The sulfurous cold here in the East has wreak havoc on the garden this hebdomad . I ’m not so much worry the many perennial industrial plant , Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and shrubs we have on the property that are fully hardy down toUSDA zone 5and below . Nor am I worried about any of my regionally native selections . I know these plant are tough as nail , they were deport and breed here for tens of thousands of yr ; they can handle whatever nature flip at them , even if that includes a wind shivering cold enough to freeze the suet cake I put in the eater before I even make it back into the planetary house . I do , however , want to bring home the bacon some aegis for the other know creatures on our homestead .
protect the PlantsIn anticipation of the stale snap , I saw the limb off our chuck out Christmas tree and laid them over a few of the marginally hardy perennial I have in the garden , including Powis Castle artemisia , Gaura Whirling Butterflies and ARP rosemary . I ’m not sure what good it will do when the temperatures hit minus 30 degrees F with the wind chill , but at least I gave them an insulating blanket without race the peril of suffocating them .
I also created a fencing of gunny around my crepe myrtle bush and some of my hydrangea . Both are prostrate to bud freeze even during a typical wintertime here in western Pennsylvania , so I ’m not hold out much promise for them at this percentage point . Still , I want to do everything I can to protect them . The gunny fence is mean to shield them from sear winter winds and add up a bed of security from blowing snow .
Keeping the Chickens WarmThe other keep creatures I ’ve been working hard to protect from the cold elasticity are our hens . We have eight ladies now , and even though their hen star sign affords them a good amount of shelter , I desire to do everything I can to keepfrostbit combsat bay laurel . For the first sentence in the 12 years I ’ve been keep Gallus gallus , I put a heat lamp in the hencoop . I had it for thepeeps we raised this springand dutifully hang it from the coop baulk in the first place this week . While the heat lamp does n’t heat up the integral coop , it does make a squeamish , cozy smudge up on the roost bar . There may be a engagement for the warm smear every nighttime , but it ’s far better than no heat at all !
I ’ve also been take the chickens hot oatmeal every morning and every good afternoon , in increase to tossing them plenty of protein - robust kickshaw , such as dried mealworm and the stinkbugs we hoard from our inner windowpane Beverly Sills every day .
feed Wild BirdsFeeding the wild birds has also been a precedency here , as I know they need as much vigor as they can get just to keep from freezing . Black vegetable oil sunflower seeded player , niger thistle , suet cakes and cracked Indian corn are on the everyday menu , along with all the seeds and bugs they can naturally find on all the perennial I left stand for the wintertime . The three 15 - foot - tall Leyland cypress we have on the side of the sign of the zodiac provide the perfect night shelter for our wild birds . These beautiful evergreens not only give us seclusion from the neighbors , they also serve as valuable winter habitat for our feathered friends .
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