Winter quarters

I decided to try keeping several potted potential bonsai in the garage this winter instead of having to disturb the roots by pulling them out of their pots and putting them in the ground.  It will also save time in the Spring, if they survive, when I know I'll have to be digging up 7 trees currently growing in the ground where I plan to put in vegetables next year.  There is an East facing window to keep the mugo pine and azalea photosynesizing, and perhaps keep them a little warmer on clear days, which are usually colder.  There is also a large willow branch that I collected during the snow storm in October when so many branches broke off due to the heavy snow load on branches that hadn't lost any leaves yet.  I hope it will root and make a nice big bonsai.

A new gate for the hedge

Now that the daylight hours are so short, it's difficult to find time to photograph anything, but I managed to snap these pictures this morning while my car windshield was defrosting.  Everything including the tops of the gate posts, had frost on them, and the grass crunched under my feet.  

I built this gate from tongue and groove floor boards I pulled up out of my sunroom when I gutted it last summer.  I treated the wood with some aerosol waterproofing spray.  The gate looks a little silly with no leaves on the hedge plants, but I'm happy with how it turned out.  I will need to reshape one of the branches that forms the arch over the opening, as it cuts across the nice circular shape framed by the gate and the arched opening.

 Here's the gate from the other side, looking through my deer fencing.  You can see the black plastic I laid down over a thick layer of straw to kill all the weeds and grass inside the fenced area.