To refresh your memory, here is the photo from January’s Bird Quiz. It was taken in Florida during the month of January. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
Author: LAH
New Year, New Garden Advice
My, how times change. I remember sitting in my 7th grade health class, watching a film strip (you’re as old as I am if you remember those!) about hygiene. It recommended washing your hair at least every two weeks! An old magazine I recently unearthed advised housewives to put on a dress and make-up to greet their hard-working husbands at the door. And, the book that accompanied PBS’s Crockett’s Victory Garden (copyright 1977) offers a recipe for disaster with their diagram on how to plant a Christmas tree. Don’t blame Crockett, however—his directions followed what was then standard procedure. Yes, we’re always learning something new, even about gardening.
January’s Bird Quiz
Can you identify this bird? The photo was taken in Florida during the month of January. The answer will appear next week.
A Gardener’s New Year’s Resolutions (revisited)
I had an idea for a post for today.
Instead I got the flu.
So instead of new insights, I hope it’s okay
To repost this for you.
A Gardener’s New Year’s Resolutions
Posted on December 28, 2009 by LAH
Lots of people like to make New Year’s resolutions. Gardeners are no exception. A quick web search turned up plenty of lists, with gardeners around the country vowing to stay ahead of the weeds, thin their carrots, and learn the Latin names of all their favorite plants. If you like to garden, you probably have your own list of good intentions. And if you’re like me, you’ll struggle to keep even one of them.
This year, I’d like to propose a list of gardening resolutions that any enthusiastic gardener can keep. Your garden may not be perfect, but at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you achieved your New Year’s goals.
Parting Shots
I concluded 2013 with some “parting shots” from my trip to Swaziland. In the same vein, here are my parting shots for 2014. These were all taken right here near our home in Colorado. Happy New Year!
A Gardener’s Christmas Tree
May your Christmas be filled with wonder and love. I’m taking a break next week to focus on our house full of family. See you December 29 with a year-end post.
You can tell a gardener lives in this house… here are a few favorite ornaments on our tree:
Top: Apple, wowing Santa,wunshine, flowering maple (Abuliton)?
Middle: Tomato, ladybug
Bottom: White rose, strawberry, carrot, grapes.
Photos Make Special Gifts
Today it’s time for my once-a-year photography promotion. Does someone on your gift list go wild for wildlife or bonkers for birds? Do they laud landscapes? Are they passionate about plants? How about giving them a photo expressing their special interest?
You can visit my online store at mountain-plover.com, view my line of blank greeting cards here, or contact me directly for prints of any of my photos that appear anywhere on this blog. (Note that prints not in stock will take a few extra days.)
Winter in the Gardens
Dead leaves, bare branches, brown grass. It’s hard to create a landscape that looks attractive when everything appears to be dead. Yet, we live in a place where winter can last six months, or more. I want my yard to be attractive all the time, not just during the growing season.
With that in mind, this week I paid a visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens. They’re open in every season, so surely they’ll have ideas for making a garden worth visiting, even in the winter. How do they do it?
December Quiz: Answer
To refresh your memory, here is the photo from December’s Bird Quiz. It was taken in Texas during the month of January. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
Mistletoe
“You don’t want to buy that lot—the trees have mistletoe!” Our realtor pointed at a shrubby mass growing among the branches high in the Ponderosa pine.
It didn’t look anything like the mistletoe I was familiar with, coming from California. There, the live oaks often support huge masses of mistletoe. And neither plant resembled the old plastic “mistletoe sprig” I inherited from my parents, that we hung in our doorway at Christmastime to encourage kissing. Curious, I did some research. It turns out that there are hundreds, if not thousands of barely-related species of parasitic plants called mistletoe.
Mountain Plover 