February Gardeners Trapped Indoors

Early this morning the sky was crystal clear, overhead filled with stars. Now the sun is streaming in the windows and the sky is blue and cloudless. It would be a perfect day to be outside except that it is COLD! When the temperature drops below zero it's time to find something to do inside. I felt the need to weed. This pot of lemongrass in the basement had some nice big weeds growing against the basement window. They turned out to be lady's bed straw and dead nettle. I pulled them and composted them . Boy that felt good!

I got my nippers and gave that lemon grass a haircut. Next I cultivated the soil in the pot and  watered the plant. I don't know if the lemongrass feels better, but I know I do.

Ed takes a different approach. He misses his plants, but he really misses his stones. We don't bring stones in for the winter so he just makes his own. If he keeps at this he'll have a small stone mountain!

He doesn't stop at mountains of course. Plants are part of the scene too. Some of the trees Ed made using "Autumn Joy" sedum  from the garden. Many of the plants are as artificial as the mountains.

Such A Cool Day In The Garden!

After many days of hot weather, this morning the weather was in the cool sixties. For me this is perfect weather for working in the garden. After breakfast Ed and I headed out to play in the garden. I decided to work on the bed in front of the house. There was plenty of deadheading to do, and a lot of weeds to pull. Now is a great time to get them before all their seeds have a chance to drop. I was enjoying the breeze . The aroma of the French tarragon, garden sage and lemon verbena filled the air as I brushed against plants while I worked.

I spent a very long time watching first two and than a single hummingbird visiting the scarlet runner beans. This one hummer seems so friendly. It actually comes and hovers right in front of me and seems to linger in the area where I work, even though there are many flowers in other places in the garden. Talk about cool!

Ed called me over to take a picture of this beautiful caterpillar. It's a Hickory tussock moth caterpillar. Ed was right not to pick it up. Sensitive persons get rashes from handling this one. He may be bristly, but I think he's gorgeous and more than a little cool.

A brief glimpse of a bald eagle soaring low overhead made the morning cooler yet.







Cool during the day here in September can mean pretty cold at night. With the temperature forecast in the low forties, some of the more tender plants are headed into the basement for the night. My sweet bays, ginger, curry leaf plant, patchouli and a lemon grass have been moved inside. Tomorrow during the day they will be carried back outside. Now the in and out gang begins. More plants will be potted and join the group as the cold weather threatens. It takes a cool day like this one to give us a little reminder to get ready for what's surely to come.

Spring Tonic

Today is filled with hope of the season to come. New ice formed overnight when the temperature dropped well below freezing but by 10am I was comfortable outside in shirt sleeves. These plants have spent the winter in a basement window. Today they had an hour in the sun. Their basement quarters were cleaned of dead leaves and white fly residue. Their windows are open and they are back in the basement experiencing screen filtered sunlight and fresh air. If the benefit to the plants approaches the lift I experienced from the warm sunlight and fresh air, then they are well on their way to surviving until they can be planted outside.

Just A Trim Please

No, it's not Cousin IT. This is one of my lemon grass plants. We are definitely having a bad hair day. No maybe it's more like a month. It's time for a trim! I talk to my plants sometimes, but they keep mum.. Wouldn't it be nice if this plant could say, " Just make it all one length, I'd like to be 14" tall this time." That not being the case I just get the shears and begin. I give a nice pep talk while I'm working with tales of spring , fresh air, sunshine and warm all day rains. Perhaps the pep talk is for me. After I'm finished cutting, I remove any dead plant material I notice and give my plant a nice drink.


Now isn't that better? Ooops I guess my trim is not so even. Still, I think I'll stop there. I can always take a little off the top later when I want a nice cup of lemon grass tea.