Over a year of blogging about the garden and greenhouse!  Here we are on New Year’s Eve and things are pretty quiet from a gardening standpoint.  It is truly winter, and you can see that in the following frost pictures.  I couldn’t resist!

Temperatures dropped a bit below freezing, but not super cold.  The next few days are projected to be sunny and clear.

In my walk around the property, I saw a few things preparing to bloom or blooming.  The cherry tree has lots of great-looking buds:

The Lenten rose that brother Tim gave me years ago has some buds showing amidst the ring of foliage:

It will be a few months before these open up, but cheerful to see them popping up, for sure.

The precocious blackberry still has its buds–hoping it will hold them until a more suitable time so we get some berries!

For winter interest, the black raspberry is stunning with the whitish bloom on its canes:

You can also see the alpine strawberries in these pictures and how hardy they are–not fazed at all by the frost!

A few plants are blooming on this last day of the year:

Calendulas act like they have no idea that it is cold and the days are short:

A few borage plants are still attempting to bloom, as well, and the feverfew in the pot under the Douglas fir:

The thug geranium on the sunny side of the house is blooming and the wonderberries still have some edible berries:

The greenhouse has a few orchids blooming and a holiday cactus:

 

I did manage to plant about 20 different kinds of seeds and set them on the heat pad in the window in the house.  We’ll see if any of them germinate.  I used seed mix mixed with cactus/succulent mix for drainage, as many of the seeds are cactus and succulents and bulbs.  I am not super optimistic that any of them will be come up, since the seeds are mostly older, but it seems likely I’ll get a few seedlings and end up with a few greenhouse treasures from this investment.

I’m doing some planning, as well, and looking through catalogs.  I love the looks of David Austin roses:  http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/advanced.asp

I picked out five of them that I would like to plant around the edges of the orchard garden, once I cut the butterfly bushes that live there now way back.

I’m looking at these (photos from davidaustinroses.com):

Olivia Rose Austin

Boscobel

Fighting Temeraire

Kew Gardens

Lady of Shalott

Brother Tim is looking for a local source of the beautiful Austin rose “Eddie’s Jewel”:

I also have decided to dedicate more of the veggie beds to perennial food plants in 2016, so I’m looking at adding some rhubarb and strawberries.  I plan to order these two berries:

Mara de Bois from Gurney’s nursery:

Mara Des Bois Everbearing Strawberry

Intensely Fragrant and Flavorful

One of the tastiest berries we’ve tried! Developed by a French breeding program, this everbearing, day-neutral variety produces attractive red, small to medium berries that are intensely fragrant and flavorful. Enjoy a heavy set of berries in early summer followed by several more light flushes in late summer and fall. Good choice for terraced beds, barrels or pyramids. Zones 4-7.

And the strawberry, Tristan, from Farmer’s Seed:  https://www.directgardening.com/144-edibles/3501-tristan-strawberry#/quantity-1