Gardening in December

As I approach the first day of winter and the shortest daylight of the year,I have garden fantasies. Sitting inside looking out at the wind blown pansy faces, chilled cyclamen and a tiny fir tree adorned with one glittery strand of beads, I imagine where will I plant my sunflowers, pumpkins and potatoes next summer, which pot will hold primroses and how soon can I safely expose them to the winds and rain of the deck. Garden work can be done with my imagination. I daydream of what could be, not what is. I do have hope for what is, because some of the bulbs show green sprouts. This week I cut away last years leaves on the Hellebore. The Hellebore revealed a new mauve bud and fresh green leaves. A tiny red Camellia bud remains squeezed shut, but just a little red color reveals that soon a blossom will be born. In the same pot a white cyclamen in its second year of growth has already announced that not all of winter is dreary and filled with fantasies and day dreams.

So garden on as the darkest day passes and we enter a time of new light.

December in Seattle 2007

December Snow in Seattle fell hard on the tender Christmas Cyclamen. Each night I lift small tender cyclamen setting them in a protected area next to the door to the balcony. The red cyclamen add great color to the winter view out our windows but I know they shiver when the temperaature dips below forty degrees. The larger cyclamen are hardier. I have some white ones that survived from last year but they are not blooming so well this year despite my efforts to fertilize, water them carefully and give them new potting mix. Today I snow has turned to heavy rain and the temperatures are in the fifties! Compared to the snow the view is grey and cheerless but the cyclamen blossoms stand tall to brighten the day.
Hummingbird update: Anna bird comes every morning at dawn to drink and sit despite wind, rain, snow or sleet. Occassionally the weather was so bad in the day that Anna took refuge on the rungs under the seat of a wicker deck chair. At dusk Anna disappears for the night.

Potatoes

Potatoes like bulbs are a surprise, but they are edible. Dig a hole of eighth inches or more. Bury a dried tuber or bulb in straw, hay, and fluffy well draining soil.
Leaves will begin to appear. This small shrub then flowers. Bulbs will be a surprise with their beauty but potatoes are secretive below ground. If the deer don't eat the leaves and flowers then from ten weeks on delicately with a hand trowel small potatoes can be removed. If left until the leaves and flowers wither a half dozen or more potatoes will be discovered under ground! Some large, some small but all potatoes are delicious. Bulbs are not that quick at multiplying like potatoes. Narcissus will multiply after a few years and will need to be divided and replanted. Each year tubers and bulbs can need to be stored in a cool dry space and potatoes eaten as desired!

Here is a yummy recipe for potatoes from "Mom's Best One-Dish Suppers", Andrea Chesman: Lemony Chicken with Artichokes and Potatoes.

Potatoes: 1 1/2 pounds potatoes quartered or cut into eighth

2 TBSP olive oil

3 garlic cloves minced

2 tsp fresh thyme + salt and pepper to taste

To prepare potatoes preheat oven to 425. Lightly oil large skillet sheet pan. Combine the potatoes, oil garlic, thyme and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Toss well. Spread out potatoes on the sheet pan in a single layer. Roast for 25-30 minute until browned all over, shaking the pan occasionally for even cooking. Set aside:

Chicken and Artichokes:

2 TBSP olive oil

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite size pieces

salt and pepper

2 cans 14 Oz. artichoke hearts, quartered and drained

1/2 cu chicken broth

2 TBSP fresh lemon juice

1/4 c. chopped parsley

1/2 c. pitted olives chopped

Prepare chicken and artichokes, heat oil in a large skillet over med.-high heat. Saute the chicken in the oil until white and firm, 6 to 8 minutes. Season to taste.

Add the Artichoke hearts, chicken broth, and lemon juice to skillet. Cook until the liquid in the pan reduces and is lightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Mix in the potatoes. Garnish with parsley and olives . Serve at once! Serves 4

October Balcony Garden

Late October rain was falling while the humming bird perched on the feeder.

Balcony Hummer sits on feeder.

Here is the Anna's Hummingbird close up protecting the feeder from all other intruders.

The Gartenmeister Fuchsia attracts hummingbirds and blooms from July to when ever the frost brings dormancy. Even though the hummers have the feeder, they check the fuchsia bloosoms for nectar everyday. Gartenmeister is an upright perennial fuchsia that grows in pots but will do well in the ground growing several feet after a spring pruning.

Fascinating that nineteen floors above busy Seattle city streets the humming birds have found this feeder, arriving every morning at sunrise and leaving every evening at sunset. Are they here for the fall or will they spend the winter? I will keep you posted.

Fall Colors

Fall Osprey 2007

This is the willow by the pond

Osprey cottonwoods and crab apples show their color.

Vine Maple and the Larch/Tamarack before the wind removes their needles and leaves.

Plant for Spring

Plant bulbs now for spring. Not all bulbs will reward you year after year. This beautiful yellow tulip refuses to bloom repeatedly or naturalize to return and multiply. It can be done but I have left this challenge to the professionals. Also deer and squirrels eat tulips. This tulip was planted in a protected place hidden under deciduous scrubs and surprised me in early Spring. I like the Narcissus family of bulbs and crocus for naturalizing. In addition the squirrels don't eat daffodils. To have a host of golden daffodils plant them in clumps, three, five , seven bulbs to a clump. I use top add bone meal to the 6-12 inch hole, depth depends on the size of your bulb, but this year some critter dug up two sixty bulbs in order to imbibe on the bone meal. I replanted all but two missing bulbs without the added fertilizer. Now I wait for spring. Also copied this from Ciscoe Morris garden guru in the Pacific Northwest.

By CISCOE MORRIS SPECIAL TO THE P-I
This time of year, it's incredibly easy to root branches cut from twig dogwood, willow, hydrangea, honeysuckle vine, butterfly bush, weigela, forsythia and perhaps others.
Simply cut off a branch and stick it in the ground where the soil is well-drained and the site is shady and protected from cold winds; then leave it alone until you see it begin to grow in spring or early summer.

I strongly recommend that you try this. Use new growth from this year and peal off leaves on lower part of a 8 to 12 inch twig. I probably wrote about this before. I did it too early this year so I think all my twigs died. But this weekend with the fall rains occurring every few days is the perfect time to try again. I also get too excited and anxious and start this process too soon and can't keep the twigs moist for rooting to occur. Especially a great opportunity, if you have a mild late winter like you did last year.
You are probably to busy preparing for baby, but maybe some year this will be helpful.

Renewal

Fall is the time of renewal. The leaves need continuous raking and transporting to the mulch pile. In a pile they turn to mush with the summer grass clippings and kitchen compost. Leaves raked directly on the garden beds protect the sensitive perennials like roses. Living 19 floors above the ground I can only visualize composting, but renewal happens on balconies as well. Pots are freshened with mums and pansies maybe an attractive kale. I potted a one foot evergreen after trimming its roots. A bonsai Christmas tree with outdoor ornaments is a renewable feature. While dirt gardeners are covering their hybrid roses with leaves, my miniature roses filled out with new leaves and new blooms. The coming of cooler, moister fall weather and an additional boost of fertilizer gave them a fresh start.
At Osprey we have a wonderful blackberry bush which grows wild out past the barn. In honor of the fall renewal I plan to choose a long runner or two that touch the ground. I will remove several leaves on the runner, cover the nodes where the leaves were with growth hormone and then place the treated area on a loosened area of ground and cover the section of runner with some composted soil. Hopefully new roots will grow from this rooting and next fall or spring of 2009 I will have started an additional blackberry bush. Fall is not the time to close down, but a time of opportunity and preparation. Make plans now for the future garden.