Winter Snow Scapes

Well it's snowed here for the second time. We got more snow the first time but it was all thin and dust like in consistency. This latest batch though has more puff to it and lays on the limbs of trees nicely. The paler green here is a my neighbor's holly tree, while the darker ones are pines. I've edited and cropped the ever loving hell out of these to illustrate that pretty views are still possible in suburbia; one just has to edit out all the telephone polls.

Front yard too.

Squirrel highway closed due to icy conditions. A really long limb to one of our oaks I've been meaning to remove.

 

Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks'.

White Wood Aster, Eurybia divaricata.

Coreopsis sp.

Clethra alnifolia seed heads.

Golden Alexander, Zizia aurea.

Praying mantis egg still hanging on.

Most surprisingly of all I found something still green outside! Not certain what this is. I think this is some left over growth from the Golden Alexander, Zizia aurea.

Thorns and Snow

Well we finally got some snow here. The governor is calling it a state of emergency, however the only state of emergency my friends are experiencing is the football game being delayed. Back on topic, I tried taking some pictures with the snow.

Something neat about the Native Plum tree. I'd thought all year that it was growing a little odd, to many leaves right around the trunk and I assumed I'd have to trim off the compact branches... Now that the leaves have fallen off though I see them for what they are.

These thorns range from 2 to 6 inches long! I will be trimming them off when warmer weather hits but I might leave them for the spring. I'm envisioning the contrast of thorns and flowers, that might arrange in a neat way.

The other thing I'm really enjoying is how the grass pokes above the snow. Very pretty. There are also piles of junk in my yard that suddenly look magical with the snow covering.

Buds and Blooms

While admiring the sunset I noticed the Native Honeysuckle I planted was budding. That means flowers aren't far behind. This is among the earliest plants to bloom here. And I'm told Hummingbirds migrate up to this plant as they bloom.


Flowering supposidly happens mostly on last years growth. I guess that's true because they have a great big pop of blooms early on. For the rest of the year though more flowers come out randomly on the new growth but not as numerous or as concentrated.


Notice that the ground is still covered in snow. I'm really starting to like these tough plants that grow and bloom early. Red Maple is also days away from flowering here but they're not really worth taking pictures of. The flowers are discrete and just make the branches look puffy before the leaves come on.


Another Crocus came up but this past snow did it in I think.


What bee could resist that color?

I expect to see a lot of these at the Philadelphia Flower Show later this week. A lot of the displays take the easy way out (as I call it) and just plant bulbs.

Almost Covered

Click here just a sec. It's a NASA satellite photo of the east coast. My house is a white dot somewhere in southern NJ, closer to PA. All that snow we got was impressive enough to be viable from space. In some parts of the world that's not uncommon but I can't remember the last time we got this much snow. For the past couple of years it's snowed here maybe twice and almost always in January or February. And it's was never anything really worth noting. It would be 4 inches ... or so the weather man would say and we'd get a dusting that would be gone later that day.

So going back to my yard, earlier photos were taken while the snow was coming down.

Before

Before

After

After

There is still plenty out there for the birds to eat, it's just a lot of the smaller plants like Coreopsis, and most of the Coneflowers are under the snow. They'll just get eaten later on. Also the Coreopsis variety I have doesn't get very tall.


Black Eye'd Susan's are still up in abundance.


Most of the yard though is a barren waste land. Pretty but useless... unless you like snowmen.

Seeds in the Snow

Well I don't need to visit TheFuckingWeather.com to know "It's Fucking Cold and Snowing," out. ... and now I just herd thunder. That's kind of creepy, but okay. Either that or a plow truck just crashed into something. Anyhow... okay I'm told "Thunder Snow" is nature's way to saying we're getting 3 inches of snow in the hour... Moving on,


Winter can seem like fun and games, and sure enough they are, but there are a certain few out there who are less fortunate.


I'm talking of course about the birds. Notice the full bird feeder. It's that way because the snow has clogged up where the seed comes out. Assuming I'm a forgetful person, or otherwise can't unclog the feeder every hour, what are the birds to do?


Not a whole lot really. Yes thanks to me being a laze gardener there are plenty of food sources still around my yard. Dead seed heads shouldn't be removed until late winter, or early spring, so we're talking around March. Plants like Liatris, Coneflower, Coreopsis (Tickseed), Goldenrod, Rudbeckia, Sunflowers, and others of course, all leave their seeds up where birds can get them.


Currently there's 5 inches of snow on the ground. Had I cleaned up the garden when the plants died back in the fall the seed heads would have been laid in a pile out in the compost bit, or discarded to prevent plants from growing in unwanted places. They'd be unavailable under the snow or otherwise discarded.


What little snow that does collect on the plant can simply be pecked away by most birds.


Like berry plants, some seeds are prized more than others. I hope to plant more berries for this purpose and to add some winter color, but until then I post about the seeds. (As a side note the berries that were on the Coral Honeysuckle are already gone.)


Here's why sunflowers point down. The birds that feed from them though only get to eat what the Goldfinches left behind.


Upon turning the corner I spooked a little Junco which was feeding on Liatris seeds next to the house. Sorry it's a little out of focus.


My one regret is having planted so much next to the house. This makes birdwatching difficult because I'm always spooking what's out there. I'm sure that will change though.

Probably the only plus to having a bird feeder is the concentrated traffic of birds it creates. When you have the seeds nicely sorted and still attached to their parent plant the birds don't gather as much. They can pick and choose, but at least they have the convenience and don't need to rely on us.