Now I know that I'm dating myself by making reference to an ancient movie, but hopefully it's enough of a classic for people to know what I'm talking about.
The front of the Stepchild Garden, along the street, has a long mixed border that includes lots of different hollies. As a result (I think) of this cold and wet winter, they are just overloaded with berries. I think they are just beautiful, and clearly, so do the robins and cedar waxwings!
Yesterday's warm weather brought with it every robin and cedar wax wubg that is in the metro-Atlanta area, who have decided that the hollies are their new home (at least until the berries are stripped). Sadie the Dog and I have been banished to the street for our walks, and it's beginning to feel like we live in Venice with the pigeons!
Frank (an avid classic movie fan) looked out the window yesterday morning, and asked, "Are there supposed to be hundreds of birds on the lawn?"........he never dares ask about something he doesn't understand in the garden, since he doesn't want to offend me if it's part of the design.......
Hopefully the birds will eat their fill soon, since tomorrow is the first day in weeks I'll been able to work in the Stepchild Garden. Perhaps I'll wear a raincoat.
Showing posts with label Birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birds. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Big House Garden in Snow
The Walled Garden mostly put to bed for the winter, with a few things still popping up here and there (aren't Sweetpeas amazing to continue going in this stuff??)
The gate to the walled garden looks better with a little snow on the wreath. I know the holidays are over, but I really love this wreath that Patti made.
The koi are happily hibernating on the bottom of the pond, barely moving their gills.
Even in ridiculous cold, the cardinals are out at the feeders.Wednesday, April 8, 2009
What is up with the Weather???
Today started very cold, but by midafternoon was in the high 60's and absolutely glorious! I'm finally convinced that spring is here to stay, after the brief snow showers yesterday afternoon.
Truly, if someone had been out of town for the past two days, they would never have believed that it was that cold.
Fortunately it didn't get "crazy cold" until around 5 AM where I live and work, so we were spared a lot of freeze damage. We were also lucky to have very high winds for the past couple of days, which doesn't allow the frost to settle. I was really afraid for the budded peonies and hydrangeas, but all looked really good this morning.
At the Big House garden, we were able to shut the heat off in the greenhouse and actually leave the door slightly ajar. Some of the most tender things like coleus, tomatoes, and the like are still tucked into the warmest corners, but it's time for some of the sturdier plants to start getting used to being outdoors. In the middle of the afternoon, the exhaust fans came on, indicating it was hitting 90 degrees in the greenhouse for the first time in months!
I was concerned about some of the new roses that got planted last week, but my "rose lady" thought they would be just fine, and she was right on the mark! The Abraham Darby's that went in last week (they had been in heated greenhouses at the grower until that point) are just covered with huge super fragrant blossoms. It's been such an interesting year with weather, I'm still amazed at the combination of late daffodils, late camellias and early roses all blooming at the same time. The combination of fragrances is really overwhelming, with the HEAVY fragrance of the hollies mixed with the roses. Add in the sight of Eastern Bluebird, Goldfinches and Cardinals all at the same cluster of feeders, and it's the icing on the cake!
Lastly, since I know you're all dying to know, Favorite Tree (doublefile viburnum) came through the freeze without a blemish....you can all relax and get on with your day!
Truly, if someone had been out of town for the past two days, they would never have believed that it was that cold.
Fortunately it didn't get "crazy cold" until around 5 AM where I live and work, so we were spared a lot of freeze damage. We were also lucky to have very high winds for the past couple of days, which doesn't allow the frost to settle. I was really afraid for the budded peonies and hydrangeas, but all looked really good this morning.
At the Big House garden, we were able to shut the heat off in the greenhouse and actually leave the door slightly ajar. Some of the most tender things like coleus, tomatoes, and the like are still tucked into the warmest corners, but it's time for some of the sturdier plants to start getting used to being outdoors. In the middle of the afternoon, the exhaust fans came on, indicating it was hitting 90 degrees in the greenhouse for the first time in months!
I was concerned about some of the new roses that got planted last week, but my "rose lady" thought they would be just fine, and she was right on the mark! The Abraham Darby's that went in last week (they had been in heated greenhouses at the grower until that point) are just covered with huge super fragrant blossoms. It's been such an interesting year with weather, I'm still amazed at the combination of late daffodils, late camellias and early roses all blooming at the same time. The combination of fragrances is really overwhelming, with the HEAVY fragrance of the hollies mixed with the roses. Add in the sight of Eastern Bluebird, Goldfinches and Cardinals all at the same cluster of feeders, and it's the icing on the cake!
Lastly, since I know you're all dying to know, Favorite Tree (doublefile viburnum) came through the freeze without a blemish....you can all relax and get on with your day!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas Morning
There is a lot to be said for the snowy white Christmas mornings I remember from growing up in New Hampshire, but it's hard to beat waking up to temperatures in the high 50's, with sunshine and a promise of mid to high 60's in Atlanta today.
It's almost as if the birds realize it's a very special morning, since they are out in droves today. The chickadees and wrens are all around, along with the nuthatches that seem to walk up and down the tree trunks on their heads. The titmouse family is going to town on the almost dead Sweetgum in front of the house, and there is a pair of Phoebes perched on the pergola, just checking things out from the safety of that perch.
This is the time of year I had in mind when I planted the "Winter King" Green Hawthorn (Crataegus viridis "Winter King") last season. It is loaded with huge red berries, and is a magnet for the Cedar Waxwings and Robins. I don't even mind that they'll probably strip the tree of berries in the next several days; I guess Christmas is a feasting day for them, as well!
We're lucky to have a number of Eastern Towhees in our garden, as well as the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Blue Jays and Cardinals. The Woodpeckers can be hugely annoying when they decide to fall in love with the cedar siding on the house, but on days like this when the windows are closed, it's just beautiful to sit back with a cup of coffee and watch them against the naked tree branches.
The only shrubs blooming right now are two hybrid camellias. One is called "Jury's Yellow," which was introduced from New Zealand and is apparently more common in England than in the US. It is really closer to off-white, but it's one of those plants we gardeners need to have just so we can say we have a "yellow camellia." The other one is called "Winter's Snowman," and it is blooming its heart out! I wish I remembered where I bought it, but it has done amazingly well, with virtually no special care, for three years now. Dark green flawless foliage, just covered with big snowwhite blooms for several weeks at this time of year!
In that peculiar way that nature has of working things out, the two very pale camellias are the perfect backdrop for holly berries and the extraordinarily bright plumage on the birds of winter.
It's almost as if the birds realize it's a very special morning, since they are out in droves today. The chickadees and wrens are all around, along with the nuthatches that seem to walk up and down the tree trunks on their heads. The titmouse family is going to town on the almost dead Sweetgum in front of the house, and there is a pair of Phoebes perched on the pergola, just checking things out from the safety of that perch.
This is the time of year I had in mind when I planted the "Winter King" Green Hawthorn (Crataegus viridis "Winter King") last season. It is loaded with huge red berries, and is a magnet for the Cedar Waxwings and Robins. I don't even mind that they'll probably strip the tree of berries in the next several days; I guess Christmas is a feasting day for them, as well!
We're lucky to have a number of Eastern Towhees in our garden, as well as the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Blue Jays and Cardinals. The Woodpeckers can be hugely annoying when they decide to fall in love with the cedar siding on the house, but on days like this when the windows are closed, it's just beautiful to sit back with a cup of coffee and watch them against the naked tree branches.
The only shrubs blooming right now are two hybrid camellias. One is called "Jury's Yellow," which was introduced from New Zealand and is apparently more common in England than in the US. It is really closer to off-white, but it's one of those plants we gardeners need to have just so we can say we have a "yellow camellia." The other one is called "Winter's Snowman," and it is blooming its heart out! I wish I remembered where I bought it, but it has done amazingly well, with virtually no special care, for three years now. Dark green flawless foliage, just covered with big snowwhite blooms for several weeks at this time of year!
In that peculiar way that nature has of working things out, the two very pale camellias are the perfect backdrop for holly berries and the extraordinarily bright plumage on the birds of winter.
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