Jack Frost has visited Linda’s Serenity Garden many times this year and

we no longer have the fresh cut flowers to bring inside, brightening up the house. Fresh flowers purchased at the grocery store or from a florist are expensive. When you are used to having fresh flowers in the house all through the growing season, buying cut flowers to fill those vases becomes expensive.

With this in mind, we invest in some well-chosen flowering houseplants adding a splash of color to the house.   It gives us pleasure as we watch them grow and flower during over cast and sunless Pacific Northwest days.

As we go leave the Christmas season, the stores are filled with azaleas, begonias, cyclamen and Christmas cacti that are marked down on clearance. Not only is the price right but, these plants bring a welcomed splash of color into your home. These plants are cultivated in a nursery in a controlled environment and like to be kept at a constant temperature. In particular, azaleas hate being exposed to sudden drafts of cold air. Even the short trip home from the store can shock these plants and make them shed their flowers. Always make sure you have them packed in tightly sealed plastic before leaving the store, thus protecting them from the sudden change in temperature.

Although beautiful, a disadvantage of cyclamen and begonia is they rarely flower more than a month. These are short-term house plants that should be discarded after flowering. The chrysanthemum,  or mum as it is commonly referred to, is a potted flowering plant that has a slightly longer flowering season. The mum comes in almost every color except blue. After your mums are done flowering, cut their stems down to just above the soil line and put them in a cool, dark place, such as a garage or basement, until spring. Once spring arrives and it is planting season, you can transplant your mum plant outdoors in your garden.  In the fall, they will bloom again.  Provide some mulch after they bloom, and they will become a perennial plant!

Most house plants benefit from being massed together in one container, instead of being placed around the home randomly in smaller separate pots. Take a large clay bowl, pot or a rustic-looking basket and group into one mass display.  Four or five Rieger Begonia in one basket look spectacular!

Photo Credits

Begonias – http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/29184-begonia-betulia

House Plants – httpwww.iflorist.co.ukc-51-house-plants.aspx

We all enjoy watching the birds feed at our feeders. During these winter months the feed

that we give them is very important to provide protein to keep the birds warm overnight. If we are not careful it is possible to spread outbreaks of diseases such as Salmonella and E.coli to our feathered friends. Outbreaks can be spread quickly from infected birds to healthy birds sharing the same feeders. Below are some guidelines to help you to make sure your feathered friends remain healthy and happy and keep coming back to give you the enjoyment of watching them.

1.       Your bird feeders and any tables or trays that you put seed into should be thoroughly cleaned on a regular basis. Once a week is the recommend cleaning schedule. Most diseases are transmitted via infected droppings. By cleaning the droppings you help to keep your friends healthy. If an infection occurs you must disinfect regularly. At first,  very often, every day or two and then work back to your weekly cleaning routine.

2.       It is important to regularly clean up the areas underneath your bird feeders, particularly when black sunflower seeds are being feed. The husks pile up on the ground and they attract mold which can make our feathered friends sick. The husks and the seeds also attract rodents.

3.       Clean up any uneaten or moldy food and dispose of it in your trash cans. Food in your compost pile will attract unwanted rodents and other animals foraging for food. Sees  such as thistle, if thrown into a compost pile, will produce unwanted thistle seeds. From time to time we will have voluntary sunflower plants or thistle plants grow in our garden from the seeds being dropped by the birds.

4.       Make sure that your platform feeders or seed trays are not left out at night. They will attract rats, mice, possums and raccoons to your backyard. Rats will generally live under compost piles, garden sheds or in areas where rubbish has been allowed to pile up. If you have rats, clearing away any rubbish and seeds or other food sources on the ground often solves the problem.  This eliminates their food source and habitat. If this does not solve the problem, put rat bait under your garden sheds since they are most likely still living under them.

5.       Move your platform feeders and seed trays around your lawn and garden. If possible have several of them and keep them spread out to help avoid having large numbers of birds in one location at one time.   Predators such as cats will be attracted to the birds on the ground. Keeping them from all being in one spot on the ground helps to protect them.

6.       Keep surfaces on which birds feed clean. If you are putting seed on a table, wipe it clean daily. If you are putting out food such as fruit,  put it in a different location then your bird seed.

7.       When handling bird feeders, seed trays or feeding tables always use strict personal hygiene. Some bird diseases can be transmitted to humans.  I recommend you always wear rubber gloves when cleaning bird feeders and the area around them. Always wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. Always clean your feeders outdoors. Never clean feeders indoors or near food preparation areas.

8.       Don’t forget to keep your bird baths clean also. The water needs to be changed

regularly. When changing the water disinfect and rinse the bowl. Don’t forget to clean the bird droppings off the rim and the sides of the bowl. Don’t be tempted to use antifreeze, salt or glycerin to keep the water from freezing during the winter months. These will be harmful to your feathered friends who visit your bird bath. Use a heated bird bath or a heating device to keep the water from freezing.

Enjoy your healthy back yard birds!

At Garden Accent Heaven we still have a good selection of Holiday Doormats ready for immediate shipment.  MatMate™ Doormats are Interchangeable and Eco-Friendly! MatMates™ are the latest addition to our line-up of high-quality coordinated outdoor decorative accessories. These beautiful printed

doormats have an environmentally friendly backing made of recycled rubber tires. MatMates doormats measure 18″ x 30″ and look great when used stand-alone, but the really come to life when they’re used as inserts in one of our stunning MatMates decorative trays (sold separately). MatMates are permanently dyed using state-of-the-art dye sublimation printing. MatMates are fade and mildew resistant. Made in the USA.   Size 30″ X 18″.

Another item we carry are rubber trays that hold the doormats and keep them

from blowing away. These trays come in two designs, one with a scroll design in each corner and one with a star design in each corner.

We had been using wrought iron stands to hold our bird feeders.  I replaced them this

 summer with two 4” x 4” treated posts eight feet long , sunk 18” deep into cement .  I placed the posts 8 feet apart and put wrought iron squirrel baffles on them.  They looked a lot better in Linda’s Serenity Garden!

 With the baffles installed I thought we were all set.  How wrong I was!  I didn’t think about those pesky squirrels jumping from one post to another!   They climb one post up to the baffle and then leap onto the next post, landing above the other baffle!  The baffle made a nice landing pad for them!  I had a Songbird Essentials Squirrel Proof feeder hanging on the pole.  With this feeder, the ports close from the weight of the squirrel. The squirrels figured out real fast that if they stay on the wooden post,

 never getting on to the feeding ports, they can reach the ports and eat sunflower seeds to their little heart’s content!

Linda would not let me shoot the squirrels so I had to come up with Plan B.  After all a human is smarter than a squirrel, right?  Not by much it seems!  Plan B was to enclose the posts in sheet metal flashing so the squirrels wouldn’t have anything to put their claws in.  At the lumber yard, I bought a 10’ roll of 14”’ wide sheet metal flashing which is used in roofing.   I bought some 2” x 4” wood studs.   I nailed 10” pieces cut from  the studs on opposite sides of each pole, making the flashing easier to attach, and hopefully, with more girth, even harder for the squirrels to climb.  Next I encased each post with the flashing up to the baffle level.  I used tin snips to cut

 the flashing and overlapped the edges an inch.  I used 1” screws to attach the flashing to the studs.

The final step was to spray paint the sheet metal in flat black. The secret to prevent runs in your spray paint is to spray one light coat first. You will see the sheet metal coming though this first light coat. Let it dry a bit and then spray on a second coat. The second coat will cover the sheet metal surface and give you a nice finish.

Now a cup of tea (or coffee) and observe my handy work and squirrel free bird feeding.  Wrong!

The 14” width of the flashing was not enough! The squirrels still had enough wooden post left to climb and jump from

 one post to the other above the baffle!  Now the battle between human and squirrel was in full swing!

So plan C.   I had to repeat the entire process of Plan B again! Directly below the first flashing and overlapping the pieces, I covered the poles again, leaving just one foot uncovered pole at the bottom!  

Finally I won the battle!  It‘s not easy outsmarting a squirrel!