Winter drags on - Sunroom is a bright spot

After last weekend's busy household happenings this weekend has brought lots of time for happily pondering progress on my winter workspace. The sunroom now has a door, all it's windows, and insulation. And Jerry, my fabulously handy husband, hooked up the radiant heating system he installed in the floor.

Radiant heat feels very different from the forced air heat in the rest of the house. The thermostat that will run the pump for the hot water hasn't been connected yet, so last night Jerry connected the pump directly and let it run for about 4 hours to try it out. Before we turned it off for the night, the air temperature in the room rose from the low 40s to near 60 while the temperature on the concrete slab floor reached about 68. It felt very comfortable. That was rather amazing considering that same temperature might be a little chilly with forced air heat. The temperature shift in the room was slow, I believe, because the slab loses heat very slowly. My plants should thrive in the gentle warmth at their roots. Kudos to Jerry for coming up with the idea and for seeing it through :-)

I'm looking forward to moving into the new space soon, and so thoughts have turned to how to use the space efficiently. As you can see the windows are about 2 1/2 feet above the floor providing very little light to plants sitting under them. So I am designing narrow, movable benches on which plants can sit just below the window. They need to be low enough that the plants sitting on them will not further shade the floor yet high enough that the plants can capture a little sunlight. I think about 20 inches high will work well. On the underside of the bench will be a fluorescent light fixture to light an adjustable shelf. The electrician has installed outlets beneath each window so I'll have power. I hope to start plants under the benches next winter. I think 4 benches should be enough to span the two 9-foot windows and adequate space for several flats of seedlings. I've never had space for starting plants. Learning how to do it and tending the seedlings as they develop should provide some happy distraction while waiting for spring in the years to come.

For this year, I'll have to suffice with watching my sunroom develop. In spite of the fact that most of the work is not mine, I am enjoying the progress. It's a lot like watching a scrawny perennial planted in the fall sprout from the ground the next spring and become the beauty you hoped it would be. In fact, as I see this room grow into being it's almost exactly that same thankful, full-in-your-chest, wide-eyed feeling I get when I discover a plant is about to bloom - like I've discovered treasure. It's an odd, but welcome, feeling this time of year for a gardener.

My Garden is Overwhelmed

I discovered over the weekend that my life can be overwhelmed by stuff just like my garden. And when that happens I feel surrounded by weeds and helpless to change it.

Most of us gardeners, I think, derive a great deal of pleasure from weeding and tending their garden if only because we love the time spent alone with the outdoors. Some may think the payoff and joy is all in the admiration of the beautiful, weed-free garden when the work is done, and that is definitely a big part. But, for me, the time outside is the best part. The tending to details is restful and gradually I find I've created a sanctuary. Well my weekend was anything but restful. My home didn't feel like a sanctuary. It was totally overwhelmed by weeds in the form of laundry and broken desks and an unfinished sunroom.

My sunroom-to-be is the intended winter home of all the tropical and other non-hardy plants I have always over-wintered in my home. Given that winter is nearly half-way through and my sunny indoor garden is not yet built, there is one plant that couldn't fit in the house and that is suffering from a winter in my garage. My practical sense tells me my beautiful spider lilies will come back as soon as they are moved indoors or out into spring air when it arrives. But the creator in me is mourning the loss of the beauty I've enjoyed for several years. The bulbs were a gift from my sister-in-law in Mississippi. She leaves them in her garden over the winter and they come back every year. But having tried that and destroyed a few in my garden, I know they aren't hardy here in Missouri. The last two winters I've kept mine inside in a warm sunny place and they thrive, keeping their strap-like leaves all winter and producing these lovely flowers in July and August.

They look very sad now. Although I have kept them from freezing badly, I can tell they have suffered from the cold. There are very few green leaves left. I'm not sure how much they need the food their winter leaves provide, but it certainly seemed to have paid off last year as they bloomed profusely. With any luck my sunroom will be done before the last frost and their bulbs can get a jump-start before I set their pots outside. It's so difficult to see them looking so very dead. But maybe a winter's rest will actually do them good and this summer they will out-shine their previous performance :-) Can you tell I'm trying to reassure myself?

As for the broken desk and the laundry - they, of course, were tended to. I spent most of my Sunday dismantling my teenage son's old desk, shopping for a new desk, then assembling the new furniture and rearranging his room. Of course, the newly folded laundry has yet to make it into his well-positioned dresser. But somehow it eventually gets done and we all seem to get what we need to thrive.

And that includes mom writing in her blog - even if it is a day late :-)

Time for planning and dreaming

I received a back issue of Horticulture magazine this week and it's got me thinking of more native plants to include in my garden this season. As I mentioned in my last post, that first break in winter came early this year and began my annual impatience for spring. Lucky for me, the arrival of this fun magazine reminded me of how much planning I have to do and now I'm thankful for a little down time.

Horticulture's December 2009/January 2010 issue is the one that arrived yesterday. You might be asking, why now, since I've already received the February/March edition? Well, there was a subscription snafu because I moved. Now I am up-to-date.

This issue includes a fine article on native plants from all US states, plus Washington, DC. Plant habitats don't honor state boundaries, so many of the selections are also suitable for my zone 5 garden in suburban Kansas City. I will be looking for these plants on the private open areas around the lake, as well as in my local nurseries, to see if there are specimens I could collect. Take a look at the magazine's website www.hortmag.com. There you'll find suggestions in a tab called "Plants We Love" along with photos.

Another great reference I use to learn about plants that are suitable for gardens I'll be creating is the Missouri Botanical Garden's Plants of Merit webpage: www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Merit.
It's a great place to browse. The entries for specific plants explain whether the plant is a Missouri native and provide a lot of information about the plant's environmental requirements. I like the Plants of Merit in particular because these plants have performed well. The "emeritus" list is very long and provides hours of entertainment - great for those days when weather makes going outside a dreadful chore.

I've also just purchased my first landscape design software: Punch Home & Landscape Design Studio for Mac. It's the most inexpensive program I could find for my Mac. Since mine won't be a money-making endeavor (at least not for a long while), I don't want to spend a lot. I've never actually created visuals of my garden plans. It's all been in my head prior to it's existence in reality. So I'm looking forward to being able to see a preview of my ideas before actually implementing them.

Hopefully in next week's post I can show you my first plan. :-)

A Winter Flower Fix

There is a thaw afoot. My dormant lawn shows through in patches throughout the snow that was solid white just a few days ago. Moisture is everywhere. There is water dripping in the downspouts and for the moment the air smells of spring. This is my signal to start impatient foot-tapping and searching from my windows with binoculars for sprouting crocus or buds on the trees. I know, it's still only January. Winter still has time to freeze everything solid several more times. But that won't matter. I want to be the first to spy the signs of life. My new neighbors, I'm sure, will think I'm spying in their windows :-)

As I wait for my sunroom to be constructed, the plants crammed into my living room provide a helpful flower fix.

A peek over the back of my loveseat gives me this shocking splash of bright pink. The tiny non-hardy azalea my husband gave me for my birthday 3 years ago has struggled to survive. But, this year, on the floor next to the wall of windows in my living room, it has exploded with blooms for weeks. It's thriving.

This summer it will get a bigger pot and a nice spot next to the pond (that, like the sunroom, doesn't exist yet).

My new house has also been a good thing for my African violet. Next to the east-facing windows it has bloomed continuously this winter. I can't complain about the beauty its purple blooms have always added to my home. But I am a little anxious about repotting this large plant. As you can see it's large stem has tumbled over the edge of the pot. It's almost so heavy on one side that it tips the pot. In addition, several new plants have sprouted from the stem's base. This plant is the result of repotting last summer to put the plant back in the center and to separate several sprouts. I think this is the old main plant and that all the sprouts I tried to separate died. I'll cross my fingers that I end up with at least one plant like this one again. With a little luck maybe I'll have sprouts survive that I can give away, too.

I think I should add another violet of a different color for next winter. I'll have more room in the sunroom. Hmmm - does this mean I'm addicted? :-)

Follow me

I've added a new gadget to my blog. Now you can follow my ramblings by clicking on the "Follow" link to the right. So if you like reading my weekly entries, please follow me. That way, I'll know who shares my interests and have an opportunity to read similar, or even very different, blogs. I'm looking forward to finding some other garden ramblers out there.  :-)

Thoughts about winter and tough little birds

Well, winter has made an big show this year. Missouri can be brown and unpredictably mild or frigid. But this year it's been very predictable: unrelenting cold and snow.

We returned from our trip to Mississippi the day after Christmas to find a winter storm had dumped about 8 inches of snow on the Kansas City area. The temperatures weren't too bad, so it was nice to get outside the next day to shovel the driveway and listen to the birds. - Good to be home.

The next week brought incredible cold to the area and more snow. The birds flocked to the feeders outside my dining room. I've counted at least 6 male cardinals and groups of 5 titmice and 5 chickadees at the same time. This photo shows a cardinal in the big burr oak next to the deck and a pink house finch on the feeder. The snow was light but constant the entire day.

Even though it's been at least a decade since we've seen it, our Zone 5 is known to drop down to -10 or -20. The forecast high for today was 0º F. with sunny skies. The sun made the snow clinging to the trees and branches even more beautiful.

As I look out my windows, there are so many reasons to be thankful for the gardener who lived here before me. The purple coneflowers that I left standing attract goldfinches and juncos, but I have seen as many as three cardinals sitting in the plum tree as others forage among the seedheads

Today I watched as a streak of electric blue stopped in that rather scraggly plum. It was a female eastern bluebird. A few minutes later she flew to the pine trees and a male landed in her place. After reading in the Missouri Conservationist that these birds don't tolerate our coldest temperatures well, I was worried to see them out in this weather. I'm hopeful they found food to fuel them at my feeders. These spruce trees at the northwest corner of my home as well as the pines planted nearby should also provide some shelter in these coldest of days. And again I am thankful to the person who thought to position them so well.
The windows on that end of the house look out right into those trees and occasionally I'm given a closeup view of the ever-present cardinals. On the west side of the house is an overgrown forsythia that's as tall as the house. I watch the birds as they forage among the buds and wonder what it is they seek. I can hear them peeping as they congregate in what must be a favorite spot.

This morning I heard another bird that has a distinctive call - a white-throated sparrow. As I watched from one window, then the next, I finally caught sight of the little brown bird. It looks much like those very common, but not native, house sparrows. But this bird is native, at least in winter, in our area. unlike the house sparrow, the white throated sparrow has a white throat and a black and white striped cap. The distinctive call is a high thin whistle, with two notes followed by a series of 3 quick notes repeated 3 times. It sounds a little like, "old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody," or I've also seen it written as "pure sweet Canada Canada Canada." Either way works and even if it's not the entire phrase just a few notes will make me stop to look for the source.

Well, the sun is out today and it's still cold. But looking out my front door I see an encouraging future - my sunroom in progress :-)

Even though I had intended this as a sunny spot for birdwatching this winter, it seems obvious that the person here before created a solution for me with wonderful trees that bring the birds close. But next year this will be my spot, I think. My huge ficus and Norfolk pine will have plenty of light and space to grow. And I will have a happy, sunny place to enjoy a few tropical blooms and even more of the hardy little birds that seem oblivious to temperatures that even the snow-lovers among us avoid.


Meanwhile, you have my admiration and appreciation little carolina wren. Thanks for your loud and cheerful song. I'll make sure to keep that feeder filled :-)

Beech trees in Mississippi

I spent Christmas in Vicksburg, MS, where my brother and his wife have 10 acres of woods. I was fascinated by these trees with terraced branches. They looked like dogwoods, but they were holding onto their leaves in December and had no flower buds.
These photos were taken on Christmas morning. It turns out that these are beech trees. I had heard of them and seen a few cultivated varieties planted around here, but, in the woods around my brother's house, they are native and plentiful.

Look at how ferns and moss seem to love the protected spots around the base of the trunk.
And isn't the bark pretty - a wonderful mottled pattern of light and dark grey.

I explored the woods a little more with my sister-in-law, Eileen. We hiked down to a small stream bed that had running water the evening before. The soil around Vicksburg is called loess. It erodes easily forming steep, sometimes vertical, inclines. The hills were somewhat softer in this little patch of woods. The plentiful, towering beech trees may help to hold the soil in place here. Perhaps eroded soil is what leads to the little gaps that appear at the base of the trees where the roots enter the ground. Whatever the cause, the result can be lovely.
Beneath one tree near the edge of the stream I saw this interesting fern. I did some research today and found out it's a Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium fortunei), a non-native fern. According to the Hardy Fern Library link posted to the right, it would also grow well in Missouri.

The eroding of soil around the stream in most areas seemed well-controlled to my naive eyes. But, for Eileen, erosion is an issue she is working to control on her land. The stream had eroded a large amount of soil since she and my brother bought the land (about 10 years ago). That was evident as we neared a road where a culvert allowed water to pass underneath. The stream was several feet below the culvert and this beech tree with exposed roots stood nearby. It seems to be adapting to the situation and still stood straight and tall. I felt a little like I was looking under it's skirt. Maybe the roots will thicken at the bottom in years to come. I'll have to visit again and see what happens. I have a feeling this tree likes the spot it's in and won't move without a vigorous fight :-)

I returned from my holiday trip to find 8 inches of snow had fallen in the Kansas City area. It made my trip to Vicksburg seem even more exotic - and my holidays even happier.

I hope the holidays held wonder and happiness for you :-)