My mother was a Sunday school teacher all the years I was growing up, and she also was an avid gardener.  Each Saturday she liked to sit in her garden and prepare her lesson for the next day.  Whenever she came across a plant in the Bible, she would make a note of it, and often, later that afternoon, we would go in search of it at our local nursery.  Over time, she created what they now call a 'biblical garden,' although she called it her meditation garden.  She added a St. Frances of Assisi statue and a birdbath and feeder and it was quite a lovely, peaceful, and song-filled place.

‘Tis the season to help the songbirds

Cold snaps like we’ve been having (and will continue to have thru February) put life threatening stress on the birds in your garden.  It's their most dangerous time of year. Their summer insect food supply is gone and the days are shorter, so they have to work much harder in less time to find food while burning more calories to stay warm.  Plus, an even bigger threat than the lack of food is a lack of water. Our days of daily thunderstorms are long gone and we are surrounded by salt water, which they can't drink.

The absolutely best organic compost you can make for your garden is worm compost.  And the great part is, once you set up this odorless composting system, the worms do all the work for you.  The fancy word is 'Vermiculture', but basically it's just a bunch of worms in a box.  Or in my case, an old claw foot bath tub left in my backyard.