Changing in a changing climate with Charlotte at Bluebird Gardens
Guess Who’s Tips for Winter Gardening
There are many decorations unique to Christmas but none as iconic as the Christmas tree.
One of the more interesting, and simple, Christmas tree trimming ideas is to use dried garden vines. This Christmas tree is wrapped in wild grapevines:
Nice in combination with a bough-covered barnwood garden bench.
What have you used from your garden to trim your Christmas tree?
Charlotte
There are simple ways we can use what is already growing in our own gardens besides putting up a Christmas tree.
In this handmade bench bough, three different locally-growing cedar branches were woven together, giving the bough different textures. The bough was woven with a beige wired ribbon then attached to the top of this barnwood garden bench:
These should last a week to 10 days before the needles dry. Once removed, compost or pile in a garden corner for winter wildlife cover.
Simple, clean and elegant way to quickly give your garden benches a little hint of the holidays.
Charlotte
If you still have fall and Thanksgiving gourds around, here is a sweet way to recycle them for the holidays as table decorations and gifts: paint them as Santas.
These should be long-necked gourds, or gourds with at least a separation between a head and body. Here is my favorite to give you inspiration, starting with the tip of Santa's hat!
Here's the painted gooseneck gourd's gloved hands and back:
Show us your painted Santa gourds, have you tried to paint one?
Charlotte
Finding a guide to Missouri gardening used to be almost as hard as finding vintage gardening books in mint condition. "From Seed to Harvest and Beyond: Garden Journal and Calendar" is a brand new, 76-page spiral-bound book written for, and by, Missouri gardeners.
The journal includes graphs for designing gardens, container gardening, planning a flower garden, monthly listing of gardening chores, pages about pests and diseases, and a place to write your own gardening notes.
I ordered one because I wanted to try their planting guide. The one I hand write I can barely read, not that my handwriting in their journal will be any better but at least I will start with something legible.
Cost for the journal $15 each; another $7 for shipping available from University of Missouri Extension.
To make this a fun garden gift, add something personal – handmade jam or whatever your gift specialty is, or pick up seed packets still available at most garden centers. This time of year they are usually on sale. Most seeds are viable for at least 2 years.
You can also order a lovely free catalog from Baker Seed Company, Marshfield, Missouri. They specialize in rare and heirloom seeds. Their catalog would make a great companion to this garden journal and calendar.
Between tissue-filled gift bags to brown paper bag wrapping with jute cord, decorating gifts is almost as much of an art form as the gifts, and well wishes, themselves.
In the US, annual trash fro gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons, according to Use Less Stuff. Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products, an approximate 25% increase in household waste from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.
One solution, plantable wrapping paper. I didn't get around to making any so I bought this package from bloomingbulb.com.
The paper sheets have flower seeds sandwiched in between. After decorating a gift, and the danger of frost is past in your planting area, the wrapping paper can literally be buried to grow flowers, either in a bed or a pot. Instructions included on each gift tag.
Now that's a gift that keeps on giving!
It's time to start saving egg cartons again. Although I initially started only saving cardboard ones for seed starting, I learned this past year to appreciate using styrofoam ones under the cardboard ones.
Cardboard egg cartons with sprouting seedlings can be cut up and buried straight into the ground. Styrofoam egg cartons serve as a protective barrier while seeds are sprouting so moisture won't quickly disintegrate the cardboard.
Yes, I am already thinking about what supplies and garden tools I will need for next year.
The 2015 Missouri Department of Conservation's Natural Events Calendar is out for 2015. The 10x14-inch lovely yearly calendar has beautiful nature photography and natural events listings: when hummingbirds migrate, when columbine flowers bloom, when chiggers start biting.
I tend to use mine to mark major gardening and beekeeping chores.
Here's a sneak peek at mid-year:
I have a special garden place to release turtles so I have my eye on this photo on the back for possible framing.
These succulent perennials go through an amazing transformation, starting as green-looking roses hugging the ground in spring. In summer, Autumn Joy Sedum grow 2-feet tall with large heads of tiny pink flowers that attract a variety of pollinators. In fall, Autumn Joy Sedum"blooms" with seed heads that dry to a burnt red. Greenery dies back, leaving only the large heads.
The striking stalks add winter interest as they dry and get covered in snow. I call them my "snow flowers." Snow protects seed-heads for late winter food for birds. The one drawback to this succulent is that it is also attractive to deer. Once munched, however, Autumn Joy Sedum will grow back again as long as they haven't been pulled completely out of the ground.
There are 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide; 400 live in North America.
Ladybugs are often confused with multi-colored Asian lady beetles, which often show up in large numbers in fall.
The difference is that ladybugs can pull their head into their shells like turtles.
So which one is this?
It's an Asian lady beetle.
Charlotte
Have bird baths you love but no place to store them? Some bird baths can be taken apart for winter storage. Others, however, need to be stored in their final form. Don't risk getting them nicked or damaged; tuck bird baths in your rooms among inside plants.
I have several throughout my house, including one in the living room; another one in the den, and the last one in my bedroom. Winter homes are notoriously dry from constant heating. Most plants prefer to have conditions with a little more humidity. Besides periodically misting plants, keep baths for birds filled with water for a quick and easy way to continuously add moisture to your dry air!
Charlotte
Adding mulch to a garden helps stabilize soil temperature and adds nutrients. Applied properly, it also suppresses weeds, retains moisture and makes plants stand out. Knowing when to mulch can be a challenge. If it's almost too cold to spend any length of time outside, it's time.
It's time to pack up gardening tools for the season. When you start seeing Asian lady beetles in their varied colors of green, yellow and orange - they are not ladybugs - it's the end of the growing season.
One way to keep them handy is to hang them in a garage corner so you can easily access them. Install a small railing of a board to give the tools a little extra space. Now when there's a rare warm day, you're all set to garden. If there's an empty hook, you now to look in the garden for the missing tool!
Charlotte
There are a number of signs of the holidays and one of them is the lovely poinsettia. The following is a quick guide on how best to care for these tropical plants:
Light. Place it near a sunny south, east of west-facing window. Poinsettias are tropicals and will appreciate as much direct sunlight as you can provide. Don't leave a poinsettia on top of a TV or close to a fireplace.
Heat. To keep the poinsettia in bloom as long as possible, maintain a temperature of 65 - 75 degrees F. during the day and no less than 60F degrees at night. Cold drafts and allowing leaves to touch a cold window can cause premature leaf drop. If you’ve ever see a gangly poinsettia in bloom, with only a couple of sad looking leaves hanging on, it was probably exposed to temperatures that were too cool or extreme shifts in temperature.
Water. Water whenever the surface feels dry to the touch. Water until it drains out the bottom. Don’t let the plant sit in water or it may wilt and drop leaves. A wilted plant can be revived and salvaged, but it will take another season to improve in appearance.
Humidity. If your home tends to be dry and your poinsettia is in direct light, you may have to water every day.
Charlotte
Poinsettias themselves are a special holiday gift from Mexico. Legend has it that once there were two very poor Mexican children. They looked forward to the Christmas Festival, where a large manger scene was set up every year in front of the village church. One Christmas Eve, the children set out to attend church services. On their way, they picked weeds growing along the road and decided to take them as their gift to the Baby Jesus at the manger. The other children teased them for not bringing expensive gifts but they knew they had given what they could give. As they placed the weeds around the manger, the green top leaves turned into bright red petals. Soon the manger was surrounded by beautiful, star-like flowers named after the first US Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett. Everybody at the manger said that a gift of love is dearer to Jesus than the most expensive presents money can buy. Ever since then, Poinsettia have been favorite Christmas decorations.
Wishing you and yours a warm Christmas filled with the gift of love.
Charlotte
To every season there is a reason. To me, the beginning of winter means time to rest and to plan. I keep a gardening diary - well, at least I try. I do manage to scribble notes most of the time about which plants did well and which ones I need to understand more. It's not the plants fault it failed, it means I didn't understand the conditions it needed to thrive. I also save a couple of gardening books from fall's library book sale to read on cold, snowy nights. For this winter, it's the "Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants," which I confess I've already peeked through. Seed catalogs also start showing up this time of year, a sure promise that spring is not too far away. At least it can seem that way as I daydream about next year's garden projects.
Charlotte
Leaves, Not Flowers. Poinsettias include bracts, or colored leaves. The tiny yellow buds in the center of the colored bracts are the actual flowers. More Than Red? Traditional poinsettias are red but they are also available in white, pink and stripes. Not Poisonous. While no one should eat these plants, studies show they are not poisonous to either humans or animals. They have a milky sap inside stems which may cause a skin irritation Look for Flower Buds. Buy plants with tiny flower buds in the middle of the colored leaves. If these aren't present, the plant is already old. Look for White Under Leaf Bumps. Turn leaves over and see if there are little white bumps on the bottom of the leaves. Those are white flies. Don't buy any plants with bumps, the plant will soon be covered in flies. Watch the Wrap. Purchase poinsettias without plastic wrap around the leaves. Plastic releases gases that will cause leaf drop. If you don't have a choice, remove the plastic as soon as you can. Plant Dropping Leaves. Don't buy a plant dropping leaves; it will not recover. Protect the Plant. Keep poinsettia covered with a shopping bag after purchasing it. Poinsettias don't like temperatures below 50F. Expose the plants to cold air as little as possible while getting the plants home. Can You Compost? Yes, poinsettias are safe to compost.
We've had a very mild winter in Missouri so I'm not in any hurry to plant annuals until I can see what has survived.
In two of my planter boxes where I had petunias last year, new starts are coming up all on their own. I've added a cup or so of new potting soil and keep it well watered; I should have petunias in bloom very soon and I won't have to buy any new ones.
Fun to have flowers that almost take care of themselves.
Charlotte
Almost a year ago this February, I was given a basket full of moth orchids in pots. They were lovely - pinks, peaches, pinks and whites, even chartreuse...and I panicked, trying to think about how I would explain their most likely demise.
We can all help backyard birds by participating in the Great Backyard Bird count. Coordinated by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Bird Studies Canada, the four-day count typically records more than 10 million observations, including mine. "When thousands of people all tell us what they're seeing, we can detect
USDA Zone 6b
Limestone Hillside
