Garden Tapestry

Stepping out onto the patio a week ago, I was surprised by a very sweet scent filling the air…since this is our first February in this place, I had no idea what this was, or where it was coming from. It didn’t take long to find the guilty party – a very small witch hazel shrub, covered with bright yellow flowers which was hidden from view behind some other larger shrubs, just behind a corner post of the patio. I knew these shrubs were fragrant, but had no idea how sweet and strong they were. It was a still, sunny day, and the whole corner of the garden was scented by this tiny bush, no more than 3 feet tall, with a few spindly branches. Just goes to show it doesn’t take much room to incorporate scented shrubs into the garden – I hadn’t even noticed it was there before! 

    
Witch hazels ‘Sunburst’ (left) and ‘Diane’ (right) are just two varieties widely available – look for one for your garden.

The yellow varieties of witch hazel, Hamamelis mollis, and the cross Hamamelis x intermedia have the strongest fragrance, though they are all scented. These plants come in several shades of yellow, orange and even red, and are a must for every garden. As if the spectacular and fascinating spidery flowers on bare stems so early in the year wasn’t enough, they have the added bonus of brilliant autumn colour. I cut a few small branches of my newly discovered treasure to bring indoors, where they really did fill the office with such a strong scent it was almost overpowering (I’d read about this before, but had never experienced it firsthand, so I was dubious, but not any more!)

Forsythia – well known and loved everywhere, this common shrub still shines every spring. Bring some indoors early to enjoy inside as well.

I’m also looking forward to bringing in a few branches of forsythia, which I know forces early very easily. I’m not a fan of its fragrance though, it reminds me of the scent of broom which I also don’t really care for – some people love it, others don’t and both camps are very strongly attached to their opinion. Daffodils are another plant which this happens to…I don’t like the scent although I absolutely adore the flowers! Anyway, back to the forsythia – cut a few branches just as the buds begin to swell and become obvious, place them in a large pot of water overnight in a cool basement or room indoors, then bring them into the living area to enjoy the beautiful bright yellow flowers that will quickly smother the branches. If you’re lucky and patient with the branches, they will probably root right in the vase, and you can plant them around the garden afterwards! They make a great informal flowering hedge or screen.

Surely one of the greatest joys of the winter garden has to be the birds. These charming and beautiful little creatures bring so much life and colour to the garden. Now that I work from home, and spend almost every waking hour in front of this computer screen, I have really come to appreciate them, and the simple joy that comes from watching their antics outside the office window. 

Chickadees have distinctive colourations and song, making identification easy.

Crowds of perky chickadees flash black and white in the mornings and early evenings as they dance through the trees (where do they go during the rest of the day??) It is always fun watching these birds as they hang completely upside down in the conifers, trying to get the seeds out of the cones. Their distinctive call and colouring makes them easy to recognise, and children love them. 

Down on the ground, flocks of starlings, black with irridescent flashes of colour all over, pick out worms and other grubs from the lawn. I’m always surprised that there are enough bugs to feed so many birds every day, but I guess Nature is pretty good at looking after itself…the fact that the lawn is basically a bog during the winter season probably doesn’t hurt – all the worms, larvae, etc must be just below the surface to avoid drowning, and provide easy pickings for the hungry starlings. Watch for the bright yellow beaks of the males later this month. It is great watching them all swoop down together, peck around the grass, then swoop off at once – still a curious neuroscientist, I wonder all the time how they transmit the “let’s go!” signal so quickly through the flock. I know there is some fascinating research happening in this area, if only I had time to follow it.

    
European robin (left) and its American cousin (right)

Robins also feast on the lawn area, but singly, not in groups. The large American Robin is actually a thrush (Turdus migratorius), quite different from the cute little robin (Erithacus rubecula) you see in England and Europe, and that I miss so much. I only get to see “real robins” on Christmas cards. Both robins share the red breast though and have adapted very well to city and suburban life close to humans, and both are beautiful birds in their own right. Another thrush I see often has a bright orange chest, with a dark band around its neck like a necklace and big black spots – spectacular. The thrushes are enjoying the last of the berries on the hawthorn, pyracantha and crab apples, they should have them cleaned off by the end of the month.

Then there are the countless other little birds, finches and sparrows of every colouring, but basically variations on brown. I recognise  many of these – we have house and tree sparrows, juncos with their black hoods, tiny “mini-robins” with a red flushed front (can’t remember what these are, but they really like whatever is in our neighbours feeder). I remember reading somewhere a famous garden writer having the same identification problem and classifying them all collectively as “LBJ’s”, which stood for “Little Brown Jobs”. I think this is very satisfactory myself. All my LBJ’s are very sweet and cheerful and lively, they keep me company through the day. I’ll try to remember how much I like them during the winter when they are busy undoing all my hard work with the freshly sown annuals later this year – aarrghh! the frustration as they happily feast on my seeds. Maybe if I had my own feeders they would ignore my borders? I doubt it – still, they probably perform a very important task of thinning out the seeds since I always, always seed too thickly in the first place, and can never bear to pull out happily growing seedlings even though they are much closer together than I know they are supposed to be for best growth. Between my cat that digs in the borders (another aarrggh!!) and the birds eating the seeds before they sprout, and also eating the fresh sprouts, everything seems to work out just fine. Tolerance is the word here…

The other day, my very observant four-year-old daughter asked me what that black thing was in the tree: it was a nest from last year, clearly visible now that the leaves are off the honey locust trees along the street. I remember watching for the enormous nests of eagles that line the Fraser River, and were also visible during the winter months when we lived down in White Rock. Very impressive, both the huge birds and their huge nests silhouetted against the setting sun as we commuted home along the highway. About the only thing good about having to drive an hour each way just to get to and from work – I definitely don’t miss those days, but I do miss the eagles and herons, the sparrowhawks and other birds of prey as they perched on the fence posts along the road and watched for rodents scurrying through the long grass on the verges. And don’t forget the flocks of seagulls and crows following the tractors around the freshly plowed fields during planting season, completely oblivious to all manner of “bird-scaring” devices and tricks the poor farmers have implemented. Then there were the swarms of ducks and geese of all size, shape and colour, migrating up and down the coast…hmmm, maybe I do miss the drive more than I thought. 

Before getting onto the highway, we had to drive through the city – one of the few times I actually enjoy driving around the streets of Vancouver is late February and March when the cherry blossoms are out – all along the streets these lovely small flowering trees, ranging in colour from pure white, through light, then dark pink to almost magenta burst forth to dangerously distract you from the traffic nightmare that this city has become…I must say that Vancouver does cherry blossoms better than any other place in the world, with the possible exception of Japan, which I haven’t had the privilege of enjoying first hand yet. If anyone from the Japanese Tourist Board wants to send me an airline ticket, I’d be happy to report on the Cherry Blossom Festivals happening over there!

Cherry blossoms in Japan

Don’t forget to enjoy the extra day this month, spring is right around the corner so rest up and take it easy while you can before the busy season begins…