Frozen. January weather stats so far.

Coldest day so far this Winter. This is the first time that I've seen ice on the pond. Today is sunny. It snowed Tues and Wed, and there was black ice on the road.

Weather stats:
Jan stats so far: Low=20 degrees (at home, 19.8). High=46 degrees. Total precip=4.22 inches.

Fig Propagation: Air Layering (Historical)

From Condit's monograph. The legend below states "The central fig tree shows a method of propagation known as marcottage or aerial layering, commonly used in some humid climates. Note bags in which roots are forming, also some roots on severed branches which are ready to plant. From Versuch der Universal Vermehrung Aller Baume by G. A. Agricola 1716."

This method has used for at least 300 years, then, to propagate fig trees. I haven't done it - cuttings usually work fine for me. Air layering might do the job faster or more reliably - worth keeping in mind.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Inchelium Garlic. Coffee grounds. Blog Maintenance.

The Inchelium garlic is at about the same stage as garlic plants last year. This variety is a Northwest native american heirloom. I had also planted German Red, which did very well last year. Most of the garlic that we have eaten for past few months has been from the garden, and we eat several heads of garlic per week.

Last night, I stopped by Starbucks & picked up 2 bags of coffee grounds for the tomato bed. The barrista asked if I wanted the garbage bag full too, so I got even more than hoped for. Somehow I feel embarrased to ask for them, but if not used, they would add to landfill waste, with a rich, organic soil enhancing material that is then lost to the environment, meanwhile soil amendments need to be bought to enhance the soil. I'm less and less enthusiastic about the packaged manures, since those animals are fed antibiotics, worsening the antibiotic-resistant bacteria situation. Coffee grounds are a great plant food. I usually scatter the coffee grounds across the surface of the soil, and dig them in. Some also go into the compost. The earthworms love them. Despite what a number of sites claim, they are not acidic - the acid goes onto the coffee, which we drink - the grounds are neutral. I figure that I've added a few hundred poiunds of coffee grounds to the "growing greener" yard over the past few years.

Labels are now added to the postings. it's fun to click on them & have all of the postings on a subject pop up on one web page. But, for some reason, the process of posting photos is more cumbersome since I updated to the new blogger. Win some, lose some.

Who is eating the Orchard Mason Bees?

Here are the mud-plugs carefully applied by orchard mason bees last summer. I noticed today that about 1/4 of them are poked out. Is it another insect? Birds?

Orchard Mason Bees are non-honey making bees that do not have the highly organized social structure of honey bees. They are efficient pollenizers of fruits (which is why I started playing with them). Honey bees are declining due to mites, and there is some thought that orchard mason bees will be needed in greater numbers to pollenate fruit trees.

There may be local bees anyway - they love the ornamental cherries. However, I bought a kit from Raintree Nursery (mail order), set it up, and even carefully left a bowl of mud near the 'bee house'. It was fun watching the enter and leave the little tunnels in the house. If only 1/5 of the tunnels remain intact, and those bees survive, it will be an increase over the original population.

Still, who is eating them?

These remain green, Midwinter

It's encouraging that there are still green plants in the yard. The opuntia and Rosemary have survived about 5 Winters so far, so must be OK in this climate.
The Eucalyptus cinerea may not be ideal for this climate, given its milder provenance in Australia and New Zealand. This is a 'global warming' tree - I'm trying it given that we've had some 'zone creep' and former rules may not apply any more. The hardiness zones have moved. Of course, when the hard freeze arrives in February, it might not look so good. It might be Eucalptus gunnii instead - I'm not sure about the labeling.

The Euphorbia remains green (or more correctly, red/green) as well. It's in a dry microclimate which receives almost no rain.