My recent posts on blooms and foliage made me reflect on those other winners in the winter garden, stems, seeds and berries.  They provide food for the birds and other animals along with structure for your garden.  In Oklahoma, the true growing season starts around the end of February for cool weather crops and after April 20 for tender veggies and flowers.  Then, the flora and fauna fun doesn't stop until around the end of October or even later in moderate years.  I think our long growing season sometimes gives us tunnel vision that gardens are only interesting when they are in bloom. I beg to differ.  I think the garden can still provide you with delight if you think of it as a four season activity at least visually. For years, I considered the months of winter only for planning, but in the last five or six, I've added...

My foliage is mostly gone due to the snow and unseasonably low temperatures.  However, I wanted to show a bit of my garden which you don't normally see.  Here's an overview of about a quarter of the back garden (which was the third stage of the second garden).  My first garden faces our street and will front the potager I am building this spring.  See the evergreen on the left?  That's an Eastern redcedar, Juniperus virginiana, in Oklahoma, a true garden and environmental pest, but HH likes them trimmed up.  They do provide some winter color and are one of our few native evergreens.  As you can also probably see, I need to do some fence repair, part of the constant maintenance for this garden. Now, for the foliage.  There is something wonderful about not cleaning up the garden in fall, instead leaving it in situ.  For one thing, small...

Last year, my January Bloom Day post consisted of little, so I vowed to give you more in 2010.  Like last year, let's begin with the amaryllis, which are actually Hippeastrum, but we all call them the former.  (Thank goodness I'm not in charge of the how and why of plant taxonomy.)  Five varieties were planted to cheer us during what has already been a long and cold winter:  'Charisma', 'White Christmas', 'Elvas' (which is now blooming and obviously not that cultivar), 'Red Lion' and 'Royal Velvet' (both of which are not yet blooming, but are on their way). I planted more hellebores, knowing they wouldn't have blooms this early, but in a mild year, a red dirt girl can hope.  Even the foolish dream, don't they?  The 'Silver Lace' variety does have buds and will probably bloom earlier than all the others which simply sport shivering, evergreen foliage for...

Cinnamon raisin pecan bread made with teff flour and other good things Right now, my kitchen smells of good things like cinnamon, raisins, flour, olive oil and yeast. It smells like home. I'm tired of bad, gluten free bread, so I am now making some of my own bread weekly.  After it cools, I slice and freeze it for my morning toast.  Morning toast and hot tea are among life's greatest, everyday pleasures. Two loaves of bread are rising in the oven as they bake, without the standard extra rise normally done for yeast breads.  This is a new concept for me, and it's the process used by Jennifer Katzinger who owns the Flying Apron bakery in Seattle, WA.  I include the location info and link for you lucky folks who live there or will be visiting soon.  There are times when I wish I lived in Seattle, and not...