Winter Garden

 

Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) bearing fruit at the end of December/beginning of January

We are very fortunate to live in a part of the country where even in winter the garden offers excitement and even some color. While it certainly doesn't display the richness of spring, summer and fall, there still is lots of interest to see.

African Flag (Chasmanthe floribuna) was showing its starting flowers at the beginning of the year.

Now it looks like this:

This is a volunteer to my garden, I never planted it. I guess some birds brought it in and it has been spreading ever since. I don't mind since it doesn't crowd out other plants and new plants are easy to remove. I rather enjoy these pretty flowers that are such happy spots of color on a gray day.

There are several pink flowering currants (Ribes sangunieum var. glutinosum) throughout my garden and they usually start flowering in February. In fall, the birds enjoy the berries while the bees love the plant in spring.

My front garden is in the shade during the dead of winter, but when I see the sun hitting some parts of it again I know that spring is not too far away. Here the morning sun lights up the fat ceramic doves sitting in the Wooly Sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum).

The warm light of the morning sun always thrills me.

A ceramic bird is hiding in the Forget-me-Nots (Myosotis). These are volunteer plants as well and they spread in the shady parts of the garden. If I don't want them there, I can easily pull them. When the flowers turn into seeds, they unfortunately have the habit to cling to your clothes when you step among them. That's the only part I don't like about this plant. The tiny blue flowers make a beautiful "carpet" in the spring.

This winter we fortunately have had a lot of rain, and the delicate spiderwebs on the damp plants are easy to see. 

This red camellia is in front of my kitchen window. There used to be two more camellias, but we took them out last year because they were too close to the house and therefore a fire hazard. But the red one we left in the ground. It wasn't doing too well while the other - more robust - camellias were there, but I tended to it last year, trimmed and pruned and this year it delights us with a much bigger bloom than all the years before.

I like to keep my garden as natural as possible. That means that I leave some old and dead parts of trees on the ground where they offer shelter to insects and beneficial bugs. Because of all the rain, Turkey Tail Fungus has developed on the trunks. Since this is not on a living tree, I leave them be. When you look at them, you can easily see why they're called Turkey Tail.

Aren't they beautiful?

The past few days have been sunny and a bit warmer. That was all that this calendula needed to display its happy flowers. These flowers always remind me of home where I saw them growing wild and spreading through seeds.

A few days agao I noticed the first blue flowers on my California Lilac (Ceanothus) - this is a huge bee magnet and I could see some bees humming around the tiny blooms.

Of course you all are familiar with daffodils (Narcissus) - they started to appear at the end of January.

The birds are in abundance as well and I have to refill their feeders at least every other day. I enjoy watching them. This one I can see from my kitchen window and it is mostly visited by House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches and Pine Siskins. The feeders in the back garden attract a greater variety of birds because there I offer different kinds of bird seeds and nuts.

For Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday I am remembering warm evenings in the garden when we have dinner al fresco and enjoy a glass of wine (or two). Cheers and happy T Tuesday to you.