Good news for gardeners! Yesterday's full moon, on the last day of February, means that spring is in sight! New England's native Americans, who had a name for each full moon as a way of tracking the calendar, called February's full moon the Snow, or Hunger Moon. This time of year, food must have been tough to come by when you depend upon your natural surroundings to survive.

It's also the toughest time of year for the birds that spend winters in New England. Many seed plants are buried under snow, and the tastiest berries were eaten months ago from the winterberry hollies, dogwoods and wild cherries. Insect populations are at their lowest, making it tough for woodpeckers and other insectivores to keep themselves going til the bugs of spring start to arrive.

Remember this time of year when you plan your gardens. Some shrubs have berries that taste awful until they have been through a few freeze and thaw cycles, meaning that birds won't eat them unless they are starving. My Virginia Rose still has most of its berries (hips), but in the past few snowy weeks, I have finally seen birds picking at them. In some years, birds don't touch our flowering crabapples until late winter, when the cardinals or early arriving cedar waxwings pick them clean. Strangely, in some years these berries disappear well before Christmas...



And try to keep as many of your seed plants standing into winter as you can, instead of hacking your perennial beds to the ground in the fall. Especially if you live in an urban area with few natural food sources, your garden's seed heads poking out of the snow might mean the difference between life or death for some of our hungry feathered friends!


Above is a northern junco picking at the seed heads of Agastache foeniculum during a snowstorm. Juncos breed in northern New England and Canada during the summer, but they migrate south to New England to spend the winter! They are cute but tough little birds that rely on the seeds of goldenrod, asters and other native flowering plants to keep them fed all winter.

So look around your yard and ask yourself. Do your local birds have natural food sources to keep them going during the Hunger Moon? Feeders are great for supplementing natural food sources, but they often attract the "wrong kind of birds" and squirrels, and keeping them stocked can get expensive. Invest in some bird-friendly plants and shrubs, and you'll feed birds, for free, for years to come.

Despite a few days above freezing this week, most of our central MA farm is still under a thick blanket of snow. As I look out my front window, I can see the farm across the valley from us, completely free of snow. Why is that? It's all about topography and the angle of the sun as it moves across the sky. Our farm is perched low on the north-facing slope of a river valley. The low angle of the winter sun passing across the southern sky means that this time of year, many areas are in the shade for most of the day. Cooler air also settles at the bottom of the valley, keeping temperatures a few degrees lower than the rest of town. The farm across the valley is on a south-facing slope, and their fields are perfectly positioned to capture the sun's heat all day, melting their snow more quickly. It's no surprise that apples were once grown on that side of the valley, but not on this side. It's too cold!

Melting snow can tell us a lot about our garden conditions. Watch where the snow melts first in your yard in the spring, and you'll learn where the warmer microclimates are. Use them  to your advantage to grow heat and sun-loving plants such as tomatoes and flowering plants that will sulk in a colder spot.

The back wall of our garage faces south, trapping the sun's heat on sunny days and releasing it slowly overnight. The wall also protects plants from cold north winds, keeping the area quite warm and sheltered. This is the only area of my garden where I can grow Mediterranean herbs that need hot, blazing sun to thrive. A mulch of pea-stone gravel also absorbs the heat, warming the ground faster in spring and helping the crowns of plants from rotting in my high-moisture soil.

So watch the snow as it melts in your gardens, and figure out your garden hot spots!

If you're a New England gardener looking for a large-impact shade perennial that blooms in early summer, you can't go wrong with Goat's Beard (Aruncus dioicus). Perfect for a partly-shaded woodland edge, its creamy white flowers are especially striking contrasted with a darker background:


Native to the rich woods of Pennsylvania southward, Goat's Beard grows quickly in spring from a woody crown, with flowering stems that can reach 6' in moist soil. Flowering in late June in my zone 5b central Massachusetts garden, Goat's Beard seems to do best with about half a day of morning sunshine. It usually takes a few years to get established, but once mature, it fills a good size area, so give it plenty of room.

Don't confuse the native Goat's Beard to the commonly planted Astilbe, which is also sometimes called Goatsbeard. Astilbe is much shorter than the native Aruncus, growing only about 2'.

Goat's Beard is a good plant for New England habitat gardens...its flowers are an absolute magnet to hordes of beneficial pollinating insects, and its long seed tassels persist well into winter. Don't these winter seed stems look like a nice meal for birds?


Aruncus dioicus is dioecious, which means that there are male and female plants.  Only the female plants produce the seed heads, and their flowers are slightly showier than the males, so plant several Goat's Beard at a time to ensure that you have at least one female plant. Even if you are lucky enough to find this plant for sale in a nursery, you'll probably get some blank stares if you ask what sex they are! In central MA, this plant is available at Bigelow Nurseries in Northborough as well as Garden in the Woods in Framingham.

What are you doing this weekend? Can you spare a few minutes of bird watching to help scientists understand our wild birds better? Be a citizen scientist and contribute data about the winter bird populations in your region of the United States. Scientists use the information to learn how birds are adapting to environmental changes, and to answer puzzling questions about why bird populations fluctuate in areas from year to year.

Here's all you need to do. Simply make a note (and number) of the birds you see this weekend between February 12th and 15th. Enter your results online on the form at the Great Backyard Bird Count  website. You have until March 1st to enter your results.

For a list of birds you are most likely to see in your region, click here for a checklist. If you need help identifying the birds you see in your yard, use visit the Online Bird Guide.

Here's a shot of one of our winter bird gardens from last January. Look carefully and you can spot at least 3 birds in this photo:




So, look out your windows this weekend at the trees, and write down which birds you see. Even better, take a hike in the woods with a  digital camera and a field guide to birds. Log your tallies online, andsubmit your best photos to the Photo Gallery. And, don't forget to check the GBBC results page later to see which birds your neighbors also saw!

It's February! With apologies to Andy Williams, I have to say that February starts the Most Wonderful Time of the Year for New England gardeners... we are but a hop, skip and a jump from spring now, and within the next month or two, it'll be time to set up the cold frame and sow cold-season seeds outside, as well a start a few flats of flowering annuals indoors. I like to plant hundreds of annuals each year in various areas of my garden, and the only way I can afford such indulgence is to grow them myself from seed.

But first, I need to decide what I'm growing this year. That's the fun part! Our coffee tables are strewn with thick magazine-style seed catalogs which have been arriving fast and furious in the past few weeks....nothing is better than sitting in front of a roaring fire on a cold February day, leafing through beautifully illustrated catalogs, planning our 2010 vegetable and flower gardens and putting together the annual seed order!



The Renee's Garden catalog is particularly scrumptious this year, with wonderful photos and some great specialty seed collections designed for new gardeners, including "A Hummingbird Garden", "Seeds for a Butterfly Garden", and "A Native American Three Sisters Garden" to introduce you to the age-old concept of working with nature to grow healthy plants and crops.

I am definitely going to try growing the newly available yellow Zinnia 'Profusion' (shown above on the cover of Park's Seed catalog). You cannot beat Profusion as a short (12") zinnia that blooms its head off all summer for so little effort. I've used it in containers to bring butterflies up close to our patio, and it's also excellent in garden beds to fill bare spots with pizzazz.  Pictured below is Zinnia 'Profusion' Apricot:



This year, I've decided to extend my "locavorous" shopping strategy and buy all my seeds from New England-based seed suppliers. As a locavore, I try to buy as much of our food from local farmers in order to support New England's agricultural industries as well as help protect our region's remaining open spaces for local, sustainable food production and habitat for declining wildlife species. Buying from suppliers who grow their plants in the tough climate of New England also means that their seeds should do well in my cold central Massachusetts valley garden.

So.....Turkey Hill Brook Farm's 2010 seed orders will go to......(drum roll please)

Johnny's Selected Seeds, which is an employee-owned company based in Maine, offering good quality vegetable, cover crop, herb, and flower seeds. They are a member of the Safe Seed Initiative, meaning that they do not buy or sell genetically engineered or modified seeds or plants.

Select Seeds in Union, CT, specializing in old-fashioned fragrant flowers, flowering vines, and hard-to-find heirloom annuals and perennials. Their seed collections include butterfly habitat gardens, hummingbird gardens and an old-fashioned fragrance garden that looks and sounds very enticing!

John Scheepers in Bantam, CT - nicely illustrated catalog for home vegetable gardeners, containing recipes, lots of interesting and useful garden tips, plus seeds for fragrant flowers and collections for habitat flower gardens.

So let the 2010 Garden Season begin! If you're looking for me this weekend, I'll be on the couch with a couple of sleeping dogs and a glass of wine, flipping through catalogs, making my list and checking it twice!  I'll blog later on about what seeds I ordered and why.

Special Note: I have no business relationship with any of these companies other than as a happy customer. If you know of any other New England-based seed companies that you think belong on my supplier list, let me know!

As some of you know, the past few months have been a challenge for me, slowly recovering from a badly broken leg, but the silver lining of my recovery is that I've had lots of time to read, write and spend time in cyberspace. Along the way, I've 'met' some great people who share my passion for earth-friendly gardening. Carole Brown, who has a website and blog called Ecosystem Gardening, invited me to showcase our habitat garden in a guest posting this week.

Click here to read my guest posting about our habitat landscaping on ConservationGardening.com!

Thank you Carole - I am honored!

Where oh where have the Monarch butterflies gone? I heard this question many times this past summer. Mostly, it seems the weather was to blame, at least in New England. Butterflies need sun and warmth in order to fly, and they need to fly to locate Milkweed plants to lay their eggs. Their wings are like little solar chargers, soaking up the sun to fuel their flight. This year's cold and rainy weather in New England provided few opportunities for female Monarchs to fly to areas containing Milkweed plants (Asclepias species), which is the only plant that Monarch butterfly caterpillars can use as a food source.

The good news is that this could be just a regional blip. According to Journey North, a project that documents Monarch numbers during their fall and spring migration, in the past week, Monarchs have been seen crossing into northern Mexico in numbers that have not been seen in years. Hopefully this means that although Monarchs were scarce in New England this year, the weather simply kept them away.

But the weather isn't the only problem affecting Monarch populations. Illegal logging in the forested regions of central Mexico, where Monarchs make their winter home, has reduced the winter habitat available to those butterflies who survive the long flight south. And according to research at the University of Georgia, since 1976 the female-to-male ratio of Monarch butterflies shows a major decline east of the Rockies. Because females can lay up to 400 eggs over the course of their lifetime, any reduction in their numbers is troubling for population stability.

Researchers are not sure why female populations are declining, but as gardeners we can all help Monarch populations by planting Milkweeds in our yards and gardens to provide food for Monarch caterpillars. If you think they're weedy looking, think again. There are several types of Milkweed that will grow in New England, and whatever your conditions, there's a beautiful variety suitable for your garden.

Well-drained, sunny spot? Just perfect for the neon-orange Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), shown below (alongside our poser border collie Speck):



If your soil contains some moisture, Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is a good choice. It's tolerant of drier soils, too. Besides being the sole food source for Monarch caterpillars, Milkweed flowers contain huge amounts of sweet nectar that all butterflies (not just Monarchs) love. Below, a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly sips nectar from Swamp Milkweed flowers:



If you have a larger property with areas that you can let "go wild", Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) has gorgeous ball-shaped pink flowers with an intoxicating honey scent. Common Milkweed grows naturally in waste places and old fields in New England, so who knows, if you have an area that you can leave unmowed, it may just pop up on its own...

Although not native to New England, Scarlet Milkweed or Bloodflower (A. curassavica)is a worthwhile annual to include in flower beds and patio pots. Its flowers bloom in a striking red, orange and yellow:



The first year we planted Scarlet Milkweed in a container on our patio, almost immediately a Monarch butterfly found it and laid her eggs. To our delight, two of them hatched, and one climbed onto a nearby trellis to start its transformation into a butterfly:


Below is the chrysalis that eventually morphed into a brand new adult Monarch butterfly:



How do they do it?
Scientists and naturalists have always been fascinated by the complex life cycle of the Monarch butterfly, but new research published in Science magazine is showing just how these tiny creatures are able to navigate their way 2000 miles to the same small region of Mexican forest each fall to spend the winter. It turns out that Monarchs have a type of GPS navigation system and circadian clock built right into their antennae, which allows them to use the sun to guide their travel as well as to correctly adjust their direction based on the time of day. Amazing!
 
Remember, no  Milkweed, no Monarchs. Let's help these unique winged wonders survive for future generations to enjoy by growing Milkweeds!

Anybody who has taken one of my classes knows that I always harp on about NOT doing the traditional fall cleanup of the garden...instead of scalping your perennial beds to the ground in fall and removing most of the dead plant material, I persuade my students to leave plant stems standing right into the winter, and delay the cleanup til the following spring. Seed heads provide valuable forage for those birds who spend the winter here, and the leaf litter, hollow plant stems and decaying plant materials all provide plenty of opportunities for beneficial insects to hibernate through the winter in some form. Remember, many of those bugs are are the superheroes of the insect world, who will wake up and start patrolling for pests starting in early spring! And hungry birds picking around your gardens in the dead of winter will appreciate those insect eggs, caterpillars and other protein-rich insect morsels hiding in your garden beds.

But sometimes, it's not about the wildlife at all. In summer, it might be the colors of a palm-sized zinnia flower or the scent of a rosebush in full bloom that stops you in your tracks to marvel with all your senses. Late fall might not have such flamboyance, but it has its own highlights. Early in the morning, seed heads, touched by an early morning frost or dusted with little snow caps, might give you pause to stop for a moment and take in an unexected but quite lovely view of the familiar. And in this crazy world we live in, dictated by schedules and commitments, any pause to consider nature has got to be a good thing...


Above: Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) flowers tipped by frost on a cold October morning

Nature continues to take center stage in central Massachusetts this week, with American Beech foliage stealing the show:



Our habitat pond is a relaxing place to drink in the view and look for frogs, before they dig themselves into the pond's muddy bottom for the winter:




Ornamental shrubs against a backdrop of mature trees creates a layered look on a steep north-facing slope:




I've blogged about summer's "profusion vases" before, but the fall has its own flower bounty...my husband's creation of New England Aster, Goldenrod and grass stems lights up the breezeway:



Asters, Goldenrod and 'Chocolate' Eupatorium are still blooming, despite being hit by several frosts now. Their flowers continue to provide late-season nectar for whatever pollinators are still active...

As any New England 'leaf peeper' will tell you, there's a unique beauty to the annual decay of our natural surroundings. Our Massachusetts backyard, landscaped as a natural habitat, takes on a whole new life in the autumn, when berries ripen, plant stems are loaded down with seeds and the songbirds that eat them, and foliage changes to its fall plumage of earth tones. I always love the contrast of the earliest changing plants (usually ferns) which are a harbinger of the symphony of color still to come:


Below: Possum-haw Viburnum (Viburnum nudum) berries are starting their transformation from green to pink to purple. They will continue to ripen into the winter, providing valuable food for our winter birds. Viburnum is a shrub with multi-season interest - in the months to come, their leaves will also take on a gorgeous burnished tone...



Gardens are now a medley of reds, browns, yellows and everything in between:



Below: Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) climbing up a pine tree. Did you know that poison ivy is one of the best native vines for birds? Yes, there IS something good about poison ivy!! Its white berries are a food source for more than 50 species of birds. But poison ivy is one plant I would NEVER recommend planting in gardens. Its foliage and stems cause a severe allergic reaction in most people that touch it...even if you seem to be immune now, you can lose immunity at any point in your life. This is not a plant to encourage in your yard, but if it pops up in an out of the way area where people or pets do not travel, why not let it climb up a tree and provide food and perhaps even nesting for your local birds? It will reward you with its flaming red, orange and yellow foliage: