As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for plants

Berry Delicious?

by

Grab the Photo Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is delicious

berries on vine covered in snow

It snowed earlier in the week and when I looked outside I couldn’t resist stepping out into the garden with my camera in tow.

I got a lot of lovely photos of snow covered plants that I’ll be posting over the next while.

One such picture is this photo of some berries that froze on the vine. They are covered in snow and I hope that at some point the birds discover the berries and find them to be delicious. Of course the holly still has berries on it too that the birds can eat if they choose to.

Is your garden covered in snow as well? Have you stepped outside to take some photos? Frozen plants can be quite beautiful. Give it a try.






Green Thumb Sunday over the Holidays

by

I just wanted to let all GTS members know that those of you who are around and able to blog on Sunday December 23rd and Sunday December 30th are welcome to participate in Green Thumb Sunday.

Since neither of the Sundays fall on an actual holiday date we’ll continue as normal.

I do realize that some of you might be out of town for the holidays or might have a house full of guests. So if you are not able to make your regular GTS post during this time that’s fine.

A tip – if your blogging platform allows you to post date your posts you could make a GTS post in advance and just post date it to the 23rd or 30th of December so that it will automatically post for you. I know WordPress has the ability to post date posts (just be sure to save it as published with a future date and it will automatically post on the date and time you set) and I’m sure some of the other popular blogging platforms have this ability as well.

As for the rest of the winter months … I noticed last year that some GTS members slowed down in their postings over the cool months of winter. Please remember that picture of your garden in the winter can be just as beautiful as pictures of your garden and plants during the growing season. Landscapes, older photos of your garden or plants, and photos of house plants are also welcome during this time. So keep on posting!

I must also apologize for my lack of regular posts over the last month or so. I’ve been quite ill and on top of that I have a new sick puppy at home. We got her on November 23rd and she’s been sick since we got her. As a result I’ve had to cut down on my blogging as it takes quite a bit of my time caring for her and treating her various ailments. Hopefully things will return to near normal soon!

Visitors to the garden

by

We had some unexpected guests in our garden earlier this week. I believe it was on Sunday morning or possibly Monday.

My husband and I were in the kitchen when he turned and said “Look, Look a Blue Jay!” and just outside the window in a window planter a lovely male Blue Jay was examining the remnants of the flower box. There’s still some snap dragons and annual geraniums in the box … dead of course because of the cold, but I expect the Jay was after the seed heads that were still on the plants.

We watched the Blue Jay fly around our yard for a short while before it disappeared. It visited a few different plants and then sat at the bird feeder in the center of the yard.

After the Blue Jay disappeared we were about to leave the kitchen … discussing how we’d better fill our Suet containers later that day … and then I saw a light colored bird with reddish tones to it’s feathers enter the yard and sit in the Rose of Sharon tree. I believe it was a female Cardinal.

The Cardinal was quite happy to sit in the Rose of Sharon and on the fence nearby for a little while before it too disappeared.

To the best of my knowledge Cardinals and Blue Jays don’t get along all that well … well …. I don’t think Blue Jays like many other birds in their immediate territory.

I hope they both come back though. We filled a few suet baskets and topped up the seeds in two of our bird feeders.

I know that there’s been a blue jay around for a few years. I don’t see it often, but I hear it calling out as it flies around the immediate neighborhood. I’ve also see the male cardinal around a few times over the last few years as well.

We have a number of birds that frequent our yard, but most are quite common birds. I suppose Jays and Cardinals are common enough too but we don’t see them often so they are special visitors to our garden.

I suppose I’ll take the birds visits as a compliment to my garden. It’s maturing and I’ve been careful to grow plants that a number of birds and butterflies enjoy. It seems to be paying off because each year there is more and more wildlife in my garden.

I’ll keep an eye out for my little visitors and try to get some photos.

Meta