Snowdrops
I noticed these snowdrops blooming a few weeks ago before the two nor’easters hit. I meant to get a photo one day, they next they were buried under two feet of snow. I’ve been patiently waiting for them to be uncovered.
Snowdrops are wonderful, not just because they are beautiful little flowers, but because they bloom so early in the year. They are the first things to appear and show signs of life in my northern garden. I definitely have plans to get more varieties of these beauties to add for late winter interest.
What’s the first thing to bloom in your garden?
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Always Looking
I’m always looking for long lasting garden tools, especially when it comes to seed starting. The black plastic trays are ridiculously flimsy and won’t last long at all. They’re so flimsy, they don’t really work with soil blocks. I started using Perma-Nest trays about 8 years ago and really like them a lot. But they are plastic and won’t last forever, I’m guessing 10-15 years will be the max for them. Which is still great considering they’re not much more expensive than the black plastic ones that only last a season. Most recently, I decided to try half sheet pans with lids.
They sheet pans themselves are made of metal, so they should last for many, many years. Even though the lids are plastic, the don’t get as much wear and tear and should last quite awhile as well. They’re less expensive than a tray with a dome, even initially.
One issue I discovered (and thought about previously, but figured I could find a work-around) was the height of the lid. With soil blocks, there’s minimal head room. That’s not a huge deal, as I always remove the lids as soon as seeds start to germinate. The sheets fit the same exact number of soil blocks that a perma-nest tray does (40 of the 2″ soil blocks). There is no way that a plant tag will fit in the blocks, so I taped them on the lid to let me know which varieties were in each row.
Just so the lid wouldn’t get turned around, I added arrows on the lid and on the tray. When I remove the lid, I’ll transfer the labels to the corresponding row of seedlings. That should avoid confusion and only adds a bit more work to the seed starting process. I’ll keep you posted on this product to let you know. I already use chaffing dishes and sheet pans for holding larger pots and have found them to be quite reliable. Their strength is a major benefit over the plastic alternatives. I’ll keep looking for ways to decrease products that don’t last in order to produce less waste in my gardening.
Have you discovered any great products for gardening that aren’t really intended for gardening?
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Hello Spring Color
I’ve been a huge fan of witch hazels for a long time. In Ohio, we had a few native ones in the garden, they were always blooming when we were out collecting maple sap. A few years ago, toured the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens when they were in full bloom. Last fall, I planted a lovely specimen in my garden. I went out to look at mine last week and discovered in was blooming.
The variety is ‘Amethyst’ hamamelis and it’s quite stunning. The burgundy flowers pop this time of year. I can’t wait until this beauty grows taller, it’s planted right outside the living room window so we’ll be able to enjoy it fully this time of year.
What sorts of things do you have in the garden to provide some much needed interest in winter?
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Munch, Munch, Munch
The last two years have been great for acorns in our area of Maine, which translates to a large deer and turkey population. While deer are beautiful creatures, they’re also destructive to a garden. This winter has been particularly rough. Almost every shrub and tree in my gardens have been browsed heavily.
They hydrangeas were hit especially hard, I doubt there will be any blooms this coming summer. Now I have to take extra care to protect plants. Next fall you’ll find me wrapping things with burlap, adding fencing around the garden, and probably spraying some things with hot pepper oil to keep them safe from browsing deer.
Do you have issues with deer in your garden? What’s your preferred method of dealing with their winter browsing?
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Winter Garden
The garden can be a bleak place in the winter and when you live in an area where it’s winter for at least half of the year, you want to make sure there’s something interesting in the garden during those winter months. The easiest thing to add to the garden for color and beauty during the winter months is red twig dogwoods.
I took this photo last week before the big nor’easter hit. These shrubs are lovely when it’s dreary and gray outside and they’re even more stunning when there’s snow on the ground. I like to prune my back every year because the new growth is the deepest red. You can also find yellow version of this, but I don’t have any of those in my garden quite yet. Around there, the deer don’t eat it either, which is a big bonus since they mow down everything else.
What’s your favorite plant for winter interest in the garden?
