Fall Garden color

Fall has many facets in the garden, as the march of color hits different tree species, shrubs and plants. It's like an ever-changing calidoscope, until color is gone, and the garden becomes a grayscale photo in winter.
Love this recent photo of red and green of the entry garden to our house. The "Emerald Green" Arborvitae pointed trees and the "Ebro" Lunaform urn are contrasted with the Prairie Fire Crab Apple trees on the right and the orange Amalanchier "Autumn Brilliance" trees at the left rear. The Amalanchier provide berries for birds in early summer, spring blooms and now, color for us.

Fall Garden scene

Here's a glimpse of the garden off our deck in fall. We have many gardens around the house, but we enjoy this one, especially, because it's so close to the deck, an area we sit or walk on every day. I lined up all my antique watering cans on the bench for fun.

The flowers in bloom are:

Verbena bonariensis, a tall purple annual, visible just past the black-eyed susan.
Rudbeckia triloba, looks like a little black-eyed susan but it's a biennial, blooms way into the fall. Self seeds.
Grasses, miscanthus spp.
Ecinacea pupurea, Purple Coneflower, still blooming.

We also have daylilies that bloom all summer there, and, in early spring, little Grape Hyacinth bulbs boom at the edge of this garden. We also have daffodils among the daylilies.
There you have it, a 3-season, low maintenance garden. Lots of joy, little work.

Hummingbirds in the fall garden

Ruby-throated Hummingbird at our Stokes Select Sky Prism Hummingbird feeder

"Goldflame Honeysuckle", (Lonicera heckrotii) blooming in our garden

We still have Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visiting our garden. This is kind of late for them to be in New Hampshire, as most have left by this time of year. But it has been warm and a slow fall, with many plants, that hummingbirds find attractive, still in bloom.

Our honeysuckle vine, Goldflame Honeysuckle (Lonicera heckrotii) is putting our new blooms. We also have Salvia, "Lady in Red", an annual, and Bee Balm, a perennial, both highly attractive to hummers, still blooming.

We leave our hummingbird feeders up until after frost, to serve these late migrating hummingbirds. Hummingbirds migrate according to instinct. Ruby-throated Hummings, the main hummingbird in the East, go to Central and South America, crossing the Gulf of Mexico, quite a journey! Leaving up feeders will not delay their migration. So leave up your hummingbird feeders as part of your fall garden and the hummers will thank you.

Fall Garden

Here are some recent photos of our garden. This is the border in front of the rock wall. The Emerald Green Arborvitae are at the entrance to the long border behind the barn. This photo shows a big white grass, Miscanthus variegatus, in the center with "Pinky Winky" Hydrangeas to its right and white Phlox David, on its left. The yellow is Rudbeckia fulgida "Goldstrum". Catmint and Lamb's Ears are the silvery foliage in front. I try to plan lower maintenance gardens (because we're busy people) by using hardy shrubs, and plants with colorful foliage in the white, silver, gold or maroon tones.

Here's the long border with Pee Gee standard Hydrangeas on the left. Hydrangeas are just great shrubs and prospered despite this growing season's terrible weather. First, there was a cold, drenching June, where it rained practically every day and nothing grew, except mold and mildew. I threw out many phox and hollyhock plants. Then came a hotter July with some sun, more rain, but not as much as in June. Finally, in August, we had decent, warmer weather giving people hope they might see ripe tomatoes before Thanksgiving. This border has lots of shrubs like Ninebark "Dart's Gold," Goldmound Spirea and Dogwood "Ivory Halo". Geranium Rozeanne, the low, blue plant in front, is the best and bloomed all season.

The kitchen garden we put in is a treasure. Love to look at the view of the mountain framed in the picket fence. So fun to just walk outside the kitchen and pick fresh herbs, lettuce, beans, and, finally, Sungold cherry tomatoes.

Here's another view of it. Lemon Gem and Orange Gem marigold, which are edible, line the beds. Besides birding, gardening is another of our passions, but we must balance the time we devote to it and plan for lower maintenance, yet attractive, gardens. We have more garden areas than shown here. Later for those.
Sorry I'm so busy keepin up Stokes Birding Blog on a regular basis, that I do not have time to contribute frequently to this blog, but I have fun when I do.
Enjoy the birds, Keep your feeders full for fall migrants, enjoy your gardens and check out our Stokes Birding Blog to keep up with us on a more regular basis.

Amalanchier in Bloom

Our Amalanchier trees are in full bloom right now, looking like spring snow as the petals fall to the ground. These are great bird-attracting trees as they bloom in early summer. Try and have trees and shrubs that bear fruits at different times; early summer, late summer, and fall, for the most bird magnet power.
Some trees and shrubs for summer and fall are, viburnums, dogwood shrubs, crabapples, blueberries and hollies.

To Do List

Keep feeders clean and filled.

Cardinals are courting in our yard.

Spring is here, so here's a few "to do's" to welcome the birds:

- Plant shrubs and trees that provide nesting structure for birds such as lilacs, alders, dogwood shrubs, evergreens, willows, etc. Plant them in groups.
- Get up your hummingbird feeders now, (at the latest by Mother's Day if you live in the most northern sections of the country). Make sure to clean hummingbird feeders ever 2-3 days in hot weather.
- Plant red tubular flowers to attract hummingbirds, such as red salvia, red impatiens, Trumpet Honeysuckle vine, like Goldflame Honeysuckle (Lonicera heckrotii), Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans), red bee balm, red fuschia, cardinal flower.
- Plant composite-type perennials and annuals such as, Purple Coneflower and Rudbeckia, whose seed heads will attract finches and sparrows. Butterflies will come to Purple Coneflower when its in bloom.
- Make sure you have several bird baths filled with fresh, clean water all summer.
- Clean your bird feeder regularly with a mild bleach solution, rinse well. Keep them filled with sunflower, and quality mixes.
- Put a bench or adirondack chair in your backyard where you can sit with binoculars and enjoy the show. That could be your summer vacation.

Cold Frame

Here in NH, it is colder than in many of the other parts of the country, so I am always looking for season extenders. Don made this cold frame out of an old window. I'm growing Arugula, Spinach and a Mesclun lettuce mix. The Arugula is growing nicely and can almost be harvested. I planted these crops as soon as the snow melted off the raised beds and the ground was thawed. Since this is on the south side of the house, this happens faster than on other parts of our property, some of which still have snow on them!

Sunny Crocus

The yellow crocus on the south side of our house are blooming. What a welcome, sunny sight and sign of good things to come, like the parade of spring bulbs.

Gerbera Daisy

Another part of our indoor garden is this Gerbera Daisy, here in an ikebana vase. Gerbera Daisies are popular cut flowers and also grown outdoors as annuals

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Happy St. Patrick's Day, paint the town green!

Flower Show

Here's our indoor flower show that cheers us up while we wait for spring. Those are primroses, mini-daffodils and the birds eggs are soap.

Big Snow Storm Cardinal

New England is having a major nor'easter snow storm today, we now have a foot of snow and it's still snowing. We always seem to get more snow here in southern NH, than Boston gets.

One of the very best ways to attract birds to your garden is with bird feeders. Here's a male Cardinal, weathering the storm with the help of our bird feeders. Cardinals like sunflower seed and mixes that contain a good amount of sunflower, as we have provided here. In very severe weather, scientific studies have shown that having access to bird feeders can aid in bird's survival. Birds can usually only go a day or two without feeding. So we are happy to help the birds out today. Plus we get a gorgeous Cardinal to light up the garden.

Indoor Spring

There's no reason why you can't have spring now, if you bring it indoors. Here in NH where we live, there's snow on the ground, but I spring ahead by buying lots of flowers and putting them around the house.

Here's a bunch of tulips I bought and "planted" in a terrocotta pot by putting a "frog" in a little dish, then putting that in the bottom of the pot. A "frog" (much used in flower arranging) is a small, flat, metal plate with little prongs that stick up. You push the stems of the flowers into the prongs and it holds the flower stems upright.

This wonderful tulip display is on our dining room table.

Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis

We just returned to NH. The snow had melted in front of the south side of the house in our new kitchen garden. I had planted some snowdrops the in the fall, hoping for some early bloom. Much to my delight, some of the snowdrops are peeking up. Yes! Of course, we got about 5 inches of snow last night, so they are covered, but the snow will melt again and they will bloom.
I am working on recognizing where the microhabitats are on our property, then planting early blooming things like crocus and snowdrops there. Thus I can extend the season early (and late) and get a little bit of zone 6 here in zone 5.

Still traveling

Hi to our blog readers,

We're still traveling and
will get back to blogging
Monday.
See you soon.

Sent from my cell phone.

Courtyard At Crane Garden, Jekyll Island, GA

We're visiting GA and stopped at Jekyll Island to visit the Courtyard at Crane a wonderful restaurant/lodging, with a garden.

Snapdragons were in bloom and are cold hardy down here, where there can be frost sometimes.

Front entrance.

Side where the garden is.

The garden is walled and formal.

There's wonderful boxwood hedges in a diamond pattern, like a large knot garden.

The far end has a curved water feature with curves repeated in the vine pergola.

There's a couryard in the back of the building,

where you can have lunch,

and gaze out at the fountain,

through the roses, lovely!!

American Sweetgum Tree

While New Hampshire is having a snow storm, we're n southern Georgia, experiencing the vegetation and birds. Much of the vegetation is evergreen, some of the trees have no leaves, and some are dropping their leaves, as if it were fall. Here's an American Sweetgum Tree with reddish leaves.

Garden Sculpture

On our way to Georgia to go birding, we visited Don's mom, Charlotte Stokes, in Philadelphia. She's a wonderful sculptor, who in her 90's, is still going strong. She has created many garden sculptures and her favorite subject is children. Here's one of her sculptures that's in the garden of the retirement home she lives in. She was an avid gardener who had a beautiful garden and that helped contribute to Don's love of gardens.

Sunny!

If you live in NH, like we do, you may feel garden-deprived right about now. No flowers, no leaves, no color, no digging in the dirt. Yes, you can get out all the garden catalogs and make big plans (some of which will actually happen), but there's just no flower power outside to make you happy.
Solution: get yourself a big bouquet from the florist of colorful flowers and keep doing it until spring. We found these sunflowers at a local market that sells gourmet food and flowers.
Indoor sunshine = sunny sunflowers.

Hairy Woodpecker

We attract many birds to our garden and one of the very best ways to get them there is with bird feeders. Here's a lovely female Hairy Woodpecker on our Stokes Select Seed Tube feeder filled with hulled sunflower seeds. Sunflower is the favorite seed of the most species of feeder birds and they love it shelled even more. A big plus for us as gardeners is that hulled sunflower is entirely consumed, the birds leave no shell residue in the garden. Win, win.