Mother Earth's Garden

I’m celebrating the winter solstice here in my northern hemisphere garden, the shortest day of the year. This year it’s today, December 21st. I love the winter solstice because it means one very important thing. The days are going to start getting longer. The short days and long nights of winter are not my favorite time of year.

I long for the sunshine and warmth that the longer days of summer bring. So when the winter solstice hits it’s comforting to know that the days will be getting longer, and summer will eventually get here.
I need my daily fill of sunshine, …read more

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I can’t believe it’s actually December 16th already! I meant to post my December blooms yesterday for Garden Blogger’s Bloom day, then totally zoned out that it could be the 15th already. Christmas is a little over a week away! I still have a couple gifts to buy, looks like I’ll be shopping this weekend.
I do have a couple plants in my house blooming this month, not many. There’s nothing blooming outside any more. We’ve had some freezing cold days in the last couple weeks, with temperatures in the single digits (brrr!).
Here’s what’s blooming at my house in December.
I bought …read more

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We finally had our first winter snow this weekend (along with some deep freeze temperatures). Up until this week I still had a couple black eyed susans blooming outside my front door, flowering cabbage and kale still looking good in the garde, and some mums holding on. Temperatures in the teens, and wind chills down to zero (with 60 mile an hour wind gusts) took care of that this week. Now they’re looking shriveled up and I’m sure they’ll be brown in a few days.

The snow was very pretty while it lasted. It looked like Mother Nature decorated for Christmas …read more

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I’ve always thought it would be fun to decorate my perennial garden for Christmas, but I never have. I’m still thinking about it for this year. Over the weekend I was checking out some solar Christmas lights to put int the evergreen trees in the front of my house.

While I was checking out the little solar lights I also saw some Christmas themed solar light stakes, and I almost bought them for my garden path. I even had them in my hand, then put them back. I guess the main thing stopping me was storing them away the rest of …read more

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I talked the other day about creating winter interest in your garden by not cutting back all your plants at the end of the season. But what plants can add some winter color to your garden? During the winter most of your plants are brown, and lets face it, there’s not much life in your garden. It can be rather depressing to visit all the brown little plant bodies.
Here are a couple trees and shrubs that can add some winter color to your garden.
One of my favorite plants during the winter is holly. I love the cheery little red berries …read more

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My winter garden is not so much a garden as it is a series of containers in sunny windows. I love to garden, so just because it turns cold outside doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up on growing. During the late fall and winter I still have several gardening activities going on inside.

Here are a few of the things I do during the winter to help me make it through until spring.

I love to force a few bulbs every year for mid winter blooms.
I usually get at least one poinsettia during the Christmas season, I usually purchase a couple …read more

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Some plants are very attractive dried in the garden. If they have flowers or seed heads that add winter interest when they’re dried I usually leave them in the garden instead of cutting them back in the fall.

Besides being attractive these plants can also provide winter cover and food for birds and other small animals. The seed heads can be winter food for many birds, and grasses and other foliage can provide cover from the winter weather.
You may want to cut the seed heads off of any plants that are invasive, or prolific re-seeders. You don’t want them to go …read more

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We had a huge wind storm come through last night. It knocked out our power for several hours over night, and took off the roof of our barn.
It was a really eerie sound to hear the roof being ripped off. We could hear the metal twisting, and flapping in the wind, but it was dark so we couldn’t see what was happening. The wind was bad so we didn’t want to go out and figure it out.

Some of the big metal panels are completely missing, probably in a neighbors yard, and several more are more than 100 …read more

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We woke up this morning to a beautiful winter wonderland. I don’t remember what the technical term is for it, but I call it a “frightful frost.” The trees were all glistening with a frosting from Mother Nature.
Of course I had to get a “few” photos to share with all of you. Here are a few photos I got just as the sun came up , everything had a blue splendor:
 

The evergreens were beautiful in their dusting of white.

Here’s a shot along the creek. It doesn’t freeze often, but several days of temps below 0`F has it …read more

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It was icing, snowing, sleeting, or raining here for two days straight, ugh! When the weather finally broke for a while yesterday I had to get outside and take a walk.
The only problem is my usual walking path was a sheet of ice. I was moping around and grouchy about it, but my husband looked at it reasonably and said, why not walk down along the creek? Where it wasn’t icy, just snowy. The voice of reason. I think sometimes I just get in a rut, and have a hard time adjusting to a simple change.
I did take …read more

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