Sunday Stroll - Evergreen

I left a lot of my perennials uncut in the garden this year. The birds enjoy the seeds and the garden looks pretty through the winter. We have only a few evergreens on our property, but they shine in the garden and fields at this time of year. The dwarf conifer above, dressed for the season in ice, stands at the south end of the trail into the butterfly garden.

Some of the leaves in my garden are evergreen, or semi-evergreen. The moss under the elm tree stays cheerfully green, though much of it is covered by snow.



Several years ago, I transplanted a tiny white pine, only two or three feet tall, growing sideways out of the creek bank. It is now over eight feet tall and stands at the opposite end of the butterfly garden trail from the dwarf conifer in my first photo. It's needles are long and soft.

I bought a "rescue" Blue Spruce for just a few dollars at my nursery this summer. It currently looks a lot like a "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" but if it makes it through the first couple of winters, I know it will be beautiful one day.

The tall spindly tree in the photo below was planted by Limerick and one of our girls a few years before the white pine. The skies in the background give you an idea of our weather today. That little bit of blue in the northern sky has vanished, and the clouds prevail. As I prepare to post this, late in the evening, heavy snow is falling and we are under a snow advisory for the overnight hours.

A few of the herbs in my herb garden and tucked into my other perennial beds remain green or mostly green throughout the winter, such as this silvery Garden Sage, or this lemon thyme peeking sweetly out of the snow.

Some of the hollyhock leaves in the tiny garden at the playhouse are still green, and one yarrow flower clings stubbornly to its pink, but to me the most interesting thing in that garden on the last day of November was this brown poppy seed pod. This flower bloomed in June, I believe, and it's deep orange petals fell away on a summer wind leaving this intricate pod which seems to be waiting for spring to drop its seeds.

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all photos by Aisling, November 30, 2008