Welcome to My Blog!

Greetings and thank you for stopping by my new blog which will contain my observations of flora and fauna around my house. The house is situated on 2.19 acres in a rural township in central Pennsylvania. There is a state game land nearby and approximately 0.75 of our 2.19 acres are forested.

This spring, I put in a butterfly and hummingbird garden off of our deck which is also located right outside of the windows in my home office/craft room. In this garden are flowers like dahlias, salvia, coneflowers, butterfly bush, balloon flowers, an obedient plant, Russian sage, bee balm, and candy tuft. I also have a small shepherd's hook and a red hummingbird nectar feeder.

About 20 feet further into the yard are the two lids to the septic tank, which the previous owners of the house cleverly disguised (as best they could) with flowers and mulch. In this "septic garden" I have a large double shepherd's hook with a bird feeder filled with wild bird seed and a seed sock filled with Nyjer seed. I also have a small shepherd's hook with a suet feeder.

On the outskirts of the backyard, we have placed two bluebird boxes approximately 100 feet apart. At the very edge of our backyard, we have put in a 29' x 33' vegetable garden that contains corn, tomatoes, peppers, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussell sprouts, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, peas, and lima beans.

The previous owners appear to have attempted a butterfly garden midway out in the yard. I recently ripped everything out of this garden, turned the soil, transplanted some blackeyed Susans to this new location, planted some sunflowers, and planted some of the leftover vegetable plants that didn't make it into the big garden (cabbage and broccoli).

Just off our deck, we have a small pond that is home to about a dozen goldfish and one green frog (Rana clamitans) whom we have named Fredrick von Hoppenstance, or Fred for short. On the deck, we are growing a Mr. Stripey tomato plant, two super chili peppers, lettuce, spinach, and a pot of herbs (basil, cilantro, Italian flat leaf parsley, and mint). I also have several pots with annuals around the deck for color.

This gives you an idea of what we have where and what might become topics of later blogs. I can say that very soon I will be writing about the myriad birds that have been visiting the backyard feeders. This has been a great source of entertainment and enjoyment so far this spring and I cannot wait to share it with you!

Until next time, keep your eyes open for wild wonders!