Henny Penny Farmette

We just planted a couple of flowering cherries as a dramatic focal point for our front entrance area. Reaching a height of 30 to 40 feet, these ornamental trees require little beyond full sun and well-drained soil. If drama is desired in a landscape, these trees won’t disappoint.

Before the tree leafs out, myriad buds open to reveal a mass of pale pink-to-white  color

Although California’s extreme five-year-drought has been declared over here in the Bay Area, a front lawn seemed to us unnecessary. Instead, we’re spreading small pebble gravel in a landscape that includes statuary, garden furniture and potted plants. We have a natural stone curved path lined with roses that leads from the driveway to house and raised beds of flowers, roses, and bird-of-paradise plants along with a few small trees–lilac, smoke, and citrus.

The flowering Japanese Yoshino cherry trees will provide palest pink blossoms with a light almond scent in the spring and shade in the summer. The trees are fast growing–exactly what we need to replace the massive (and yet fragile) elm tree that came down this past year. It stood next to the house and provided cool shade over the front porch until it split and fell.

Bare root season is a good time to purchase flowering cherries and other ornamental and fruit trees. The bare-root trees are also less expensive, but no less viable when planted according to instructions on the packaging around their roots. If you like drama in your landscape, consider these hardy, drought-resistant trees.

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If you have enjoyed reading about this farming/gardening topic, check out my cozy mysteries–A BEELINE TO MURDER and also THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE  (both in the Henny Penny Farmette series from Kensington Publishing).

My farmette and bee-based novels are chocked full of recipes, farming tips, chicken and beekeeping tips, sayings and, of course, a charming cozy mystery. For more info, click on the links under the pictures.

The books are available through online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, BAM, Kobo Books, and Walmart as well as from traditional bookstores everywhere.

See, http://tinyurl.com/hxy3s8q

A Beeline to Murder is the debut novel that launched the Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries. Initially released as a hardcover novel and in e-book format, it is now available as a mass market paperback.

See, http://tinyurl.com/h4kou4g

NEWLY RELEASED! This, the second cozy mystery in the Henny Penny Farmette series, is garnering great reviews from readers and industry publications.

It’s beach weather along Northern California’s coastline and bare root season technically won’t start for another few weeks. It’s the last Saturday in January–still winter. But the plants are waking up all around Henny Penny Farmette, thanks to the record-breaking, unseasonably warm weather.

Narcissus are grown from bulbs and when massed together in plantings return year after year in a cheerful splash of color

The narcissus seem to have popped up overnight. We tucked three dozen bulbs in a bed the first fall we lived on the farmette. The next spring, they bloomed. Their tall stalks and leaves die during summer, but every spring they emerge to bloom again, creating a dramatic drift of color.

Who doesn’t love working in shirt sleeves? But our gardens need rain and we need the plants to remain dormant while we finish winter chores and get our new chicken house ready.

Bird of paradise plants are easy to grow and lend a tropical feel to any area

This week, we finished dividing the strawberries and irises, cutting back the roses, and spraying the fruit trees again.We created another sitting area in the garden under a large apricot tree, laid a gravel floor, and planted Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) plants in half barrels.

Bird of Paradise plants (also known as crane flower) are indigenous to South Africa. The plants are heat lovers and aren’t too fussy about soil. Planting them in containers is a good idea if you live in an area, as we do, where the winter temperatures fall below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. You simply move them indoors.

The Bird of Paradise foliage makes a nice foil for the plant’s striking blooms of orange, fuchsia, and purple that resemble a crane’s head and beak.

The peaches have sprouted blooms, too, surprising us weeks before we expected blossoms

I think it’s too late to tell the plants to go back to sleep. So even if it’s torture to spend a long, languorous  day digging in my garden in my shirt sleeves, while the rest of the country is freezing, I suppose I simply must soldier on.