The Mound, 2014

OK - here's what it looks like in the middle of winter.  Exciting eh?  I think that when the snow starts to melt and you're able to see the little creeping Junipers it might be a bit more interesting.  I should perhaps throw some large boulders here and there as well, to stick out through all that whiteness!

It's going to be interesting seeing how many of the new plants survived this rather harsh winter, and how may Tulips and Allium come up again!

Plans for the year?  Finish taming the backside of this hill - pulling out the wild raspberry canes and the thistle and buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), while keeping some clumps of Goldenrod and Aster for colour and nectar.  Add boulders (see above).  Transplant more Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) from the Birch Border and Corner Garden.

It's a new year....

Picea pungens v. glauca

I want to start the year off right...I want to make a pledge (just to myself since no one else knows this blog exists) to write something here at least once a week, even if I haven't taken any new photos in the County.

So here's the first post of 2014, featuring a photo on my property taken by my friend Terry Shewchuck.  It's a Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens var. glauca -- another pledge, to try and use botanical names as much as possible) I purchased seven years ago.  It was a foot high then.  This past summer it reached about seven feet - so a foot a year on average.  I mostly try to use Picea glauca - the native White Spruce - but couldn't resist this fellow when it was tiny and terribly blue.  Since then friends have given me a few additional Blue Spruces (after using them as small living Christmas trees).  One particular White Spruce on the  property grows much faster , in some years as much as a metre.  Pictures to follow.