As Winter Approaches

The next few posts will be articles I wrote for the North Star Monthly, a Danville, Vermont journal first published starting in 1807 and reestablished in 1989. I love the paper and you will too. info@northstarmonthly.com.

AS WINTER APPROACHES

This time of year I am reluctant to begin putting out bird food because black bears are a ways away from even considering hibernation. Bear scat under the apple trees in the fields out back is prevalent for the first time this past week and the piles of fallen apples are now history. As such I put out just enough bird food at the platform feeders to last for the day. I was up early today and as the sun began to rise, a blue jay who visited me regularly last winter, arrived at the feeder outside my office window and did what he always has done when the feeder is empty. He looks in the window and yells at me to get with the program. Corvids are smart birds! I followed the command and put black oil sunflower seed and cracked corn out and within minutes had a number of blue jays having breakfast in competition with five mourning doves and a lone white breasted nuthatch. I have already seen more doves in the woods while cutting wood than in any previous year. That’s great!

I mention birds because they are a wonderful hobby to replace your garden activities for the days of winter and the birds need help from us. Researchers have reported that since 1970, we have lost over 3 billion birds in the US and Canada. There are a list of causes for this including deforestation, climate change, agricultural and homeowner chemical use, light pollution, declining plant and tree species specific to certain birds, water level changes, and many other factors. As gardeners, we do an important part in helping bird populations.

Fall cleanup is not the most popular sport and some gardeners even leave the job until spring time. Until the snow provides ground cover and refuses to leave, you can find me out most days doing some amount of cleanup. When the deer and bears have finished with most of the apples, I rake what’s left and get them to the compost pile. This helps cut down on insects and diseases that will lower next year’s fruit production. If you raise pears, plums and any other fruit, (trees or shrubs) it’s a good idea to clean up leftovers too.

Pruning is about as popular as washing windows but it has to be done. Lilacs and both paniculata and aborescens hydrangeas do best when spent blooms are removed in case you forgot the task when they finished blooming.  With both shrubs it’s best to be vigilant about stem pruning to ensure good flower production the following year. We only sell these two varieties of hydrangea because they bloom on new growth and pruning will encourage plenty of bloom. Lilacs are growing in popularity but for some reason folks are reluctant to prune them. This past summer I gave many, many gardeners instruction on pruning lilacs. When you find you need a saw instead of hand pruners to clean up a lilac, you know you have waited too long.   

Some gardeners are obsessively fastidious about garden clean up and want to cut all their perennials to the ground come fall. There’s nothing wrong with that approach but if you grow any rudbeckias, helianthus, hellenium,  echinacea, yarrow, or verbascum/mullein—any plants that produce an abundant amount of seed, then it’s good to leave these plants in tact until spring. The “little birds of winter” as I call them love to feed on such seeds and when the ground is covered with snow, and when winds and temperatures are frighteningly cold,  the birds will appreciate what you have left for them.

When reports sound bad about declining bird species, there are also good reports about man’s successes. Osprey, peregrine falcons and bald eagles have made impressive comebacks. Our home is located on the border for Groton State Forest. The peregrine reintroduction program began at Marshfield Pond on the Lanesboro Road in the late 70s and we moved here in 1989. We have been fortunate to see the successes of that program since then. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t see a peregrine someplace between here and the flower farm. Ospreys are really impressive and it took me years before I ever saw a mature female. The occasion was similarly unimpressive as it came out of the trout pond with what would have been a “too big for the frypan” fish. During the summer we have seen bald eagles flying up and down the Winooski River as well as circling from high overhead. I have yet to find the nest but I hear it’s a mile up river from here. And finally, this summer on three occasions I was fortunate to see a Golden Eagle, also flying along the Winooski. People tried to tell me I was actually seeing an immature bald eagle but sorry folks, a golden it was—a prize to see and confirmation that we are doing some things correctly with our environment.

So as snows fall and winds blow, remember the importance of the gardens you grow and the visitors you share them with. If you have gardening questions, even when you aren’t able to garden, drop us a line at vermontflowerfarm@outlook.com. We’re always here to help you grow your green thumb!