Hello My Friends
Ahh it was beautiful day here in the high mountain desert. Bright and sunny, fifty-three or four degrees Fahrenheit and it felt downright balmy after that snow and ice we had a while back. Even though it's January and theres not much happening in the way of green things there is never any shortage of things to do. So it was off to Home Depot for some mulch. Twelve bags fit into the back of the little truck quite nicely. Then the tractor hauled them to the grove of Quaking Aspens. Ten bags really isn't very much. Once it's spread around it's just a smidgen. There will be many more bags before spring. I saw a photo of a grove of aspens in the fall. Beautiful! a gaggle of them would look good right there. So I have planted over twenty, there are eleven survivors. And more will be going in soon. In a gentle breeze they make the most lovely rustling sound. And the way the leaves catch the sunlight can be spectacular. The bottom photo is from last July. Some of the smaller aspens still have their chicken wire enclosures. Bunny rabbits and deer think the young trees are delicious, pesky varmints. You can never have too many trees!
Jack

Beautiful trees. I plant as many as I can fit here but no aspens, it's too hot here for them I think

Hello My Friends
Hi Gypsi, you might give Aspens a try. Some charts say that they will only grow to zone six, some say zone seven. I live in zone 8 at 4500 feet. The first few years they didn't do to well. Then I was reading a US forest service website and they said that aspens like cool moist soil. So I added quite a bit of mulch and run a sprinkler once a week or so during the hottest part of the summer in addition to deep watering every couple weeks. I never water a tree less that five or six hours. Also a couple weak doses of organic liquid fertilizer during the summer. After doing this they really took off. I have found that Gurneys has by far the best bare root stock, and their prices are good.
Happy Gardening
Jack

Hello My Friends
Here is a photo of a Quaking Aspen tree in a jail. This is something you must do here to protect young trees from hungry varmints. Unsightly...yes, but necessary. When trees are young bunny rabbits find the tender bark quite delicious. Also the deer will eat tender leaves and branches. This seems to be only for young small trees. When they get larger the deer don't seem to bother them, even tender leaves that they can reach. Sometimes they will focus on certain trees. There is an American Red Maple down on the other end of the property that the squirrels completely stripped of leaves. I hate it when that happens There were other Red Maples that they didn't bother. I had to build an enclosure to completely cover it. Fortunately it was small enough. One wintertime activity that I really enjoy is clipping and shaping my trees. Removing the enclosures from the smaller trees and giving them a clip. Cutting off unwanted branches and shaping them. I consider tree pruning to be an art form, and I just love fussing with my tees. Other January things to do is spreading wild flower seed here and there, and putting compost and a light application of chicken manure around the drip line of the fruit trees.
No shortage of things to do...
Jack

Hello My Friends
Well, any minute now it will be February, so here are a few last January gardening bits. First off, here is a snappy of the lettuce crop in the cold frame. Not bad for January in the mountains.



And here are a few beets that just popped up. Kind of puny lookin' but I anticipate better things to come. No action from the green onions yet.





Here is a planter box that was planted with Freesias today. They make such a lovely fragrance when they are in bloom. I bought them at Home Depot. I wanted some Paper Whites but couldn't find any. When I was just a youngster they were the first thing to pop their heads up in the spring, they seemed so optimistic, signifying the end of winter. Their fragrance takes me back to my childhood, ahh wonderful. Fragrance can be such a powerful memory trigger.


And lastly we have some Lombardy Poplar cuttings my neighbor gave me. The heavy snow we had a while back broke quite a few branches off their trees. Cuttings are a great way to propagate trees. There are some giant old cottonwoods on the way to town and I have been threatening for years to get some cuttings from them. I had better move out on that, or it will get late too early again.

Happy Gardening
Jack