While the ground is covered with snow and temperatures hover at zero, I've been trolling through photos of my visit to Seattle last July (with 70 other garden bloggers) and especially noticing ornaments in the garden, some plain and some fancy. Many of us have birdbaths in our garden - even me - who has not ornamented my garden in any thoughtful way. It is not a big step to go from a simple birdbath to a fancy…
I rarely participate in Foliage Follow-up, but Pam Penick at Digging has prompted me to take a good look at the foliage around me at this time of the year. I have owned this orchid cactus (Epiphyllum) for a number of years. I pay almost no attention to it which is shameful, because it would bloom regularly and magnificently if I did. You can see I don't even give it the pedestal it deserves. For the past year…
This Bloom Day is the coldest day of the winter so far. -4 degrees at 7 am. Still I have a few blooms to enjoy. This Christmas cactus is becoming quite magnificent and sits in the corner of our bedroom where it is one of the first things I see when I wake up. We are still a little disorganized from the nearly completed work on our kitchen so this Christmas cactus is sitting it out in the…
The National Garden Bureau’s goal is to make the world more beautiful with plants by inspiring gardeners and giving them useful information. This year they have named 2012 The Year of the Geranium and the Year of the Heuchera. Both of these flower families are large and varied, but none have difficult requirements for growing success. The geranium the NGB is celebrating this year can more accurately be called pelargonium. When Linnaeus of Sweden first published his plant…
Actually my neighbor Sheila of Dell Farmstead started her cheesemaking workshop at 9 am! Fortunately, she included a beautiful lunch in the day's schedule. By the end of the day we had made: chevre, a goat cheese; 30 minute mozzarella; feta; cheddar; creme fraiche, soft goat cheese, and a Tomme unique to Dell Farmstead. We learned that all cheese begins with separating the curds from the whey - with the help of additives like citric acid, and starter…
Do you have half your firewood supply left? For more Wordlessness on Wednnesday click here.
Christmas celebrations end for us on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. The wise men have finally arrived, the last gifts have been given and the party is over. But maybe not quite. When I take the Christmas tree down, I put it outside and decorate it for the birds. The ornaments are simple, but tasty, peanut butter smeared into pine cones and then rolled in bird seed. A tie can be ribbon, yarn or twine, no…
Fine Gardening's photo of Agastache 'Cana' has got me all excited. Recently I read somewhere (I wish I could remember where) that some plants were not only deer resistant, they were deer repellent. Deer have a sensitive sense of smell and some plants have such a strong scent that deer are actually repelled and avoid them. I am thinking of strategically planting some attractive deer repellant plants among my garden beds in the hope this will discourage deer - and…
“What news? What news?” was often the cry when E. F. Benson’s delightfully pretentious Lucia met her neighbor Georgie coming across the Riseholm village green in “Queen Lucia,” the first of several books about the life in an English village before WWII. When I return from Saturday morning rounds in my own rural village my husband always wants to know what news I bring home. “What’s new?” is our inevitable query of neighbors at local gatherings. The desire…
For more Skywatch on Friday click here.