Getting Vibrant Again Spring is finally here or should I say summer is finally here. The temperature was over 90°F for a couple of days which broke the record. I’m not complaining after months of snow and freezing temperature. The plants in our garden are not complaining either. They’re pushing out shoots and buds all over the garden. Dragging on as winter did, spring is … Continue reading Spring Colors
Some Colors In The Garden I see the spring light at the end of the tunnel, a little dim but still a cheerful light of hope. Snow still covers the majority of the garden but in the bare specks there are colors. Crocuses in the front yard bloomed nicely this year. Last year they became deer food. At least deer left the bulbs alone so … Continue reading Spring At Last
Try To Get A Natural Effect We have a few days off for Thanksgiving and have spent most of our time grinding up leaves for mulch, fixing the deer fence to make sure there is no breach and planting crocuses and tulips. Autumn is the time to put in spring crocus bulbs. We put a couple of hundred bulbs in a year ago and love … Continue reading Growing Crocuses
Getting More Beautiful Every Year We weren’t able to enjoy our tree peonies in the last two years as it was either too windy or too much rain which brought down the flowers as soon as they opened up. This year, though we had a lot of rain, there was a brief period without and it coincided with the tree peony blooming. Not just us … Continue reading Tree Peony-Nishiki
A Tiny Fragrant Star Winter is my time for basement gardening. Where we live we have to put our tropical plants in the basement for the winter. It’s a lot of labor to go through twice a year. We take them in when we know that the night temperature will drop and stay below 45°F, usually around late September or early October. Then take them back … Continue reading Water Jasmine
Weed Flowers Most people hate weeds, maybe with an exception for Cannabis. I don’t like weeds either but as I turn our little garden patch back to nature, to make it into a sanctuary for other species as well as ourselves, I have to learn to get along with weeds. When I walk through a farmer’s market, I also note that they sell many flowers we … Continue reading Flowers For Pollinators III
Vegetables And Herbs As I mentioned in the previous post, I left some vegetables and herbs flowering for pollinators and for seeds. It also helps to draw beneficial insects into the vegetable patch. The downside is that these beneficial insects don’t discriminate, they eat anything they can grab, honeybees and bumblebees included. But we never have to spray our vegetables. There are many more herbs and vegetables in … Continue reading Flowers for Pollinators II
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
Bright And Sunny Summer is finally here and the temperature is making the point so far. We had a very cool spring which was very good for the roses and many other cool loving plants. Tomato, chili pepper and basil think otherwise. My basil are only a couple of inches tall and the chili peppers are taking their sweet time to grow. But I’m not complaining. I … Continue reading Summer
Petals and Wings 