Still Planting...

I planted again today! I stopped by Judy's for coffee and when she heard that I had been able to dig the other day, she handed me a container of 'White Lion' Daffodils I had given her. So out into her yard I went. She has more snow than I do here but underneath it, the ground was not frozen. I was easily able to dig a hole and drop them in. New latest planting date for me and I think if the weather holds, my tulips may go in yet.

From the Realm of the Fantastical

The ground is not frozen and yes, that is a hole in it! Today I was working in the garden. It is definitely the latest date I have ever dug in the garden. We have snow left but not a lot of it and the weather has been beautiful. Just for fun, I kicked the dirt around a bit when I took the dogs out today. Sure enough, it was not frozen so I grabbed a shovel and tested it some more. Before I knew it, a hole was dug in front of the weeping caragana in the sideyard and I was popping in the bag of lily-of-the-valley root from Judy's backyard. It has just a good a shot at making it there as it does in the house and I always advocate planting in fall vs. spring if you can. In my zone, this gives things a much earlier start and with a short season, the earlier the start, the better. I am keeping my fingers crossed for them. Spring will tell.

Houseplants



I don't do houseplants. I have tried many times and for a few years in a row I was having quite good success. But it was work. I never think of my garden as work and when plants become work, their days are numbered in my house. There are a lot of reasons houseplants don't do well here. Plants don't like forced air heat and in our weather our heat runs 24/7. Plants need water and have no voice to remind me of that. Unlike dogs and cats, a plant won't walk by and poke me when the dish is empty. Plants need to be fed and unlike in my garden, where I can just keep digging in the compost I make, I have to think about what to feed houseplants. Knowing all this, I still try a houseplant once a year or so. This year's victim is the little aloe above. What is going to be the most surprising part of this story, I am sure, is that this little guy lived more than 6 months in a plastic bag with several siblings and absolutely no soil or water on Judy's breakfast table. Now that I have "rescued" it from that, planted it, remembered to water it for at least 6 weeks now and given it some sunlight... it should die before spring. Houseplants like me less than I like them.

Cats in My Garden

I often mention the challenges of gardening with dogs. Particularly when I am newly planting things. Rarely do I mention the challenges of gardening with so many cats. We have 6 and all of them freely wander in and out all spring, summer and fall. In the winter, their usual door (an open dining room window) is closed. A couple of them will continue to go outside through winter, using the doors when they are opened to let dogs in and out. Most of them stay inside in the winter. They are less of a challenge for my garden than the dogs are because the cats never dig plants. They do like to roll in mulch and dry dirt so I am often kicking mulch flat and covering up bare spots but it really becomes part of how I walk through the garden and doesn't feel like too much of a bother. When we first moved here, our cat that came with the house, Hannah, was using two of the garden beds for an outdoor litter box.

I remedied that immediately with cayenne pepper and she is now using somewhere in the acres of bush that I do not go into because I try and avoid wood tics. Dogs or cats makes no difference. My rule is always... when you are gardening an unfenced bed and you have outdoor pets - you better wear gloves when you work! Scooping up is probably the least exciting chore that comes with pet ownership but I have been mostly lucky on that with my garden beds. Once I am able to convince them an area is part of my garden now, they rarely give me trouble.

And then there was snow...

When I worked in operations, nothing annoyed me more than Christmas. Every year, year after year after year, we would experience delayed shipments, no staff and general confusion. My thoughts were always... Christmas comes every year at the same time... how does it take so many people by surprise? Well, welcome to my garden where the same issue comes back to haunt me. Every year, year after year after year, Mother Nature decides when my gardening season is going to end. She always decides this around the same time. I couldn't set my clock by it but fall is always followed by winter. This year has been better than most for my garden timing. I only have 4 shrubs and a pile of bulbs that did not get into the ground. Now I am left with the decision to put it all in the shop for the long winter or dig in the snow to drop them in. I haven't decided yet. It will depend on the temperatures over the next few days. Regardless of what I do, winter has arrived in my zone 3 garden. Nothing to do but play with garden maps, read garden books and wait for spring. The season that never takes me by surprise. I am usually watching for the ground to thaw for weeks before it actually happens.