Rite of February

Gardening catalogs start arriving here just before Thanksgiving, but I force myself to wait a bit before ordering. Nothing like pretty plant pictures to hold the February doldrums at bay. The hard part is not going overboard and ordering one of everything.

From Prairie Moon Nursery: 

• Ruellia humilis - Wild Petunia Seeds: Packet 
• Fragaria virginiana - Wild Strawberry Seeds: Packet 
• Asclepias syriaca - Common Milkweed 12 plants 
• Silphium perfoliatum - Cup Plant 3 plants

From Pinetree Garden Seeds: 

• Profusion Double Mix Zinnia seeds 
• Hopi Red Dye Amaranth seeds

From American Meadows: 

• Trifolium repens - Dutch White Clover seeds (5#) 

My yard has a lot of mulched areas, especially in the backyard. The dogs trample everything that tries to grow there, but I'd like to get some groundcover started around the shrubs, hence the wild petunia and wild strawberry. I spoke with the lawn service that treats the grass, as I miss the white clover and wild strawberry that used to grow with the grass, so for this year, I will spot treat the weeds myself and try to re-establish the clover and strawberry.

We had another spate of 50-degree weather this past week - my daughter and her friends went kayaking - but now it is more winterlike. Some of the plants are a bit confused, like the hairy beardtongue and daffodils. I have to keep reminding myself that spring is still a while away.

A pair of mallards have appeared at the neighborhood pond, and Canada geese are starting to migrate through this area. Maybe it's time to check out the sandhill cranes again.

Record keeping

Diana created a post at the Garden Bloggers Fling blog asking (and answering) why gardeners blog. My personal reason is primarily to keep track of what I do in the yard and garden. Unfortunately, sometimes I miss posting a purchase. This year I am going to try to fix that by posting purchases as they arrive.

First up are some seeds from Stokes. All I was really interested in were the 'Luna Red' hibiscus seeds. I used to have some of this in my yard but somewhere along the way, it disappeared. Hibiscus blooms may be used for dyeing, so I decided to bring it back. Individual plants are rather expensive (and I want four), so I am turning to seeds. I tried this last year with seeds from a different source, but they never germinated. These seeds are supposedly scarified, though, so they should germinate sooner. Fingers crossed.

Since I was ordering one thing from Stokes, I decided to order a second thing: Profusion zinnias. Last year I tried some plants (from Lowes?) but they did not do much. I planted them at the corner of the house where the purple smoke bush reigns, a spot I have had repeated trouble populating (although the hyacinth do well there). I saw how well Profusion zinnias grow in full sun, in a downtown park, and decided to try them again but somewhere else in the yard. And from seed.

The weather has been crazy lately, with multiple "January thaws". The problem with this is Big Foot, a.k.a. Clio, my lab-pit mix, churns up the lawn when she and Watson have the zoomies. Right now I am attempting to ameliorate that by not letting the both of them out at the same time on days when the top layer of the ground is thawed and/or mushy. They don't understand, of course, but it seems to be helping, or at least keeping things from getting worse.

Neighbors

My eastern neighbor's front door is recessed into the front of his house, so as you stand there knocking, there is a wall on either side of you, each with a high octagonal window. While I was standing on said porch the other day, I noticed a lot of organic detritus under my feet. When he answered the door, I pointed out a huge nest on one of the window ledges.

There's one there, too, he said, pointing to the other window.

What kind of birds?

I dunno.

Just then, something swooped right at my head. I ducked so fast, I nearly fell off the porch.

That kind of bird, he said. Sitting in a nearby tree was a robin, beak full of dried grass and looking put out.

I guess I need to get rid of those nests, he sighed.

Well, I wouldn't, I allowed, but then that's just me.

But people can't come to the door with them protecting their nests.

Sometimes that's a good thing, I pointed out.

Meanwhile, the nest building is progressing in my yard as well. This is a grackle nest in the privat.



I took down the bluebird house that the sparrows were highly interested in, but to my surprise, they had not yet built a nest in it. I'll put it back up in May.

A year or so ago, when my neighbor to the north of me put up a bird bath and feeder, she commented about not wanting to attract the "wrong kind" of bird. I didn't ask her what she meant, but now I am wondering if she was talking about grackles and starlings.



They and the sparrows are my most frequent visitors now. I don't like to feed the birds during the summer - that's why I have a backyard habitat populated with food plants - but I also don't like holding birdseed until fall, so I am letting them finish off the sunflower seeds and peanuts.

Saturday would have been a good day to plant snap peas. I thought I had ordered some online, but apparently not. There was half a bag in the refrigerator, though, left over from two years ago. Wondering whether they were still viable, I soaked ten pea seeds.



Huh. Still good, mostly. Now if it would stop raining, I could put these in the ground.

P.S. There's a survey on honesty over here on one of my other blogs, in case you are interested.