The Garden in Winter

Well here we are in the middle of December, just a couple of weeks away from Christmas, and there are still flowers blooming in the garden!

I had been lamenting with my dad on the phone that the garden was past it's best and was looking ratty.  But when I went out and had a look around, I was surprised to see how much was actually blooming.

While the drifts of orange Profusion zinnia that once filled most of the island beds are now dead and brown, there are still a surprising number of flowers in evidence.

The Salvia Evolution that I started from seed in the spring was a real winner this year, and is still going.  Interestingly, I planted red and white, but only the red came up. The  pink and white Vinca is still with us too, while the Cosmos and Cleome have long gone to seed.

This dense patch is a favorite hangout of the local sparrows, who hide in there for hours, scratching around for seeds.  And, of course, the hummingbirds enjoyed the tubular red flowers.

Another bird favorite is the purple Fountain Grass.  In spring many of the plumes showed evidence that they were providing nice cozy nest linings, and the birds seem to like poking around in it for bugs as well.

The other island bed got overrun with Bermuda grass this year, as it seems to every year. With the two major surgeries I had this year, along with instructions not to do any bending, I wasn't able to keep up with it.  Even though it's overrun with grass, there are still some flowers hanging on, such as the pink Vinca and yellow Lantana in the photo above.

I've also still got quite a lot of milkweed, which is good because one of our neighbors put out a call in our neighborhood Facebook group last week that she needed some milkweed to feed the Monarch larvae that her grandsons had in their terrarium.  I was able to take her some cuttings (and while I was snipping, I found a couple of caterpillars that I brought in and set up in my Big Cube cage as we were expecting a freeze.  As you can see, some of the milkweed is even still blooming and, a bonus at this time of year, it's not covered in aphids!

We've had some strange weather recently.  We've had at least one frost where I thought I might have lost some plants, but surprisingly, they survived.  We also had a couple of nights with temps below freezing, but no frost.  The plants made it through that too.

That *may* have been our winter for the year, yesterday the temperature with back in the 70's!

And finally, the Bottlebrush bush is looking quite festive with it's bright red "brushes".  These seem to be a favorite of bees.  I wouldn't have expected that but, back in the summer, it was always covered in happy bees.  The Savannah holly is looking festive too, with its bright green leaves and red berries.  There was enough that I was able to take some trimmings to add to our Christmas decorations on the mantelpiece.

I've got one final surgery scheduled for tomorrow.  Luckily this is a minor procedure to insert a coil into the last aneurysm.  I'll be in hospital overnight and then back home for a few days' rest.

In case I don't get around to blogging again before Christmas, let me take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and the best of the Holiday Season.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Winter Work Day in the Garden

I think I have mentioned I'm between jobs (still) at the moment, so yesterday I took advantage of the beautiful weather and tackled an eyesore in the garden that has been bugging me for years.

This section of bare wall at the end of the garden is UGLY!!!  I've wanted to do something about it since we moved in, but since there were originally three pine trees outside the wall, the whole area was so chock full of roots it was impossible to dig.

Obviously, the trees are no longer there (thanks to the developer not taking care to protect the trees in the neighborhood while putting in walls, utilities etc) so I decided that the time had come to tackle the issue.

Up until now, the area has been home to a selection of containers (more or less empty at present), but I wanted to add an evergreen that would (a) HIDE THE WALL and (b) offer some habitat to the birds who visit.

I found what I was looking for in this Hollywood Juniper.

According to the tag, it's a fast grower and will fill out to 30' tall and 10 feet wide.

Getting it in the ground was a bit of a battle. In addition to the tree roots that I knew were there, there's a hard layer of clay about a foot underground.  We broke it up as best we could using the auger that my husband uses to aerate the lawn and filled it in with good soil before planting.  Looking at this photo of it in place, I can see that when it's mature it should fill the area nicely, hiding that ugly wall and offering us some privacy if the field across the street behind the wall gets built on, as I'm sure it will.

Today I refreshed the containers with some cool weather color - white and purple alyssum and some snapdragons, and arranged them around the birdbath.

I also added some alyssum, dianthus, stock and salvia greggi to one of the island beds (the other one will have to wait).  

After all that I took a well earned break on the patio, and look who paid a visit...

These are Cedar Waxwings and I have never seen them before!  I've added them to my "Life List" now.  Amazing to think I might have missed them - I just happened to look up and there they were.  I wonder if they will stop by and be counted at the weekend, during the Great BackYard Bird Count.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Birds of Winter - Part Two

I mentioned in yesterday's blog post that I had neglected to get photos of our most colorful and year round  feathered visitors - the Northern Cardinals and the Blue Jays  So this morning, I set seed on the wall and lay in wait, warmly wrapped up on the patio with my camera.

I love the way they watch me from the hedgerow as I set out the seed.  How many birds do you see in this photo? (you can click on it to see a larger version)

They all get along pretty well and will hop around each other on the wall, selecting their seeds of choice.

Can you say "greedy"?  This Blue Jay grabbed not one, but two, peanuts.

Here's another photo of them all in the hedgerow.  Perhaps I should take inventory of the plants there and see what I can add to my own garden to invite the birds to stay.

I'm linking today's post with Camera Critters.

 Here's hoping you had an enjoyable and safe New Year celebration and wishing you happy gardening and birding in 2016!

 




Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Icepocalypse 2014, and Birds in the Winter Garden

You might have heard that we had a little weather here in Houston recently. 

Credit: Twitter @CraigHlavaty

The Houston Chronicle ran a great photo gallery of some of the internet memes going around making fun of us, which I got a chuckle out of.

In truth, the only reason I ended up staying home on Tuesday was because Metro had decided not to run any Park and Ride buses.  My thought was, since the weather was supposed to get worse during the day, I didn't want to drive into downtown and then get stuck there, or get stuck in traffic on icy roads coming home.

As it happened, it wasn't too bad at all and I had a fun day at home, watching the rest of the country poking fun at us on Facebook.  (My heart goes out to the poor souls in Atlanta who did get stuck in the ice and snow)

That's not to say it didn't get cold here.  As I went out to feed the birds in the morning, I could feel tiny little ice pellets landing in my hair.  They accumulated in plant containers and on the roof of the house.

Our back garden was certainly popular that day.  I stood inside the back door and took quite a few photos of the birds, availing themselves of the seed I had put out for them.

Not all the birds were welcomed. I was not happy to see this brown-headed cowbird out on the feeder. Their habit of laying their eggs in other birds' nests, often pushing the host bird's own eggs out of the nest, does not endear them to me. He was just a passing visitor though, and he appeared to be on his own.

Our most numerous visitors in the past couple of weeks have been American Goldfinches, although of course, we mostly see them in their "olive drab" winter plumage. Trying to get an accurate count of these, and of the house sparrows, for Project Feeder Watch, is a bit of a guessing game.

At first I assumed these birds were some sort of sparrow but couldn't find them when trying to ID them at What Bird?  I posted a photo in the forum there and discovered that these are, in fact, female red-winged blackbirds.  I would never have figured that out on my own!

Of course, we enjoyed visits from our regulars like this red cardinal all fluffed up against the cold in the Southern Wax Myrtle and our old friend "Woody", the red bellied woodpecker.

So that was "Icepocalypse 2014" and since then our weather has been like a roller coaster ride.

Yesterday I was pottering in the garden in a t-shirt and my husband and I sat on the patio with a bottle of wine in the evening. 

This morning we got woken up by rain pounding on the bedroom window and it was cold, wet and wintry when I went grocery shopping earlier.

The forecast is for highs of 40's and 50's with lows in the 30's, so I think I'll be putting the T-shirt away for a couple of weeks.

And of course, when summer does get here, we'll all be complaining about the heat and humidity.

But this is Texas, after all :-)


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

A Little Whimsy in the Winter Garden

As usual, for this time of year, the garden is a rather depressing sight.  The St. Augustine grass gifted/cursed to us by the builder is dormant and the most sickly yellow color.  

Most everything else is bare, with the exception of the Southern Wax Myrtle and the Savannah Holly, both of which are sporting thousands of berries in which the birds seem to have no interest whatsoever.  

What's up with that?  I thought the birds would be going crazy for the berries at this time of year.

Anyway, I digress.  Recently as I was browsing on Facebook, I found an enchanting page called Flea Market Gardening and their website, http://www.fleamarketgardening.org/ which is filled with wonderful ideas for re-purposing flea market finds or stuff in the attic into decorative items for the garden.

The more I read, the more I realized that I loved these ideas and would like to incorporate some of them into my own garden.

I decided to start simple.  I've shown you this garden trellis before.  It hides the unsightly utility boxes in the corner.  This corner has also become home to the "brush pile", a growing pile of dead bushes, clippings etc that won't fit in the compost pile. The birds love it back there :-)

Since I've had trouble getting anything much to grow over the trellis,  and inspired by the Flea Market Gardening page, I decided to dig through the garage and see what I had that could be used to brighten it up a bit.

I came across some grapevine wreaths that I used to change out on the front door of the house where I used to live.  I used to decorate them with ribbons and silk vines garlands for the holidays, or with silk flower garlands for spring and summer.

Since we have a beautiful glass inset on our front door at the house we live in now, a rustic wreath just never seemed to look right, so they had all got shoved in a corner of the garage.

So I dug one of them out, as well as some ribbon, silk flowers and also some pine cones collected from our road trip last year, put it together and attached it to the trellis. 

I like how it looks, and am now thinking about other ideas for whimsical garden decorations to add in the future.  


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Winter Garden

The recent weather hasn't been too kind to the garden.  I suppose I shouldn't complain, after all it is winter.

But after spending early December weekends sitting on the patio in shorts and watching the butterflies, I was brought back to earth with a thump when last week's freeze did quite a bit of damage.

Oh, I know most of it will come back eventually and just needs to be trimmed back, but it's still sad to see.

Saddest of all is the fact that this Milkweed bush, now dead and brown, had a whole host of caterpillars on it the day before the frost hit.

I don't know whether the three chrysalises have made it or not.  They still look nice and bright and green, and being on the underside of the fence and birdbath, they were protected from the actual frost, if not the cold temperatures.

All I can do is wait and see. If they make it, I'll have to run and get some container plants so they have some nectar to feed on.

In addition to the freeze, we had some very strong wind and rain on another night and I went out the following morning to discover a large branch had come off the dead pine tree on the other side of the wall. (We've been waiting for the developer to respond to requests to take it down before it falls on our house, but that's another story).

But all is not gloom and doom.  Some things made it through unscathed.  As you can see in the photo above, my deliciously scented rosemary topiary is still healthy, as are the million achillea babies under the Vitex tree.

Note to self: must see about relocating some of these in the spring.

And also, in amongst the frozen Mandevilla and Lantana, the Turk's Cap Lilies are looking great - so far, at least.

So that's the garden in winter.  Some low points and some high points, but that's gardening isn't it?

How is your garden doing this winter?


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Quotations for Winter Gardens

Originally posted on my Green and Serene blog at HoustonGrows

One of my hobbies, other than gardening, is collecting quotations. It seems that others can often say things so much more eloquently than I can. Here are some poems and quotations about winter and the garden. I hope you enjoy them.

*******


"The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination." ~Ward Elliot Hour

"The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice that the days are getting longer. Minute by minute they lengthen out. It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change. It is imperceptible even as the growth of a child, as you watch it day by day, until the moment comes when with a start of delighted surprise we realize that we can stay out of doors in a twilight lasting for another quarter of a precious hour." ~Vita Sackville-West

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show." ~Andrew Wyeth

"Bare branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow."
- Nelda Hartmann, January Morn

"Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." ~Pietro Aretino

"Every winter,
When the great sun has turned his face away,
The earth goes down into a vale of grief,
And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses."
~Charles Kingsley

"Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again."
~Bill Morgan, Jr.

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." ~William Blake

"Of winter's lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer's secret
Deep down within its heart."
~Charles G. Stater

"Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art of winter gardening and even the most experienced gardener can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them."

~Vincent A. Simeone

Planning for Year Round Interest in the Garden

As I strolled around my garden last week, I realized that, while I do have some bright spots in the garden, there is so much more I can do to create some winter interest in the garden.  And I have a feeling that whatever I do to improve the garden in winter will also benefit the garden in summer.

There's not much I can do right now, of course, about the St. Augustine grass going dormant and creating a yellow blanket on the ground, but in the borders and (future) beds, there's a lot I can do to create some winter interest in the garden.

For example, right now, we have a vast expanse of (dormant) lawn, with a backdrop of beige wall, flanked on either side by bland fence.

Last year, we started work on the garden by creating a border along the back wall with stone left over by our home builder, but shortly after my husband moved what he swears was 27,000 tons of stone into position, I realized it wasn't deep enough to accomodate a multi-level shrubbery as I would like. All I had room for was a single row of (dwarf) bushes -- not exactly the effect I was looking for.

I hesitated to mention this to my husband... but after a few pointed comments he got the hint ;-) 

So at some point this spring, we're going to move the stone further out from the wall which will give me more room to have taller bushes in the back, and shorter plants in the front.

I've already got a few things planted. Among them:

• Vitex - Vitex agnus-castus
• Althea - hibiscus syriacus
• Savannah holly - Ilex x attenuata 'Savannah'
• Purple Fountain Grass - Pennisetum setaceum) 'Rubrum' 
• Hummingbird Bush - Anisacanthus wrightii

Now I'm starting to think about what else can go in there. What I want are plants that will be as pleasant to look at in the winter as they are in the summer.  I especially love evergreens, but as I've been researching tonight, I've come across some that change color in the winter.  Others have berries etc., which of course the birds will enjoy eating as much as I enjoy looking at them.

Anyway, I'm not sure yet, but here are some possibilities for larger evergreen shrubs for the back of the border:

• Yaupon holly - Ilex vomitoria
• Indian Hawthorn - Raphiolepis indica
• Agarita - Mahonia trifofoliata
• Burford Holly - Ilex cornuta burfordii
• Glossy Abelia - Abelia x grandiflora

For the front of the border, I could choose:

• Dwarf burford holly - Ilex cornuta rotunda burfordii (I already have a couple of these, I love them, they are very versatile)
• Dwarf pittosporum - Pittosporum tobira wheeleri
• Barberry - Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea
• Juniper - Juniperus sp.

And then, of course, I want to include flowers (annuals and perennials) to attract butterflies etc.

• Daylily - Hemerocallis spp.
• Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea
• Turk's Cap - Malvaviscus drummondii
• Verbena - Verbena X hybrida
• Zinnia - Zinnia elegans
• Pentas - Pentas lanceolata

So now, as I enter these items on the Wishlist in my Garden Journal I can start some serious planning to get some interest in the garden that will last all the way from spring to winter!

Further information:
Texas A & M - Outstanding Shrubs for Texas
Texas A & M - Top Ten Landscape Perennials