This is written from the town of Eldora on the last day of 2005. Once again we are being battered by winds exceeding 50mph as we have for thirty days and nights since November 1st. This is not a complaint but simply a fact of life here in the Front Range at 8,700 ft.

What does puzzle me is how do birds survive and why do they stay through our long winter. Why didn't they fly south with the hummingbirds last September?

I have already bought more than seventy-five pounds of sunflower seed and fifty pounds of cracked corn to feed the chickadees, juncos, Steller jays, Pine grosbeaks, Crested nuthatch, magpies and the occasional raven or crow. Our neighbors who live about one hundred yards away also feed grosbeaks and Pine siskins. As I indulge in the warmth and security of our mountain cabin I marvel at the masochistic behavior of our feathered friends!

I feed the birds because I regard them as part of our family. My hope is that they will help maintain a balance of useful insects in the garden during the summer months, especially with about two dozen Broad-tailed hummingbirds from May 1 to September 7.

Spring gardening arrives slowly at this altitude. Daffodils, Grape hyacinth and helleborus provide the first color in May. June and July put on the best show with lilacs holding off their blossoms until late June, long after fading away down on the plains. Wildflowers are usually at their best in mid July. The most popular perennials favoured by birds, butterflies and hummingbirds are varieties of campanula, penstemon, delphinium, veronica, scabiosa, cranesbill geranium, scutellaria, verbascum, nepeta, columbine and the purple flowers of stachys in late fall. The blue Himalayan poppy (meconopsis) grows happily here.

Between sixty and seventy perennials have proved themselves at this altitude over a period of twenty years. I believe two vital factors are the reason for this success: 1) Snow cover from November to April protects the plants from desiccating winds. 2) Humus rich topsoil that I have provided, adding mushroom, steer or sheep compost every year. Each fall, I make compost from tree leaves collected by a Boulder friend.

Finally, a few observations to share with fellow gardeners and those new to the mountains: Soil temperature during the short growing season remains close to 60 F with night air temperatures usually in the forties and rarely above 50 F. Months of below freezing temperatures contribute to our healthy, disease-free flowers and vegetables. Cooler night time temperatures in the summer also mean that flower blossoms last longer.

As to the future, the growing threat and reality of global warming and climate change may bring different results for the gardener, good or bad. We will see!

• Waxwings Flock to Junipers and Mountain-Ash, by Stephen Jones, February 2006

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