[/caption]Birds must enjoy being the "middleman" in the planting of cotoneasters. For they plant many. I enjoy them. They make great plants to clip into shapes. They also grow well in pots. This one I clip into a fan shape and of course there are the berries in the fall and the birds that will enjoy them.
So what do we do when after the snow has fallen, and the leaves are raked? We garden for a bit more. The night temperatures have been in the teens and twenties. But there are always days under a bright sun that warm up to the sixties. Yesterday Ted and I went out and harvested the Sunchokes which are also called Jerusalem Artichokes. You'll see in the picture that they are like odd shaped potatoes, tubers attached to the long sunflower stem. The problem with sunchokes is that they do too well. Even a little bit of the tubers will spring up sunchokes. But, they do make a fast growing, sunflower-like-screen. I have moved some to the outside of the fence. Then there is the moving of perennials. One of my garden mottos is: "There is only one thing constant in a garden, and that is change".
[caption id="attachment_319" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Digging up the Sunchokes"]
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I've tried sunchokes sauteed and thought they were pretty tasty. It never occurred to me that they could be used as a living fence! I may have to try that... :)
ReplyDeleteGloria, I've left an award for you on my blog at
ReplyDeletehttp://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-21-2009-blog-award.html
Hi Gloria! I love your garden motto! I should remember it. I've never had sunchokes. It's interesting what you wrote about them. Living fence? Great!
ReplyDeleteGloria - your title was "What do gardeners do after the freeze" - I answer that with "I start working on plans for the next season". People think I am nuts. I spend most of my winter getting ready for spring - which here in MN is now only 5 months away (makes for some nice dreaming).
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