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.

The finch convention

After four December frosts, the garden looks very brown and still, post-Christmas. That is, the plants are brown and still. There is still plenty of color and motion and sound here because the finches have arrived!

Actually, the American Goldfinches have been here for several weeks but they haven't been coming to the feeders in any great numbers until this week. And, finally, this week the Pine Siskins showed up, too, and now I have a convention of finches at the feeders. A confinchion, you might say.

I got a new lens for my camera for Christmas and I'm eager to practice with it, so even though it was cold and a bit drizzly today, I did go out and try to record some of the action at the feeders. These are goldfinches with one lone striped siskin hanging upside down on the left.

On the platform feeder, most of the finches were Pine Siskins.

The finches really like the sunflower seed hearts. They seem to spend more time at this feeder than they do at the thistle socks that I hung just for them.

When the Blue Jay flew in for his snack, all the little birds scattered. But they didn't go far and as soon as he left, they were back again.

I didn't stay out very long because it wasn't particularly pleasant and conditions were not really good for photography. Maybe I can practice some more tomorrow.

On days like this, inseparable companions Beau and Bella have the best idea. Find a warm spot such as your favorite footstool in front of the fireplace and curl up for a nap.

Winter surprises

There are always surprises around the garden, mostly pleasant but sometimes not so pleasant. Puttering around the yard today, all I found were pleasant surprises.

I'm always surprised to see butterflies in the garden in winter, but there were actually several out today, enjoying the brilliant sunshine. I saw a few Cloudless Sulphurs, at least one Gulf Fritillary and several smaller butterflies that were too quick for me to identify, but my favorite was this beautiful Red Admiral.

  The Red Admiral was enjoying what remains of the purple lantana after our frosts of a couple of weeks ago.

Another surprise that I had not noticed before was this limb of the Esperanza that had escaped the frost by snuggling up to the warm brick wall. Today a large carpenter bee was enjoying its blossoms.

 A Christmas surprise was this small bamboo fountain which my brother-in-law gave me in our gift exchange. My old fountain had suffered a broken arm and this replaces it. Charlie, my backyard cat, and all the animals that frequent the backyard, are very happy with it! 

The blossoms of the shrimp plant are always a surprise to me. I continue to be fascinated by them. (That fuzzy brown thing in the middle of the blossom is a cluster of sycamore seeds, fallen from the tree that towers over the shrimp plant.)  

As the days of this trying year of 2011 dwindle down to a precious few, I wonder what other delightful surprises await me in my garden before we ring in that new year.

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.

Our wintry week

It will be cold tonight. Temperatures barely rose into the 40s today and our sky is clear this evening. There are no friendly blanketing clouds to help keep us warm tonight. Before daylight tomorrow, the temperature may get as low as the lower 20s.

For gardeners, this brings to mind the devastating week of cold weather that we had one year ago at this time. After many years of extremely mild winters during which many Southeast Texas gardeners had added lots of tropical plants to their gardens, all of a sudden we had a return to temperatures that were more appropriate to a Zone 8B winter. It was quite a shock to many.

I looked back at my garden journal to recall the temperatures of that cold, cold week in 2010. It began on January 5, when the high was 48 degrees and the low was 27. For seven days thereafter the temperature never rose above 57 during daylight hours and at night, the lows fell well into the 20s every night. On one night, January 9, we reached a low of 18 degrees. That's when many poor plants that had been able to hang on until then finally gave up the ghost.

It's not expected to get that cold, or stay cold that long, this year. By this weekend, the temperatures are expected to begin moderating once again. Within a couple of weeks after that, we'll probably begin seeing more signs of the coming spring. A short cold spell like this, however, will be quite sufficient for those of us who do prefer at least a little bit of real winter to balance out our six or seven months of summer.

Until the weekend and the return of warmer temperatures, do what you need to do to take care of your plants, and please, don't forget to provide extra protection and warmth for any outside pets you may have. They are not used to cold weather either.

And, of course, don't forget to feed the birds!

Post-Christmas freeze browns the garden even more

The garden took another hit last night as the temperature went below freezing again. This morning the birdbaths and even my little backyard fountain were covered in ice. The fountain, though, was very thinly covered and the water was still running.

Our Christmas guests wanted to see my garden, but, unfortunately, I didn't have much to show them that wasn't brown and crispy. I told them they must come back in the summer when things are green and blooming. For now the main points of interest in the yard are the new pond, where the plants and fish seem to be thriving, and the new bottletree which continues to bloom in spite of the frost!



Oh, yes, and there are the birds, of course.

The birdfeeders that have been pretty quiet all autumn have begun to pick up a bit more traffic now that it is winter. The goldfinches are finally visiting the feeders along with the warblers and that makes a difference. But some of my favorite feeder visitors are those who visit all year long, not just in the winter, and among the most faithful of these are the Red-bellied Woodpeckers.


Mr. R.B. Woodpecker loves the peanuts on the feeding table and always goes for them first.


Mrs. R.B., on the opposite side of the table, has more eclectic tastes and will sample a mouthful of whatever is before her.

Woodpeckers are some of the most fun - and easiest - birds to watch in winter. They brighten the gardener's gray and brown landscape with their antics and outsized personalities, and Mr. and Mrs. Red-bellied Woodpecker are just about number one on my list of favorite winter visitors.

I may not have blossoms, but as long as the birds are hungry, I will have some color in my yard and something to entertain me on winter days.