My Garden in January (Pacific Northwest, zone 7b)

If I look at my garden right now, it appears that there will be an early spring.

Fir trees, boxwoods, Japanese ilex, grass and moss provide green color all year around.

I still keep some dry perennial stalks. The birds check them for leftover seeds from time to time. And, I still hope to see snow on them one day. We might get snow later in January and even as late as March.

Joe Pye Weed

Monarda

Joe Pye Weed


Russian sage and Monarda

Somehow, shrub roses manage to keep several flowers and buds pink:

 

They attract an eye right away against the rather brown background in my perennial flowerbed:

Raspberry stalks have an interesting purplish color. Our mild winters here in the Pacific Northwest don't require bending them to the ground and covering with soil as we used to do in our Russian garden long ago.

In winter, moss becomes a star in the garden. Gray sky and plenty of moisture speed up its growth. I try to restrict it from spreading on the lawn. Applying lime helps a bit. Lime doesn't kill acid-loving moss, but it increases the PH of soil. In spring, I remove it with a rake and hands, then I put grass seeds down. I don't try to totally get rid of moss as it's impossible. But, I try to control it and keep it in the areas of the garden where it looks good.

Anywhere else beyond the lawn, moss is welcome. I like to use it in containers - outside and inside.
 

It looks great around paperwhites for example.

Big lacey heads of Hydrangea look lovely:

Mondo grass has its cute earrings on:

Chives grow wildly in my kitchen garden. I tried to remove their purple heads on a timely basis. Otherwise, it can take the whole bed.

There are some flowers on the Campanula, Alyssum, Calendula, hardy Fuchsia and Helleborus foetidus:

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Tree fuchsia

Temperature is above freezing. What a mild, green winter!

Light morning frost on the nearby golf course.

***Copyright 2012 TatyanaS

Feed a Dragon. My Picture of the Day

***Copyright 2012 TatyanaS

Morning in the Harbor. Fall-2011 pictures

***Copyright 2011 TatyanaS

Before and After. The Worst of 2011 For Me

As I remember, the last time I felt awfully bad about dying plants was three years ago. Then, my Privet (Ligustrum japonicum) was hit by falling snow and my Cordyline froze (I Am Not Crying, Am I? ). While the Cordyline was gone for good, the Privet was given a second chance. It hasn't recovered 100% yet, but it survived, gave new growth and looks very promising now. I didn't know then how much worse the pain of losing plants can be even when those plants are not technically yours. Without further deliberations, let me show you what I mean.

A forest is also a garden, isn't it? Nature garden.

Before (Dec. 2008, snowy pictures) and After (Fall 2011)

Now, I know what sound I hate the most. It's the sound of a logging saw and the loud noise of falling trees crushing other trees on their way down. There is an agony of living things dying in that sound.

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This summer, we hired a tree service company to trim several tall fir trees around our house. We also got permission from our Home Owners Association to remove one tree. The roots of that tree could harm our driveway. It wasn't an easy decision. It took our family several days to discuss if that tree needed to be cut down. Before the tree cutters came, I told my boys to go and say Good Bye to that fir and thank it for the beauty it gave us as well as for the shade it provided.

A bit later, I happened to look out of the window. One of the boys was standing at the tree and touching its trunk. I watched him. He stayed there for several long minutes! He was talking to the tree!

We never took that tree down. It is still there.

I can't tell you how many times I thought about that after the whole forest was gone in October.

I don't know what my kids will do when they grow up. They say 'never say never'. But, I hope they will never buy a piece of land near their own neighborhood with one specific purpose - to harvest all the trees and sell them to China. I hope they will never destroy such beauty for financial purposes. I hope they will never be disliked (softly saying) by all the people who used to come to the forest to feel themselves as part of nature, to enjoy its greatness and beauty and to stay sane in the whirlpool of stressful life.

How can we, people, come to believing that we can do with nature what we want and what we need? How can a person sleep after destroying not one, not ten, but hundreds of trees? How can people believe that their rights are more superior than the Earth and what belongs to it?

 How can something that is legally right be so ugly and morally wrong?

***Copyright 2011 TatyanaS