Garden Guidance - Tips and Tricks - Watering the Birds

The first month of the new year is behind us, can you tell the days are getting ever so slightly longer? It won't be long before we start hearing and saying - "spring won't be long."  

Instead of my usual do this or don't do that Punch List or mention of basil, garlic, the weather or our dog Ferris, I thought it might be interesting and hopefully helpful to share garden tips that I've read about over the years. My sources are many - from garden magazines, books, the internet, friends, neighbors and family. I'll start sharing these with you, although I may still scribble a blog here and there about gardening or timely must dos and planting/seeding charts.  

No rules here on these tips and tricks friend - it's take or leave it, or modify to make it better and work for your situation. If you have a tip to share, just leave the informaton in the comment box below and perhaps I'll share it with others. Be sure to let me know if you want your name used. I have to okay the comments beforehand, you wouldn't believe how much spam tries to come through my blog.

Winter Water for Birds - my own tip:

Fresh water is scarce for our feathered bird friends in the winter and I like to help keep them hydrated. My neighbors have several bird feeders while I leave all the perennial and herb foliage seeds for winter snacking, all good. 

There are a few ways other than my method to provide fresh water. Heated, outdoor water heaters and heated trays are commonly used. These are available for purchase or DIY.  I have a box with heated tray, made by my dad many years ago. Rather than using, I prefer to display it in my garden room to remind me of him.

This is truly a no-brainer tip. Obviously, water in any outdoor bird bath is going to go through freeze and thaw cycles, most likely leading to cracking damage. My method allows for daily fresh water on top of the bird bath.  

Plastic trays are inexpensive and most are recyclable, so if they crack, can easily be replaced.

I simply place three boards over the concrete bird bath to elevate the plastic tray a bit. You probably have plenty of these trays that are used under containers. You'll need two trays. I fill one with fresh water each morning. Usually the birds let me know they are thirsty when they are flying around the area and making some noise. Of course it's usually right in the middle of my morning oatmeal and coffee. I love being needed!

Because I don't usually empty the water each night before it freezes, I take the frozen tray and replace it with the other plastic tray and fill that one with water.

I let the frozen tray thaw a bit near a patio, then turn it over near a brick wall and let it thaw on the grass which adds a bit of moisture to the area. Sometimes the water doesn't freeze all the way so I'll toss the water on the nearby raised beds. Do whatever you wish with the round frozen ice cube, I just like the ease of exchanging the frozen tray each day. If you cover your bird bath each winter to prevent moisture from getting in, you can still use a tray to water the birds!

Winter Cover for your Bird Bath can still be used to give Birds needed Water!

A Decade of Gardening Part III - a Look Back, Lessons Learned, What's Ahead?

So ... will past landscape decisions be repeated this next decade, including the bad ones?  In two words, "hopefully not." I'm not too proud to talk, write and show photos of my past landscape mistakes, perhaps they'll remind me not to do them again or give you food for thought of what's ahead in your garden. Here goes ...

2010 Let me make this perfectly clear, this is not my dead grafted rose. But it could have happened to me or anyone who isn't in the know that grafted roses (mostly the hybrid types) in our Zone 5 and colder areas need their grafted section, (think of it like a fist) to be buried two to four inches below the soil line. Grafted you say and a fist? 

Dead Hybrid Tea Rose-the graft needs to be buried at planting

This is the area on the rose where the super hardy root stock is grafted or attached to a different upper rose plant (the fist comparison is where the two plants are grafted). The purpose is to grow favorable characteristics in these rose types like repeat bloom, fragrance, various colors and more. Often these roses are used in the florist industry, you know the red bloomers that go out the door by the gazillions around Valentine's Day.

This particular rose was planted in a friend's garden by some landscapers who obviously were not in the know about the graft. In just one year the exposed graft was taken out by the most likely culprit - our cold weather. If, and this isn't always a guarantee, if the graft had been mulched in the fall with soil or a mulch/soil combination then it might have made it through and lived. For much more helpful rose growing and care information, please check out the Denver Rose Society's webpage and click on the Growing Roses tab.

Poor Sprinkler Head Coverage - need Adjusting!

Also in 2010, our south lawn (before our new landscape was planted two years later), I wasn't monitoring the sprinkler heads very well and as you can see, there are dead grass areas. To be honest, I didn't really care that much because we knew it would all be removed soon for the new landscape project. 

If not one hundred percent certain the sprinkler heads were askew, these dead patches might be mistaken for lawn mite damage, which is commonly seen in the spring on south and west lawns that are close to buildings, driveways and sidewalks. Read all about these tiny lawn mites and how to keep them at bay in this fun read from the CSU Horticulture Blog.

Aster Yellows on Coneflower

2013 - when will I ever learn that our landscape location for some odd reason is a magnet for the migratory aster leaf hopper can which transmits a bacterial disorder (aster yellows) to ornamental plants including coneflower, marigold, aster, petunia, zinnia, beet, carrot, lettuce and more. I grow the three vegetables, but have not seen aster yellows occur (fingers crossed).

I grew coneflower (echinacea) in our former landscape with the same result. Once infected, the damage is very obvious with twisted, stunted odd growth and loss of green pigment in veins of leaves. The plants and blooms look so depressed. There's no cure, just digging and tossing the plant (don't compost). No more coneflower plants for us, plus Japanese beetles like coneflower too, so no need to put in another plant for their voracious appetites. 

Just an FYI ...

My favorite posts since 2014 when I started blogging -

Moms are Special May 4, 2016 

My Mom December 7, 2017

Smart Pots Deliver August 6, 2016

Goodbye Gardening Season 2015 December 28, 2015

For the Love of Basil August 11, 2014

In closing ...

2019 I jumped a few years, if I keep writing about my garden missteps, I'll be writing for the next ten years! Let me end this three parter on a good note. The absolutely best landscape move I did in the past ten years was making the decision in 2016 to re-do a small, but very visible planting bed next to the patio. Initially it had been planted with ornamental and culinary herbs surrounding a birch tree. Without any need to justify this very poor decision (hey, at least the birch was on its own drip schedule), I realized the herbs would never be happy with less sun being shaded by the birch as it grew larger and larger. The herbs certainly showed me, they just sat there for four years and sulked. 

Spring into summer of 2016 was hot, often I worked in the cool of the evening. One large lavender clump was kept in place, but the remaining struggling herbs were composted. In went some lovely, low maintenance, pollinator perennials, Plant Select® plants and a small, bareroot zone 4 hardy magnolia (still on its own drip). The result was awesome, at least in our minds. My husband and I couldn't be happier with the way it looks now. My favorite time waste is to watch butterflies, bees and birds do their flitting and feeding just twenty feet from my vantage. Birds are still visiting for the free seeds left on the winter plants.

I wrote about this project back in '16, so feel free to click here and here to see the project from beginning to end. 

The bed is still evolving and I'm experimenting with earlier blooming plants to attract spring migrating hummingbirds and keep all the bees and other beneficial insects happy with nectar and pollen all summer and well into fall. Below are the most recent photos of this work in progress. I still have some open areas for more plants and who knows how it will look ten years from now. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted as we and our plants both grow older together.  

 

A Decade of Gardening Part II - a Look Back

I like to compare each new outdoor gardening season to the start of a new grade school year. There's anticipation, excitement, and a bit of anxiety of the unknown all wrapped up in a bouncing ball of emotions. We sort of know of what goes on each school and garden year, but the specific events are never the same from year to year.

This past decade of gardening took me right back to second grade which was one of my favorite years - maybe because I got glasses that year and I could actually see the chalkboard and the grass surrounding the playground outside the windows. Suffice it to say I saw green that year and if you read Part I of this three part blog, you'll remember that we had two, rather lush, greener than usual, rainy summers in 2011 and 2015. What else happened in the garden this past decade?

Below are some of my memorable years in pictures with comments.

2010 - May and June were rainy but it got hot and stayed hot July through September. It was a good spring bloom season and the very drought tolerant Cheyenne Mock Orange I planted for my favorite neighbor off her alley fence bloomed gang busters, so much so that the heavenly fragrance drifted to our backyard. At that time, we were out of room to plant this winning shrub from Plant Select® in our yard.

I promised Ann, my neighbor, at planting time (a few years prior), that she wouldn't have to water the shrub once established if she didn't want to wrangle with getting the hose over the fence if I wasn't around to assist. She was in her 80s and took the path of low maintenance and gave it a drink or two over the years. She sadly passed away last March (2019), but the shrub is going strong, just like Ann was up until a week before her death.

Cheyenne Mock Orange

2011 and 2015 - I discussed these rainy summers in Part I. It dried up enough to get a phenomenal crop of lettuce leaf and Genovese basil. My secret for enough plant leaves to eat all season, share and freeze for winter eats is to directly seed basil seeds of your choice. 

Growing Basil How To

2012 may be our most memorable garden year since the late 90s when we put in a brand new landscape. We were fortunate to start over from scratch as a result of a recent building project. The experience was not only rewarding but challenging in a good way due to all the planning and overseeing the install in steady stages through the summer. 

On the south exposure, our goal of more trees for privacy plus less thirsty herbs and perennials that appeal to birds and pollinators was met in spades (pun intended). To the west we skipped planting turf entirely and focused again on trees, shrubs, a dry rock stream and swaths of low maintenance ground covers and soft evergreen shrubs. We've made plant changes here and there over the years, but we have maintained the original concept. Not to worry, we planted our own Cheyenne Mock Orange that is almost as pretty as Ann's and just as perfumed when in spring bloom.

Thanks always goes to Mr. Alan Rollinger, a Denver based well known and respected landscape designer and instructor, who so thoughtfully and expertly designed our landscape, and to Mr. Brad Stark, (303) 669-0772 for his outstanding planting and hardscape installations including our raised beds. 

Some of the new plants for the new landscape

This slug was large and slow, easy to get a close up shot!

Red Cedar 18" depth Raised Beds, Expertly Built by Brad Stark, 303 669-0772

2012 was a red letter year when I was asked by Susan Clotfelter, a former Home and Garden editor at The Denver Post to write a freelance garden column she so aptly named - "The Punch List" about what to be doing and when in a typical Front Range garden during the growing season and other months. Thank you so much Susan, The Denver Post and my subsequent DP editors. It's been a good run so far!

2013 was an outstanding vegetable growing year. The first garlic crop in the new raised beds were planted in the fall of 2012, some varieties grew to golf ball size plus and tasted garlicky fresh. 

Hardneck 'Music,' a family favorite!

Softneck 'Susanville'

2013 Ferris is admiring the pretty one year old fall shrubs. His favorite place to roam is the south berm between the fir and spruce trees and shrubs.

2013 marked the first year I spotted and snapped a photo of our on-going nemesis in central and south Denver. More in Part III.

First EVER Japanese Beetle - late fall (which was interesting to see so late in the season)

Hope you'll check back soon for the final Decade of Gardening installment with more pictures and garden stories.

A Decade of Gardening Part I - a Look Back

A decade of gardening has come and gone. That means countless homegrown tomatoes have been sandwiched, canned, pickled, dried or frozen. Smiles have graced gardener's faces watching the earliest spring bulbs pop from frozen landscapes on into summer's reveal of flowers, striking foliage and fabulous fall color. 
  
Maybe that's being too positive as to what actually happened from 2010 through 2019. I can't help myself when it comes to one of my favorite past time activities.

How about we agree that in Colorado, specifically along the Front Range - the last ten years of gardening might be summed it in one sentence (quoted by someone famous that I can't seem to find or remember) - "parts of it I liked and parts of it I didn't." 

Parts not Liked (of course, the weather) -

You may recall the severe hot summers of 2012 and 2018, where both years had over sixty days (May through Sept.) in the nineties and very dry June and August months. 😩

May 29, 2015 - Potatoes in Smart Pot loved the Rain and Cool!

Hot, dry summers are memorable but more of the norm around Denver. What I won't forget are the summers of 2011 and 2015 and all the precipitation at the beginning of the outdoor growing season. 

Both years had snowy and rainy Mays making it difficult for seed sowing and transplanting. In July of 2011 we had well over five inches of rain. In June of 2015 we had close to three inches of rain and things didn't dry out until mid July. Both seasons were great for growing potatoes and scouting the morning trails of slug slime. Tomato plants sulked and decided that whatever fruit matured came down with a fungus or bacteria or both. 😣 

Gardeners know that weather events often inconvenience anticipated planting schedules and expectations. "Whatta 'ya gonna do."  

November 10, 2014 at 9:00 am 55 degrees

When we're dealt extreme hail or temperature swings, everyone, not just gardeners are left commiserating and adversely effected - usually in the pocket book to replace plants. The flash freeze, also called polar vortex or extreme bomb cyclone days from November 11 to 16 of 2014 are hard to forget. Fruit trees won't either. The months and days leading up to this week were warm and dry. Daytime temperatures from November 1 to 10 were breezing along in the fifties and sixties. On November 10 in just mere hours we went from 66 degrees to 14 degrees. Then it plummeted to minus 6, minus 4 and minus 8 for three nights. Days were in the low teens. If our plants could have talked to us, they would have literally said "what in this flora, fauna world are you doing to us?!!"  

We know the aftermath, it wasn't pretty. Many plants (not all) were damaged or died, they just weren't prepared for such a severe, long lasting cold slap in the buds, stems, root hairs, xylem and phloem. Many have written about this event, read here and here for a refresher.  Other (lesser) weather related plunges took place in October and March of 2019. 

November 11, 2014 3:00 pm 17 Degrees

It wouldn't be an accurate ten year garden reflection blog without a mention of the close to half of the Mother's Day or Mother's Day weekend snow or cold temperatures that ruined freshly planted petunias and peppers.

Liked Parts - 

We welcomed the cutest four legged puppy family member to our home in August of 2010. Ferris was ten pounds of joy and trouble. As any new puppy owner can relate, they chew on everything, then they find more things to chew. We're thankful he didn't take to shoes early on and never has. 

He lost his puppy coat of brown and grey within the first year and has maintained his wheaten soft coat color that bears his breed name. Ferris Jem Cahill, our thirty-five pound best friend for walking around the park, riding in a car, meets every friend and visitor to our house with this breed's signature "wheaten greetin."   

Ferris enjoys being outside with me while gardening. Of Irish heritage, wheaten terriers were bred for vermin hunting, guarding the chicken coop and herding. We find he's best at keeping the yard free of cats, squirrels and rabbits (that we thankfully fenced out a few years ago). He loves the snow!

In Part II I'll touch on our landscape projects, favorite plants and garden surprises.