Fredrick von Hoppenstance is alive and well! And, apparently, has a girlfriend!!! We went over a month without seeing Fredrick and really began to fret over his fate. Did he meet with an unfortunate end thanks to a raccoon? Did he move on to the neighbor's pond? Just what happened? Well...he's not talking, but at least he's back and he's as photogenic as ever! I snapped quite a few pictures of him today and I will post them in the next few days once I have a chance to upload new pictures from my camera and sort through them. Like I said, he has a girlfriend, too. She is very skittish...if we get within five feet of her, she hops into the pond and away from us. She is also much smaller than FvH. I'm very happy that Fredrick has a companion.
I went up to the garden this afternoon to pick some tomatoes. Yes, they continue to grow and ripen! Unfortunately, with such a dry summer and then the recent rains, the tomatoes that are left on the vines are splitting. Still, I managed to pick about 2.5 pounds of grape tomatoes, about a dozen romas, a few Celebrity tomatoes, and about eight green peppers. As I was walking up to the garden, I heard the familiar tap-tap-tap of a woodpecker. I walked up to the stand of trees and saw an Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) in a tree. I watched it for a few minutes until it flew away...then I scanned the trees for the woodpecker and I found her...a female Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus). She did not stay in the tree very long for me to observe her, but I was able to make the ID.
The other bird of note for today is the Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio). I did not spot one...I WISH! But I did hear one this evening and I have heard one on several occasions outside in the evenings. Sometimes it sounds like the call is coming from the trees/woods in the front of the house; most often, however, the calls come from the trees out back. I am sure there are a few owls in the neighborhood calling to each other. I read that Screech Owls are monogamous and that the male will call to the female from the nest site to court her. I really love reading about and learning about birds like this!
I bought my mom a finch feeder for her birthday. She very much enjoys watching the birds visit my feeder when she comes up to visit me. She said she had spotted Goldfinches in her neighborhood down in Baltimore before, so I thought a finch feeder would be a good gift. She filled it and hung it last Saturday and so far, she has not seen any birds. I told her to not get discouraged...to give it some time. I did some reading on how long it takes to attract birds to a new feeder and read that wrapping aluminum foil around the top of the feeder so it reflects sunlight might be enough to bring the birds in. I'll mention that to her! (Or maybe she'll read it here before I have a chance to tell her...Hi, Mom!)
I am so excited that fall has arrived. As much as I LOVE spring and summer gardening and weather, I love fall just as much. Fall is when Chris and I celebrate our wedding anniversary...when pumpkins, apples, and mums abound...when cornstalks become decorations...when the most brilliant colors pepper the trees of the mountains here in central PA...when the most ordinary ride into work on a Tuesday morning can be extraordinary just because of the foliage. I love fall.
Until next time, keep your eyes open for wild wonders...
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A Plethora of Tales to Tell
Where to begin? Well, I guess it's best to start with the sad news and work our way up...wouldn't you agree?
Monday evening, there was more carnage...this time in the butterfly/hummingbird garden. A dead juvenile Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). It appears that he flew into the window of my office, as there was a very large smudge mark and a single feather stuck to the window. Chris noticed the poor thing and told me. I went out to remove him from the garden before Oscar found him. I took a plastic grocery bag and used it to pick up the bird. Before we determined the cause of death, I did a visual examination. I noticed that one of the bird's eyes was cloudy/milky and that there appeared to be a small amount of blood coming out of its mouth on the same side of his head as the ruptured(?) eye ball. It was then that I looked up at the window and realized just how this little guy expired.
I think what's saddest about this is he was one of about six juvenile Blue Jays that had been visiting our yard and feeders since Friday. Saturday they were all flying about, squawking, eating, and otherwise playing around. It is easy to tell they are juveniles for several reasons. 1) They are still very awkward in flight and landing, 2) their feathers aren't as smooth and full as an adult, and 3) well, they carry on like a bunch of teenagers! They were a source of entertainment all weekend long. And now, one of their own has fallen. I was home sick yesterday and I swear the rest of the Blue Jays were looking and calling for their sibling. So sad...
Now onto happier thoughts, eh?
In an effort to catch and relocate our resident groundhog, I believe I previously mentioned that we borrowed a trap from someone from my office. Well, we finally caught something, but it wasn't a groundhog. Thankfully, it wasn't a skunk either...it was a rabbit. On my sick day. I had a terrible headache - a sinus headache - and had just woken up at 9:30 AM and decided to go down and fix myself a cup of tea. I let the dog out and went to the sink to fill the kettle and turn it on. No sooner did I do that and Oscar started barking, barking, barking! I looked out and lo and behold, there's "Thumper" in the trap. I march outside in my bathrobe and slippers and try (in vain) to get Oscar to calm down, sit, and let me release the rabbit. Yeah, right. So instead, I carry the trap with the rabbit back to the house, where I fool Oscar into going into the house, and then turned around and released the rabbit from the deck. The poor thing was terrified. Of course Oscar was barking at it a mere inch from its face the whole time we were walking back to the house. At one point, the rabbit moved as close to me in the cage as it could get and looked at me like, "Human? Help me!" So much for my subsiding headache...it came back in full force. I think we might be done with that trap. I'm convinced the groundhog has moved on.
The five House Wren babies fledged from their nest late last week. They hatched on August 6th and were due to fledge on or near August 20th. I checked the box on the 20th and they were still there; by August 23rd, they were gone.
On Saturday, I spent an hour picking "stuff" in the garden including one pound of green beans, 20 Roma tomatoes, 28 other tomatoes, SIX POUNDS of grape tomatoes, a nearly five-pound zucchini (I have no idea where it was hiding!), a cantaloupe, and a dozen ears of corn. Needless to say, I spent Sunday morning blanching and freezing quite a bit of vegetation!
Chris planted the red hibiscus I bought at the beach - it is a Bordeaux variety and it is really beautiful. It is supposed to bloom through autumn and I hope it thrives in its new location. It should get plenty of sun. I am very excited to have a hibiscus...I just love them!
Another thing I love is having hummingbirds be such frequent visitors to the feeder and garden! I suspect that the pair from earlier this summer may have nested and had babies. I have routinely observed a small female visiting the feeder and another, larger female who seems to watch over her from the trees. Occasionally, they will fly together, squeaking and chirping. in addition to eating at the feeder, I have seen the hummingbirds visit the bee balm and the Russian sage often.
Hmmm...what else? Oh, yes! Chris counted AT LEAST 18 fish in the pond yesterday. I swear we are going to have to feed those fish birth control pills! I keep telling everyone that "Fertile Myrtle" lives in our pond and just keeps having babies! And there have been no sightings of Fredrick Von Hoppenstance since before we went to the beach on July 19th. My brother and a friend of mine both think Fredrick fell victim to a raccoon. I suppose it's possible. I prefer to think he found "greener pastures" at the neighbor's pond. Either that or...hmmm...the neighbor kids did feed our pond fish while we were gone on vacation. What if Fredrick didn't FIND his way over to there pond but rather was taken to their pond? What if Fredrick was frognapped?!?
Until next time, keep your eyes open for wild wonders...
Monday evening, there was more carnage...this time in the butterfly/hummingbird garden. A dead juvenile Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). It appears that he flew into the window of my office, as there was a very large smudge mark and a single feather stuck to the window. Chris noticed the poor thing and told me. I went out to remove him from the garden before Oscar found him. I took a plastic grocery bag and used it to pick up the bird. Before we determined the cause of death, I did a visual examination. I noticed that one of the bird's eyes was cloudy/milky and that there appeared to be a small amount of blood coming out of its mouth on the same side of his head as the ruptured(?) eye ball. It was then that I looked up at the window and realized just how this little guy expired.
I think what's saddest about this is he was one of about six juvenile Blue Jays that had been visiting our yard and feeders since Friday. Saturday they were all flying about, squawking, eating, and otherwise playing around. It is easy to tell they are juveniles for several reasons. 1) They are still very awkward in flight and landing, 2) their feathers aren't as smooth and full as an adult, and 3) well, they carry on like a bunch of teenagers! They were a source of entertainment all weekend long. And now, one of their own has fallen. I was home sick yesterday and I swear the rest of the Blue Jays were looking and calling for their sibling. So sad...
Now onto happier thoughts, eh?
In an effort to catch and relocate our resident groundhog, I believe I previously mentioned that we borrowed a trap from someone from my office. Well, we finally caught something, but it wasn't a groundhog. Thankfully, it wasn't a skunk either...it was a rabbit. On my sick day. I had a terrible headache - a sinus headache - and had just woken up at 9:30 AM and decided to go down and fix myself a cup of tea. I let the dog out and went to the sink to fill the kettle and turn it on. No sooner did I do that and Oscar started barking, barking, barking! I looked out and lo and behold, there's "Thumper" in the trap. I march outside in my bathrobe and slippers and try (in vain) to get Oscar to calm down, sit, and let me release the rabbit. Yeah, right. So instead, I carry the trap with the rabbit back to the house, where I fool Oscar into going into the house, and then turned around and released the rabbit from the deck. The poor thing was terrified. Of course Oscar was barking at it a mere inch from its face the whole time we were walking back to the house. At one point, the rabbit moved as close to me in the cage as it could get and looked at me like, "Human? Help me!" So much for my subsiding headache...it came back in full force. I think we might be done with that trap. I'm convinced the groundhog has moved on.
The five House Wren babies fledged from their nest late last week. They hatched on August 6th and were due to fledge on or near August 20th. I checked the box on the 20th and they were still there; by August 23rd, they were gone.
On Saturday, I spent an hour picking "stuff" in the garden including one pound of green beans, 20 Roma tomatoes, 28 other tomatoes, SIX POUNDS of grape tomatoes, a nearly five-pound zucchini (I have no idea where it was hiding!), a cantaloupe, and a dozen ears of corn. Needless to say, I spent Sunday morning blanching and freezing quite a bit of vegetation!
Chris planted the red hibiscus I bought at the beach - it is a Bordeaux variety and it is really beautiful. It is supposed to bloom through autumn and I hope it thrives in its new location. It should get plenty of sun. I am very excited to have a hibiscus...I just love them!
Another thing I love is having hummingbirds be such frequent visitors to the feeder and garden! I suspect that the pair from earlier this summer may have nested and had babies. I have routinely observed a small female visiting the feeder and another, larger female who seems to watch over her from the trees. Occasionally, they will fly together, squeaking and chirping. in addition to eating at the feeder, I have seen the hummingbirds visit the bee balm and the Russian sage often.
Hmmm...what else? Oh, yes! Chris counted AT LEAST 18 fish in the pond yesterday. I swear we are going to have to feed those fish birth control pills! I keep telling everyone that "Fertile Myrtle" lives in our pond and just keeps having babies! And there have been no sightings of Fredrick Von Hoppenstance since before we went to the beach on July 19th. My brother and a friend of mine both think Fredrick fell victim to a raccoon. I suppose it's possible. I prefer to think he found "greener pastures" at the neighbor's pond. Either that or...hmmm...the neighbor kids did feed our pond fish while we were gone on vacation. What if Fredrick didn't FIND his way over to there pond but rather was taken to their pond? What if Fredrick was frognapped?!?
Until next time, keep your eyes open for wild wonders...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
More Carnage in the Pond Pump
Just a quick update this morning...Chris had to unclog the pond pump again this morning and this time it was a dead bird that had been sucked in! Yikes!!! He said it was bald and I asked if he thought it was a baby bird or just had been stripped of feathers either by the pump or by decomposition (no telling how long it was in the pond before it got swept into the pump housing). He said it looked like a fully developed bird, but he could not tell what kind. Sad. :(
We have set a trap for our resident groundhog even though we have not seen him since before we left for our beach vacation back in mid-July. A kind gentleman here at work retrieved his trap from his farm for us, so we figured we'd give it a try. If we are successful in trapping the varmint, we are going to relocate him to some state game lands about 5 miles away. I don't want to risk him/her finding his/her way back! We're leaving it out during the day while we're at work up through dusk. Chris springs the trap each night when he takes Oscar out so we can avoid trapping a skunk. We saw one in the neighborhood about a week ago. That's the LAST thing we want to trap!!!
I blanched three gallon size bags worth of squash and zucchini Monday evening. I have more to steam blanch and now that my new 12-cup Kitchen Aid food processor is here, I will be able to make short work of the zucchini. Mike (a co-worker) gave me a recipe for zucchini chocolate chip cookies (and a delicious sample of his work!) so I will definitely have to try them! With the new food processor, I can also chop tomatoes for salsa in no time and also cucumbers for pickle relish. Do not be surprise if you live nearby, work with me, or are within a short driving distance, if I show up at your house with jars of pickle relish in the coming weeks!!!
Until next time, keep your eyes open for wild wonders...
We have set a trap for our resident groundhog even though we have not seen him since before we left for our beach vacation back in mid-July. A kind gentleman here at work retrieved his trap from his farm for us, so we figured we'd give it a try. If we are successful in trapping the varmint, we are going to relocate him to some state game lands about 5 miles away. I don't want to risk him/her finding his/her way back! We're leaving it out during the day while we're at work up through dusk. Chris springs the trap each night when he takes Oscar out so we can avoid trapping a skunk. We saw one in the neighborhood about a week ago. That's the LAST thing we want to trap!!!
I blanched three gallon size bags worth of squash and zucchini Monday evening. I have more to steam blanch and now that my new 12-cup Kitchen Aid food processor is here, I will be able to make short work of the zucchini. Mike (a co-worker) gave me a recipe for zucchini chocolate chip cookies (and a delicious sample of his work!) so I will definitely have to try them! With the new food processor, I can also chop tomatoes for salsa in no time and also cucumbers for pickle relish. Do not be surprise if you live nearby, work with me, or are within a short driving distance, if I show up at your house with jars of pickle relish in the coming weeks!!!
Until next time, keep your eyes open for wild wonders...
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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...
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...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
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...
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...
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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...
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...
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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!
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!
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