Cold beginning to February

It was 45 degrees when I walked at the Botanical Gardens this morning and I don't think it got all that much warmer all day.  I have been in and out putting up clothesline, taking care of chores and just couldn't get warm.  I was wishing I was back in Panama.

The photos are from a combined garden, zoo and nursery in El Valle, Panama.  It is the world's only inhabited volcanic crater.  The center picture is of the orchid collection at the zoo.
El Valle seems to have the perfect climate for growing most anything, and of course has rich volcanic soil.  There are countless species of flowers, trees, and mammals and reptiles and over 500 species of birds.  It would be a good place to come for a birdwatcher doing the big year, wouldn't it? 



I was thrilled to be able to show a visiting guest from Kenya our own lovely botanical gardens even in the middle of the winter. We did see some blood root starting to bloom this morning and The Chinese rice paper plants are starting to open their blooms.  They have a rich sweet floral scent .  The white flowers look like little upside down cupcakes hanging from the shrub, and then the blooms open to yellow.  You have to lift them up to smell them.

I really am looking forward to being able to have coffee on the deck again in the mornings.  I am wishing for a long long spring season this year.

Today we had a young man from the Fireplace Doctor company here to fix the leak in our fireplace.  We haven't been able to use it for several weeks.  They also coated the inside of the smoke chamber with ceramic because the mortar was deteriorating and could easily catch the house on fire, the other project was to install a new more airtight damper on top of the chimney.  We now have a chain to pull to open and close the thing.  I hope it helps with heat and air conditioning.  They say we can get an energy credit on our taxes for installing it.  It also has a lifetime guarantee. 

:Happy gardening when it is not too cold to be out there!  Seed catalogs are great mood boosters on days like today.

It is (was) leaf collecting time! (just found this in drafts)

(this must have been written at the beginning of December)


I am sure my neighbors think I am crazy, I drove up to the circle around the corner and took as many bags of leaves as I could fit in my car.  The man who was out cleaning up the yard and had carefully bagged all the leaves did give me a very funny look when I asked if I could have them.  I will go back tomorrow to collect more.  They make such great mulch for the large areas we have that need to be covered up so they don't grow weeds.  These are nice big oak leaves and will take a long time to break down, which is great for our purposes.  We can also just save some of the bags of leaves and keep adding them to the compost pile.

This morning I raked up what we had from our one remaining oak tree.  I raked the leaves off the new sod and took some back to the garden, but then left quite a few as mulch around the oak tree. I am sure that when God planned for trees and forests the creator intended the leaves that fell to be returned to the soil to nourish the forest plants and trees.  Here we are, raking them up and sending them off to landfills in plastic bags, then spending money for mulches and manufactured fertilizers.  Is there something wrong with this picture?  I think so.

This past week I have been busy cleaning up the garden for the winter.  It takes a while to get everything done.  Here is the list:

• removed a purple coneflower from the flower bed that has Betsy's buttons
• cut back the goldenrod 
• pulled weeds
• changed out the bricks at the end of the driveway for landscaping stones.  Still need about 12 or 15 more landscaping stones.
• cut back vines near the drainage area and planted the remaining osmanthes behind the little fence I placed there to prevent someone walking through and having a fall.
• pulled weeds
• put more soil that had collected in the corner of the driveway over the septic tank where we need a thicker layer of soil.
• dug up part of the flower garden next to the veggie garden as it had become pretty overgrown and weedy.  Placed a layer of leaves over the bed, and then 2 layers of black plastic .  Weighted it down with bricks to let it "cook" for the winter.  It will become the tomato bed next growing season.
• Mulched with a thick layer of chopped leaves around the carrots to keep them warm for the winter.
• cleaned out more of the garden behind the fence at the end of the driveway.
• Pulled weeds.
• Removed the browned out cypress vine from all the shrubs where I had let it grow to feed the hummingbirds when they migrated.
• Oh, and did I mention I pulled weeds?

The weather has remained so warm that the forsythia is blooming, there are violets in bloom, the Carolina jessamine looks like it is getting ready to burst out in bloom and there are jonquils up for an early show near the driveway.  It was very sunny and beautiful on Thursday, but we have had cloudy, dreary weather for Friday and Saturday.  Every once in a while the sun will burst out, but not often.  We are expecting storms on Monday and then a big cool down.

Friend Eleanor left her dog, Frisco with us for a few days and it was so nice to have him out in the garden with us to keep us company.  Eleanor also brought me a wonderful gift.  It is a  new trowel from Garden Works perennial products  and is called a Tiger Trowel.  The label says it is proudly made in the USA.  It is a 16 gauge heavy duty stainless steel blade with a handle made from recycled materials and is great for digging in hard soil or clay.  It can be used to cut back vines   and overgrowth, and the split-tip end can be used to pop out dandelions. It also has a graduated blade to measure soil depths for planting bulbs.  An altogether wonderful new and very useful tool  Thanks Eleanor! 

Back to the Garden

It has been over a month since my last blog entry and about that long since I have done anything in the garden.  The holidays just took over my life. There was a also a little excursion to Panama following the holiday,  that took about a week, then the week to recover from the excursion got included.  Anyway, I am glad to be back to the blog and back to working in the garden.

We had about a week of rain following my return, lots of it!  The weather warmed up and finally got sunny for this past weekend and I ventured out to see how things had fared and also got a little pruning done.

  I think I need to get a new lopper and a new pruning saw. The lopper is one that I borrowed from my father-in-law about 15 years ago, and it was old then.  It has finally just worn out.  I seem to need to get a new pruning saw every 3 or 4 years.  I am pretty rough on the little buggers, and the one I have now had to work overtime following the tornado.  Looks like I will be doing some shopping before I can continue to cut down the large privet bushes on the parks and recreation property behind the house.  They didn't come all the way over to the lot line when they cleaned it up last year.  I'll just help them out by getting rid on the invasives and putting in some natives.  We have lots of little oak trees starting where I don't want them, so they can have a new home on the public land.  I will have to put little protective fences around them for a while after transplanting.  I offered some to my neighbor, but he has never told me where he wanted me to put them, and this next month will be the best time to transplant.

Because it warmed up so much for a while, and we had all the rain, I have seen some plants starting to bloom that usually don't bloom until February.  There are already daffodils blooming in the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and the Lenten Roses as well.  I have one Lenten Rose in my garden that has a bloom on it.  It also looked like Rue Anemones were trying to bloom at the Botanical Gardens, although they could be the false Rue Anemones.  Anyway, I hadn't even seen hepatica blooming, so wasn't expecting those beautiful little white flowers in JANUARY.  Now we are cold again, so that will slow things down a bit I expect.

Saturday I took a little trip down to Petals From the Past  to pick up my persimmon tree.  I was so excited to get it and put it in the ground right away.  It is planted where I had okra growing last year, and near to where we lost the pine tree.  It needs full sun, and I wanted to put it to the North of the vegetable garden where it wouldn't create too much shade, but also where it would get the sun.  It will give a little bit of shade to some of my blueberry bushes.  They looked like they got a little bit of sun scorch last summer.  We now will have figs, blueberry bushes, blackberries, and persimmons.  These are all fruits that will grow in Alabama's climate with very little maintenance, and no spraying!  I do not want to have fruit that requires a great deal of time, or any poison applications.

While I was at Petals From the Past I couldn't resist and picked up another package of seeds.  It is time to plan the summer garden.  I picked up a pack of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I plan to have some lovely little Squash Patisson 'Golden Marbre Scallop in the garden this year.  The package says that" this is a unique French scallop squash.  The fruit is a beautiful bright golden-orange color.  young fruit are very tender and well flavored.  The tall bush plants are very attractive and yields are good."
"The summer squash are grown for immature fruits which can be harvested all summer long.  Very heavy feeders., they need soil heavily amended with manure, compost or other source of lots of nutrients.  Sow in place in full sun after last frost."

If you want to request their catalog go to RareSeeds.com or call 417-924-8917.  The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company is my short list of places to visit.  They are in Mansfield, MO and have a pioneer village and farm.  http://rareseeds.com/  Anybody ready for a road trip?