Category: Winter
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Welcome 2025! Embracing the Feral Beauty of the Garden
January Calendar It was a fallow year for Second Breakfast Gardens in 2024. I returned to college in the fall of 2023. Whenever it wasn’t actively raining, I did my homework at the table in the garden. It was interesting to watch the garden go feral. Cover crops became mature crops, flowers popped up all…
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Let’s Help our Hummingbirds Through the Cold Snap
🌨After sorting through all the weather alerts and school closures this morning, I sipped my coffee and looked out at the bird feeders. Then my thoughts turned to strategies for helping my hummingbird friends. I made up a fresh batch of nectar, cleaned and replaced the feeders. This time, as suggested by my blogger friend…
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Weekend Tip: Prune Your Trees, Shrubs, & Canes like a Pro
Willamette Valley, Zone 8b Perhaps you can work around the showers🌧, but if you prefer, stay in today with some ☕ and 📚 and get a plan in place for tomorrow. Sunday is looking dry and cold; perfect pruning weather. Skip to the pruning guide. What to Prune December through January February Need some confidence…
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Leverage January for Growing Season Opportunities
January is a month of renewal, dreams, and opportunity. Now that the winter solstice has past and 2023 has arrived, the growing season feels almost touchable. Scan the January Calendar for inspiration to get you ready for spring. 🌱🌷 I would love to hear your plans, dreams, and goals for 2023! Please comment below or…
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Simple Tasks For December to Get You Growing Next Spring
December is a light duty month, (finally!) with a few opportunities to get ahead of the game for spring. It is a good time to test your soil. There is adequate time to amend for pH before the growing season, and to be able to prepare for any missing nutrients that you can add just…
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Five Tips to Help Hungry Hummingbirds Survive Winter
Yesterday morning I brought out the hummingbird feeder and there was a little female Anna’s Hummingbird hovering near the ant-moat. She flew right up to me and hovered a few feet from my face. “Hungry?” I asked as I offered her the feeder. She went right to work, and even perched while I held it…
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Weekend Tip: Winterize Your Irrigation System
Now that the rain is here to stay, it’s time to power off and drain your system. Drip systems need to be turned off and drained for winter to prevent damage to the fittings. To do this, open all the valves and slip off the figure 8 end clamps and let the water drain, lifting where necessary…
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7 Common Mistakes Planting Trees
I have to actively work to keep my backyard from becoming a forest. So when I intentionally plant a healthy young tree and it dies or fails to thrive, I tend to take it personally. Then I try to learn from it. Here are the mistakes I have made or seen first hand.
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