Sunday, February 21, 2016

My Winter Garden

     

"All gardeners live in beautiful places,
because they make them so."
-Joseph Joubert







We've been having such mild weather lately,
it does not even feel like February anymore!
However, despite the warmer temps,
I am not at all certain that Old Man Winter
is through...He may still have a few
tricks up his sleeve!


Old Man Winter



Nevertheless, it is in February that I 
start receiving many flower and vegetable seed catalogs
almost daily in the mail. Since I have recently moved,
however, I am still waiting for one to show up!
Seeing page after page of lovely blooming flowers
and trees sets my pulse raising with excitement and
the anticipation of working out in my new yard
creating a unique and beautiful sanctuary
filled with beautiful flowers to attract both
butterflies and hummingbirds.






On the subject of hummingbirds
and attracting these flitting jewel-like creatures
to my yard, I never had any luck with the
traditional nectar-filled feeder.
The only time I saw these lovely little
birds visit my yard was the year I grew a
flower called a Tithonia Torch, or Mexican Sunflower,
with bright orange petals in my front flower bed.
Another time, I grew reddish pink impatiens in
a large planter by my front door, which the
hummingbirds visited frequently, as well as
the tall purple-white blooms of the hostas
I grew in my side garden.




Large, red flowers attract ruby-throated hummingbirds
 in the Davis Mountains, Texas


     




"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and give strength
to body and soul."
-John Muir





Angel Garden
Photograph By
Christine M. Grote




A sensitive plant in a garden grew,
And the young winds fed it
with a silver dew,
And it opened it's fan-like leaves 
to the light,
And closed them beneath
the kisses of night.
-Percy Bysshe Shelley




Deep Purple Dream Iris




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