Alphabetical Gardening – S

There are an abundance of plants, birds and ornaments that begin with S in the garden.  I’ve been hunting through the photo archives to find the best of the best.  Enjoy your visit to the garden in different seasons and times.

Plants include sand cherry, solomon seal, sumac, St john’s wort, sedum, snow on the mountain, sunflowers, sweet peas, snow in summer and sneezeweed.

I love stonecrops in the garden. Perennial plants that will grow in just about any conditions.  There is stringy stonecrop, red carpet stonecrop, mossy stonecrop, stonecrop kamtschaticum and sedum.  I love how they spread and can be added to various containers to put here and there in the garden.

Some sparrows are year round visitors and some just fair weather visitors.  There are many varieties of sparrows … house, chipping, song, white crowned, and white throated.  Look carefully, especially the head and neck, and you’ll see the differences.

Starlings and swallows also visit the garden.  Starlings can be most annoying when they gather in their large flocks and swoop in to empty the feeders but they have amazing markings.  Swallows return year after year, check out the bird houses and sometimes use them for nests.

There are two sundials in the garden and both have been in different sunny locations.  I do set them with the time and the sun but don’t really use them to tell time.

I love to make whimsy for the garden including signs and stepping stones.  I also have a variety of signs throughout the garden that have been gifted or purchased.  The small stone tree was lots of fun to make and I also made a big gate stone tree.

Here are some S’s I found while out and about.  The centre photo is my favourite.  It is the railing up a set of stairs at the Canadian Museum of History ( formerly the Civilization museum) in Hull, Quebec.  S is a popular shape on trellis work and of course the ever practical S hook for hanging all sorts of things.

I’m continuing to add to my personal alphabet with S.

S – senior, sensible,