Once you’ve gotten hummingbirds to come to your garden, you’ll want it to be a safe, hospitable environment, where they can flourish.  Therefore, there are some safety measures that you should take, so that you don’t inadvertently cause them any harm.

One important point to remember is that hummingbirds have very tiny, sensitive organs, which cannot tolerate certain things.  Pesticides are tops on this list; but, as we’ve already established, you won’t have to use them in a hummingbird garden, as the bugs will be exterminated by the birds.

Moreover, hummingbirds cannot stomach food coloring, or dye of any kind, so don’t buy any commercial brand of hummingbird food that is colored.  Although it is advisable to have supplemental hummingbird feeders in your garden, the best, and most economical, thing to do is to make your own nectar.  Not only is it simple, but, as long as you follow the strict, yet very easy, guidelines, it’s the safest and healthiest thing for the hummingbirds.

All you need is one cup of pure, granulated sugar, and four cups of boiling water.  Just put the water into a large bowl, add and mix the sugar until it is dissolved, and place it in the refrigerator to cool.  That’s all there is to it.  The main thing is to use only pure, granulated sugar, as any other sugar will have a different chemical makeup, and can cause a hummingbird to get sick, or even die.  Never use brown or powdered sugar, saccharin, or any other type of sugar or sugar substitute, maple syrup, or any other kind of syrup, or any of the kids’ drink mixes.

Because you won’t be using food coloring, make sure that your birdfeeder is colorful.  Most of the commercial ones will have plastic, trumpet-shaped flowers on them; but you can also make your own feeders, using old bottles that have been thoroughly cleaned, and decorate them with the red or orange fluorescent flagging tape that surveyors use.

Among the other dangers facing hummingbirds, cats pose the biggest threat, especially when the birds are hovering close to the ground.  This is another good reason to train flowers up arbors, trellises, pergolas, and gazebos, where the birds can feed out of the reach of cats.  Even if you have very little room for a garden, you can use a Skyscraper Garden™ Trellis, which takes up only four square feet of space, and can be used alone, or against a wall, even on terraces or patios.

Once hummingbirds start visiting your garden, you’ll want to be able to enjoy watching them while you’re lazing in your hammock or lounge chair, eating at your outdoor dining table, or having cocktails at your bistro set.  Although, at first, they may scatter when they see you approaching, you can help them get used to you, by spending a little more time in the area.  Start by sitting quietly and, perhaps, having your morning coffee, at your picnic table, or on your porch swing, or outdoor rocking chair.

You’ll be surprised how bold they will get when they become familiar with you.  Eventually, they may even start greeting you by playfully zipping around your head.  If this happens, though, let’s just hope that you’re fully awake, so that you don’t mistake a hummingbird for a fly, and swat it with your morning newspaper.

Yours Outdoors,

Kathy

Derek Fell is a world renowned garden designer, photographer, and writer.  He is the author of The Magic of Monet’s Garden, Renoir’s Garden, and Cezanne’s Garden.  His last work is The Encyclopedia of Garden Design (Firefly Books). His garden at historic Cedaridge Farm has won several design awards, including best interpretation of an Impressionist garden, best water garden and best flower garden.

My home and garden, Cedaridge Farm is located on 20 acres of sloping ground in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When I purchased the property 20 years ago to serve as an outdoor studio for photography and experimenting with various gardening techniques, there was hardly a flower on the property. There were a few outbuildings – a barn, a spring-house and a chicken-house, but no ornamental features. My first project was to start a vegetable garden and experiment with various vertical gardening techniques since I had come to the conclusion that climbing vegetables like pole snap beans instead of bush snap beans and climbing zucchini instead of bush zucchini were more flavorful because of their extra leaf coverage collecting chlorophyll, but also because vining vegetables tend to be ever-bearing, where bush varieties often exhaust themselves after two weeks of production. From this experimentation I designed an easy to install vertical gardening unit called a Skyscraper Garden that the Cedar Store now offers for sale. The Skyscraper Garden consists of a pair of brackets for attaching to a fence or between two posts, a metal cross bar to hang a 4 ft. wide by 6 ft. high section of netting, and three pegs to hold the netting taught to the ground. Up to four vining plants can be grown along the width of the unit, and it is a wonderful space-saving idea for people without a lot of room for a traditional horizontal garden.

Because we are located next to a state park with more than 300 deer we have deer wandering through the property every night looking for food, and so I had to erect a fence around my vegetable garden, but to make it look attractive I used some beautiful cedar gates as entrances, one of them featuring an arch that I covered with grape vines.

My next project was a cutting garden as my wife, Carolyn and I like to fill the rooms of our farmhouse with fragrant, fresh flowers. We chose a level site between the farmhouse and our barn, and to make it decorative we installed a beautiful white Victorian-style gazebo at one end as a focal point. A flagstone path leads from the farmhouse through the cutting garden to the gazebo, with a table and built in benches for sitting with guests.

We have a natural stream at the bottom of the slope, and we made a nature trail that criss-crosses the stream, requiring the installation of several bridges. These are painted barn red to match the color of the barn and also to harmonize with the colors of fall when the deciduous woods turn russet colors.

The styles of the bridges change depending on the location – one is a Monet-style arched bridge, another a flat span connecting to a boardwalk that leads through a swampy area, and another is a rustic design made from two rough wooden slabs and tree branches for hand rails..

Whenever there is a change of environment along the garden path, or at the entrance to a theme garden (such as a cottage garden adjacent to a guest cottage), I have installed wooden arches. These are not only decorative and functional by supporting climbing plants such as trumpet creeper and wisteria, they help to create focal points and  direct visitors from one garden space to another.

For the future I will be working with the Cedar Store on a series of classic garden structures that I have admired, largely as a result of writing about the restored gardens of great Impressionist painters, like Renoir, Monet and Cezanne.

ABC News is covering one of our newest eco products, The Skyscraper Garden Trellis! Check out the article here

As I was driving home from a family Christmas with a boyfriend that braved a holiday with my well… interesting… family, I made an observation. I said, “To me… January and February are the absolutely WORST months!” Naturally, he inquired why I thought so. “Because it’s just the dead grayness of winter. In November and December the cold and snow are still new and exciting… and you have Thanksgiving, The Winter Solstice, Hanukah, Christmas, and The New Year to look forward to. But, January and February have almost nothing but cold darkness and dirty snow.”

I thought about the Christmas gifts I bought for my family; mostly the antithesis of the upcoming months. I grabbed The Skyscraper Garden for my green-living urban-gardening sister-in-law, and the Lighthouse Birdfeeder for my backyard bird-watching, retired Naval engineer grandfather. It would seem that I was doing my very best to make sure everyone else got through these months as well. I love to be outside, and these months seem to just trap me indoors.

As I’m sure many gardeners (and those that don’t so much do work outdoors as lounge in Adirondack chairs, hammocks, and gliders) agree, I thought I would do a push for ways to make your spirits bright with tips to bring the outdoors indoors until spring comes around again.

Why not try to grow an orchid this winter? Though widely accepted as incredibly difficult plants to nurture and manage, there are many that are surprising doable for even a novice gardener. There are several varieties that will bloom without greenhouses, sunlamps, sunrooms, or advanced skills. Plus, tending your flowers will keep you happy and ready for the serious gardening sure to come!

The Nun’s Orchid and Tropical Lady Slipper are probably the two least fickle orchids, and are unlikely to be over-watered, as they are almost always thirsty! The Moth Orchid is another good beginner flower, though it is not as water-loving as the formers, and would prefer slightly dryer roots. My personal favorite, however, is the Cymbidium. Why you ask? Well, unlike me, it responds to the short winter days by flowering and expressing colorful blooms to brighten your days.

The Cymbidium

It’s best to purchase your orchid at a plant nursery rather than a supermarket or home improvement store because nursery orchids are more likely to have solid roots and a strong beginning. It will be easier to grow and maintain an orchid that you bring home already strong and healthy. In many orchids, parts of the roots are visible. Make sure you choose a plant with firm roots that aren’t dried up or rotting. Besides the roots, take a good look at the leaves. Leaves with yellowing or black spots indicate disease or insufficient care. Lastly, though an orchid with several blooms may appear the most attractive at the store, it’s better to choose one with several buds that have not yet bloomed. An abundance of blooms indicates that the orchid’s show is almost over— and you wouldn’t buy tickets to a concert after intermission would you?

There’s no reason to abandon the beauty of flowers just because your garden may be covered in snow. Go out and buy three or four orchids, to set on tables, chests, buffets, trunks, and shelves. The sun may be slipping under the horizon before dinner time, but you’ll have gorgeous, exotic blooms around you to keep your chin up!

And, whether you plan to spend your warmer months pulling weeds and planting tomatoes, or gently swaying on porch swings, lazily rocking on rocking chairs (what else could you do on one?), or just enjoying your gazebo, cabana, or pool house… these seemingly difficult orchids will keep you both occupied and flower-filled until you’re out in your garden again!

See You Outside! (or… inside…)

Hazel.

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