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Journal Archive
January 2026
Our Winter Garden
Bill built an addition on to the south side of the living room. We call it the Green Room. In the autumn we fill it with a selection of tender perennials, orchids, clivias, our Wollemi and Norfolk pines, assorted ferns and palms. All summer these plants, in pots, have been outside in the garden. Other tender potted plants spend winter in the pit greenhouse or the greenhouse behind the workshop.
January 6
The plants in the indoor garden are trimmed and the space tidied up for the incoming pots.
Gradually we bring in the overwintering plants. In late winter we will begin to enjoy the blooms on the orchids and clivias.
Our cymbidium orchids spend the gardening season in pots in various places in the gardens. They do well in filtered light and require little care except for extra watering in dry periods. Excellent cultivation tips can be found at the American Orchid Society.
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We line the pots up by the back door at the end of the season and bring the pots into the house just before the frosts come.​
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During the winter the the sprays of blossoms last for ages. Once there is no danger of frost we move the plants outdoors again.
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The clivias grow in large plastic pots. They don't mind being pot bound. The pots of clivias are placed around the gardens for the summer. in partial sunlight. They look vigorous and attractive even when they are not flowering.
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In the autumn we clean the plants before bringing them into the house. We found a a little paint brush from the dollar store is the perfect instrument for evicting the collection of fallen leaves and assorted insects from between each of the leaves.
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In early spring the blooms are a long lasting pleasure. If the flower head is not removed then berries slowly form. It takes a year for the seeds to mature. It takes 2-3 years before a plant flowers for the first time.. We have found seedlings growing in neighbouring pots!
January 11, 2026
Snow again ...
The overnight snowfall seems to have obliterated the ice rink that was Keppel Croft after several days of temperatures above zero and more rainfall than snowfall.
The dry stream bed was flowing, flooding over our laneway as it ignored a culvert. Bill had to take an alternate route to the barn as the water was deeper than his rubber boots were tall.
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We aren't complaining. The first winter we lived here there was so much snow.! After one storm we had to dig out our 3/4 ton pickup and our little Chevette. All we could see of the car was the top of its aerial.
At the Feeders
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​• Blue Jays
• Chickadees
• Junkos
• Goldfinches
• Downy Woodpeckers
• Hairy Woodpeckers
• Red Bellied Woodpeckers
• Tree Sparrows
• Mourning Doves
• White-breasted Nuthatches
• Red-breasted Nuthatches
​​• one Red Poll
• and too many black and red squirrels​
February 2026
February 23
In late winter we enjoy the blooming of the pots of clivia and the hardy orchids which we brought in from the garden in the autumn. These plants spend winter is a
small conservatory attached to our house which we
call the Green Room.
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We store palms and ferns in this area as well as other tender plants in pots. In the spring we will move all the potted plants back into the garden when it is reliably
warm enough. ​
Don't forget that this is the time of year to go out into your garden and clip some branches of Forsythia to put in a vase. You will be glad you made the effort to be out in the snow when those golden buds begin to open!
February 21
Some winters are longer than others. One February, to ease the angst of a neighbour who really didn't like winter, we invited him and his wife over for a glass of wine on St Valentine's Day.
At least now we know that it is a downhill run to Spring!! Bill reports that the buds are starting to swell on the Pussy Willows.​
February 5
The first really sunny warm February day is the first day of pruning. We begin with our "Umbrella" tree, an old apple tree that we prune for shape not its crop of apples. We trim off the water sprouts, vigorous, upright shoots that are different from normal branches, producing no fruit and weakening the tree.
Heavy snow was too much of a load in winter, 2025. Two main branches snapped off. This winter Bill has made sure to knock off any piles of snow that accumulate on the branches. No damage so far this year.
March 2026
March 7
Two ponds and a stream joined forces to flood the hosta garden and discouraged some deer from coming here.
The area around Keppel Henge flooded and
the barn stream flowed across two fields and came down the dry stream bed,
