Clean up weekend

Sunny and cool all weekend but got lots done. Cleaned up the flattened hostas and under most of the shrubs. We had a beautiful Varied Thrush in the yard today, first time this season. He loves the peanut treat suet. I find most birds prefer this suet. Again it is a little more expensive but they love the peanut chips. He sat on one of the larger pots I have in the yard that usually houses my banana plant. The banana I started from seed a couple years ago and is now in the garage for the winter. It looks pretty rough right now but looks fabulous during the summer with those lemon lime colored leaves.
We put up the Christmas tree up yesterday, beautiful Noble Fir. No lights yet but the smell is amazing in the house. That is one great thing about most live trees they bring back such wonderful memories of my childhood. Walking through the forest with my family looking for the perfect tree. It didn't exist but it didn't matter. It was all about the walking anyway!!!! I was so small my dad carried me anyways. Thks DM

I am posting some pictures of the yard in the snow a couple weeks ago. Enjoy. I will try to put the names up with them, we'll see how it goes.

rookie

I am floundering my way through the blog thing.I have no clue how to post stuff and uploading pictures has been an adventure. I am sure I will figure it all out but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
I noticed the snowdrops are poking their heads out of the ground today. If they are smart they will stay hiddden considering we are expecting a bad winter here.We will need to cut back the Heavenly Bamboo this weekend. It is laying on the ground from the snow and the gunnera took a hit but I have mulched so it may be ok. If anyone reading this wants me to stick to the latin then the common names let me know. For now I switch back and forth. I had to dig out the external hard drive today to find my house pictures and the plant pictures. I have a great picture of a hummingbird on the Abutilion but that will be for tomorrow.

On the Island

This is a simple blog about what I am seeing and doing in the garden at any time. We will doing a major clean up this week after the snow fall last week. Many of the broadleaf shrubs have snow damage and have broken branches which need to be cleaned up. Also the evergreen magnolia has some cold weather damage mostly from the wind. Then the tender tropicals in the greenhouse haven't faired so well either since the heater went out. So this will be a busy week.
 Must fill those birdfeeders also. Don't want those little guys going without food. I like to use shelled sunflower seed. It is no mess and no waste. A little more expensive but worth it.