By Carol Cichorski, on January 20th, 2011  I’d like to introduce you to Curly. Curly is a contorted filbert, also known as Harry Lauder’s Walking stick, also known as corkscrew hazel, also known as Corylus avellana. How appropriate to put this shrub in this weekly series on winter interest. Curly has been in our yard for about 10 years now, and is a wonderful specimen plant in the winter.
The curly branches you see are a little bit of heaven for birds. The branches are excellent for the birds to perch on while they wait their turn at one of our feeders. This year I’ve been lamenting that our bird feeders are all but empty, and we have now seen the hawk that is helping to make it so. We’ve added two Christmas trees near our feeders thanks to Scott’s suggestion at About.com. One tree was ours, one tree Mike ‘appropriated’ from a neighbor. I personally think he should have waited till after Christmas, but the decision was not mine to make. About.com also has an article on the best foods for birds in the winter.
We did make a classic gardener’s mistake – underestimating the size of the mature plant. Curly wants to be about 8′ wide and tall, and is fighting it out with a tanyosho pine. Both are now too big for us to be comfortable moving them. The battleground is not a pretty site, as the pine has become misshapen by Curly’s proximity. The pine may win yet win the war … the contorted filbert has been showing signs of Eastern filbert blight. By the time you see the signs, the plant has probably been infected for a year or two and the prognosis is not good. Mike removed the infected branches, which is why Kevin was able to provide us with this striking photograph. I couldn’t bear to part with the beautiful branches and I am sure to find a use for them someday.
Contorted filberts aren’t much to look at in the summer. They strongly resemble Cousin It. We love ours even then since the birds flock to it. Filberts want full sun, and we give it no special care. We do prune the occasional straight branch that pops up. Appropriately, I will categorize under the Work Less tab as well.
This is an installment in the OhWhatAWednesday series, where I dare to take on the task of finding something in my garden that looks good even during a Chicago winter.
By Carol Cichorski, on January 13th, 2011 Could this be the only kind of bird in my Chicagoland garden this winter?
Throughout the year, our yard is usually a haven for birds. I know they need food, shelter, and water if they are going to grace my yard. What they seem to need this year, is….. Continue reading OhWhatAWednesday – Gimme Shelter
By Carol Cichorski, on January 6th, 2011  How can this be? Where did my beautiful snow go? It all melted just like the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Fortunately, my yard can look good in the winter without snow as well. This old coal bucket is testament to that. My garden clippers and I scavenged our yard in fall to find pine branches. I scavenged our neighbor’s yard as well since he has the lovely red twig dogwood you see here. I would have added more of the American Bittersweet berries, but just couldn’t get myself to cut them off the deck rails. If you saw last week’s OhWhatAWednesday, you can see why.
It takes no magic at all to put an arrangement like this together. Whatever puzzle pieces I find in the yard, and however I put them together, it just seems to work. So please don’t hesitate to give it a try yourself!
The branches and the coal bucket of dirt waited in the garage till I had time to put them together. If you can’t get to them right away either, be sure to leave them in the garage or you’ll have a frozen bucket of dirt to thaw.
This is an installment in the OhWhatAWednesday series, where I dare to take on the task of finding something in my garden that looks good even during a Chicago winter.
By Carol Cichorski, on December 30th, 2010  Here’s a hardy vine for you. It is December 30th, and American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) looks this good in our Chicagoland zone 5. It has probably taken 5 years for it to twine around the deck posts and have berries. Looks to me like it was worth the wait. Now that it has decided to branch out (pun intended), I find it does need to be cut back regularly. That is the good news and the bad news. Yes, it needs to be done every few weeks in the summer. The good news is that I can decide which branches to keep and which ones not to, so that it decoratively dresses the posts.
 The golden husks are evident in early fall, as is yellow foliage. The red berries literally pop out in early December. Bittersweet would make a great wreath, but mine look too good right where they are. We can see them out the back door without me doing the extra work. Perhaps planting one in a more obscure location would be a good idea if you’d like to make the wreath. Be careful though, it does not play nicely with others. American Bittersweet can wrap around other plants (even shrubs and trees) and strangle them. Where was this vine when I needed to get rid of that ever-so-persistent trumpet vine? Another warning – you do NOT want Oriental bittersweet. That one is horrendously invasive, thorny, an all around baaaad plant.
Ours gets sun all morning and part of the afternoon. It will grow with less, but don’t expect much in the way of berries. I hardly ever water it. I certainly do enjoy it, especially this time of year with a clear line of site from inside the house.
Stop back next week to see what else is looking good in my garden even in winter!
This is an installment in the OhWhatAWednesday series, where I dare to take on the task of finding something in my garden that looks good even during a Chicago winter.
By Carol Cichorski, on December 24th, 2010 It’s the morning of Christmas Eve. Unbelievably, everything is on schedule and in control. Now there’s a miracle for you. That will all change when John and Heather get here with Alexandria. For us, this Christmas is all about the baby. Our granddaughter is 18 months old. She is joy, excitement and energy wrapped up as a little girl. Among her gifts is one I think will be a favorite – a big box. It is wrapped and has cut-out windows. Little kids always seem to like the box best anyway, so I went right for it.
 We received a gift 2000 years ago, baby Jesus. That is what every Christmas is all about. He was love, God, and savior wrapped up as a little boy. Its hard to imagine one person affecting the whole world the way that baby did. Even our calendar is based on before and after Christ. The one person who was without sin. I don’t know about you, but I have trouble being that good for minutes. Its one of the reasons I believe.
As I start my Christmas Eve, I’ll tie back to the theme of this weekly series and tell you what looks good in my yard this week. That would be the crèche.
I wish you a happy and blessed Christmas!
Carol
This is an installment in the OhWhatAWednesday series, where I dare to take on the task of finding something in my garden that looks good even during a Chicago winter.
By Carol Cichorski, on December 18th, 2010 Are you looking for one last really really good Christmas gift for the gardener in your life? Here it is – a birdbath heater. Ok, so maybe its one last really really good gift for the birds in your yard. Either way, the gardener, non-gardener, and the birds will enjoy this one for years to come.
 Let me introduce you to Phil. You know, Phil the birdbath. Much of our garden is named. We have the ‘back 40’ for the part of the yard you need a horse to reach. We have ‘Raymond’, because Everyone Loves Raymond. The birdbath is appropriately named Phil since you always have to Phil the birdbath.
The heater is lurking behind the rock in this birdbath. This heater allows us to keep water in the birdbath all winter long. Operative words – keep water in the birdbath all winter long. Without a heater, water in a birdbath can freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw. You get it. The birdbath will likely crack by spring. When we aren’t using a heater, we take the top of the birdbath off and lean it against the base. (We being Mike.) Decorative, though no longer functional. With a heater, you’ll need to Phil the birdbath, or turn the heater off when there isn’t any water. A heater running when there is no water in the feeder is a bad thing.
We move our birdbath closer to the house in winter. (We again being Mike.) That allows for the cord to reach, and for us to see the birds. We have feeders nearby (Christmas idea!). There is also shrubbery there as the birds need a place to perch and to hide. Give them an environment and they will come.
This is an installment in the OhWhatAWednesday series, where I dare to take on the task of finding something in my garden that looks good even during a Chicago winter.
By Carol Cichorski, on December 8th, 2010 
Structure, structure, structure. Lacking, lacking, lacking.
I’ve learned a lot since this picture was taken in 2003. Even then, I knew enough to title it ‘Back 40 needs structure’. The ‘Back 40’ part of the name was easy. This yard is so big that we refer to that corner as the back 40. As far as the rest of the name, ‘needs structure’, structure was sorely lacking.
I had wanted a flower garden when we started this area a few years before that. In the fall, I diligently cut back most of the vegetation I did have. The combination of just flowers and everything cut back gave me the farm field effect.
Flash forward to the first snow now in 2010.
Structure, structure, structure. Yes, yes, yes.
Certainly, God gets credit for the snow. But even a fresh snow in 2003 would not have helped. It would simply have morphed into a snowy flat farm field effect. At that time, I had jumped in as fast as I could to summer color. It worked. But looking out the window the rest of the year was boring. Let me make that Boring with a capital ‘B’. And it wasn’t going to get better till I invested in the larger ticket items I had avoided thus far.
No more! I know that I need something tall, like the pines. And something even taller, like the aptly named Miscanthus Giganteus grass. Even the annuals and perennials are not cut back if I think they will add winter interest, especially when snow covered.
Yes, it is fun to buy pretty flowers. When spring comes next year though, step back and look at the big picture. If it looks like my yard in 2003, think again!
This is an installment in the OhWhatAWednesday series, where I dare to take on the task of finding something in my garden that looks good even during a Chicago winter.
By Carol Cichorski, on December 4th, 2010  I get to post this picture on a gardening website, in the Bird, Bugs, and flutterbies section no less. All because Allie is wearing a butterfly sweatshirt and jumping on the bed with the butterfly pillow. And because I wanted to! She really liked the pillow, so if you happen to have a 1 1/2 year-old to buy a Christmas present for, this was a good get. $20 on sale at Carsons and soooo soft.
By Carol Cichorski, on December 2nd, 2010  I bet that picture got your attention for beautiful autumn color.
You are either thinking…
‘My gosh she has even more yard than I thought!’
or
‘Carol and Mike were on another road trip.’
It is… Continue reading OhWhatAWednesday – Boston Ivy
By Carol Cichorski, on November 24th, 2010 I wanted one for years. We’d drive past Abraham’s and Judy’s home regularly and I would admire that which I did not have. We’re not talking about a fancy house, an expensive car, or a designer dog. The object of my admiration was… Continue reading OhWhatAWednesday – Snow Fountain Weeping Cherry
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I’d like to introduce you to Curly. Curly is a contorted filbert, also known as Harry Lauder’s Walking stick, also known as corkscrew hazel, also known as Corylus avellana. How appropriate to put this shrub in this weekly series on winter interest. Curly has been in our yard for about 10 years now, and is a wonderful specimen plant in the winter.
