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The 2024 Garden Year

January 19, 2024 January Our year started with snow, ice and frigid temperatures in mid-January. Our temperatures stayed below freezing for almost a week. I think it was the most consistent cold that we've experienced since moving here. Fortunately, it was a dry snow so there wasn't too much damage. Once again, we almost lost the azara and I'm afraid there would have been some breakage if I had not kept knocking the ice off. February 14, 2024 February In past years, it seems that inclement weather seems to hit around Michael's birthday in mid-February. After the January snow and ice, this month was actually quite tame. Nothing exciting to report - mostly birdwatching . Early flowers like hellebores, cyclamen and crocus begin to bloom in mid month. March 3, 2024 March I got into a walking routine which I'm happy to report I am continuing this year. You get to the point where you feel guilty if you miss a day. I do miss days occasionally but I'm learning that ...

January Blooms and a birdhouse abuser

 


We are having a string of warmer and dry days this week. Just in time for a new deck (more on that later). I did a walk-about yesterday and noticed several blooms -

Arctostaphylos 'Sunset' (Manzanita)

Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrops)

 
Hellebore 'Merlin'

And something not so pleasing - I discovered a birdhouse that was just put up last fall now looks like this! -

This has happened before so I wasn't completely surprised. I posted this photo to a local birding group and got a multitude of answers but most of them stated that it is likely a squirrel. That makes sense as we have a lot of them. Flickers and woodpeckers was also a common answer. That would be a possibility but I only see flickers and woodpeckers at our feeders periodically so I don't know. I was advised to attach a metal ring around the hole.

 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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