It was nice enough for a walk-about today. Seeing emerging growth on the daylilies, sedums (hydro-whatevers they now go by), and primroses. I didn't check the deciduous trees to see if they are budding out yet. Walked out back and found several blow-downs from our recent high winds - mostly dead alders that had previously been ravaged by woodpeckers. Temps in low 50s, so very pleasant. Note to self: clean all garden tools, and get geared up for early season work. New gloves are always a treat, I like the thicker Atlas type when it's cold and wet out (not the full on concrete type, but heavier than the thin nitriles).


Looking forward to the Winter Solstice, although I'm always a bit confused why the shortest day of the year is called the first day of winter -- but who am I to argue with the calendar? I'm choosing to celebrate that this year as my holiday of choice.

Took a walk-about and found my Mahonia 'Charity' in full bloom. This has been a very slow grower for me, although in its defense it is planted in full shade beneath evergreens.

Lots of perennials starting to poke their heads out of the ground. Still a bit chilly to really dig into the dirt, although I did buy some insulated gloves, so a little here and a little there may be possible. My primary goal before spring really erupts is to contain my chickens to their yard. I don't really mind them free ranging but they do scratch things up and make a mess. They also nibble on certain plants (comfrey, daylilies) but have not yet annihilated anything. The little banty rooster has gone from being called 'Shrimp' (his size) to 'Albert' (his hair) to 'That Little Bast**d' (his behavior) - last time we scuffled he drew blood on me, not sure if it was his beak or his spurs. Little creepazoid. But, doing his job...

It was really warm here this afternoon and I took a walk around. Thinking about pruning my maples. That's as far as I got on that idea - the sun goes behind the mountain really early still, and it cools down immediately. Maybe tomorrow if it's sunny again.

Laur, how do you prune your maples? Just open up the inside a bit? I have some that get really twiggy and others that seem to hold their shape better. I did poke around today and am seeing itty bitty buds forming on most of the trees and shrubs. Always promising!

I'm not real savvy about pruning anything, to tell you the truth. I mostly just wing it. I've read that maples are best pruned in the winter when dormant, so I thought I'd give that a whirl, since we're home. I have a maple out in the pasture that has two leaders, so I think I'll get rid of one of those. Then I have that maple in the back yard that needs some wayward stuff cut out and limbed up a bit to make it easier to mow. I've pruned it in the middle of summer with no ill effects, other than it bleeds a bit. I probably won't do anything to the Japanese maples; we fence them in the winter when the deer get hungry.

Hah! That Little Basturd Shrimp Albert is the best named bantam ever!

Really got a kick out of that

I don't remember where this came from exactly, but, it seemed to make sense at the time and has worked well with fruit trees when I bother...
anyway, the pruning tip was--generally best to prune when 'dormant' for a variety of reasons and that the timing of quasi-dormant pruning can be used to stimulate or discourage growth--as far as encouraging branching and growth best to prune in late winter/early spring just prior to breaking dormancy, whereas when the goal is more to limit growth, pruning in the late season as the tree is going dormant supposedly takes some of the exuberance out of the growth the following spring.
Tried that on a couple of rampant shrubs; cut 'em to the ground in the fall and nearly killed them. Took more than a few years for a come-back...

Bonehead,

Being new to Japanese maples, I did a minor amount of on-line research. Based on my color desires, growth habits, and a SINGLE picture, I settled on a fire glow maple. The picture can be seen by Googleing --fire glow maple packman museum. The picture that won me over was the one with a white house included in the photo. Further research disclosed that the tree was about 20 years old, located in Pennsylvania, and appeared to be "cloud pruned". Googling -cloud pruning maples provided multiple posts, plus posts other types of JPM pruning. Also, I viewed multiple You Tube "Japanese maple pruning" videos.

based on guidance from googling and You Tube videos, I will not be pruning my new 4' fire glow fow a few years, except for dead branches and VERY MINOR branch removal.

Received about 14" of snow in last few days, elctricity went out about 8:10 pm yesterday and overnight the house dropped to 60f. This morning was able to heat water for coffee (on propane), read up on fireplace, also propane, and got the temp up to 64f. Shoveled driveway and opened street drainage allowing water to flow. At 1:45 pm electricity back on, thank you Puget Sound Electric Co.
This is much better than Colorado. There I would not have water (on well) or gas when electricity went out. Heated via wood fireplace.
Again, much better than Colorado!