Winter Readiness

Winter is the quiet season for the yard and garden, which is a good thing for me with holiday preparations before me.  Though our garden isn't productive currently, we wanted to give it a little boost by planting some winter rye which we will then turn in before spring planting.

I am calling this our mini-meadow.  It will be nice to have a touch of green when all the yard grass has browned from freezes.  

This past summer we planted some Barbados cherries.  Though it wasn't the best time to be planting them, they have settled in quite happily.  We didn't really expect them to do much this year except get established, but they surprised us by blooming toward the end of summer and now have put on their lovely red cherries.  They are supposed to be a favorite of birds, so perhaps we will have a little extra feathered activity around the yard this fall.