I'm Fixin' to Make Me Some Wabbit Stew!

All six broccoli plants...decimated.

Three of four cantaloupe plants...decimated.

One of four zucchini plants...damaged.

Two of six yellow bean plants...damaged.

Somebunny's gonna have to pay for all of that!!!

I am beyond irritated. When I got home from the gym last night and while the pizza was baking, Chris said, "Come with me, I want to show you something." We started walking toward the garden and I said, "If you're walking me out here to show me more rabbit damaged, we might as well just turn around because I don't want to see it...I don't want to be angry tonight." With that, Chris turned around. I said, "Are you kidding me?!?" (Confession...that question was peppered with a few expletives.) That's when Chris showed me all of the damage. The secondary fence is going in this weekend. I wonder how much BB guns go for these days?!?

On a lighter note, the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and Chris' heavily guarded pumpkin plant are doing quite well. Things are doing equally fine in the butterfly/hummingbird garden as well as the gardens around front. I will be adding some pictures this weekend once I pull all of them off my new digital camera.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) activity continues at the feeder. One night earlier this week, past dusk, I saw the male sitting on the shepherd's hook and watched him watching for the female. She would fly in and try to feed and he would chase her off. He would return to feed and then sit on the hook again, looking this way and that until she'd fly back in.

The second bunch of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) has fledged from the box and already there is new nest building activity. The new nest in box #1 that was started nearly two weeks ago now had 4 House Sparrow eggs in it Wednesday evening.

Once the rain finally stops, I need to refill my bird feeders and plant Mountain Bluet (Centaurea montana) in the bf/hb garden and I need plant my new hibiscus, too (thanks, Mom!). I also have new hope for the hibiscus I planted toward the end of last summer. Here I thought I'd been sold a bill of goods by one of Ocean City's Farmers' Market vendors, but apparently, hibiscus plants don't even begin to show signs of life in Zone 5 until mid-June. So I have another few weeks before I can get discouraged again. Hopefully, I won't. Hopefully one of these days I'll start to see some green emerging from under the mulch. Oh! Also, I didn't lose my balloon flower! It is another one that is very slow to come back, but it reemerged last weekend and is already taking off!

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

Those Wascally Wabbits!

It appears that I may not be the only one with the Eastern cottontail problem this year...they are terrorizing Chris, too! I've been worried that the rabbits might attack my broccoli plants like they did last year. Instead, it appears that they have eaten Chris' giant pumpkin plants less than 24 hours after they were planted. I found this out through an instant message, so I can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure Chris is irked. Really irked! Thankfully, he still has two other plants that are still in their starter pots. When I got home from the gym tonight, I found out that they also ate one of my yellow bean plants! I am definitely irked! I guess we will have to put up a smaller gauge fence around the bottom of the existing garden fence to keep out our cottontail "friends." Chris is reading up (as I type) on ways to keep them out/deter them. I've got a .22 rifle that would do the trick. (Kidding!)

In other news, the bird box that I cleaned out Saturday morning...the one that had nest building activity that very night...already has an egg in it. It appears to be a House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) nest and egg. The nest is very sparse right now. I am going to have to read up on House Sparrow nesting habits. The last two House Sparrow nests were very dense and included feathers and what looked like fur. The egg is a bit bigger than a peanut M&M and is cream colored with maroon/brown-ish speckles.

All but one of the baby House Sparrows had fledged from the second bird box by yesterday evening. When I peeked into the box, there was one baby remaining and he/she seemed really antsy to join his/her brothers and sisters who were sitting in the big bush off to the left of the box. I will check both boxes again on Sunday and I hope to be able to report on more eggs in box #1 and clean out box #2 to make room for another bunch o'babies.

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

First Post for 2009

We have been very busy around the house and in the gardens the past few weeks, so I decided it was time to pick back up with my Backyard Observations for 2009. I received a new digital camera for Mother's Day (apparently Oscar gets a hefty allowance that I know nothing about!), so I will be adding more pictures in future posts this year.

GARDENS
Let's go back to Mother's Day weekend. We had 5 cubic yards of mulch delivered that Thursday afternoon. Saturday morning we woke up and were out and about in the gardens by 8 AM. Chris took the garden around/near the pond while I worked in the butterfly/hummingbird (bf/hb) garden. We weeded and weeded and weeded some more! Nine of the ten perennials that I planted in the bf/hb garden came back. For whatever reason, my balloon flower did not return this year. Chris' Clematis has returned with a vengeance this year - I know he's pleased!

After working on the gardens off the back deck, I moved around the front of the house and weeded the front gardens. While I worked out front, Chris mulched around back. When I finished out front, Chris mulched while I made my way up to the vegetable garden. We rented a tiller for the weekend and he'd already run it through very lightly to rip up the weeds. I took the rake up and raked all of the dead weeds.

Sunday morning we went back up to the vegetable garden, spread the compost we got from the University Area Joint Authority, and ran the tiller through the garden several different times in different directions.

The following weekend we drove down to Martin Garden Center south of Tyrone to buy all of our vegetables. I also purchased a few more perennials and a few annuals for deck boxes. We also bought two new pond plants since we lost our water lily over the winter.

We planted columbine, a hydrangea, and two other perennials (whose names/types escape me) out front. I also planted to perennial gerbera daisies out front that I found on the clearance "dying" rack at Lowe's for $1 each. They just had deadheads...they weren't dying...but if Lowe's wants to sell them to me for $1 each, I'm OK with that! We also planted a bellflower plant in the bf/hb garden and I added some lavender (that I bought at the PSU Vegetable Cellar) further around in the garden.

I also planted my deck box and dish. Like last year, I put Mexican roses (Portulaca) in a shallow, round dish which sits on the bar on the deck. They did so well in that dish and in that location last year that I decided to do it again. In the deck box, I went with red flowers and plants. I bought a reddish spike plant from Lowe's and centered that in the box. Around that I added red petunias, red snapdragons, and other little red flowers. I think it looks great!

This past Saturday morning, we planted our vegetable garden. This year we "only" planted 24 tomato plants (compared to 37 last year). We planted grape, cherry, Carolina gold, and celebrity tomatoes. We planted 12 pepper plants - 6 blushing beauties (ivory to purple/burgundy color) and 6 orange pepper plants. We planted 6 broccoli plants, 4 zucchini plants, 4 cantaloupe plants, 6 yellow beans plants, and multiple onion plants. Chris planted his corn the Wednesday prior. We still have a good section of the garden left...for Chris' GIANT pumpkins!

That's right...Chris is growing giant pumpkins. He found a local giant pumpkin grower who very generously and graciously sent Chris a variety of giant pumpkin seeds (just because Chris had inquired!). Chris started four seeds and they are growing like mad! He started them last week and for several days they rested in our oven with the light on, which produced the ideal 85 degrees the seeds needed! He has already transplanted two from the starter peat pots to larger pots. Something tells me we're going to need a frontend loader later this year to move these things!!!

Ah! Back to the vegetables before I forget. We also planted an asparagus root in a pot to see how it does, spinach and lettuce seeds in pots on the deck (since we have such a thriving rabbit population), and herbs (basil, parsley, and cilantro) in pots also on the deck. Over the weekend, we purchased radish seeds which we'll be starting this week and again once or twice this summer. Finally, I bought two different kinds of sunflowers which I plan to grow along the privacy fence - Autumn Mix (5-7') and Irish Eyes (24-30"). I will be starting them in seeds trays this week and continuing to do so each week for about 6 weeks to get staggered growth and blooming.

ANIMALS
Hummingbird activity began about four weeks ago. No sooner did I get the feeder out and brew up a batch of nectar (one part sugar to four parts water) did the male Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) show up. It is generally one male that comes to the feeder, feeds, and "hangs out." In fact, it was this little hummingbird, who I call "Flick," that was a MAJOR distraction the week I was supposed to be writing my final exam paper for school. I would sit down to read and/or write and, of course, Flick would show up. He'd feed and then sit on top of the shepherd's hook and watch the gnats flying around. He'd also shake (it was drizzling and the rain was beading on his feathers), stretch, and yawn. Amazing...and very distracting! I'm lucky I finished that paper!

Over the past few weeks there have been many hummingbird visits to the feeder. I have seen two males at/near the feeder at the same time, competing with each other for "feeder rights." I have also seen a female at the feeder. As of yet, I have not witnessed any hummingbird courtship, nor have I seen the male and female at the feeder at the same time as I did last year. I will have to go back and review my posts from last year to see when the courting started.

I also have the thistle, "regular birdseed," and suet feeders in the backyard. There are birds at those feeders constantly! I have taken to filling them just once per week. If I filled them everytime they were emptied, my pockets would also be emptied! I ran out of thistle seed recently, but fortunately Tractor Supply Co. had a great sale on thistle seed ($27.99 for 25 lbs.) so I have a raincheck for two bags that I need to go collect. I have found that TSC has the best price (regular price $34.99 for 25 lbs.) on thistle seed and for regular bird seed ($16.99 for 50 lbs. - Royal Wing brand). Wegmans has the best price for suet cakes (10 pack for $8.59).

So far this spring, I have seen the following birds at the feeders and in the yard:

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) *
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) **
Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) ***
Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

I encourage you to follow the links to read and learn more about the above listed birds (as well as others) at the Cornell site. I LOVE the Cornell site!!!

* Love these guys! They have ME trained to feed them peanuts on command. One of them will come and sit in the tree outside the kitchen and squawk for food. If I hear them, I go outside and put peanuts all along the railing of the deck. Next thing I know, four or five different Blue Jays are coming in to eat!

** LOVE this bird! I have seen it twice now - once on May 2, 2008 and once on May 4, 2009. Very nearly a year to the day...strange! Chris has yet to see it and therefore does not believe I have seen it! But I have! I really have!!!

*** We just fledged four baby House Sparrows out of "house box #1" and should fledge four more out of "house box #2" any day now. There were five babies born in box #1, but one did not survive. I found it when I cleaned out the box this past weekend. Within hours of me cleaning out the box, a new nest was being constructed. It appears to be another House Sparrow nest. I have logged both bird boxes with Cornell's project NestWatch and will track the success of these boxes over the summer.

Another bird that I have seen is the Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). Chris and I were out walking last Tuesday evening and we came across an adult Killdeer on a nest. The nest was located among fist-sized rocks roadside (at the end of a driveway between the lawn and the road). The nest was very well camoflauged among these rocks. Ironically, it was the adult that drew our attention to the nest. Had he/she not created such a ruckus, we would have walked right on by. As it was, the adult exhibited the "broken wing" distraction behavior that adults will use to draw attention away from the nest location. He/she was very convincing! There were four eggs in the nest. We walked by again three nights later and there was one adult in the area of the nest and another flying around. Both screeched and squawked when we drew near. I was able to see one Killdeer chick. I didn't want to stand there too long because I didn't want to draw more attention to the nest/chicks and I didn't want to cause the adults more stress. I logged this nest location into NestWatch as well.

Eastern cottontails continue to be abundant in our yards and gardens. Oscar likes to give them chase, although it seems they might be aware of his electronic dog fence boundaries, because it appears they know to sit and feed just beyond his limits! So long as they leave the vegetable garden alone this year, the Eastern cottontails and I will get along just fine. I have, however, begun to research organic rabbit repellants/deterrants just in case!

One final note...and unfortunately, it is a sad one. Fredrick von Hoppenstance, our resident green frog (Rana clamitans), did not survive the winter. His remains, along with those of a female green frog, were found when the pond thawed and Chris cleaned it out. Fredrick was a great source of entertainment last summer. Here's hoping our pond attracts another frog or two this year.

RIP Fredrick von Hoppenstance.

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

Random Updates from the Past Month

Shame on me! It has been one month to the day that I last updated my blog. Some blogger I am, eh? I did go on vacation toward the end of July, but that is really no excuse because that was only one week out of four. So, yes, I am a bit of a slacker!

Now on with the show...

Vegetables abound in our garden! We harvested the first ears of corn at the end of last week and it is delicious! You might swear we tilled sugar into the soil or watered with simple syrup...it is that sweet...how exciting! We have zucchini and cucumbers coming out of our ears and at some point soon I am going to have to start making pickle relish to use up all of the cucumbers. Just before logging on to write this entry, I was researching the blanching time for squash so I can freeze a big batch tomorrow night. I got a great idea from my research to steam blanch some shredded zucchini in 1 or 2-cup increments for backing zucchini bread in the fall/winter.

Today I blanched about two pounds of green beans...they are doing really well. The peas did not do so well. I managed to harvest enough to make one serving of peas before the plants started dying off. I'm not sure what caused the die-off. Peas seemed like a pain in the rear anyway, so I am not too torn up over the loss of the plants. Peppers are going like gangbusters - just this weekend I used the dehydrator to dry anaheim and super chile peppers. The gypsy peppers have been very tasty in our lunches everyday.

Another thing we have been taking in our lunches each day is a serving of grape tomatoes. Those are growing quite well (and wild), too! In fact, our grape tomatoes seem like they are on steroids...they are gigantic! All of the tomatoes are growing really well, but our staking did not work very well. We put so much money into the garden this year that we opted to stake the tomatoes rather that invest in cages...probably not the best idea, but we'll make do this year and buy cages next year. It's just that the tomatoes are growing wild and flatter than expected. But boy are they still growing!!!

We have ten cantaloupes on the vines and they are looking really, really nice. I hope I can harvest one or two before this coming weekend (my graduation party) so I can serve some fresh fruit in addition to my sheet cake. In fact, for the party this weekend, I anticipate quite a bit will come from the garden - sliced tomatoes for hamburgers, raw vegetables for dipping, tomatoes for fresh salsa, cantaloupe for dessert, peppers to serve with the grilled bratwursts - it is all going to be very delicious and very fresh!

Goldfinches continue to visit the thistle feeder and other random birds visit the "regular" seed feeder. The hummingbird makes regular visits to his feeder and is once again fending off other males and even the female. When he isn't looking, the female sneaks in for a quite snack. Last week, I saw both the male and the female sitting on the shepherd's hook where the feeder hangs (on separate occasions) and watched as they yawned and stuck out their tongues. It was really cool!

A house wren (Troglodytes aedon) has nested, layed five eggs, and had them hatch in the bird box at the far end of the yard. The eggs hatched Wednesday. In fact, when I did my evening check on the box, three had hatched, one was in the process of hatching, and one egg remained. When we checked the box Thursday evening, all five bald babies looked healthy - tiny, but healthy. Momma House Wren made her presence known while we were near the box and immediately returned to the box as soon as we were about 20 feet away.

Neither Chris nor I have seen Fredrick since we left for vacation on July 18th. We heard him the night we returned from vacation (July 26th), but have not seen him. I am concerned! We had a clog in the pump in the pond on Friday and it was a dead frog! Luckily it wasn't Fredrick, but what if it was his new mate?!? I've often wondered how Fredrick tolerates his swingin' single lifestyle at our pond...I mean, it is a nice bachelor (lily) pad, but still...he has to get lonely. What if that frog was his chance at love, happiness, and frog procreation?!?

Speaking of procreation, our pond fish keep multiplying. In addition to the nearly dozen grown and colorful (white and orange, mostly) goldfish we can see, there are about a dozen small (1-2" long) black babies swimming around. Two of them have started to turn orange already and they are easier to spot. It is really cool when we feed the fish because all of the sudden we will see ripples and movement at the surface of the water, but we can't see any fish because of shadows, reflections, or lighting...but then they will swim to a spot where we can see and there are 5-6 at any give time swimming around together.

The butterfly and hummingbird garden is officially official for both butterflies and hummingbirds now. Butterflies have been seen flying around the yard quite regularly now and on at least three different occasions, I have seen butterflies in the garden on the butterfly bush and the bee balm. Speaking of the plants in that garden, in addition to feeding at the nectar feeder, the female hummingbird has visited the bee balm, the red dahlia, and the Russian sage. I bought a magazine about gardening for butterflies and hummingbirds and plan to read up on ideas and things I might add now and next spring.

Out front, the few perennials that I added continue to do well. The mums from last fall are already up and the red one has already started to bloom. I hope it blooms through the fall. I put in four mums last fall - one red, one orange, one yellow, and one purple (if my memory serves me correctly). I just love mums in the fall!

Oh! One last thing - I bought a hibiscus plant while I was on vacation at the beach. I asked the seller if it would survive up here in zone 5 and he said yes. He told me how to take care of it and convinced me it would do OK, so on the last day of vacation, we walked across the street to the farmer's market and I bought a red one to bring home. It is still in the pot right now, but I am going to plant it one night this week next to the deck. It will get plenty of sun and will be very near the butterfly and hummingbird garden, so maybe the hummingbirds will visit it (since they favor red flowers).

I cannot think of anything else that is worth mentioning/updating right now but I am sure something else will occur to me as soon as I post this.

OH! Chris bought me VERY NICE Audubon binoculars for my birthday. These things are amazing! From our kitchen, I can look out to the garden 300+ feet away and see if we have red tomatoes ready for picking! And the clarity when I look at the goldfinches on the feeder is phenomenal. I cannot wait to get out into the woods and do some bird watching (other than the ones I watch in our very own patch of woods).

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

Oh, Deer!

A brief conversation with my next door neighbor last evening yielded some insight into the recent decapitation of several of my sunflowers. It turns out they have had the same problem...only their sunflowers are inside their fenced-in garden, not out in the open like mine. Melissa said Rob suspected deer because of some damage he noticed on his corn as well as the sunflowers. I mentioned this to Chris as we spent yet another evening weeding the vegetable garden. I am happy to report that most of the major weeding is complete and what remains is merely maintenance weeding - pulling up the rogue crabgrass here and there. Whew!

Actually, let me back up just a bit. Before Chris and I talked about the deer and the sunflowers or even started weeding last night...as we were walking to the vegetable garden, I saw a rabbit in the garden. This was an average-sized rabbit and somehow that little bugger managed to weasel his way through the 2" x 4" opening in the garden fence and continue to eat our broccoli and cauliflower plants. The nerve! Our neighbors have the same type of fence that we do and this year, Rob ran a second, smaller fence around the bottom of the garden - one with smaller openings to ward off the rabbits. This might be what we need to do next year. We really thought the 2" x 4" openings would be too small for rabbits and didn't expect much trouble from chipmunks. I guess we underestimated the wiliness of our resident rabbits!

OK, back to the sunflowers and the deer. So I mentioned to Chris that Rob had put in the additional fencing to keep the rabbits out and now his concern this year was deer. We knew that a 4' fence would not keep an aggressive or determined deer out of our garden, but we hoped it would fend off a lazy or unambitious deer. So far for us (knock on wood!) that has been the case in the vegetable garden. But that isn't where my sunflowers are located. Mine are out in the open in the garden with the black-eyed Susans, and I've lost three so far.

Last evening as we wrapped up our weeding and started to make our way to the shed to put our supplies away, we stopped to check on the sunnies and Suzies. And that is when we saw it...the teeniest, tiniest little fawn hoof print I have ever seen. I cannot imagine how little this baby Bambi must be because the hoof print was 1", maybe 1.5" in length in the dirt which makes prints look bigger anyway. Ugh. I am not sure how I feel about this. I hunt deer. Granted, I've yet to wax one, but I am a hunter. Come December, deer = venison = stocked freezer. Even now, in July, I am considering them a pest and trying to keep them out of my vegetable garden. But the thought of this little fawn...argh...it just tugs on my heart. Can I be angry if I lose sunflowers to Bambi? I need to think about this some more...and see what other damage Bambi inflicts in the next few days. Let me just say this...if Bambi takes down my giant sunny...there will be trouble! Bambi...you've been warned!

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

Lessons from a Wild Weekend and Garden Updates

Chris and I spent the FOJ weekend camping with his parents at a local state park. Saturday morning, we ventured down to the beach house for an "early bird coffee walk" and it turned out that we were the only two lame-Os in the park to want to go on such a walk. So we headed out with the park naturalist and a park volunteer to listen for and spot a few birds. The walk lasted about an hour. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but we did hear a Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens). That was a new bird for me. I wish we could have seen one, but I'll settle for the pictures on the Cornell site (www.birds.cornell.edu).

During our walk, we stopped at the park's butterfly garden. What an amazing garden! It is filled with aster, purple coneflowers, and milkweed. My lesson from this wild weekend - I need milkweed in my butterfly/hummingbird garden! There were no butterflies in the garden Saturday morning when we stopped by during the bird walk; however, when we visited Sunday afternoon when it was very warm and sunny, the garden was full of dozens of butterflies. How exciting! I can only HOPE that my garden will be that successful one of these days. I stopped at a garden shop on the way home from camping on Sunday and bought a new purple coneflower. I previously planted on in the hummingbird/butterfly garden, but something kept eating it and it wasn't growing very well. This new one has two blooms and numerous buds, so Chris dug up the old one (which is coming back quite nicely, although it is still quite small), and we planted the new one in its place. We replanted the old one in a different location in the hummingbird/butterfly garden. I think both of them will do well in their new locations.

Sunday night when we got home from camping, we walked out to the vegetable garden. I was astounded at the growth in the three days we were gone. To think about what that garden looked like one month ago...heck...one WEEK ago...and to see it now...it is so exciting!!! A few stalks of corn are already four feet tall and the rest are at least three feet tall...definitely "knee high by the Fourth of July!" The tomatoes are going like gang busters...when they all come in, we are going to be inundated with 'maters. Everything else is growing well, too. We have quite a few jalapeno peppers that could probably stand to be picked in the next few days.

Out in the Suzie/sunflower garden, the Black-eyed Susans all have buds and a few look ready to burst into bloom any day now. The sunflowers continue to grow, although I lost three to "something" while we were gone. A deer? Our resident groundhog? I am uncertain. I also lost two sunflowers that had popped up near the hummingbird/butterfly garden...total decapitation. How depressing! I hope now that Oscar is back on the prowl around the yard, the culprits will stay away. We'll see...

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

What a Pain in My Crabgrass!

Between Saturday morning and last evening, I have spent a total of six hours weeding the vegetable garden and more often than not the culprit is Digitaria sanguinalis - crabgrass! Thankfully we have had rain just about every day for the past week, so the garden soil - though seemingly dry on the surface - is still very moist underneath and has made pulling all of the weeds much easier. Chris logged some time in the garden on Saturday morning as well and we made some really great headway on the tomato and pepper plants areas. Between my weeding by hand and Chris' hoe and rake method, we were very pleased with our accomplishments Saturday morning. We were also stiff and sore as hell come Monday (my adductor and hamstring muscles, especially)!

Last night, I weeded while Chris mowed the lawn. I worked on the squash plants, the peas, and the green beans. I have to say I think I did a great job and overall, I am quite pleased with our weeding progress. We knew that weeds would be an issue in the garden this year. We took a previously lawn-ish piece of our property and turned it into a garden! How could weeds not infiltrate this first year? Especially the crabgrass...from what I have read, when it seeds, it puts out tons and tons of seeds!

I guess we'll just keep plucking this year and try to stay on top of it now that we've pretty much gotten most of the weeds out. Our hours spent weeding should mean that soon we will only have to go out for 15-20 minutes each evening to check the plants and puck a few random weeds here and there.

We put a lot of money into the vegetable garden this year - we rented a tiller for the weekend to turn the soil, we got three truckloads of compost and one truck load of sand, we put up a fence, and we bought the sprinkler and the 250' of hose it took to run from the house out to the garden. Next year, when (hopefully) the only cash outlay will be plants and seeds, I think we will invest in a weed control garden liner to help cut down on our manual efforts.

All complaints about weeds aside, everything in the garden looks amazing! Well, wait...there is one exception...the broccoli. I spotted a small Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floradinus) in the garden last evening, which ran off as I approached. When I got into the garden, I noticed he or she had been munching on the broccoli. Perhaps it might be time for a faux owl on one of the fence posts! But other than the broccoli, everything else is just growing, growing, growing...and pretty soon we're going to have vegetables come out of our ears!!!

I'm really gonna need that pressure canner and that chest freezer...SOON!

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

The First "Take" from the Garden

Last night I was able to harvest our first vegetable from our garden - a sweet banana pepper. While it may not seem like much, from what I can tell, it is just the first of many, many veggies to come from that garden. Our Early Girl tomato plants have fruit growing and almost all of our other tomato plants (37 total) have buds. Yes, I said 37 tomato plants. And no, I don't can. Yet. And no, I don't have a stand-alone freezer. Yet.

Most of our other plants are doing well, also. Most, if not all, of the pepper plants (15 total) have buds on them and there is at least one super chili pepper growing already. The zucchini plants have doubled in size since Monday and there are many little zucchinis growing! The yellow squash and cucumbers do not yet have any blossoms, but continue to grow. The peas and green beans are putting out squiggly feelers, so this weekend we will run string back and forth for the vines to attach. I estimate we have 120+ stalks of corn and that is after Chris thinned them out to every 12". The melons (musk and honeydew) are both looking good, as are the broccoli, cauliflower, and celery.

I am sad to report that the cabbage and cauliflower that I planted outside of the fenced-in vegetable garden have fallen victim to the neighborhood Eastern Cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus). However, the black-eyed Susans have taken to their new garden quite well and the mixed variety of sunflower seeds that I planted there are growing like crazy. So far, nothing has disturbed the sunflowers and I am hopeful that remains the case as they develop their heads. I think the garden is too far out in the open (and well within our dog's patrol range) that squirrels will not be a problem...but then again I thought that too about the rabbits and the cabbage and look how that turned out!

Bird activity remains constant with added visitors to the new finch feeder - a male and female Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus). As usual, the male is much more colorful and attractive compared to the female; however, they have both been fascinating to watch. They both seem content to sit on the edge of the feeder and eat the seeds that have collected in the bottom tray rather than pick at the feeder the way the Goldfinches do. I have witnessed them picking at the feeder, but they appear to prefer "the lazy way" to eat.

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

It's an Official Hummingbird Garden!

Great news! The area I designated just off the deck and outside of my home office/craft room as a hummingbird and butterfly garden is, in fact, a real hummingbird garden! We have spotted a male ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) at the feeder each day since Sunday.

This morning, as he has on several occasions already, he was sitting on the top of the shepherd's hook that hold the feeder in the garden. This time, however, he was actually facing my office so we could see his vibrant red throat and his face. I hadn't put my glasses on yet this morning, so I had to rely on the binoculars I keep by the windows to get a good look at him.

His throat was so bright - it was almost a neon color. His face is adorable even if he looks like he is scowling! He took off from the hook and drank at the feeder for a minute before another hummingbird swooped in. As quickly as the second one flew in, it flew right back out. We think it was another male. The first male returned to the top of the hook and remained there.

Also of note this morning - the giant groundhog (Marmota monax) that lives under our shed was out for breakfast this morning. He waddled his way around the yard this morning in the thick fog as he munched the dewy grass. Closer to the house, just under the birdseed feeders, two Eastern Cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) fed in the grass.

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

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!