Help: Redo This Garden!

Here's the challenge: This area of the backyard (I call it the "Birdbath Garden"...duh) goes from hot sun near sidewalk to deep shade under the trees. I've tried many different things with this area, including taking out most of the grass and putting down wood bark mulch -- HATED that!! I've planted just about everything I could think of around the birdbath: tulips for spring, thyme for ground cover, all sorts of perennials, you name it. NOTHING does well here except for the year I surrounded the birdbath with containers of geraniums (and those don't look real great until later in the summer). I always go into this project with beautiful visions of what it will look like and every time I end the season very discouraged.

This area looks good in grass because it breaks up the various areas. But... the grass under the shade needs to be replanted several times a year, and the grass around the sidewalk dries out, no matter how much water it has. Sooooo...... what do I do? My husband is thinking of planting buffalo grass in the area. I like that idea, but you need to make sure that it is a variety that will grow in shade. As the catalogs come in I put my virtual glasses on and envision many ideas. There are nice collections of wildflower seeds. Wouldn't it look good to "naturalize" this area with buffalo grass and wildflowers? I like that idea very much. But here we go again. Most wildflowers need a lot of sun. Another idea... ground cover. Maybe I should explore that more. The problem here is that this area does get a lot of traffic from maintaining the birdbath and flower beds. In the winter it is exposed and gets lots of cold snow and wind. I have zillions of vincas that we inherited next to the fence and I'm tired of them. They are also difficult to walk among without tripping.

How about a nice big water feature that would replace the birdbath (although I need to keep the heated part for the winter)? Don't think we have the energy or money to do that, but maybe I could do it on a smaller scale. I could place some rocks around the birdbath and build up around them? But we are finally making progress in removing tons of red rocks that used to cover this area, making it difficult to plant in areas. What to do? Right now I'm lost. But that's what winter is about, right? Dreaming and making plans. So, I'll be looking at more catalogs and doing some more planning, and I hope to come up with a solution that will work. Back to the drawing board!

If anyone reading this blog has any ideas, please let me know.

Now...this is more like it!

Notice the footprints? The early morning visitor is our resident fox who walks the same route through our property every day. Here he is on his way back. When he first arrives in the morning he has diagonal tracks across the grass.

This is more like a beautiful Colorado winter day! A fresh snow fall last night and dazzling sunshine today. Terribly cold though! I suppose we will get as tired of looking at winter snow pictures as we did coneflowers in the summer??

Getting Started....Kinda

I love the shape of this little sage

The Ringed-Neck doves were busy at the feeder this morning. Too bad I have to photograph them from far away and through the window, but they are pretty spooky.

Finally, a week not interrupted by a holiday. Time to get settled in for the winter and start accomplishing some things, right? I thought I'd have much more energy for it than I do today, but ya gotta get started somewhere. A walk outside for some inspiration, that's what I needed. Not much there. Brrrr... it is cold. As you can see from this photo there is a storm coming in:

Nature's birdhouse. Many little birds take shelter in the "poodle" trees. A good use for them!

At least this winter (so far) has not been as bad as last year, and for that I'm very thankful. This time last year we were still getting stuck in the drift in from of our house.

I've started a list of things I want to accomplish this year. But the top chore is to reorganize all of my gardening publications, books, journals, calendars, etc. Now that I am retired I can devote more room in my office to my gardening passions. First, I need to clean out 20 years of stuff accumulated during my stint as a freelance graphic designer. And that is going to be quite a job. Old client files, artwork, books, supplies, you name it. I have been trying to do a little each day so that it doesn't feel so daunting, but it is slow going. Meantime, awaiting are four years of plant tags, piles of books and gardening publications, and a new software program to keep track of it all, which I am using as incentive to get this done. I can hardly wait to get started on that (okay, I see a theme here!)

Speaking of work, I still do have one client: our local Humane Society. I work on their website and I just love it. I love doing things for animals and working with people who love them. With that in mind, I think I'll stop now and get caught up with their work so I can get started on with mine!

Peace for 2008

Peace to all my gardening friends for 2008. I hope that your hearts are full of love and your gardens will be full of flowers. This is the time of year when I relax from the cooking and shopping of the holidays and take time to enjoy the love and gifts I received from my wonderful family. I take the week between Christmas and New Years to decompress and not expect too much from myself. Time to get out a jigsaw puzzle and spend some lazy hours accomplishing little. By the end of the week I will be ready to reorganize and get going for the new year. And, of course, the many seed catalogs will start coming in the mail and the excitement will build, dreaming about the coming gardening season. Meantime, I observe the peacefulness outside my window and enjoy watching the antics of my Ringed-Neck Doves. Peace to all!

Careless Neighbor Update

Just missed a seafoam sage. Several sprinkler heads were run over, but it looks like they popped back up.

The snow is starting to melt, so I can begin to get a better idea of the damage done by my neighbor's truck when he jumped the curb and ran down the parking. I really think most things will be okay (thanks to all the mulch I have down) except those that will be crushed by the posts. As soon as I can get at them better I will pick them up. There are several tulip bulbs that will be coming up around the posts, so I want to get that area cleared.

New aster was in the path, but I think the dried foliage acted as a cushion and hopefully saved some root damage. There will be tulips coming up under where the posts are now.

This is where he cut across the corner. Can you believe the sprinker head is still standing? Won't know if id will work, however.

Luckily, the tires went right in front of a couple lavender plants that I had transplanted this fall.

This log was dug further into the ground. I'm really surprised that he didn't flip his truck when he hit all the logs and posts.

This is the area where I planted several small plants I got from High Country Gardens. I still can't tell if they were damaged. All said and done, I think I will be pretty lucky.

Careless Neighbors Leave Their Mark

It was an agonizing morning yesterday when we discovered that a truck had jumped the curb and run down the middle of one of our strips. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, and that's the chance you take when you garden that close to the street. One year we a neighbor slid into some of the upright posts, which thank goodness stopped his forward progress, but it was nothing like this. My heart sunk as I realized that the path was right over most of the new plants I brought back from Santa Fe this fall. After the initial shock I rationalized that perhaps the posts did stop some of the momentum of the truck and since there was already snow on the ground (and lots of mulch) perhaps there was some cushion for the tender plants. A couple Russian Sage were knocked over and will need to be cut back as soon as weather permits. It could have been a lot worse.

Heidi and her owner come to help...

...or maybe not.

Later, a neighbor came forward to tell us that he had lost control of his truck. I had an idea it might have been him. He and some friends live in what I call the "party house." Every weekend they sit out front and party until 3 a.m. and I've had to complain about the noise. When the weather gets colder they stay in their big diesel truck and run it for quite a while, several times during the night. Since they rent, I suppose they are out there smoking and whatever else they don't want their landlord to know about. The noise is so loud right outside my window that neither a pillow over my head nor my ipod earphones drown it out. Sooooo... I guess it was nice that he at least admitted that he was the one and even offered to pay for the damage. It's amazing that he would do that, and while I give him credit for doing so, it was very difficult to stand there and "appreciate" his actions, even though that is what I said. I still feel bad about my plants and we told him that we really won't know the damage until we see what happens this spring. Most of my plants are pretty hardy. But still, the fact that I have to put up with this guy and his cohorts all the time just pisses me off. Just one more reason why I can't stand the guy. Ughhh!!!

On the lighter side, it was a beautiful (if icy) snowfall and we really needed the moisture. One of our NICE neighbors brought their St. Bernard over to console us and have some fun.

Chickadee-dee-dee (Winter Bird Watching)

One of my favorite wintertime activities (well, not very active on MY part) is to sit and watch the birds. I especially love hearing the chickadees when I venture outside. Their little perky chirps fill me with joy. How can a heart not be lifted with their antics? Better than any anti-stress medication I can think of!

My HH (handy husband) built a beautiful high platform feeder outside my living room window so I can see them even while sitting down (which I do a lot of in the winter). This also helps protect the birds from the neighbors' lurking cats. I also have tube feeders in the front, outside my office window so I can see them while sitting at my computer. The frog is a funny "earthquake detector" that we got in Santa Fe one year. It sits atop the first feeder he made for me that includes a peanut feeder for squirrels. I don't feed peanuts any more because they destroy too many plants by burying them. As you can see though, they get their more-than-fair share of birdseed.

This shows the outside of the feeders.

Flicker antics.

I would love to have some Orioles and other beautiful birds I see in photos from parts way east of Colorado. Still, I do have a nice list of frequent visitors to my feeding stations:

Chickadees (of course), Flickers, Downey Woodpeckers, Juncos, many different Finches and Sparrows, Bushtits, Crows (not too excited about these), Starlings and a Robin or two who hang out with them, my VERY favorite Ringed Neck (Eurasian Collared) Doves, Blue Jays, and even a Hawk or two or possibly a Prairie Falcon. I so enjoy watching the doves strut back and forth. They are new to our area the last few years. Once in a while we also see a White Winged Dove too. In the summer we have the beautiful Goldfinches and Turtle Doves.

Ringed Neck (Eurasian Collared) Dove

This is the best photo I've been able to take of the doves. They frighten easily at the slightest movement, so I tried getting a photo through the shutters. Sometimes I have as many as 15 or more at one time.

Every morning (and more often during cold or snow) I take food out back (sunflower chips, a mix called "Chickadee Chew," consisting of black oiled and striped sunflower seeds, a couple kinds of millet, tree nuts and peanuts. I add to this a handful of hulled millet, which the doves love, and all the other birds are happy to leave for them. I also have a heated birdbath that gets MANY visitors, since a lot of people do not keep water out in the winter. When the Starlings visit I know that I must go out as soon as they have left and clean out the debris, as well as refill the now empty birdbath. I've had this heated bath for about four years and couldn't live without one. It really works well, and I feel so good knowing the birds have a source of water. Several suet feeders complete the menu.

These crows are okay in small numbers.
And here are some beautiful sunset photos that my hubby took the other evening.



Veggies put to bed for the winter.