Henny Penny Farmette

A Chinese proverb states that “If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come.” I think I was born with that green bough in my heart because I have always loved birds–and not only the songbirds.

Crew Cut, our resident black phoebe

By offering food, water, and safe and dry housing as well as blooms for every season (flowering annuals, perennials, herbs, bulbs, and fruits and berries), I am able to attract many different birds into my garden.When birds are present, especially the songbirds, the garden becomes a special sanctuary.

A hummer’s iridescent feathers shimmer as it perches in sunlight at the end of an apricot tree branch

I hang feeders and fill them with various types of seed and suet cakes as well as syrup for hummingbirds. Food attracts local and migratory birds flying through this time of year. It’s best to choose a wide sampling of foods such as seeds, nuts,hulled sunflower, safflower, Nyjer thistle, peanut, millet, fruit, berries, raisins, and meal worms to draw interesting bird traffic.

Some of the birds we regularly see include scrub jays, wrens, finches, sparrows, red-tail hawks, mockingbirds, quail, mourning doves, robins, barn owls, hummingbirds, and crows.

Hawks like this one enjoy perching atop tall trees

With food scarce in the wild, the birds visit the hanging and platform feeders. For ground feeders like mourning doves, I put out a large saucer under the apple tree and, yes, I leave a few apples on the tree for the birds to peck. For a list of birds and the types of seed and other foods they consume, see, https://www.wild-bird-watching.com/Bird_Seed.html

Mourning doves mate for life; these two are joined at the feeder by a third who has lost his or her partner

Some of our winged visitors stick around to mate and build nests in climbing rose bushes, brush piles, trees, or one of the many birdhouses we’ve hung. Only the owl basket high in the pepper tree remains empty, but we’ve heard a lot of hooting at night so we’re optimistic that owls will take up residence here. We live close to designated agricultural lands and the empty field behind us has a lot of mice–their favorite food.

My hubby built this birdhouse from a fence board. Not all birds will take up residence in a house, but many will.

Birds build nests in backyard birdhouses and brush piles as well as in trees, shrubs like climbing roses, and under the protected eaves of buildings (mourning doves especially seem to like these). Hummingbirds will build their tiny cup-like nests in shrubs (we found one in our Cecil Brunner climbing rose bush) and trees, from 10 feet and up in locations where wind isn’t a threat.

There’s always plenty of action at the feeders when the finches discover the Nyjer seed

A water source is important for attracting birds since they both drink and bathe in the water fountains and bird baths of backyards and gardens.

If you provide food, water, and a safe and dry shelter for the birds to eat, breed, and nest, you will be rewarded for not only the singing birds will come but other interesting species as well.

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If you enjoy reading about living close to the earth and a good yarn,  check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries: A BEELINE TO MURDER, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, and my latest, A HIVE OF HOMICIDES.

These mysteries are chock-full of tips for keeping chickens and bees, growing heirloom fruits and vegetables, and backyard DIY projects. For more information, click on the URL.

My newest cozy  mystery

http://tinyurl.com/ya5vhhpm

A HIVE OF HOMICIDES

There is a quiet beauty in a winter garden. You must endure cold to appreciate it. On my farmette, there’s also fog and wind and misty rain. But as you gaze in mindfulness, the rewards come.

When trees are bare, you can appreciate the beauty of their scaffolding, branching habits, and fruiting spurs. There is an attractiveness about tree bark that is rough or smooth and colored in earthy hues of green, gray, or reddish brown. Bare trunks and branches provide visual interest until blossoms and blooms break in spring.

With pruning done and leaves removed, the roses rest. Birds gather at feeders and frolic in the fountains. Beneath the soft, damp earth, roots are taking in nutrients to prepare the fruit trees for a surge of growth when warmer days arrive.

The garden is a place to conjure memories and ponder life and destiny. Goethe, the German playwright, poet, and novelist wrote that “Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.”

Winter is the perfect time to contemplate the tap root of your being and to think and and dream and plan for what will blossom in your life when warmth and light returns. French philosopher and author Alfred Camus wrote, “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

I have a simple ritual of visiting my winter garden. I prepare a cup of hot water with juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon of honey or sometimes just a cup of coffee or tea. Then with cup in hand, off I go to inspect the fruit trees, the bare grape and berry vines, and the soil turned in raised boxes waiting to receive kitchen herbs. This ritual inspires me and silently powers me up with hope and energy.

Perhaps you have a similar winter ritual. If not, consider checking out my newest nonfiction book, RITUALS FOR LIFE and plant something in the earth or the garden of your psyche that holds the promise of bearing fruit in its own perfect time. Now is the time to greet each new winter day for the blessings it brings and appreciate the stark beauty of Nature.

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

https://tinyurl.com/yctdczpq

Vita Sackville-West, prolific English author, poetess, and avid gardener described her now-famous white garden at Sissinghurst in Kent as a garden of gray, green, and white. She wrote a column about it in the Observer that was published January 22, 1950 and republished in 2009. See, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2009/jan/22/gardens

Vita Sackville-West hoped her experiment would be successful. Still, she opined that a garden can look well enough on paper but can fail “after you tuck your plans into the soil.” You can only hope it will turn out well.

Bacopa’s small white flowers blooms from spring through fall

Indeed, her garden succeeded as she had hoped. It has garnered worldwide fame as the “white garden at Sissinghurst,” one of the most visited areas of the castle gardens. Her vision for it was quite simply a fairly large bed divided into halves by a paved walkway that ended with seating for visitors to sit facing the garden. Rising at their backs would be a really high hew hedge.

White blooming roses are beautiful under moonlight

She envisioned many fragrant and ravishing florals sticking up through gray-green foliage. Her chosen blooms for this white garden, best experienced beneath a full moon for its appearance and scent, included dozens of tall trumpets of white Regale lilies,  peonies, and irises, in hues of white to the palest creamy yellow.

In creating her garden, Sackville-West was manifesting a hoped-for result. She considered her garden as an amusing exercise and encouraged others to experiment in their gardens as well, according to their own “taste” and “opportunities.”

If you’d like to create a white garden, search for plants in white-blooming varieties and choose some for their fragrance: cleome (attracts pollinators), dianthus, primrose, evening stock (a scented annual whose fragrance intensifies at twilight), lily, phlox, night-blooming jessamine (possesses an intoxicating scent), tuberose, geranium, and white rose.

For gray-green foliage under these plants, tuck in lambs ears, snow-in-summer, or artemisia (this genus has between 200 and 400 plants). Or, use the plants Sackville-West chose for edging–specifically, Dianthus Mrs. Sinkins and Stachys Lanata).

White geraniums are easy to grow

For a small space, why not create a circular bed. Plant a fragrant, white rose, perhaps Claire Austin, named for the English rose breeder David Austin’s daughter. In a circle around the rose, plant yarrow with silvery-gray foliage. In the next layer (furthest from the rose and shortest) use bacopa, alyssum, or other white edging plants to create the  outermost circle around the yarrow. The trio of layers in constant bloom creates a lovely bed with the appearance of a fairy ring–dramatic under the moonlight.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening,  keeping bees and chickens, and other rural topics and you like a good mystery, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozies, including A BEELINE TO MURDER, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, and A HIVE OF HOMICIDES.

All available online and in bookstores everywhere

http://tinyurl.com/ya5vhhpm

A HIVE OF HOMICIDES

http://tinyurl.com/yd7pz7af

MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE

https://tinyurl.com/y6ue28xb

A BEELINE TO MURDER

Enrich your reading pleasure by putting on your muck boots and stepping into the world of Abigail Mackenzie and her coterie of friends in charming Las Flores, California where the local movie theater still serves up homemade pastries and locals gather at the only watering hole in town, the Black Witch.

Besides offering a cozy mystery to solve, these books are chocked full of

1. Delicious recipes

2. Farming and gardening tips

3. Facts and tips for keeping bees and chickens

4. Tidbits of farm wisdom

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My newest nonfiction books include:

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

Anyone can find peace, clarity, and focus…all it takes is a moment