8 January 1999

EARLY BLESSINGS

Beneath the snow, there are snowdrops and one tiny plant of a rich rosy blooming heather (Erica carnea) in the Angel Garden (no witchHazel blooms yet.) In the South Foundation Garden there is more heather, and the green tips of the earliest crosuses are poking up. Promises of blooms yet to come...

12 March 1999

WARM WINTER, COLD SPRING

In the South Foundation Garden, the crocuses were starting to put on a really good show, and then we got this cold snap. Snow and freezing days. Crocuses are tough so I'm not worried... The two heathers there are thriving.

The WitchHazels are both in modest bloom. They are both very small, young trees, especially the "Arnold's Promise"; but even six or eight blossoms is such a joy in January or February. And under the orange "Jelina" which is putting out twenty or thirty spidery blooms, there is a little blanket of snowdrops. These have been a constant source of smiles all winter long. The first snowdrop started to bloom back in December! Under the "Arnold's Promise" witchHazel, groups of cheery snow crocuses are popping up in shades of yellow and white and pale lavender.

To these two small witchHazel gardens, I have (at last!) added the heathers that I've been dreaming about: a white heather under (and slightly behind) the orange "Jelina", adding to the white snowdrops and the purple crocuses; and under the yellow "Arnold's Promise", two pink heathers. Although the new, nursery-bred heathers had mostly finished blooming by the time I planted them, I have high hopes for next year.

These three plants: WitchHazel, snowdrops, and winter-blooming heather, together make such a carefree and delighful winter garden, I think every serious gardener should at least have a simple winter garden like this. (There are various heathers; the winter varieties are "Erica Carnea". "Springwood White" and "Springwood Pink" are popular cultivars.) Although avoidance of cold north winds is a good idea, extensive shelter does not seem particularly neccessary. Both my witchHazels are on the edge of the woods. The biggest challenge is keeping Bambi away from the spidery blossoms. So far, drizzling a store-bought deer deterrent on them has worked, and I am enjoying winter color daily!

30 March 1999

Last night I was strolling around under an almost-full moon (warm spring night, you could hear the peep-frogs peeping) and by the moonlight you could see snowdrops, closed-up white, yellow, and pale lavender crocuses, pink glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa) and pushkinia libanotica (that white-with-blue-stripes siberian-squill-cousin.) And the white heather was visible, too. The pushkinia smells like wild lily of the valley. So do the snowdrops when they are fresh.

7 June 1999

Much has changed. After one too many visits from Bambi, I decided that anything remotely palatable was being moved next to the house, where it would be regularly sprayed with onion spray. (Thursday night is my preferred night for weekly onion spray. Want the recipe??)

Due to the Bambi-driven plant migration, the oval garden is becoming sparse; except for the phlox, daisies, asters, feverfew, and rose campion, there's just not much there. In the center, there are several catmint plants, which my cat does indeed munch on; three peonies which have yet to bloom; four daylilies, three of which I enjoy a great deal, especially Hyperion; and, cottage pinks (spicy, rich, wonderful fragrance.) Cosmos seedlings are popping up throughout the center, which is fine by me. Blackeyed Susan plants are popping up here and there; although they don't match the color scheme, they are a pleasant weed and I leave them anyway.

The daisies are in bloom, doing slightly better this year than last (I fed them well, but still, Bambi did munch on them All Winter Long. This needs to stop.) The dianthus are blooming, including my favorite whites; white spiderwort is blooming (I don't think it shows in the evening though. I need to check.) The feverfew is in bud. The rest is mostly purple or blue: blue spiderwort, purple iris, blue columbines, blue Jacob's Ladder.

8 Dec 1999

While much of the garden is frozen, on the South Foundation there are still some white and purple alyssum-- one plant each, and a straggly Johnny Jump Up. A few feet west, the Pink Heather is now in glorious bloom.

More glorious still, or perhaps more exciting-- since they seem like a four-months-early promise of spring-- under the Jelina Witch-Hazel, eight or ten snowdrops are in bud or bloom, with more on the way.

My dogs are getting almost blase about chasing Bambi out of the garden. I daydream regularly about a deer-fence. The eight-foot tall black plastic mesh sounds better and better.