Posted on in Gardening, Surviving Winter

Dreaming of Spring

Dormant_DBG_LAH_6943The holidays are over, winter has settled in. The reawakening of spring is so far away, it might as well be never. In spite of our best attempts at landscaping for “winter interest,” let’s face reality. A garden full of dead grass, dried stems, and bare limbs is drab, boring, and gloomy.

Sure, winter isn’t all bad. It’s nice to have time to relax while the weeds sleep. The mower is idle, pots are empty, and not a whole lot needs doing. Still, if you’re as enthusiastic about gardening as I am, January can be a bit depressing.

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Posted on in House Plants

Cat Grass, or How to Save Your Spider Plant

Starla_ErieCO_20091219_LAH_5709It was my daughter on the phone: “Mom! Starla has been chewing on the spider plant again! What can I do?”

No, Starla isn’t our granddaughter—she will know better than to chew on the houseplants. Starla is one of our grand-cats. And like our own pet feline, she loves to chew on foliage.

Our pets are all indoor cats—it’s safer for the birds and other wildlife, and it’s safer for them too. (Did you know that birds may carry diseases that can kill your cat?) While they contentedly preen on the window sill and shed on the sofa, they retain their instinct to munch on leaves. Since the only leaves available are houseplants, that’s what they eat.

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Posted on in Gardening, Veggies

Development-supported Agriculture?

I’ve mentioned Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) as an alternative to growing one’s own fruit and veggies. Well, the developer in this NPR story is taking the matter one step further:

If I have to live in a housing development, I would love to live one that has its very own farm. I could still have chickens and get dirt under my fingernails in a garden, yet not need to hire a house-sitter when we’re going to be away. It seems like the best of both worlds.

Having access to food grown in one’s very neighborhood is the ultimate in eating locally. I’m not sure how successful this would be in our neighborhood (at 7,000+ feet elevation), but it could certainly work in most of the country.

Who knows—maybe Pete and I will “retire” (hah!) to Ft. Collins. If so, this is the first place I’m going to look for our next house.

Posted on in Public gardens, Surviving Winter

Hunting for Warm and Green

Boettcher-DBG_LAH_6632As I stare out the window at brown and dead, I’m dreaming of warm, green, lush gardens. In past years I’ve had to make do with visits to Denver Botanic Gardens’ greenhouses (left) or the Butterfly Pavilion in Broomfield, Colorado (another walk-in greenhouse full of tropical plants). This year, however, we’re heading south to where plants are green and you can walk around outside without lays of insulation. I can hardly wait.

As we aren’t leaving quite yet, I have some time to ponder which direction to go. We’re driving, we have no reservation, and we can be as random and carefree as we like—at least until the money runs out.

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Posted on in Birds

Christmas Owls to Munch

LAH_2567’Twas two days before Christmas and here in my house
I had just finished wrapping up gifts for my spouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
The feeders were full and the birds were all there.

The juncos were nestled all snug in their nests,
While visions of sunflower seeds filled their rest.
And I in my old sweats, with hair all undone,
Decided to whip up some cookies for fun.
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Posted on in Gardening, Plant Profiles

Colorado’s “Holly”

Pyracantha berries@ColoSpgs LAH 131We’ve succumbed—an artificial tree, fake garlands, silk poinsettias. As I pull our Christmas bins out of storage, I wonder—how did a gardener stoop this low? Isn’t there something Christmas-y I can grow here in Colorado? It would be so nice to simply go outside and snip a few branches to grace our mantle.

While holly isn’t really adapted to our high and dry conditions, and the mistletoe growing in the Ponderosa pines differs from the pretty parasites of England, there is one plant that not only produces red berries in December, it’s one of the very few broad-leafed evergreens to survive in Zone 5!

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Posted on in Birds, Conservation

Avoiding Window Collisions

Window_GrandLakeCO_LAH_6579I’ll be sitting at my computer, enjoying the quiet of living in the forest, when THUD!! I cringe, knowing that another bird has just hit the window. If it’s lucky, the bird is merely stunned and will fly away in a moment. Unfortunately, all too often the impact is fatal.

Window collisions kill millions of birds every year. High rise office buildings account for some of this carnage, but ordinary homes pose the most severe threat. Pete and I live in a passive-solar house, which means that much of our southern wall is glass. Add in my abundance of bird feeders, and the outcome is inevitable. Birds I’ve welcomed into my yard with food, water, and bird-friendly habitat end up as casualties. What can we do?

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