Gardens Home & Garden

That happens here too. If a tree disease hits, they will proactively remove all those trees from the area so the disease dies out. That prevents it from getting transported to another area and infecting more trees.

We also have laws about transporting firewood, etc into our forests. People get mad because they have to buy locally when they have tons of wood at their home, but it prevents a lot of damage from disease and insects.

So my Christmas Cheer plants are in full bloom!


These blooms should last through the months and there are more coming up.

Today, we had a few minutes of sun, so I went out back to fill four of the feeders. While out, I checked on my plants. The Mexican sages are blooming - one midnight and two white mischief. The lions tails are putting out new blooms. The golden glow butterfly bush is still blooming and the pink turk's cap has blooms. The cerro altos hummingbird sage has a bloom started - it blooms yellow so I can't wait to see it.

Everything in pots are doing great. The renzels rosemary is growing like a weed - I'll need to up-pot it before spring. I have a tall copper pot to put it in so it can hang over all it wants.

I'll have a lot of up-potting to do do this spring. My mimulus will need to go in their final pots around the same time as I do the rosemary.

I'm watching for cheap/free large pots. I have another tall copper pot coming (they are like the white ones I used with the coral fountains. I still have the bougainvillea in water on my windowsill, so I think I will put it in the second copper pot.

They've announced the plant sales for spring, so I have to start thinking about what I want to try next. I do have to get a passion flower to replace the pink honeysuckle on the back arbor. I really like the crimson tears but may end up with another possom purple.

I have smart timers for the front yard. In the back I have non-smart timers. The smart timers are really nice because I can use my phone to cancel the week's watering if it rains. With the non-smart, I have to go outside and manually close the tap or I have to reprogram them. So, I'm watching for two more smart timers or a double one (two hoses separate schedules). I have one already waiting for spring to install.

You are so organised! It looks very colourful to me in our grey world. (I nearly typed 50 shades of grey world - that could have led to some raised eyebrows! ).
We woke up to snow yesterday, but it was gone by 9.30am. The forecast is for more snow after Christmas though.

We've been foggy mornings and overcast days for over a week now (with rain every few days), so those poker plants really do bring a bit of color and cheer to a grey world.

I'm a born ANALyst. I have to research the heck out of everything.