A pair of Northern Cardinals rest on the rose arbor. I caught these two Northern Cardinals, male and female, posing two days ago. They make beautiful "love birds" on a cold and snowy day. For more information about the Northern Cardinal, check out the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's wonderful website. There is everything from spring behavior to nesting and feeding sites. By the way, the Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab sponsor a backyard bird count each year in February. In winter, I often find ten or twelve Cardinals sitting on the arbor near my bronze, five-tier No-No feeder. Over a year ago, the makers of the No-No feeders sent me one for review, and I wrote about it on a Lowe's post some time ago. Cardinals do love black oil sunflower seed. However, we use a feed similar to this Songbird and Cardinal Preferred Blend Bird Food because it attracts many...

Basil and chard I saw planted for fall in an AZ garden. Hi Winter Weary Gardeners! I've been perusing search terms on my blog stats for the past week, and it seems like you're interested in three things: 1. Best vegetables to grow in Oklahoma. 2. Will anything grow in Oklahoma? I had to laugh. That's a great question. I like to think so, but 2011 and 2012 were enough to try a gardener's soul. 3. Do David Austin roses grow in Oklahoma and the hot and humid south? This is a compilation of several questions all revolving around David Austin roses. I've grown them for many years, and they like the east side of my house best so far. I do live out in the country so when it's cold here, it's really cold with only trees to block the wind. A couple of years ago, I tested three new cultivars in my garden, and here are...

This morning, I found it hard to wake from a long and pleasant dream concerning seeds. When I stepped outdoors, teacup in hand, the low was 25F. Yesterday, it was fifty something, maybe 52F. That's life on the plains. One day you're up, and the next you're down--sometimes in the same day. After I ran Bear to school this morning, I rushed home because there was good frost everywhere. I do love frost as the sun comes up. Everything sparkles. Go on, winter garden, sparkle while you may. Pretty soon, all this brown foliage will be cut down for new grasses to emerge--new life to begin. I am ordering seeds with trepidation because of the last two years of heat and drought, but I'm also trying to maintain calm and serene with whatever comes. I can't control the weather, but I can enjoy a gift, this morning of diamonds in...

Don't misunderstand me. We need rain spring, summer and fall too, but winter rain is a blessing beyond measure. In a land that hasn't seen measurable rain for months, we are overjoyed. Oklahoma is in the third year of a crippling drought. Only yesterday, I was lamenting the dark red color in the middle of the Climatological Survey Map for Oklahoma for January, 2013. Courtesy of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. I live where extreme drought has reigned supreme the last couple of years, and it's been hard to maintain my passion for all things that grow. Can you see how low the lake/pond behind our house is? The red bank on the other side of the water is where the water should be. It's about four feet low. Yesterday, local meteorologists forecast rain, but they couldn't agree on how much we would get. We've heard it all before. Last month,...