Well, winter has finally hit Minnesota. I have been taking my early mornin coffee outside to listen for the sounds and it is oh so quiet! The screech owls must be huddled up keeping warm somewhere. The Great Horned Owl was not near either. I guess all the “food” must be keeping warm in their nests as well? Nothing to hunt, no reason for the raptors to be out? Well, I still have the whistles and sqwacks of the Red Headed woodpecker at our homemade peanut butter seed feeder outside our bay window to keep me amused! I am still looking for the Pliliated to come and visit this feeder, but he is still clearing out the worms in the dying maple tree in our front yard!
I often like to wake up before the sun rises to listen to the wildlife sounds. Well, a couple of days ago it was quite frosty but I took my coffee outside about 5am. There was the usual Screech Owl banter, between the whistles and the haunting screeches that bounce back and forth, I kinda wonder what the conversation is all about. But then out of the darkness, and rather close, came the majestic call of the Great Horned Owl. I got those goose bumps that you get not from the cold! It was awesome listening to the low who-wooo echoing across the lake.
I still have snapdragons alive and blooming in my back garden! They must be hardy little guys. It’s so nice to see something still alive and colorful among the brown and dead. I do still have some dianthus alive along my walkway but they are no longer in bloom. This has been an unusually mild November for Minnesota, I guess it’s an apology for giving us one of the coldest and wettest Octobers on record! Well, I know it won’t last because we have to get some snow for the Holiday season, just for the ambiance.
I always find myself feeling a bit down this time of year. As the days get farther from summer and my gardens get ready to sleep for the winter, I get lonely for the outdoors very quickly! I am a summer person. So, now I need to find ways to amuse my gardener self during the hibernation period in Minnesota! This always hits me every year, you’d think I would be used to it??
I have been offering a Garden of the Month contest at Manitou Garden Market, the sister website to Manitou Garden Composting. So far I have only been able to add photos of my own gardens and have submissions from my mother’s gardens. Now, even though my mother is an excellent gardener, it would be so much more fun if we had a little more variety to choose from, something different every month. Well, nobody has shown any interest in my Garden of the Month idea. I guess there is a trial and error process in every business. I will keep photos of my gardens posted there until someone else offers up some other pictures so I can change them out. I will leave my offer up for a little while longer, so if anybody is interested in winning a free gift and worldwide recognition of their garden via my blogs and websites (not to mention Twitter, Facebook and several other social networks if you give me your permission!!), send us photos of your gardens and see if yours is chosen as Garden of the Month! What a way for gardeners to brag and network, huh??
I have a patch in my gardens where I grow canip, not catmint like others confuse it with, but CATNIP, you know, the kind that drives kitty cats nuts! I grow it for my cats and anyone else who wants it. Well, if you thought that Cosmos, Zinnias and Coneflowers were the best lure for Goldfinches, think again! Those little sweeties absolutely love the seeds on our catnip flowers!!! Every time I go by that patch of catnip, there are a few Goldfinch in there happily nipping away at the catnip flowers. I wonder if it has the same affect on them as it does on cats??? Anyone know? I stil haven’t been able to snap a picture of them yet, but when I do I will surely post it for you!
Just one comment about catnip, if you have never grown it before, it is a very aggressive seed propagator. So, once you have catnip, you will probably always have catnip. You will just have to be sure to keep it under control.
On Monday August 10th my daughter had her baby! A little girl, Ashlyn Victoria, 5 lbs, 7 oz! She is a little squeeker! We are so excited to welcome her home today! Now I have to get used to being called gramma!
Living in an urban or suburban area can be convenient, but if you have a passion for gardening, it can also be a bit of a challenge, right? How to manage a garden and all that comes with it in limited space? Making sure all of your neighbors are happy with what you have decided to do with your yard can often be a source of conflict. Master Gardeners all agree that using compost in your gardens is very beneficial. All gardeners, and many non-gardening homeowners, can all agree that recycling your yard waste and the kitchen scraps left over after your harvest by composting is of benefit to our landfills as well as our own soil! So, do we start a smelly compost heap? Not likely with the attraction of decomposing matter to rodents and other pests. Not to mention the flies, and did I mention the smell?? This is something that your neighbors surely would not agree upon. Well, the solution is at hand. We have found 2 compost tumblers that are small enough to discretely fit in most urban and suburban yards. Plus, these composters are completely sealed so that they are safe for children, pets, are virtually odorless and best of all critter proof! They use a special patented aeration system that converts your waste into compost in weeks, not months! These awesome compost tumblers can be found at www.manitougardenmarket.com or www.manitougardencomposting.com
