Month: January 2014
It’s warm enough for bees to fly!
Living in the South is wonderful. Today, the high was 68 degrees F, with beautiful sunshine. My girls had adventures outside in the woods and in the creek, and I was able to harvest some vegetables (kale and carrots) from the garden for dinner.
I love honeybees, and I miss them during the winter, when it’s too cold for them to fly. When temperatures reach about 60 degrees F outside, they leave the hive to search for a midwinter snack. On lovely days, such as today, I check my Mahonia, and I usually find bees. It blooms in winter with a sweet fragrance that attracts the bees. Whenever I see it, I remember my great-aunt, who brought the original plant to my grandmother from her home in Oregon, and I cherish the memory of digging the baby plant from my grandmother’s woods a couple of years before she died. Honey bees visited the original plant at my grandmother’s home, pollinated the flowers on some lovely winter day, and the plant produced its fruit, the “Oregon grape,” which, transported by a bird or animal, fell to the ground and sprouted, and then transformed into my baby plant.
I am the mother who has unfortunately sent my children’s friends home with muddy clothes after a day of playing in the country. I do try to warn unwary mothers of what messes children might get into at my house, and I encourage them to dress appropriately. On a day like today, my girls wanted to play in the creek, and when their rain boots filled with water, they took them off. Logical solution for small children, right? Even in January.
Those of you who live in colder climates: don’t be too envious because tomorrow night the low is supposed to dip into the twenties, and our barefoot-creek-playing days will be over for awhile.
Easy method of cutting back dead perennials…and some chickens
After a pleasant evening with friends on New Year’s Eve, I spent several hours outside on New Year’s Day working in the garden. I tried to move the chickens to a new spot, but they didn’t follow me and enjoyed a day of freedom destroying my flowerbeds. The chickens follow me around the yard trying to see if my activities will produce food. If I’m digging, I have to watch out for them to avoid injuring one.
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| Curious chickens! |
I realized that I can use a string trimmer to trim back dead plants rapidly. Below is the pre-trimmed flower bed.
Five minutes later, pictured below, the bed is cut back. The string trimmer pulverizes most of the plants into small enough pieces I don’t have to remove them and I allow them to compost in place. I’ll put some dead leaves or mulch on top, and the bed will be ready for spring.
I got a little too close to this rosebush with the trimmer and I’ll have to cut back the mangled branches. I also recommend staying away from stringy plants; the trimmer tears them and they become wrapped around the head of the string trimmer.
It’s cold enough to freeze bubbles!
Perhaps you have seen the photos going around on Facebook of people freezing bubbles. I don’t know who had the insane idea to blow bubbles on a cold day, but after I saw the pictures I had to try. It did work, provided I was able to keep the children away from the bubbles long enough for them to freeze!
It was 12 degrees F here this morning, which is the coldest temperature I remember experiencing in SC in several years. And it’s still below freezing in midafternoon. I know many of you may scoff at my complaints, but I’m not used to this crazy cold, and I don’t want to become used to it either.
Last night I tucked my chickens into their chicken tractor, gave them extra feed, and covered the entire thing with plastic. This morning I put on my warmest clothes (I don’t have many of them!) and put on the only hat and gloves I could find, and went outside to give them more food and water. They came through the cold night fine, and, thank God, we’ll return to our more normal January temperatures of highs in the 50s and 60s by the end of the week.
A little New Year’s cheer and good luck
On this dreary January day, I thought you’d like to see these brave yellow flowers of the winter Jasmine that bloom throughout the coldest months of the year and remind us that spring will come. Camellias and Mahonia are or are will soon bloom, adding more color and fragrance to the garden. Ignore the dreary skies and visit the garden.
Yesterday, my girls each found one four-leaf-clover, and combined with our black-eyed peas and collard greens, we are off to a pleasant start to the new year.
