Henny Penny Farmette

If you are someone like me who loves to garden, you have the first day of spring circled on your calendar. For 2020, spring arrives on March 19.

Plant bare root fragrant roses and engage in mindfulness practice. Both will have you stopping to smell the roses

Bare-root season (when fruit trees, roses, and other plants are dormant and sap is not flowing) is now. Here in the Bay Area, the soil is currently soft and makes for easy turning with a spade. Now is the time to incorporate some roses or other bare root plants into your garden. There are several reasons to do so.

1. Planting bare root saves you money. If you are buying from a local nursery or a seller who ships, you’ll find the cost cheaper because you’re not paying for soil or containers.

2. Better selection. You can purchase heirloom varieties of deciduous trees and shrubs from all over the world when you buy bare root. Bare root fruit trees are popular with back yard gardeners but you might also consider artichokes, rhubarb, strawberries, grapes, asparagus, and many other plants that are sold as bare root.

Rhubarb is a bare root plant that flourishes in rich soil with some protection against direct overhead sun

3. You have flexibility. Planting in February just before spring means the ground has thawed in areas where freezing temperatures are the norm. When the ground is growing warmer and is workable is the time to tuck your bare root plants into the soil.

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If you enjoy reading about country living topics, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries, including A BEELINE TO MURDER, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, and A HIVE OF HOMICIDES (Kensington Publishing). These mysteries also include farm to-do lists and delicious recipes.

Get the three-book series of cozy mysteries with elements based on the real Henny Penny Farmette

I’ve also written over two dozen self-help and wellness books, including THE SELF-CARE PLANNER,  HOW TO LIVE WITH INTENTION, and MY POCKET MEDITATIONS (Adams Media/Simon and Schuster).

Find Meera Lester’s books online and in traditional bookstores everywhere. Barnes & Noble will be featuring THE SELF-CARE PLANNER on its self-care table for the New Year, New You promo, starting Dec. 31 and running through March 2020, in select stores.

Start at any point in your year or life with this self-guided planner

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Self-Care-Planner/Meera-Lester/9781507211649?utm_source=author_post&utm_medium=adams_outlet&utm_campaign=adams_lead_fall&utm_content=

Here on the Henny Penny Farmette, we love watching the spectacular aerial maneuvers of male hummingbirds attempting to attract the interest of a nearby female. These gorgeous feathered flirts know how to bedazzle a potential mate with spectacular maneuvers that show off the intense coloring of their iridescent feathers.

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

Depending on the species, these tiny birds can flutter their wings in a figure eight pattern (they don’t flap them) from 12 to 80 times per second. All that fluttering requires tremendous energy.

Hummers are attracted by the intense hue of certain flowers such as nasturtiums and the promise of nectar

Hummers mainly get their energy from plants with brightly colored, nectar-rich flowers. They will dine at hummingbird feeders filled with red sugar-water and hung around gardens that feature plants with brightly colored blooms, especially if those blooms are high in nectar.  The following is a list of plants known to attract hummingbirds.

• Impatien
• Nasturtium
• Phlox
• Nicotiana (flowering tobacco)
• Salvia (scarlet sage)
• Snapdragon

Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis) is a vine with tubular flowers loved by hummingbirds

If you like plants that return each year, tuck in these brightly colored perennials.

Alcea rosea

• Aloe
• Bee Balm
• Columbine
• Coral Bell
• Four-o-clock
• Gladiola
• Penstemon
• Phlox
• Salvia

Shrubs such as the butterfly bush (Buddleia) and the flowering maple, hibiscus, and rosemary hold a special appeal for the hummers. They also will be attracted to blooming vines (especially those with trumpet or tube-shaped flowers in intense colors). Tuck in Cape honeysuckle, flame vine, or the blood-red trumpet creeper and watch the hummers darting in and around these vines from dawn until dusk. For more ideas, visit your local nursery or birding store.

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Do you enjoy reading about farming topics? 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 farm-based novels feature delicious 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.

The third novel in the Henny Penny Farmette series is due out in September 2017