this, that, and the other
One of the many sunflowers on our property.
We feed the birds, which means that they and the squirrels deposit sunflower seeds throughout the yard. The seeds sprout. Sunflowers grow. Seed eating birds glean the flower heads. The seeds they miss fall to the ground. The cycle renews, year after year.
My sister-in-law has and tends an amazing flower garden. See for yourself.
Click the pause icon at the bottom centre to stop the slide show.
Bounty from our berry patch – two plus cups of strawberries and one of haskap, our third harvest of each. Very tasty and enough to freeze for later.
It’s a flower though it may not look like one.
As our garden transformed last fall from actively growing into dormant and dying, we left many stems and other material in place instead of tidying up all of the dead stuff.
A few days ago this Baltimore Oriole was a benefactor of our decision, peeling fibers off of this Butterfly Bush stem for its mates’ nest.
I believe we will continue gardening in this wildlife friendly way.
We have a healthy crop of lettuce – on December 27th! It is partly because the hoop tunnel moderates night time low temperatures. I cannot help thinking that it is largely because night time temperatures have been fairly mild compared to the historical average – generally -5C or warmer. Daytime highs have been 5C, give or take a few degrees.
Are these temperatures the new normal? Hard to say. We will find out as the years roll out.
The goldfinches have gleaned many of the seeds out of this sunflower head in our front yard.
