[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

14 Eye-Catching Shrubs to Add Interest to Your Winter Landscape

Winterberry
Firethorn
Hollys
Witch Hazel
Winter Daphne
Red Twig Dogwood
Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick
Japanese False Cypress
Dwarf Arborvitae
Snowberry

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/trees-shrubs-vines/shrubs/shrubs-with-winter-interest/

Yes, I KNOW! Nothing you can do about it NOW - but the Winter months are for PLANNING for NEXT season. :)

[kvanbrunt2]

zone 7. After taking out 7 30 to 45 foot trees, I was planting lots of flowering shrubs along my neighbors fence. Bought a tiller and started on the side vine covered yard rounded it up and planted grass. some shoots are showing. Today i moved around the herbs window boxes in the green house 6X8. seeded some tarragon, marjoram, more chives, parsley. Seeded some walla walla, and sun gold tomatoes. see what comes up. Planted some blue berries with the raspberry bush and some strawberries a few weeks ago. All doing great. Now that i have more sun, i am moving the garden up to the middle of the back lot. I will extend my tomato net structure to include the ruit and will plant some melons in there in the spring.

[Ezekiel]

Red twig dogwoods + Japanese false cypress (lemon thread) = awesome

The dogwoods are ~ 7ft. this year, and situated in naturally moist ground, whereas the nearby lemon threads are on higher ground I built up. They are thriving with the “just right” amount of natural watering they get from up-slope.

Not really an intentional companion planting. A few years ago (a couple seasons after the false cypresses went in) we scored some ‘rescue’ dogwoods, free for the digging. They went in where they could go.

The combo is not only gorgeous, the shrubs attract a lot of birds all year-round. Save for being minimally sampled by fawns (and spit out), the lemon threads have not been eaten. Around here that’s a big deal.

The dogwoods do get nabbed on the buffet line side we don’t see anyway, but this causes a lot of new shoots to sprout.

Fantastic display this season. The west side backdrop is a natural winterberry thicket, so that’s three from the list!

[T. P. Pole]

Ha! The snow melted enough for us to rake the leaves and trim back some dying flowers. Gotta love Wisconsin.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

TO LINK BACK TO THE NOVEMBER 19 2022 WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD
CLICK ON A TREE TRUNK!

[heartwood]

Beautiful. Is it your garden?

I am so not ready for snow.

We put in a wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox, in front of the porch as we come in from the driveway. A week or so before Christmas it starts flowering, the most beautiful cloud of scent when the air is still and above freezing, and there are always some flowers for the Christmas vase. It keeps blooming until we get a night below around 18 degrees or so, went all the way through January last year.

Siting is a bit tricky...we put it by the porch so that we would be able to smell it every day without trudging through mud, snow and bad weather, and for the few degrees of frost protection that the house gives. It was supposed to be 8 feet tall.but it pushes 15, overhangs on the roof, has coarse ungainly leaves and branches. I keep pruning it back. What it needs is a very strong growing, shade tolerant clematis to justify its summer existence.

There’s a woody Abutilon megapotamicum in a pot on the porch still blooming, has survived several nights at 25 deg. How low will it go?

Zone pushing...fun and folly...

[Deaf Smith]

Have had two lite freezes (below 32 for 3 hours) and I can finally trim some post oaks with out fear of Long Horn Beatles kill’n the trees two years later.

The chili pequines still doing good, just need sunlight to ripen.

[Qiviut]

I have close relatives who have started a regenerative farm and I am purchasing pastured chicken and pork from them (beef will happen in the future) to not only help them out, but to keep well-supplied with nutritionally dense food as a means of 'food security'. When the diesel runs out & trucks stop running, shelves are going to empty ... when the food shelves are empty, all h*ll is going to break loose, especially in cities where there are few if any options for 'growing your own'.

The reason I'm saying the above, is because one of my new "favorite" people, Jon Forti of The Heirloom Gardener, posted what is below on FB this morning - I had a few things to say to my family about it ... figured I'd share what he had to say, although I know on the Garden Thread, it's "preaching to the choir"! :-)

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The Heirloom Gardener - John Forti
Small Business Saturday.
Have you noticed that farmers market, downtown shops, re-purposed mills and craft shows have created vibrant new economies. Younger people working the land, or simply trying to make ends meet are finding new outlets for products of the farm or a handcrafted life. This weekend, take a fresh look at your downtown, drop in at an artisan fair or farm market to see just how much more your gifts mean when they were crafted by hand from your own local economy. 75 cents of every dollar spent at home stays in your local economy...and I promise you that's not happening when you buy on line or in a box store!

[Qiviut]

Jon Forti, The Heirloom Gardener, is "on fire" this weekend - here's another good graphic.

BTW, I just ordered another 'box' of pastured pork, probably about 20 pounds. I'm getting liver/fat for free .... no one else wants it & it's thrown away by the butcher if you don't ask for it. I am rendering the fat into lard - will be giving away lard for Christmas to those who will appreciate/use it. As for the liver, that is the most nutritious part of the hog - I'm making pâté to freeze and use periodically. Too much liver in a short period of time is too heavy in Vit A. I need a trip to the liquor store for brandy to make the pâté :-)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Winter Magic!!

[spankalib]

RE wind breaks (& maybe a little of that landscape architecture stuff), when I lived in the tidewater area in Virginia, I planted Leland Cypress for a visual screen.

Extremely fast growing! I would fertilize the heck out of them...they'd shoot up - and turn a little yellow, but then I'd just spray them with iron, and they'd green right up.

All the while shooting up like gangbusters. Planted a lot of firethorn too - they were gorgeous & a good 'barrier' plant.

[Augie]

We had all four kids/spousal units along with the six grands here for Thanksgiving. First time since I can't remember that all of them could make it on the same day. The weather was nice enough the kids were able to play outside and get a pony ride from their Aunt Leah.

I took advantage of the nice weather and got a few things done outdoors. I rolled up and stored away all of the garden hoses that were laid out to drain before the covid hit us. I reassembled Nanner's steering cylinder mounting bracket so that's ready to go back on the tractor soon as I have a few minutes to spare. The firebox door seal on my outdoor boiler was leaking air so I dug it out, cleaned the crust out of the channel, and glued in a new rope seal. The draft solenoid in the boiler has been wanting to stick open lately and I don't have a spare on hand so I'll need to get a new one before I can rebuild the fire.

I'm still learning how to operate the greenhouse. It's become obvious to me that I was late in planting everything that I put in there. The radishes, spinach, and lettuces that are in the planter boxes on the ground are doing ok. The kale/collards/cabbage that I started in flats are not happy. Those things dry out super fast and I haven't been good about keeping them properly watered. I think I need to buy a couple more chafer pans so I can water the starter cells from the bottom.

Christmas came early for me this year. The new truck I ordered back in August arrived at the stealership last week. Mrs. Augie and I picked it up on Saturday. This one is equipped to my specs so I expect to be driving it until the wheels fall off or I croak, whichever comes first.

[Freedom56v2]

Chicken transport?!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I have ten 4 1/2 week-old chicks I wish to transport from IL to TN in my car. A 10-hour drive.

I am thinking of putting them in a large Sterilite solid color bin...putting them in front seat so fairly warm and can check on them.

Currently, they are in a baby pack & play play pen and are close to outgrowing it. They have 90% of feathers in...Flying around, happy....Thriving. We have a larger coop set up in TN.

I am sure the hens will not be happy campers on drive down, but I am looking for any advice some of you might have to make their ride easier.

I am thinking of putting them in a large Sterilite solid color bin...putting them in front seat so fairly warm.

May post this in a general vanity, but I figure my garden FRiends know lots about country living :)

Thanks for any thoughts you have :)

[Qiviut]

Great day to work outside - 50’s, partly sunny, bit of a breeze now and again. I started out with a light windbreaker over a T-shirt & within 10 minutes, was down to just the T-shirt. By 3:30, the jacket had to go back on as it cooled down again. The ‘outside’ time was needed after Thanksgiving feasting, inactivity recuperating & a rainy day yesterday (1 inch of rain).

The project today (major one) was to “do something” about the 3 forsythia bushes in the front field. I love them in the spring when they bloom …. once that’s over, I don’t like them so much. They are about 15 feet apart and have gotten so big that if not trimmed up, I can hardly mow around them. Mom has been keeping them more or less under control and “shaped up”, but now her ladder won’t reach the top.

Another issue – she trims up the whippy long branches all to about the same ‘level’. When you cut forsythia, you get 4-8 sprouts off the cut end. With all the same length, those “baskets” of sprouts get tangled up in each other. The next time you trim, above the “baskets” from the last trim a year before, you get another level of “baskets”. In other words, a mess.

So I told mom that I was going to take the bushes all the way down to about 3 feet. They are almost impossible to kill and they’ll sprout again. We may not have flowers in the spring, but should have them back the year after. It took me all afternoon & 6-8 (I lost count) trailer loads of branches to haul away. The branches don’t load well - I am an expert “packer” & can normally get huge loads on the trailer, but not with the forsythia.

The sun was setting (really pretty) as I parked the golf/cart trailer and all 3 bushes are now down to the main branches and about 3-4 feet max. The next project will be trimming up the Brown Turkey Fig bush. I cut a little on it today, but will have to tackle it big time maybe tomorrow. Some of the branches are horizontal on the ground – trying to get it more vertical so I can mow without getting into the bush (& bees, etc. when there’s ripe fruit). I think what I cut will be easier to haul away – maybe 2 loads.

The back field does not need mowing – the front field/front pasture (around garden) does need it one ore time, as does the yard. I might be able to get it done this week – need to get most of the gas out of the mower before I put it away for the winter.