North Country Maturing Gardener: February 2011

PLEASE LET WINTER PASS FROM MY GARDEN!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm really tired of winter about now. At the moment, it's snowing. Not only is it snowing, it appears to be getting dumped by the bucketload from the sky. Stop!

The birds are of course, happy for the feeders. So are the squirrels. Usually, I only have red squirrels, but this year the gray ones are coming out of the woods to chomp on the wooden feeder that sits atop a pipe (with a squirrel baffle on it, by the way.)

The squirrels have dug little tunnels all over the yard under the snow. It is kind of fun to watch them disappear down one, only to reappear 20 feet away. I just worry about what plants those little tunnels go to. Little critters can do a lot of damage to shrubs and tender, smaller trees by chewing the trunks. When the tunnels lead them to the most tender, of the tender trees, look out for trouble later.

I guess we should be happy so far this year with a good heavy snow cover. It has not been a year of snow, followed by thaws and rains, and then snow again. This is healthy for the plants lying underneath. The plants are kept from heaving and freezing in waves. That should indicate a good year for our perennials waiting to burst forth, come warmer days. I'll bet they can't wait. Just like me.

BIRDS ARE HAPPY FOR THE FEEDERS!

I'm glad the feeders are up. All this snow has covered up a lot of the usual feeding grounds, I guess. The birds are coming in flocks, and I love seeing them. I wonder when we will see the ground again?

If you can get to your young, vulnerable trees, you might want to tramp around the trunks so the little critters won't tunnel up to them and nibble the bark. They can wipe out a tree pretty quickly by chewing the bark all the way around.