing slowly and the spring rain has arrived. It’s been raining on and off since yesterday, with intermittent drizzle. When it was just drizzling, I took the opportunity to walk around looking for both survivors and a new generation in the garden. … Continue reading Spring, Finally
Still Standing Fall is officially here, not just the date but temperature and the color of leaves. The ground is practically covered with leaves and the branches are becoming more bare everyday. We start grinding up the leaves for mulching and composting when we have days off. I don’t cut back much of anything except for the Butterfly bushes (Buddleja davidii). This lovely, fragrant and … Continue reading Before The Frost
An End And A Beginning Spring has come and gone and somewhat unevenly too. The gap between day and night temperatures was very wide for some time, then a continuously pouring rain for several days. During the 70 to 85 degrees days, the plants shot up, leaves peeking out and flowers budding only to be knocked back by very cold nights. Vegetables, except for the tomatoes and … Continue reading Spring Recap
Still Some Colors After uneven temperatures and one rainstorm after another, most of the flowers in our garden have just given up or rotted away. Only a few of them have kept blooming. As the years pass, more and more we see pounding rainfall in autumn that frequently strips the trees of what should be their proudly worn, colorful fall coat. Flowers, being the weaker … Continue reading October Garden
Petals and Wings 