Since winter seems to be dragging on just a little too long, my mom Peggy decided a trip to the Meijer’s floral department was in order! This certainly added cheer to my day since nothing is blooming yet in the garden
Category: General
Enough of February 2015
February is finally done and it was quite a month for much of the country. It finished here in Chicago as tied with 1875 for the coldest February ever, with an average temperature of 14.6°F, and the third snowiest with just under 27 inches. I hope March will not be anywhere near as record breaking.
I took the last day of the month to go around with Daisy and see how things were looking. Snowy would be the best description.
I have no idea how the plants are faring this year. I’ll have to just be patient and wait and see.
This is what I call the “sparrow corner”. The sparrows love having their own feeder filled with inexpensive food, and have spent all winter flitting back and forth from the viburnum to the feeder. Keeps them occupied and away from the other feeders.
Like most winters, the arborvitae and yews took the worst beating. The “privacy fence” of arborvitae are actually beginning to look better than they did earlier this month, so maybe it’ll last another year.
The yews still show winter burn and snow damage from last year, and I’m expecting that they’ll look worse this year. They’ve been crushed by all the snow once again. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. and they’ll bounce back. Or it’ll give me chance to start over again 🙂
The vegetable gardens in the back and side yards are well insulated and just waiting for spring, which can’t come fast enough. The sticks mark the overwintering garlic.
This birdhouse doesn’t look very inviting. Last year I put them out too late, so no one made it their home. Hopefully this spring.
My feeders on the feeder pole have been a hit (This Birthday Was For The Birds)! Cardinals, red-breasted nuthatches, white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, chickadees, goldfinches, purple finches and house finches are daily visitors. Juncoes happily scavenge anything that spills on the ground.
At least it’s been a lot sunnier lately and my solar snowman finally cheerfully lights up the night.
How are your plants faring? Are you worried?
Superbowl Snowstorm
Much of the country has been having their share of big winter snowstorms and we here in Chicago got ours this past weekend. The snow started Saturday late afternoon, and didn’t end until the lake effect finale finally moved on around 6 am Monday morning. All total, this end up the as the 5th biggest single snowfall. At my house, I measured 19.75 in of snow.
The plows had a lot of trouble keeping up. But I have to admit, it was one of those really pretty snows, at least until the wind picked up and the bushes started collapsing under the weight of the snow.
The birds were really thankful for the feeders, even if they were covered in snow! The goldfinches, chickadees, cardinals, juncoes, red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, purple finches, and house sparrows all ventured out in the snow to visit the feeders.
No squirrels around all weekend, they must be hunkered down in their nests.
The snow in the NoNo sunflower ball didn’t bother the chickadees and goldfinches. They were visiting all day, except of course, when I was out there shooting the picture.
This tube feeder is my “sparrow’ feeder.
The heated birdbath kept the water thawed pretty well during the storm. This is the first winter I’ve had one out. I was lucky enough to get it as a hand-me-down when my mom got a new one. They’re not here now, but in the winter the birds like a place to get an easy drink.
The arborvitaes are not faring very well with all this snow. Hopefully they literally bounce back once the snow melts.
Daisy and I are not going out there!
So instead we made a path for Daisy to get around. Those little legs are not made for deep snow! I also have to thank my boys for shoveling paths to all the bird feeders when they were snowblowing and shoveling on their snow day off of school. This snow was too deep for me as well. This is much better!
But, my snowman didn’t mind at all!
When the sun came out after the storm was done, the sky was a beautiful sapphire blue.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2015! As many of you have noticed, I had to take a little break this fall. Sometimes, life just gets busy and something needs to give. I’ve been taking lots of pictures and notes, so I’m looking forward to catching up over the next few weeks. In the meantime, here’s a look back at some of my most popular posts of 2014!
1. Painting Garden Rock Garden Markers: A fun project to jazz up the garden.
2. Girls Weekend in Asheville: A wonderful weekend away in a great city!
3. Angel Wings in the Snow: Fascinating tracks in the snow.
4. Creeping Thyme Problems: Trying to salvage a mess in the garden.
5. Peggy’s Snowflakes: Every snowflake is truly different.
6. Gardening: All in the Family: From grandparents to great-granchildren, gardening is a family tradition.
7. Homemade Suet Cakes: Giving homemade suet a try. The birds loved it!
8. Visiting the Glass Pumpkin Patch 2014: I love seeing all the different creations the artists bring every year.
9. Yarn Wrapped Bottles: A fun and easy craft project to decorate for the holidays, a party, a wedding, or for whatever you have that needs some color.
10. My New Raised Bed: Construction: I needed more garden space so we built two new raised bed gardens.
Visiting the Pumpkin Patch 2014
A couple of weeks ago, it was time to visit the Glass Pumpkin Patch at the Morton Arboretum again.
This has become one of my favorite fall things to do. The weather wasn’t great, but at least on the day I went it wasn’t raining. I also had the chance to make my own glass pumpkin paperweight in a class earlier in the week. I’ll describe that super fun experience in the next post. But as a teaser, here’s the pumpkins my friend and I made, along with everyone’s in the class. Mine is the green one, hers is the orange.
So many different pumpkins! We each got to pick our own colors, and each turned out beautiful and unique.
As always, there are so many to choose from in the patch. Each artist has their own style and unique methods of making the pumpkins their own. After taking the class and learning some basic techniques, it was fun to talk to the artists about how they make theirs. Some of the artists are local, but many travel from the Girl Glass Studios run by Shannon Jane Morgan in Sacramento. They travel from California with their pumpkins, and a furnace, kiln and all their equipment to run classes and glass blowing demonstrations.
There was even a “vegetable garden” this year.
Of course, I added to my collection. This year I chose a pumpkin by Matthew Urban of Furnace Urbini that can be lit up and glows a beautiful golden bronze. I love the twisting of the spines and spiderweb appearance of this pumpkin.
Here’s my collection…
Seniors, School Boards and Sunflowers
Well that title certainly should catch your attention. What could they possibly have to do with one another? Nothing much except the first two has been needing my attention a lot lately, keeping me out of the garden.
The “seniors” refer to my twin boys who are seniors in high school this year. With that comes the college adventure; trips, research and then applications. We’ve been all around looking at schools for them this summer and fall.
Read everything under the sun to hopefully find just the right matches, and now it’s time to buckle down and get those applications out.
“School Board” refers to what happens when you get a low turn out for a local election during a teacher contract year. Long story short, there was a lot of friction between the board and teachers, leading to a potential teacher strike threatening to derail my kids’ senior year, college application process and XC running season. Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time writing emails and attending school board meetings. Looks like we have a solution, still crossing my fingers unit the contracts are signed.
Sunflowers, well, they just make me happy and they’ve been a fun addition to my garden this year.
I thought I was going to be able to save some heads for some winter bird treats after the bees and butterflies were done with them.
But a couple of weeks ago, the seed-heavy heads just started disappearing.
In only a few days they were all gone. Cleanly cut as though they’d been harvested with shears. I would love to know where they went, since earlier in the summer if one was taken down, whatever the critter was tended to set it next to the garden and shred it to pieces. These were hauled away for winter storage no doubt.
So, after looking at the headless stalks for far too long (see reasons above), I figured I’d better cut them down. I hadn’t realized how thick giant sunflower stems are. I needed to head to the shed to get some bigger clippers.
And a bigger shovel.
The sunflowers are done for the year. I’m looking forward to them again next year. Are you starting to remove things from the garden yet?
Painted Rocks as Plant Labels–In the Garden
Last fall, I had great fun painting rocks to use as plant labels (Painting Rock Garden Markers). They look great in the garden and add a bright splash of color! But, now that I know what I’ve actually planted, I need to get my paints out and make some more to complete the set. 
Gardening: All in the Family
For as long as I can remember my mom had vegetable and flower gardens, sometimes big, sometimes small. So did my grandparents. All this interest in growing things rubbed off on me and hopefully I’ll pass it on to my kids. With that in mind, I had my mom and daughter take us on a tour of their June gardens. First my mom, Peggy, in northern Michigan.
So lucky to have the space of all these raised beds (check out all the raspberries in the back!).
Petunia garden protected from the rabbits
Zinnias!
Hummingbirds are enjoying the flowers right now. Soon they’ll be looking for some extra food.
A more natural garden.
A lovely visitor–Tiger Swallowtail
Salad in a bag!
Succulents! This is a creative work in progress. I can’t wait to see what she does with this. I know she’s got some great ideas.
My daughter Emily lives in an apartment with some friends downtown. When we were talking earlier in the spring, she was complaining about the price of tomatoes. Soon after that, I happened to see a great looking potted patio tomato plant that would fit on her porch.
She couldn’t have been more excited and has taken lovingly care of this plant. It gets a hello and a glass of water from the mason jar every morning. Recently I got a text that read “Mom! 2 of my tomatoes hatched!” I hope they grow big, red and juicy for her. I think she’ll be hooked then.
Do you have someone who inspired you, or have you inspired anyone else to garden?
A View of the June Garden-Front yard
Yesterday, the backyard, now on to the front yard…
This is the area of biggest change. In preparation for new construction, all the trees next door were taken down in early April. We knew this was likely at some point (see Problem Areas) and had tried to plan ahead. This garden contains arborvitae, annabelle hydrangeas, hostas and some annuals. It went from almost full shade to full sun. So far so good.
Under an Autumn Blaze Maple, we have some burning bushes, hostas, and daylilies.
Also some Columbines that have travelled from the backyard.
This was another problem area where nothing seemed to grow under a mature maple. I was happy to see the hostas I planted last year came back nicely. When I split some more, I’ll add them to continue to fill in the space. We are a little worried about the health of this parkway maple. It’s pretty old and showing a lot of signs of being unhealthy. But it’s still standing, for now.
On the other side of the driveway, a few years ago a rather large maple fell down in a wind storm. We replaced it with this Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) that has finally seemed to take off after it’s brush with cicadas its second year. Underneath are more densi yews, Russian Sage, daylilies and a burning bush.
Back up to the house, there’s an awful lot of green since the Korean Lilac and Judd Viburnum have finished blooming. The yews are a bit overgrown and the Rhododendron in the corner a bit spindly. This may become the next area to fix up.
The yews took a bit of a beating this winter and will look fine after a trim. The boxwoods and hostas are new last year and make a nice addition to the area (although the one hosta looks a little big for the space). A little sprucing up and mulch and this area will be good to go.
That’s most of the garden spaces that I write about and toil in. Hopefully this summer will bring perfect garden weather.
A View of the June Garden-Backyard
I took a tour of my yard today to see how everything was looking. Other than a little late, most things were looking quite healthy. It seems I’m often focussed on the “little picture”, so it was nice to just step back and look at the “big picture”.
Starting in the back…
Hostas, sedum, peonies, windflowers, astilbe, heuchera, hydrangea, spurge and a River Birch fill this part shade bed that borders the patio.
Off the back of the patio is the Purple Ash that looks quite healthy this year after it’s treatment for Emerald Ash Borer last year (Attack of the Emerald Ash Borer: Part 1 and Part 2). I recently split and transplanted some hostas, ferns and sedum underneath it to make it look more like a garden rather than a dirt pile I also added 3 Purple Beautyberry Bushes in the corner to join some raggedy looking Red Twig Dogwoods. This also where my 2 new raised vegetable beds are located.
Finally, my Siberian Irises are blooming. Only 2 blooms, but better than nothing!
The back of the house is planted with Miss Kim lilacs, a Blackhaw viburnum, a Redbud, densi yews, an assortment of creeping sedums, creeping thyme, Russian sage, a few other perennial specimens, hostas, daylilies and petunias.
Johnson Blue Geranium
Tangerine Avens–my best guess is that it is Geum “Totally Tangerine”.
The side yard is undergoing some transition as the house next door is undergoing construction. What used to be sun/part shade, is now full sun. Along here are ferns, hostas, phlox, bee balm, wisteria, knock-out roses, daylilies, weigeila and honeysuckle. There is also a 15 yr old multi-stemmed Freeman’s Maple just outside the shot, but I’ll leave that for another day. But here’s a hint, it’s June and it’s casting almost no shadow…
Wisteria is starting to bloom.
All around the yard are these Columbines. They just pop up unexpectedly and provide some pretty spring colors. They’re a spreading plant that I don’t mind having out of place. These all came from a gift of one plant soon after we moved in.
Tomorrow… Continuing around to the front yard…