I'm Cuckoo for Cuttings!

Sure it's almost seed starting time here, and my growing table in the basement is going to be packed with seed flats soon, but there's other stuff going on too.

Mainly propagation by cuttings. I take cuttings both to get more plants, but also to overwinter non-hardy plants in an efficient way. Let's take a look at what I've got going on...

projects planned, 2013

It's the time of year when everybody has finished looking back at 2012 and started looking at 2013's garden, or what it might be. Ordering seeds (almost time to start them!), making plans.

I have several projects that on my "must-do" list for 2013, and what better way to motivate myself to actually do them, than to reveal them publicly to you. So here goes...

bark, I like

Remember the other weekend when I moved the mulch pile, all 64 wheelbarrow loads of it? As I got to the bottom of the pile, I started hitting a lot of branches, and a few logs that must have been thrown into the truck at the end of the day.

This log is from a tree that I'm not familiar with, unless it's a sycamore. It's beautiful though!

Is this goofy?

As I've said before I can't pass by a seed packet display without giving it a look, but I rarely look at the top row of seeds. The other day I did though, and saw this:

I can't decide if this is goofy or not. Oh, I'm well aware that it is Goofy, but why is he on a seed packet?

Surprise

Sometime earlier this winter I got a surprise. Not the bad sort of surprise either, as this one made me smile.

I have several fiddle-leaf fig plants, most of which spend their entire lives indoors. A couple of them though I've started putting outside for the summer. This is mainly because I was running out of space for them inside, but also because I know this results in a healthy burst of growth in them, and after several years of not enough light they do need a little boost.

Boost

Speaking of emerging blooms, what better way to give you a nice taste of the onrushing spring than some nice, cut flowers?

Color, texture, fragrance (sometimes) -- a good solution to the winter blahs and spring fever. Give yourself a boost!

Almost

Remember the Amarylis bulbs I talked about a few weeks ago? They're almost ready to bloom.

Another day or two and they should be in full flower. Very exciting when the winter is dragging on and there's not much going on in the garden (except deer).

art deer

A couple of weeks ago before the warm spell I noticed a few deer in the yard one morning. (It's important to realize that they're out there every day, but I don't always look at the right times.) They were hanging around the frozen pond, perhaps hoping to find a drink.

I took some photos that I wasn't too happy with, partially because of low lighting, partially because they were taken through a dirty window, and partially because I really wanted one of them to walk out onto the ice and do a little Bambi-style slipping and sliding.

One-word Wednesday: new

Recharge

Winter has been relatively mild so far -- not as much as last year though -- but spring fever still hits pretty hard. The end of January is when I start yearning for some greenery, color, fragrance, new growth. The bamboo in the garden helps, but it's not quite the same. It's time for a recharge...

...compliments of one of the few local garden centers that keeps a greenhouse going each winter.

sixty-four!

I wasn't planning on doing a lot of mulching this weekend, but the unannounced delivery of the wood chips changed my plans.

Sixty-four wheelbarrow trips later, my driveway was clear. Although you can't share in the four hours of repetition spread over two days (although if you want to experience something like this in my garden I can surely find something for you to do), if you have 42 seconds you can still watch the entire process...

Kosmik

When I'm at Home Depot, I always check the garden department. This usually leads to disappointment at this time of year, as outdoors there are few plants. Indoors there is usually a decent collection of houseplants though, along with some sad cactus displays.

Yesterday though, I saw something interesting. By "interesting" I mean "crazy".

Yes, dumping!

Even though I live in suburban St. Louis in a fully residential neighborhood, the terrain required the builders 40 years ago to leave fairly substantial amounts of undeveloped "common ground. I have a narrow strip of this behind my house, but there are larger sections nearby -- the reason we have so much daily deer traffic. The residents who have common ground behind their homes often use the "woods" to dump their yard waste: mainly leaves and sticks. I promote this practice, as those materials quickly break down and certainly don't cause any problems.

Almost everybody is happy with this practice, but there are always exceptions, right? There is one unhappy neighbor who went so far as to put up a "No Dumping" sign in the woods behind his house, even though it was his next-door neighbor who was "dumping" there. Let me make it clear right now that I welcome this unloading of organic matter in my yard!

Mystery solved

Notice anything different or interesting about the following image?

I'll give you a hint: you saw a photo of this spot just a few days ago.

Finches on a diet?

I've fed birds in my yard for years. Usually I have two types of feeders up year-round: a traditional one that contains a mix of sunflower seeds and other "songbird" type seeds, and finch feeders that contain Nyjer ("thistle") seed. (I add hummingbird feeders in the warm months too of course.)

I've had a problem the last few years with the finch feeders. The last time I consistently saw finches feeding was probably three years ago. Let's talk about this...

One-word Wednesday: Frost!

Collect

As you've seen and read about me before, I'm not a "clean everything out of the garden as soon as it turns brown" kind of gardener. No, I'm more of a "wait until the last possible minute before getting things ready for spring" guy for sure. That means that seeds stay on plants for a long time, probably longer than they should. But the birds appreciate it to some extent, and I like volunteer plants.

Although it's not quite time to start seeds indoors here, it is time for me to take stock of what I have, and also time to collect the seeds that I have in plenty. There's a seed swap later this week hosted by Schlafly Gardenworks, and I want to ensure my extra seeds get put to good use (by other gardeners).

Be lazy, make fun!

The bamboo that is growing outside my kitchen window has been bothering me since May or so. It's got this one culm that bends outside of the main clump, taunting me with its individuality.

It screams to me "this is a messy planting", and makes the whole bamboo look a little less attractive. Luckily I've never gotten around to removing it though, as it provides entertainment every day now.

Start of moss season

I know there are places where moss grows year-round or almost so, where it actually becomes a nuisance, just another "weed". Around here though winter marks the start of what I call "moss season", because under the snow (sometimes) and cold damp those patches of moss are starting to come into their own.

I was reminded of this earlier this week on my walk. Although most people have mossy spots somewhere in their yards, there are a couple of houses on my normal walk route that have what most would consider to be moss problems. I think they're wonderful, and here's an early look at one of them.

Winter trees

On my walk the other day I took photos not just of the terrible trees, but of the nice ones too. I love deciduous trees in winter, as you get to see their branching structure so much more clearly. Some of them are really magnificent too.

Not the trees in my yard though. The only ones that have any character in winter are the black locusts, and they're not the healthiest specimens around. Plus I only have a couple left -- most have been removed. Around the neighborhood though there are some beautiful trees...

Why?

The mild weather this week got me out of the house and back on my mid-day walk -- at least for a few days. I often see interesting or beautiful things on these walks and wish I had my camera, but hate to be encumbered while I ambulate. I did remember to bring my small camera with me one day this week though.

I'll start this "things around the neighborhood" post off with the bottom half of a small tree. I'm not certain of the type, as I couldn't tell from a quick look and didn't get a chance to do an up-close examination. Of course it would be nice to have leaves to help with the ID, so let's not worry about what type of tree this is.

It melts, prettily

We're in the middle of a warm spell in St. Louis right now, with temperatures in the 40's F a few days ago, steadily climbing to 64ºF (17ºC) by tomorrow. It smells like spring, and the pond ice is melting.

Last year when the ice covering the pond melted I wasn't overly interested, as it was just a frozen, empty pond thawing. This year of course the pond is a habitat, and I'm curious about it all the time -- watching the ice melt is just another facet of my fascination.

More filthy mulch

As I've already mentioned, I've been doing some mulching lately. One thing I've learned this year is that when you get a load of good mulch dumped into your truck on a snowy day, you get dirty. Or as two of my neighbors remarked, "filthy" (as in the phrase "why is your truck so filthy?")

The mulch dust stuck to pretty much every surface of the wet vehicle. I've been waiting for more precipitation to take care of this problem for me, but the expected rain last week didn't materialize -- we're still experiencing some level of drought here. I don't think filthiness matters when you're protecting plants and adding a wonderful blanket of organics to your soil, so I've been doing even more mulching.

Seed packet displays

I don't know about you, but seed packet displays always get me excited. The logical side of me thinks that it's much too early in the year for these to be put out and wants to walk past without stopping, but the emotional side of me shouts loudly enough that I always stop.

There's something about a rack of seed packets that I just can't resist. Maybe it's the color, or the uniformity of it, or the fact that you can't really see what's there unless you're close enough to scrutinize the packets. Or maybe all of that is just an excuse for spring fever to start kicking in. I always stop.

Manure

As I mentioned yesterday about my visit to Schlafly Gardenworks this weekend, we all got to take home bags of aged manure.

This may not sound like a big deal because you can get bagged manure at almost any garden center, or bulk manure from a couple of local sources. I have a few thoughts about that though.

January at the Gardenworks

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month, and that means a visit to Schalfly Gardenworks.

It's not as lush and green as it was this summer of course, but there's still quite a lot going on.

more pond ice

The pond continues to be a source of inspiration and fascination for me. Recently the ice was clear, but a little warm spell followed by some snow and another hard freeze changed that.

The ice is now opaque, white, and very bumpy. I would not get my skates out for this.

transplant?

Yesterday I asked about creating better drainage in clay soils, and I got quite a few suggestions (although I'm not yet certain what I'll do). Today I have another problem that I'd like some opinions on: transplanting.

This isn't your typical "dig it up and move it" transplant though. In fact, it doesn't really look like a transplanting at all -- but that's what it is.

drainage?

Like most gardeners, one of the things that I do during winter is make plans for next season's garden. Although most of the plans don't happen or take a couple of years to go from planning stages to actuality, I do it every year anyway. Sometimes the plans are straightforward and I know exactly what I want to do, like "build a small deck next to the pond". For other projects though, there are a lot of question marks.

One of these questionable projects was supposed to happen this past summer: prepare planting beds for my new Agaves, Yuccas, and different cactus varieties. Thanks to the walkway project I actually got a start on these beds, but the plants all remain in their pots, eager to stretch out their roots and become a part of the landscape.

Tracks in the snow

One of the best things about a little snow on barren ground is seeing the tracks that are left by various creatures.

Oh, I'm not talking about the ordinary ones like these from underneath the bird feeder.

Happy New Year!

Just quick but heartfelt wishes for a year full of adventure, discovery, and happiness! (Hopefully lots of gardening too of course.)

Thank you to everybody who reads INWIG, especially to those who take the time to comment. I really do appreciate it!