Residents and Visitors

I'm sure you have resident wildlife that share your garden spaces with you. For me they are the deer, raccoons, frogs, all sorts of birds and these fine looking creatures who have become regulars each morning looking for a handout. They let me know they are ready to eat by coming up to the deck, climbing the beams and looking in on us as we have our breakfast. I tear up a piece of whole grain bread and toss it on the deck and grass. They aren't tame enough to stick around while I do that but once I close the window they scamper back to eat. This morning there were these two. A third was chased off so it didn't get to partake.



Then there are the occasional visitors. Yesterday it was a flock of cedar waxwings taking a drink from my pond. Didn't catch them on the camera before they flew off to who knows where.

(Photo from GBYBC - anonymous.)

This morning it was a single duck who landed on the embankment of the pond. As I reached for the camera she flew off chased in flight by another duck, I assume a male. I believe she was a female wood duck because she look somewhat like this. It was the white patch that was distinctive but she wasn't the lovely coloring of the male wood duck.

(Photo from web search - Terry Sohl)

Residents and visitors - an ever changing scene here at my gardens.

Non-Harvest Monday

No harvest for me yet but drop by Daphne's Dandelions to see what other gardeners harvested last week.

Here's what growing in my garden.

Lettuce mix.

Bib lettuce.

Spinach.

Snow peas. Now I did plant these under the soil. How did they pop up to the surface?

The protective covering for the peas to keep the turkeys from eating the peas.

Onions.

More onions.

Garlic.

Spinach.

This is the pile of mulch I need to move.

Anyone recognize this? Weed or not? I'm reminded of petunias. I don't think it's forget me not. It's all over the yard and garden.

Status of My Seedlings

It was a jungle under my lights. I had transplanted the Rutgers tomato plants to bigger pots but didn't have enough to do the others.

Here are the Amish Paste tomatoes ready to go into bigger Cow Pots.

You put the whole original pot into the new pot. I planted them deeper and now they're ready to grow some more.

Peppers that need to be thinned before transplanting.

Thinned and pot placed into new pot. Transplant soil added.

I transplanted some of the basil, all of the peppers and eggplants and two varieties of tomatoes.

Some of the plants that didn't make the cut or did they?

Twelve Cow Pots under the lights with no more room for any others.

The rest are in trays lined with plastic and placed in my south and west facing windows.

What Goes Bump in the Night?

Raccoons do! Raccoons robbing the birdfeeders!

I heard the bumps last night and thought the raccoons were under the deck. Heard the bumps some more and finally got up from my book, turned on the deck and porch lights, but could see nothing. I just didn't look in the right place.

This morning at breakfast I glanced out at the feeders to see how much seed was left in there and no feeders and in one case no hanging hook either.

Here's one of the empty hooks.

The feeder (squirrel-proof but not raccoon-proof) was down the hill into the glen.

The second hook was laying underneath the tree where it hangs. How did they unhook it?

The feeder was 10 feet away along the edge of the glen in the brush.


That's not all the mischief. I was blaming the squirrels for digging up the astillbes and flowering fern root but I think the blame lies with the raccoons. Below is the hole from which they took the flowering fern root. They didn't eat it just had to see what was under there.

Here's one of the three astillbes. At least the others weren't disturbed from their holes. I wonder how this one will survive? It didn't come looking very good from Dutch Gardens.

This afternoon I will put chicken wire over the astillbe plantings in hopes that will keep the raccoons away. I wonder though because if they can unhook a heavy birdfeeder, they surely will be able to lift up chicken wire. But maybe not?