Busy As A Hibernating Rabbit

I just decided, instead of merely being a blogging, published, author, I'm now a self proclaimed Harvard Creativity Specialist. Oops. Did I say Harvard? I meant Hard-Yard. (The ground is frozen solid. What's a gardener to do?)


I'm currently cutting back all the extra growth on the apple trees, tying up raspberry vines and this next week I will be wrapping the climbing roses with evergreen tree branches so they'll survive the winter. It's also a good time to buy heirloom seeds, on-line, for planting in spring.


I am still mourning all the bulbs I lost this last spring, thanks to them rotting in the ground with all that rain we had last March, April and May. I especially miss my dahlias (bulbs that I dig up each winter and replant in spring). There's just something very sad about losing plants that I put so much energy into nourishing; year after year.  

All Of Western Washington: Covered In Snow

It snowed much earlier this year than any year I can remember. From childhood, I recall the first flakes of snow for the year would often fall while my family celebrated thanksgiving at Grandma's house but it seldom stuck to the roads and we wouldn't have any heavy snow until January or February. 


Last Sunday (4 days ago) snow fell in an unusually heavy manner. The temperature also dropped rapidly. It's been 15 degrees C here at night pretty much since. 


To care for the outdoor animals, I've been hauling hot water out to the chicken coup. I also lock the hens up at night, out of the wind inside their roosting area, where there's a heat lamp. The grateful rabbit was moved into a smaller cage with them, when he usually lives on the south side of our house. 


For the wild birds, I've been setting out a warm pan of water but it freezes over in a few hours time. I imagine it's very hard for the finches to find drinking water that's not frozen. The birds continue to visit the feeders that I've moved up onto the back porch, to keep the seed dry.


Sitting by my own heater, I'm reminiscing of the day I took this photo, last April: (double click to enlarge it).

It's difficult to imagine that tulip and daffodil bulbs (below ground) could survive the harsh cold but season after season we know they do come back; they are alive under all that snow. The pond now is mostly iced over. I can still see the koi swimming slowly below the thin sheet. I feel so thankful that spring will come again (in five more months)!

Fall Garden Tips (Planting Bulbs & Fall Craft Project)

It's been raining a great deal here lately, in Western Washington, but today we had clear skies. So I pulled on my garden boots and went out to plant more tulip and crocus bulbs.


I absolutely feel as though it is impossible to plant too many crocuses. Every February, they are the first flower to bloom after a harsh winter (sometimes while snow is still on the ground). When I see these dainty little flowers pop out through the frozen Earth, my heart just swells with glee. Crocuses feel like a promise to me.

They remind me that spring and warmer weather are coming. Tulips bloom a little bit later in spring, so planting their bulbs side-by-side with crocus bulbs works really well for keeping a particular garden spot in bloom longer.


Pictured right, is just a fun fall-time craft project that I made and it serves as a wonderful reminder of a very fun day I enjoyed when my sister Kelly and I drove to Leavenworth (over the mountain) to celebrate my birthday. This rock was painted to commemorate the fun.

To make it, I collected a fallen gold-colored leaf in Leavenworth. I had purchased a book so I flattened the leaf inside its pages and when I got home I slathered paint on that leaf and pressed it to this rock. The result is a lasting reminder of a most wonderful day.

HOW TO MAKE JACK O LANTERNS LAST LONGER

Having discussed this topic with friends on Facebook, my friend Diane Froehlich Heidt suggested a tip that I felt I just HAD to pass on to my garden blog  readers. 


Diane states (to carve a pumpkin early in the Halloween season and NOT have that nasty rotten pumpkin issue before Samhain) you merely slather the carved pumpkin with Vaseline. (Reportedly it seals the pumpkin and works like some sort of air seal.) 




HAPPY SPOOKY SEASON!

What Other Parent Gets To Have Onision Praise Their Garden?

My adorable son (aka "Onision", the YouTube sensation) completely honored my garden by making this comedic film. He's posing as an extremely awkward young man who seems to suffer from stage fright; which makes viewing this flick rather funny. Enjoy.  LOVE YOU ONISION! http://onision.com/. I'm so lucky, and blessed as a parent. It feels just overwhelmingly incredible.

Need Help Identifying This Plant

NEW UPDATE!
Thanks to a highly intelligent friend, Simon Butler, who viewed this posting from a link provided on Facebook, this plant has been identified as "Jewelweed" (Impatiens capensis). According to Simon, it's also referred to as "Touch-me-not."


Here are the two hyperlinks he sent with more information:


http://www.sagebud.com/jewelweed-impatiens-capensis/


http://www.loudounwildlife.org/HHJewelweed.htm

THANK YOU MOST AWESOME SIMON!

POST AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN:
Faeries must have planted this orange-flowering herbacious bush in my yard. (Sure I understand that plants get distributed by many different means, by birds, insects, the wind, dogs that collect seed in their fur). It's just I've just never seen this variety of plant before -- not anywhere in my neighborhood, or from foraging through the woods -- never even saw it from the past and I spent most of my childhood playing in the woods where I grew up four miles from here. I've also never seen this plant inside any nursery.

This is the SECOND year it's appeared in my yard -- suggesting it's perriannual. It died back last winter and now just sprouted up again (late summer).

Any idea what this plant might be called? (Click any photo to enlarge it.)

Beyond asking that you pay close attention to the interesting nodules that formed where the branches connect to the herbacious stem, see next photo, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

No Apples Or Pears This Year

Isn't it amazing how rain can act like a prism and distort the edges of a fragrant rose (making it appear more magical).

We have had such atypical weather all summer this year. More than having week after week of cloudy skies, the nights have been so cold, I've had to wear a sweatshirt and jeans all except for maybe 7 days this summer. Our apple, pear, cherry and peach trees are all barren with no fruit. Compare photos from last year's apple tree to this year's ... (click photos to enlarge them).

apple tree Sept. 2010

same apple tree Sept. 2009

We did not pick one single apple this year (there just weren't any)! Our raspberry bushes also have not produced much fruit. We did pick berries in June, but last year we had so many raspberries we were picking fruit long into October 2009.

Fortunately ... our flowers are still blooming.

Plants reaching up to collect the rain.

I've been creating special features and marked the four corners in our yard.

This is a patio plant that I keep in a pot. When it blooms, the most beautiful rust colored multi-petaled flowers appear.

More potted flowers.

Doug's garden gnomes.

Today was the first time I noticed the Hawthorn berries have appeared.

Only place I can grow carnations is in pots (thank to resident slugs who favor them).

Back yard roses have done remarkably well in spite of the rain. (That is if we can ignore the rust spots on their leaves.)

Shy little gnome playing peak-a-boo.

This is why I love pansies. Look at how they just spill over the edge of my very large flower pots.

The chickens are staying indoors on this rain-filled day.

None of our tomatoes have ripened this year either.

I planted these tomatoes up next to the house where they would get more radiating heat from the house. The tomato plants themselves looked incredibly healthy ... but the tomatoes never matured. I realize I could have cut the branches way back so the plant could send more energy to the fruit. (Learned I was allergic to tomatoes this year so I let the plant do what it wanted.)

Very few blueberries fully ripened at our house this year either.

Here's our pet Oscar, one week after he suffered a stroke. He's still pitching a little to his left but he's so much better now than he was last week when I called the vet and they said it would be most "humane" to put him down. While Oscar was barely moving for a few days, laying on his side, he was willing to eat clover that I carried to him and he still enjoyed being petted so I just watched and observed; made sure he was still drinking water. So now he's back on his feet, hopping to his food, eating the bok choi that I feed him. I didn't want to take a picture of him when he was all gnarled-looking (didn't want to remember him that way if he was going to die) but now that he's nearly recovered I wish I had those "before" photos.

Oscar. Brave stroke survivor.

May he live with us for many more years (he's about four years old now).