My Gardens in February

The Flower Garden

Winter is NOT my favorite time of the year. I become kind of hermit-like. I wrap myself in layers and cozy up to a fire in the fireplace as much as possible when home. I do spend time looking out the window at the garden. This is the view from one of the family room windows.

The same window affords a view of the wisteria on the greenhouse, which is a resting place for birds. One day I spotted this Black-eyed Junco.

And through the bay window in the family room, I also saw this cowbird taking shelter in one of the bird feeders.

Yet, despite the winter weather, I still have to venture out to the garden just to make sure I’m not missing anything.

As mentioned in my previous post, I love to see the pods, dried flowers and cones in the garden. This is a dried passion flower pod. Should have clipped this off and placed the seeds where I wanted them. Instead I left it on there and seeds scattered everywhere. Now I have passion flower vines popping up all over the flower garden!

And even though it was cold to me, it was still in general a mild winter for us. The daffodil leaves popping out in February were a sure sign of that.

This dove enjoyed the warm winter sunshine on a birdbath that I had gotten from a friend of mine.

It was even warm enough for Molly to make a few appearances on the screened-in back porch. She is like me and hates the cold weather. Her sister, Izzy, on the other hand, could be found snoozing on her chair on the porch in the bitter cold.

The Kitchen Garden

Obviously, not much went on in the kitchen garden in February. Just some wilted leeks and kale.

The Kitchen Garden in January 2016

January was so long ago, so I have to try to remember here...but there wasn’t much going on in the Kitchen Garden in January at that time anyway. What I do remember is that we were really late getting a killing frost. It finally came late December of 2015 or early January 2016. Not much snow to speak of compared to other years in January, but there was some.

Before the snow...

Then after the snow...

Another angle before the snow...

Then a similar angle after the snow...

Mr. Wiggles wasn’t too happy about the snow, but at least his head wasn’t buried.

Well, at least not until later...

My Gardens in December 2015

December was warm considering it was supposed to be winter. We still hadn’t had a really big killing frost.

The Kitchen Garden in December 2015

Sparse, but still a few things were growing in the kitchen garden in December, due to the warm weather. I have never had as much growing this late in the season before.

 Arugula, Rainbow Chard, and Leeks.

Kale ‘Redbor.’

Rainbow Chard and Dill.

Parsley...thriving!

More Parsley, Sorrel, and Garlic Chives.

Garlic Chives and Sorrel.

The Flower Garden in December 2015

Foggy mornings were somewhat common in the garden in the warmth of December.

It was warm enough for a yellow rose or two to still be blooming!

And daffodils thought it was already spring.

There was even mint still growing outside the back door – enough to make a couple mojitos.

Also outside the back door, Oregano, Thyme, and Sage, were still green – barely touched by frost at all.

But no mistake, it WAS December.

The Christmas Ferns had their fine greenery for Christmas, hence the name.

Winnie watched over the garden, as always.

I put the leftover pumpkins from Halloween and Easter out in the garden for the squirrels to munch on. Usually they devour them, but this time they really weren’t interested.

The neighbor’s cats continued to take advantage of the warmer weather.

As did my cats!

My Gardens in November of 2015

I am determined to get caught up with my garden posts!

My Kitchen Garden in November of 2015

The gravel path gets covered in leaves by November. I swear it is under there somewhere.

Puss, one of my neighbor’s cats, was still enjoying sitting on the garden bench in November since it was a warm fall.

The Alaska Nasturtium crawled its way toward the garden bench, as well.

Despite the increasingly cold weather, the flowers of the red Gift Zinnias hung on!

Kale ‘Redbor,’ with its ruffled, dark purple leaves. This is an edible kale, however it requires massaging to get it to soften up a bit before cooking.

Leaks, Rainbow Chard, Merlot Lettuce, and Arugula still looking good in November?! Was true!

My Flower Garden in November of 2015

The garden chair was still a pleasant place to sit, even this late in fall.

In this shot, the hostas were devastated by the first frost.

Behind the chair, Mr. Gnome guzzled down some fall cider outside his house.

The flower garden was a mix of browns, greens, and yellows.

Those roses, oh those roses. They just weren’t willing to give up quite yet.

The wisteria leaves put on their fall color on top of the shed.

The grass was surprisingly green for this time of the year, again due to it being warmer than usual. The silver of the sage shows we were still able to enjoy some herbs even this late in the year.

The leaves coated most of the moss in the Secret Garden.

The angel slept in a blanket of leaves in this same area.

Also in the Secret Garden, the flowers on this hydrangea turned a bright pinkish red.

Colorful leaves in front of the shed / workshop in November.