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Back in the last 1950’s, John Garvin needed about 1,500 feet of fencing on the four acres which he bought for country living in Illinois. His wife dreamed of something fancy – cedar or cypress stockade – but after paying the bills for renovating the old farm house John considered himself lucky to be able to afford barbed wire.

What he finally bought was even cheaper than barbed wire and posts. For $80 he acquired 1,000 multiflora rose plants. They had been advertised as an ideal combination of beauty and strength which would require practically no maintenance, but they looked pathetically skimpy when he planted them. Spaced 18 inches apart and less than a foot tall after he cut off the tops before planting, they did not look promising.

However, John has no regrets. His fence is about six feet tall and more than two feet thick. In the spring it is glorious with millions of tiny white blossoms. Its foliage is luxuriant green into the fall. In the winter its red berries add color to the landscape.

Many farmers swear that the multi-flora rose is the best boon since the invention of the tractor. Not only does it keep livestock from roaming, but it is useful for soil conservation and erosion control. It is cheap and fast-growing. On good soil, it grows eight or ten feet high. It also can become ten feet thick, its canes dropping from the center like the ribs of an umbrella. The bush does not spread from the base, but the drooping side canes take root where they touch the ground. Its thick and thorny branches make it an impregnable barrier to keep trespassers out and to keep horses, cows, sheep and goats in.

The Department of Agriculture recommended the multiflora rose not only as a farm fence but as a useful cover for wildlife. Its clusters of bright red berries stay on the plant until displaced by new buds in spring. The berries are eaten by game birds and song birds when other food is hard to find.

Today, Multiflora rose is considered a noxious weed in the state of Kansas is highly susceptible to the Rose Roseete disease.

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For color and beauty in the garden, Hibiscus cannot be beat. Mine are the giant strain of rose mallow, tall-growing, well-branched plants that produce many enormous five-petaled flowers ranging from red to rose, shell-pink to white with crimson eye.

In Laurel, Mississippi, the hibiscus blooms from midsummer to frost without rest. Though large, the blossoms are delicate in form, soft in color, and so combine well with other flowers. Leaves are also beautiful-long, narrow and notched.

Hibiscus likes rich, well-drained soil and starts new growth each spring. To make way for the new shoots, the plants should be cut to the ground each fall. New plants may be propagated from seed soaked in warm water before they’re planted in late spring when days are warm. Ground must be kept moist until growth appears. Blossoms come the second year. Plants also may be started from root divisions taken from older plants or from cuttings placed under a fruit jar or in a shaded bed.

Hibiscus is a fine background plant as well as one that can hold the spotlight when in bloom. Flowers remain open longer if shaded and, on cloudy days, stay open all day long. When cool days come, hibiscus is at its best for then its gay, crisp flowers are especially lovely.

Blue Daisy

Its easy habit of growth and unaffected air make the blue daisy, Felicia amelloides of South Africa, a welcome addition to any cottage garden. Its flowers, 1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter, are borne singly on thin, wiry stems which rise about 8 to 10 inches above evergreen foliage. Its color is a true sky blue. Its center, yellow.

Felicia amelloides seems immune to pests and does well for me in either sun or partial shade. Bloom is heaviest from April through June but, if the top is sheared severely, it will continue to bloom for months here in California.

Propagation is by seed or cuttings. And, since the lower branches occasionally send down roots where they touch the ground, the plant also may be increased by layering under moist soil. In harsher climes, where it is tender, the blue daisy may be started under glass and grown in pots as Marguerites (Chrysanthemum frutescens) are grown.

I have the blue daisy planted in front of rose-pink geraniums on the west side of the house and in front of orange and yellow daylilies on the east. In both situations it thrives without any particular care except watering.

Lemon-yellow and white Marguerites, by the way, combine well with this smaller blue flower sometimes called Blue Marguerite. I arrange them loosely in a Waterford glass pitcher and add a few freesias or sweet alyssum for fragrance. I have also used felicia in a yellow pottery sugar bowl with early English primroses and, later in the season, with the old-fashioned pinks (Dianthus).

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Strictly speaking, this is for the birds. It is not for those among us who are forever searching out a new (and easier) diet! Neither is it for all the birds – it’s just for the winter midgets, who bless us with their daily calls, if we so much as leave them a crumb in the snow.

If you have tried all the tricks to entice them – cages of suet, peanut butter, ears of corn, bright berries, sunflower seeds, sand – probably you have observed, with disappointment, that the hairy woodpeckers crowd out the little downier, and the blue jays seem to take care of driving away most of the others.

Despite all we know of the survival of the fittest, there surely must be a right place in the winter scene for the little birds, without having to wait their turn, and eat the leavings.

No doubt the bright eyes of the tufted titmice, the jerky flight of the downy woodpeckers, the lowly ways of the snowbirds, the upside-down eating habits of the nuthatches, the cheery chatter of the chickadees, who scold you while you are refilling the feeding station, plus the cuteness and beauty of them all, have endeared the wee birds to you far beyond any affinity you may have for the doves, the owls, the rusty blackbirds, the cardinals, the quail and pheasant, and certainly the jays.

That is why it is worthwhile making special places for the small birds to get their food, places for them exclusively, beyond the reach of their larger neighbors, the birds, squirrels, dogs, cats.

Have you ever offered them their food in a grapefruit shell? If not, try it, and they will love you for it. Just remove the white membranes from several grapefruit half shells after the fruit has been used, and place the shells upright in a shallow pan. Fill each one level full of wild bird seed. Melt, slowly, one-fourth pound of suet for each shell you are preparing, and then pour the hot liquid over the seeds until you can see it around them. Place shells in the refrigerator to set. Add more melted suet several times as it cools and shrinks, until the shells are filled solidly to the top.

Next make four holes in the shell with an ice pick, 1/2-inch from the top, and continue upward through the contents until the point of the ice pick comes out through the top of the suet. For each hole, cut a piece of small waxed twine 18 inches in length. Tie one end of a separate length of twine carefully through each of the holes. Now bring the four pieces of twine evenly together about ten inches above the grapefruit shell and tie them together. Finally, tie the remaining twine at the top, securely around the lower branch of a tree near your feeding station and within view of your window. Several shells can be placed on the same branch within three feet of each other, although it is wise to put up just one, in the beginning, until the birds have made its acquaintance.

If the weather is severe and the snow deep, the shells will need replenishing in two or three weeks. You will know it is time, when the birds go down into the shell, rather than staying on the rim. The same shells may be used again and again although you will prefer using fresh ones each time, as they do shrink in size, and in extreme weather the bright yellow coloring darkens some.

When our littlest child brought home our first shell from her club meeting some years ago, we did not dream that any bird would ever visit it. The next day the first chickadee stopped by, which was the beginning of a tradition in our garden that will continue on as long as there are snowdrifts, and grapefruit, and winter midgets.

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Do you know what the pH of your soil is? Checking a soil’s pH has become so much easier today with new tools.

Above all, don’t guess at pH. Use an electric bridge device if possible. We tend to assume that all peat, oak leaf mold, etc., is acid. This is not true. The brown runoff from newly fallen oak leaves is acid, but once the soluble tannin has been leached away, the residue is alkaline. The same is true of certain peats. German, Swedish, and Canadian peats are usually acid, but domestic brands may be highly alkaline. Always check your peat for pH before using it. Use a soil test kit, or have the peat tested in a soil laboratory.

Note the comment on tannic acid. There are good and bad soil acids. Tannic acid is good, but aluminum acidity, from the commonly-used aluminum sulfate is bad. The stuff is often recommended because it is used commonly to acidify the soil in greenhouse plants. It works, but at the expense of roots, which are eventually killed by aluminum acidity. This is not important in finishing a hydrangea pot plant for Easter sales, but is fatal to rhododendrons after a year or two.

For acidifying, use sulfur, ammonium sulfate, ferrous ammonium sulfate (see above) or potassium sulfate. Very light doses of magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts) will supply the small amount of magnesium needed for good growth. However, don’t overdo this. Speaking of magnesium, its role in plant nutrition is only recently coming to light. Apparently chlorophyll is actually a magnesium chelate which keeps other elements in photosynthesis moving properly.

We never see calcium deficiencies in the Midwest. Our waters supply lime, often too much. Test the pH of the water as it comes out of the hose, and reduce the alkalinity as necessary.

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Birds are surprisingly selective in their eating habits, as you will quickly find. They seem to have a sixth sense for the most expensive kinds of food. Watch a blue jay carefully sorting through a tray of mixed grains. What is he after? Sunflower seeds, of course! And at a few cents per pound. None of this nickel-a-pound chick feed for him! This is rough on the pocketbook and should not be encouraged by lavish feeding of high priced seeds, but do not berate the jays too much. They are the watchmen of your garden. They will be the first to see a hunting cat or a circling hawk, and give noisy warning to your other friends.

And do not begrudge the pesky little English sparrows what they eat, either, for they will be the very first birds to find your feeding stations, and will lead other and more shy birds to them. These two, the jays and the English sparrows, are pests in many ways, but they repay you by rendering good services.

For the general run of winter birds, a medium size chick feed is a good dependable offering. Mix in a small amount of sunflower seed, perhaps five pounds of it to fifty pounds of chick feed. Also, if the chick feed does not already have some grit in it, add five pounds of fine gravel or crushed oyster shell to each 50 pound sack of chick mix. The birds need this to help grind their food, and to provide calcium for their systems.

A few birds justify special attention. The titmouse and the chickadee much prefer only sunflower seeds. and they are dainty eaters. Provide a small separate station for them if you can. This can be quite close to your window because they are very friendly birds, and such a location will somewhat discourage the others.

Dessert Too!

Suet and peanut butter are quick-energy foods for the birds. The colder the weather the more they need these heat-producing items. Suet should be enclosed in a “cage” to discourage greedy visitors from carrying off large chunks of it at one time. A cage can be made of half-inch mesh hardware cloth, or a metal soap dish will do an excellent job. Some people hesitate to use metal containers in cold weather and place their suet in cloth or string mesh bags. This is fine, but the string will. rot. and no bird has yet complained of cold feet when he can get a free serving of suet.

Peanut butter should be mixed with a binder and extender, for you know how annoying it is to get a gob of it behind your tongue. Cracker crumbs or corn meal are good for this. Mix about half-and-half, or until you have a putty-like mixture which you can press into holes bored into a section of log or stick. Hang this stick in a convenient place and watch the tiny beauties come quickly to it.

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