We do still get bugs if the weather stays warm at all. While cleaning out the fountain today I noticed little wrigglers in there. Going to barely touch freezing tonight. Whatever else is going on in the garden, the birds always look good and need only a bit of care. Water is even more important for them in cold weather. It is nothing like as cold now as it looks in these pics which are from winter 08/09. Last year at this time it had snowed and stayed that way for a long time for this area. D
If the weather stays mild over winter you may find they will raise 2 families. This happens here with some. Probably because conditions are better and more food than hot summers. We make sure there is water for summer months as it is hard on the birds but it needs to be clear of cats. I have part of the paddock water set up so oerflow goes into a shallower container at one end of the bath tub. The big paddock birds love it. Caught some cockatoos indulging in a wash. My water tank (barrel) at the end of the work room deck is coverd with an old very bush fuschia and I have found little honey birds haveing a drink and and dipping wings while they hang on to the branches. I won't feed wild birds because of cats and the parrots would take over but water is good. Liz
Here's something that looked awfully good to me when they popped up out of the ground yesterday. Same colour as our December sunset. Great sunny days tho nights are getting cold. This is when I feed the birds a little to keep them going. D
Do any of you grow vegetation suitable as bird food? I have a lot of native seed plants and honey flowers for the honey eaters and seed eaters. Also European fruit trees which the parrots always get the most before I do. Lemons are one of the few things safe from their clutches. Every thing else is fair game. Hawthorn hedges (large and old from first farm) are a wonderful parrot magnet in autumn. Liz
Frost has hit and with the 93% relative humidity that came along with that it made for some great photo opportunities, such as the sugar coating-like appearance of this rose flowerbud. That's it for the tender perennials for this year, I guess. Now it becomes a matter of wait and see for the first of next year's flowers, with the very first being a Helleborus hybrid that typically flowers around the turn of the year, it'll depend on how long this freeze lasts.
Dana - loved your sunset picture! It was down to 23F here last night, so I may have lost some plants; just have to wait and see. This is the first winter in 13 years that it's been this cold! If this is what global warming does, my garden is definitely going to start resembling Canadian gardens. Oooo...
Well, This is what's looking good in the garden lately. The redwings flash through once in a while for a touch of colour. The little Wren was recovering from an encounter with a window and was soon gone. D
Hi, Dana! What an adorable wren! I can hear it now "Guys, the air just froze up on me and I hit it!" We had a hard freeze, down to 19F, and I may have lost my dwarf magnolia (which had a few blossoms on it, and lots of leaves right before the freeze). Hope it returns in spring. Oh well . . .
Oh Anne, I know how it feels to lose the faves but it does give one legitimate reason to enter a nursery again in Spring! We have had magnolias in sporadic bloom here this past fall and even last week, before the snow fell I guess. All gone now and back to glorious copious amounts of rain! I have a new roof so I can love it freely once more, ha ha. D
True . . . I always try to stay positive, so that I can look on such a loss as another opportunity to improve the yard, but if it's gone, it will be like mourning a friend.
Yes, as when I almost lost my Bay Laurel last winter but as it was getting out of hand, size-wise for its spot, I was glad to see it only half come back. We recently had -7C for a few days and nights and I see that my passion vine is still keeping most of its leaves and has made it thru that wee spell very nicely but it is not really deep nor even the mere beginning of true winter. Soon tho, soon. Di
So far our winter weather has been a mixed bag. Sunday’s ice storm found our pussywillow bush confused.
I think we should add to the topic, what's started to grow. I did see a small yellow crocus budding by the library. I don't think it is a bedding plant. My clemantis has some green leaves starting.
Was surprised how well these pics turned out with so little aparent light. Maybe the colour - white? D Hellebore
I have still got my little trouper Violas.. The Violas have exceeded my expectations after Great Britan was under the snow blanket for three weeks. I replanted a Forest Flame this weekbefore the soil froze two days ago. In summer it will look like this: http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/pieris-forest-flame/classid.4237/?affiliate=gardenersworld
Here's what still looks good in my winter garden, and inside the cold sunporch too... 1 & 2 ~ Blue Prince/Princess Hollyberry shrub 3 ~ Calicarpa "Beautyberry" shrub 4 ~ Bay Laurel tree 5 & 6 ~ various succulents and earth star plants... : )