No fit day for gardening

Bored with being stuck inside these last couple of days, I decided to take a turn around the garden to see how things are going. Well, it turns out most things are brown and mushy. There's not a lot of excitement to be had out there these days.

What little excitement there is is in thinking ahead to what needs to be done. A lot of cleanup. A couple of big plants need to be moved. I need to get some seeds planted under my grow lights to get ready for the spring vegetable garden. Several of the raised beds in the garden need new surrounds to replace old ones that have been damaged or rotted over twenty years' time.

Then, of course, there are the birds. The only real "chore" I'm doing in the garden these days is keeping the bird feeders topped up with seeds, and that's turning out to be a full time job since the finches have arrived. Flocks of a hundred or more come and go from the feeders throughout the day and the seed levels decline even as I watch.

Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches feed both on the feeders and on the ground underneath.

Time to make another run to my birdseed supplier, I think.

Meantime, back to my seed catalogs. On a cold, gray winter day, I'll take my excitement in an easy chair by the fireplace.

So this is winter!

Well, now. Hasn't this been fun? At a time when we here near the humid Gulf Coast are usually preparing to prune our roses and plant our new perennials for the coming season and are dreading the early onslaught of summer's heat, we are hit with 20 degree temperatures and, in some places at least, snow and ice. So this is what winter is like!

It seems strange to have such cold weather for such an extended period in the month of February here in Southeast Texas, but the climate is changing and we probably had better brace ourselves for more of these extreme weather events in our future.

We had just the lightest dusting of snow in our yard when we got up this morning. I had to head into Northwest Houston for an appointment at mid-morning and the roads were clear. The bridge over Spring Creek and all the other bridges along the way had been treated with the de-icer and the overpass at Tomball had been closed as a precaution. The Department of Transportation had done a good job.

(And isn't it a comfort to us to know at a time like this that we have people out there on the job making the way safe for the rest of us? I wonder how often any of us really stop to think how much we owe to hard-working government employees who keep the wheels of society turning. They are often poorly paid and frequently vilified and demonized by a certain segment of the population, but we would be in a real mess without them. Of course, as a former government employee myself, I might be slightly prejudiced, but I really don't think I overstate the case. There. Now I feel better! But I digress...)

On my way back from my appointment, I stopped by Tractor Supply to get some more suet cakes and fruit and nut mix for the birds. They've been emptying my feeders at an alarming rate this week, and as soon as I got back home, I carried my new supplies outside to refill the feeders. I'm now having to refill some of the feeders, such as the thistle seed socks, every day.

After I finished filling the feeders, I went on a walk around the yard. I couldn't help noticing that many of my shrubs and perennials that had held onto their leaves until now were looking decidedly droopy today. I expect a lot of those leaves will be dropping over the next few days.

As I walked through the vegetable garden, I was a little surprised to see that even some of the brassica crops that usually shrug off our cold weather were looking a bit flattened. I think, though, that at least some of them will perk back up when the weather warms a bit.

That warm-up could come as early as this week-end, although the weather forecasters tell us we may be in for at least a couple more days of very cold weather next week. Ah, well, it gives me time to read and blog and get my Felcos ready for rose pruning. Because it will soon be time for that, you know.

Crape murder and other crimes against Nature

(First posted here on 12/28/07.)
Step away from the crape myrtle! Now put down those pruning shears. Slowly! You were about to commit a crime against Nature by topping that tree.

Not only are you committing a crime against an innocent tree, you are also committing a crime against all the creatures that feed on the seed of that tree. Creatures like these:


Goldfinches love crape myrtle seeds almost as much as they love thistle seed!




Another goldfinch in its winter dress poses among the seed pods.

Many seed eating birds will feed on the seed pods of the crape myrtle in winter. I have personally seen Northern Cardinals and Chipping Sparrows partaking of a meal on the trees in my yard, but none of the birds love those seeds as much as the little American Goldfinch. Almost any time of the day that I look out my kitchen window in winter I can count on seeing goldfinches eating the seeds of the crape myrtles along our fence.

Pruning crape myrtles just now will deprive the lovely goldfinch, as well as other birds, of an important source of nutrition in the coldest part of winter. Now, admittedly, we don't usually have extended cold weather that is a threat to the lives of well-insulated birds, but still, finding food is harder for birds in winter. I say anything that we can do to make it a little easier for them we should do.

Sometimes, making it easier for wildlife means tolerating a little untidiness in our yards. It may mean leaving seed heads or dried berries on plants a little longer than we normally would. Perhaps it means not pruning away that dead limb immediately (unless it is a safety hazard, of course), but leaving it there to attract insects which attract woodpeckers, nuthatches, warblers and other insect-eating birds.

It might even mean leaving a dead tree standing on your property, if you live in an area where you can do that. Birds and other animals absolutely love dead trees! They are a source of food and can also become a place of shelter where cavity nesting birds can raise their young or where they can roost on cold winter nights or in bad weather.

Birds also love brush piles. If you can stack the dead limbs that you prune in some out-of-the-way corner of your yard, you will make the little birds in your neighborhood very happy. This brush pile, by the way, is also an excellent place to deposit your Christmas tree - that is, if you had a live tree that was cut. The evergreen branches will provide shelter for the birds for weeks to come.

Not only crape myrtles, of course, but many of the shrubs and trees that we have in our yards produce food that is important to birds at this time of year. The one that springs readily to mind is the holly. We grow many different varieties of the holly in our landscapes and almost all of them produce berries that are loved by birds such our permanent neighbor, the Northern Mockingbird, and our dapper winter visitor, the Cedar Waxwing.

As its name implies the Cedar Waxwing also will feed voraciously on the fruit of the cedar and junipers, many of which are staples in our landscapes. The stories of waxwings and even American Robins becoming intoxicated on the fermented fruit of junipers are not just a suburban legend. It actually happens, but, in my yard at least, such fruits disappear down the gullets of the birds long before they have a chance to ferment!

So, if you need an excuse to put away your pruning shears and settle back in your easy chair for another day - or month - before you begin any serious pruning, just remember this face:




The goldfinches and other birds - not to mention the crapes - will thank you for waiting.

And that, my friends, is what gardening with Nature is all about!

Note: This entry was first published in early winter. Here in mid- to late February, it actually is okay to prune your crape myrtles if they need it. Most of the seeds are probably gone by now. But, please, please don't top your trees!