The winter garden is a haven for the little creatures of the land; it provides them with shelter, food and cozy nooks to hibernate.
The gardener can lend a hand, goodness knows the wildlife can use all the help it can get during the coldest days of the year.
Add bird feeders to your backyard and you'll be greatly rewarded by the flock of colorful birds that gather near them on snowy days: finches, cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, titmice and sparrows. Hang up a few suet cakes too, your backyard visitors need the fat calories to keep warm.
Plant late blooming flowers, like asters and sedums, and don't forget the berry shrubs and trees - rowans, hollies, hawthorns and wild roses.
Don't trim down the perennial seed heads, not only they provide winter interest to an otherwise sparse landscape, but they are a good source of nourishment for birds and little animals. The best plants for this purpose are ornamental grasses, cone flowers, bergamots, black-eyed Susans, daisies and asters.
Leave a little portion of the garden untidy, to give hedgehogs, chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels a place to hide. The dried up chords, leaves and stalks are excellent insulators and make good locations for their burrows.
Last, but not least, put up nesting boxes and bird houses for your winged visitors. Bonus, they're colorful.
Main Areas: Garden Writing; Sustainable Gardening; Homegrown Harvest
Published Books: “Terra Two”; “Generations”; "The Plant - A Steampunk Story"; "Letters to Lelia"; "Fair"; "Door Number Eight"; "A Year and A Day"; "Möbius' Code"; "Between Mirrors"
Career Focus: Author; Consummate Gardener;
Affiliation: All Year Garden; The Weekly Gardener; Francis Rosenfeld's Blog
I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might use it in their own gardening practice.