Stroll Through a Winter Garden

The chilliest day we have had all week, and I decide to go out and take photos (and stock) of my gardens. I find I need to fill up my time with such tasks as I eagerly await my new seed starting flats so I can start getting my hands dirty. It also stems from my attendance last night at a lecture by a fellow Master Gardener on Garden Pests & Beneficial Organisms. Will this be the year that I really look for pests in the garden? And keep it up beyond May 1st?

I did not find any little creatures hiding in the garden, but to my surprise and delight, I noticed several early birds (besides the daffodils which I mentioned in my last blog):iris, yarrow, and lilac! I also stumbled across a lovely little moss making its home at the base of a small retaining log in my Hollow Shade Garden. So though I may have been moaning a bit about all the blah of a winter garden, it isn't that long of a time without some green.

Here are a few bits of green for you!


Daffodils & some wild strawberry


White Lilac buds


Moss in the Hollow Shade Garden


Iris peeking out

Happy Gardening!

Spring's sprung already? Where's my Garden Journal?

While standing in the snow flurries this morning, holding the pony, awaiting a visit from the farrier, I happened to notice the first signs of green pushing up! I couldn't believe it. I had to look twice. My one little patch of daffodils has decided to start growing.

Upon closer inspection, I concluded they began sprouting some time last weeek. Surely that is too soon, or so I thought. I decided to scan through my Garden Journal to see if I noticed this in the past year or so. And in mid-January 2008, there it was, a small note about the daffodils sprouting. A note later, confirmed that sprouting early didn't hurt the blooms. They were full and plentiful.

The Garden Journal, one of my favorite "tools." You may be asking yourself, do I really need one? The answer is YES! Well, you should at least consider it if you are serious about your gardening.

Your journal doesn't need to be anything fancy. I myself use a 3-ring binder. I set my journal up with calendar pages for each month and plenty of loose leaf in between. I keep separate sections for tips and ideas; projects lists; plant lists; garden diagrams; budget. Everything that has to do with my gardens goes in.

1. Seeds ordered
   
2. Seeds started and when
   
3. When things sprout
   
4. When seedlings go into the ground
   
5. Garden diagrams
   
6. Garden projects - new beds, transplanting
   
7. Photos - as things sprout, stages of the garden
   
8. Plant list
   

As you can see, I like to document. I take stock in my evergreens - do they look like they got damaged over the winter? How well do they come back, if at all? I cut the photos out of the catalogs of things I purchased and stick them on sheets behind my plant lists. But that is just me - it is the science geek in me coming out. At the end of the season, I can move the pages for the year to the back, and start again in January! I only have to start a new binder when one gets full. Good thing I bought the 3" wide binder!

Get started! Grab a composition book, 3-ring binder, spiral notebook, or a bound journal, pencil or pen and start documenting! You'll be glad you did.

I'm glad I take notes - now I know that I don't need to worry about my little daffodils being early, they typically sprout this time of year.