Witch Hazel

Now in full bloom for the first time!

Witch Hazel

My witch hazel 'Jelena' is about to bloom. It has never shown more than a couple of flowers but since my neighbor removed the maple tree shading it it's covered with buds. I'll post photos when they open. The flowers are striking, shading from copper to gold. This is not the native hamamelis but is a hybrid of some of the oriental species.

Snow at last!

We got the first real snow of the year yesterday. We got about 6 inches and were spared the predicted freezing rain. My yard looked so pretty in the morning light that I put boots and a coat on over my pajamas and went out to take some pictures.








Snow on the rosemary


American holly (Ilex opaca)

Buds

My hazelnuts are covered with catkins. I doubt that I will ever taste a nut from these shrubs but the squirrels will be pleased.

Berries

I have planted as many berry-producing shrubs as I can squeeze into the yard. It's interesting to see which ones get eaten and when. Some, like the serviceberries get snapped up as soon as they ripen. Others persist well into the winter and seem to get eaten when birds return in the early spring. Here's what is out there now:

Winterberries (Ilex verticillata)


Rose hips (Rosa virginiana)





American cranberry bush (Viburnum trilobum)

Interbay Mulch

Last year I tried a slightly different way of composting the yard waste. Interbay mulching is similar to sheet composting or lasagna gardening. You pile the debris into a long hump a couple of feet high and as logn as you like, then cover it with burlap. This originated in the Pacific NW where empty burlap coffee sacks could be had for the asking. I had a hard time finding burlap but finally tracked down rolls of it at the local farm co-op. The clerk there told me they stock it for the drama students at James Madison University. I criss-crossed cord over it and secured it with tent pegs to keep critters from digging it all up.

A couple of weeks ago I peeled off the burlap which was now pretty well sprouted with weeds. I raked up some lovely, finished black compost and shovelled it into the black compost bins for storage. I'll definitely use this method again but will not do it at the edge of my asparagus bed. It gets way too weedy for that spot.

No Mount Mulch

For the first time in several years there is no mulch pile in my driveway! On New Year's Day I got outside for an hour or so and shovelled and spread the last of it on the fruit trees.

The meadow is seeded!

I've spent 2 years preparing the soil and last week I finally got to plant! I took all the wildflower seeds and mixed them up in the garden cart with a mixture of peat, perlite and the dregs of potting soil bags, moistened well and stirred thoroughly. I broadcast the seeds by hand and then overseeded with three kinds of native grasses.

Prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepsis) went along one edge. It was the most expensive and makes fairly low growing mounds so I wanted to show it off.

Side oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) is the tallest so went in a patch at the back as viewed from the house.

Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) covered the rest of the bed.

I've read that most of these plants will spend their first year growing deep roots and that it won't look like much above the soil surface. I will post photos as things sprout.