Feed the birds you have

I was reading a short profile of an actor who owns a horse that she plans to show. Her trainer told her to "ride the horse you have," meaning that some days the horse will perform magnificently and sometimes not. I decided to apply that philosophy to my bird feeders. Instead of fretting about the sparrows and starlings, I will just feed them all. That doesn't mean I won't try to lure the sparrows away from the peanut splits or buy corn-free suet blocks so they don't peck at those; I also ration the meal worms because they are expensive. I spent enough at a recent trip to Wild Birds Unlimited that they gave me a free bucket of Bark Butter, something new to try, to see if I can feed even more birds.

Last night, a little hail fell, followed by snow that melted, then froze into bumpy ice, followed by fluffy snow. I've been watching "Bordertown" and the winter scenes with white xmas lights reflected in the snow are quite lovely. Besides our own lovliness here, this morning's dog walks were delightful, as there was no wind. After breakfast, I puttered in the yard, just to enjoy the winter weather.

I've started "fall cleanup" by cutting down the clematis. Even though the 'Betty Corning' is not supposed to be cut down, it looks so raggedy that I can't help myself. I'm wondering if I paid more attention to shaping and training it in the summer, I could prune it properly and not have it trying to take over everything in its vacinity.

Regarding indoor gardening, I have not been having much luck. I wanted to transplant the dracaena that I have been rooting in vermiculite, but, huh, no roots. It looks fine but nary a root has appeared. Maybe I'm overwatering it? I also tried starting some herbs, but so far I have only a couple of basil seedlings, no dill or thyme.

There is shoulder surgery in my future, once I get both doses of the Covid vaccine. I can't help to want to schedule it so that it does not interfere with gardening. Yes, I can hire someone to mow, etc., but my yard is my therapy - physical, mental, spiritual. Even if the pandemic continues, even if the country remains divided, even if domestic terrorism is on the rise, I can look forward to disappearing into the garden for some respite. Stay safe!

Feather of bird

I don't need binoculars to recognize most of the birds in my yard, but some of the feathers I come across are a mystery. Like this one. The red tips puzzled me, but now I am thinking it might be from a bluebird. What say ye? (The feather looked more pristine before Clio put her snout on it - dog snot.

The Allen County Department of Management posted a graphic to help dardeners to decide about yard cleanup. The point of the posting is to encourage gardeners to leave flower stems standing until spring, when one cuts off the flower heads. The dead stalks provide stem-nesting bees a place to hibernate and to make nests for their brood. To view the post, click HERE

Last Sunday my SO came over and cut down the fruit trees that I cut down previously - they keep coming back! - and we moved the cinder blocks surrounding their beds. The blocks are sitting in the driveway right now, waiting to be used to make a drying rack in the garage. If that makes no sense, it will once we execute our plan and I post some pics.

We have been having quite a bit of rain lately, probably because my neighbors across the street have gone camping. It's become a running joke. The feeding frenzy at the bird feeders is over, although the blue jays are doing an excellent job of emptying the whole peanut wreath. Are they eating the nuts or hiding them somewhere for later? And yesterday I saw a monarch butterfly in the backyard. Time to head south!

HOT

When I look at the weather forecast, all I see are days and days of high temperatures, over 90 for forever. Some of those days include a "chance of rain" which means none. I've had to drag out the hose in the evening to encourage the droopers. It is only July; what will August be like?

It's too hot and dry to try to transplant anything, but there is plenty of other work to do. I have a few plants that I regret, in this case trumpet vine and forsythia, that I am eliminating by cutting back, then applying herbicide. The stuff I am using, Ortho Poison Ivy and Tough Brush Killer, doesn't seem to work very fast, but it did eliminate the poison ivy growing under the gold mop (plus a few hyacinth that were inadvertently sacrificed). I may try applying it to mulberry samplings, too.

After cutting back the trumpet vine on the inside of my privacy fence, I ventured into "no man's land", the area between the fence and my (now new) neighbor's privet hedge, to see if there was trumpet vine growing on that side. I was never able to convince the previous owner of the hedge to do anything to it, so I pruned back my side to keep the branches off the utility lines (cable and phone, not electrical) and allow me room to cut the grass and weeds. Last summer, though, I let the privet go because of my hip.

I have yet to meet my new neighbors, let alone discuss the privet, but initially they seemed to be making an effort to keep that area mowed. Then they gave up, perhaps after someone (I'm guessing the underground utility guy) pruned some branches, then let them lay where they fell. When I stepped through the gate this week, I found what looked like a Canada thistle farm.

It took me several morning sessions, but I cleared out the fallen branches, whacked the weeds, and "mowed" (with my string trimmer). The hedge needs some attention, however, as there is honeysuckle (the bad kind) and mulberry samplings (also the bad kind) growing there. The branches need to be pruned to protect the lines. Then I will borrow a truck to haul all the detritus to the compost site. Maybe while I am doing all this, I will get to meet the neighbors and try once again to broach the subject of what to do with the privet.

The west side of the house is as finished as it is going to be for now. We're all set for the AC to be serviced. I want to move the lilies sometime and fill that last bit with pebbles too.

I keep changing my mind about where to move the lilies, but once I get rid of one of the forsythias, they can join their brethren in a small bed of mixed lilies, like this one.

I have seen squirrels and chipmunks around the yard (no rabbits as of late), but I have also been finding dead voles in the back lawn when I pick up dog poop. Initially I suspected my outdoor cat, but Finn usually eats what he catches. From observing the dogs, I think maybe they are the ones trying to eliminate these pests. Good dogs!

A perennial (heh, heh) mystery is why some yarrow in my yard blooms while some does not. I gave my SO some yarrow and he experiences the same thing. I thought yarrow liked full sun, but now I have my doubts as the flowering plants receive afternoon shade while the non-bloomers are in the sun all day long. Anyone share this experience?

'Betty Corning' is just about done, but the 'Avant-garde' clematis is still blooming. My SO and I have been discussing alternative methods of supporting these vines, as they overwhelm everything I have tried so far. Maybe part of an antenna tower? Milkweed and bee balm is starting - they each have their distinctive aromas.

Piddling in the yard

Yard cleanup continues. I have been cutting up the longer stalks so I can fit more into the trash can, but now am thinking if I am going to that much trouble, maybe I should just let the pieces mulch, then compost in place. Once I have finished downsizing the garden, I may just do that.

While cleaning up, I came across this thing. I suspect it is a spice bush I planted in 2017 (I think - there doesn't seem to be a blog entry about it). I thought I had moved it to the south side of the shed, but whatever I did transplant did not survive. If this is a spice bush, I am very glad to see it.

There are more crocus (crocii?) than usual this spring. Even though we had a mild winter, maybe it wasn't beneficial to the local rabbit population. The daffodils are blooming as are the pink hyacinth. And then there are fungi.

I reassembled and repositioned the tuteurs for 'Betty Corning'. Last year's experiment of trying to direct these clematis vines to the nearby redbuds was a fail because the Betty's don't get tall enough. Maybe this year I will prune back some of the vines, to try to control the rampant growth. In case I forget, I anchored the tuteurs to the downspouts.

The neighbor who lived behind me kept two compost bins behind his shed. When he moved, he took one with and bequeathed the other - and the compost in it - to me. The compost has been sitting in old recycle bins in the garage... until yesterday, when I spread half of it on the front lawn. My spreader is old and decrepit, and it seemed to get hung up on the pieces of egg shell, but I managed to make one pass over the lawn. The walk across the lumpy lawn and the pushing of the spreader reminded me of why I purchased a riding mower a couple of years ago. My ankles and arms were sore after that.

I hope you all are playing it safe, staying home, washing hands, etc. Keep calm and garden on.

The trials of March

"Sheltering in place" does not mean one cannot go out in the yard and work on spring clean up chores. The front yard looks relatively tidy, so I've been concentrating on the backyard. If I lived in the country, I would just do a controlled burn to get rid of all the dead plant material, but alas, I am a suburbanite and must abide by local laws.

The dogs have been inordinately interested in the garden shed and now I know why: something (I'm guessing a woodchuck, hence the name of this blog) has managed to breech the hardware cloth barrier I oh-so-carefully-but-apparently-not-carefully-enough skirted the shed with last fall. Some of this damage may have been inflicted by the dogs, though. There are days when I wonder why-oh-why did I adopt these knuckleheads?

My SO suggested we cut up some plastic trellis and use that instead of the hardware cloth. I agreed but have this sinking feeling that an animal that can chew through hardware cloth will have no trouble with plastic.

While a construction crew toils away resolving the neighborhood-wide drainage issue (getting us high and dry must be an essential service), I have drainage issues in my own backyard. The clay soil does not help. Yesterday the ground wasn't too bad, but of course today it is raining AGAIN.

I like to get a pic of the few remaining crocus blooms before rabbits eat them. The snowdrops and snow crocus are already gone, and it occurred to me that perhaps they *have* bloomed before this year, but I didn't notice because they haven't created clumps yet, so come and go without much fanfare.

Last summer I thought I had eradicated the cocklebur, but apparently not. The dogs come in with these things stuck to their collars, then they stick to whatever I am wearing, like Velcro.

I looked through previous March blog posts, to see if this year is different, but no. March is the limbo between winter and spring. Last year my hip was a good excuse for not keeping up. This year, thankfully, that is not a problem anymore. Time to get crackin' - if it ever stops raining.

A beautiful weekend

The weather is such a tease, warm and breezy one day, wet and wild the next. Yesterday and today were just great, though. Saturday, my granddaughter and I wheeled around the nabe a bit, her on a scooter, me on a bike, my first attempt since hip surgery. Actually, I have not been on a bike in years, but now that urban trails are sprouting all around me, I plan to make cycling a regular activity.

"They" took down a couple of locust trees across the street, in anticipation of the new storm sewer installation. The neighbor over there rented a log splitter and has been running it nearly non-stop all weekend. Not as annoying as a leaf blower, but a pretty constant drone. Other homeowners are out picking up sticks and hanging laundry and just piddling in their yards. I trimmed back the 'Limelight' hydrangea a bit; it needs more shaping and cropping, but my hip doesn't feel ladder-ready yet.

Inside, I had all the wall-to-wall carpeting replaced with laminate. I really like the results, but I have not yet completely recovered from the interim chaos because I am also decluttering and rearranging and discarding. Two rooms remain to be "tidied", the den (or what my granddaughter refers to as the "junk room") and the spare bedroom that serves as my fiber studio. Then I want to tackle the garden shed and the garage (shudder!!!)

Green! Yellow! Pink!

After months of gray and tan, the green, green lawn seems amazing. And there are cheerful yellow daffodils and perky pink hyacinth, too. If it weren't raining/sleeting, I would go outside and take some pix.

The fall cleanup is basically done. Since the honeysuckle vine had invaded the neighbor's yard, I pruned that back. A quick inspection of the shrubs and trees shows nothing died over the polar vortex winter we had, although the jury is still out regarding the Rose of Sharon - it is always the last thing to show signs of life, but last year was looking rather peaked. We'll see if it comes back.

Since I am not growing food anymore, there are areas of the yard that no longer need to be in full sun. So I am contemplating adding a couple of trees in back. Of course, it will be decades before they cast any meaningful shade, but still. One must plan ahead.

Hope spring is brightening your days!

In like a lion

It is a bit early for that March aphorism, but Mother Nature knows no calendar, especially these days. I took advantage of the calm before the storm to cut back the sedum. Already a few plants are showing green at the base.

Yesterday's winds blew over the bird feeders, much to the squirrels' delight and the dogs' consternation. Clio and Watson turn into sleeping lugs when the skies are gray, but a little sunshine (like we have today) perks them up to the nth degree. I'm their disappointment this winter when it comes to walking - it's too cold/windy/icy/wet or all of the above.

On one of our rare winter walks, I noticed the next door neighbor had created a little sitting area next to her front porch (not that I have ever noticed her sitting there). I used to have a couple of Adirondack chairs set under the shade of the Crimson King maple tree, but they had to be moved each time I mowed. Maybe I'll create a dedicated sitting area beside my front porch, as the back deck is rather intolerable in the afternoon.

Do you have sitting areas in your yard?

Da burds

The birds finally discovered the feeders in the front yard. Besides the usual sparrows and finches, there are jays and a red-breasted woodpecker and black-capped chickadees. There is also a squirrel. It tried repeatedly to find its way past the baffle, which was comical to watch until it finally made it to the big platform-style feeder. It hasn't cleaned the feeder out nor has it invited its friends (yet), but I will have to do something to discourage it. Shortening the hanger so that the feeder is a bit higher should do the trick.

I set up the heated bird bath in front of the picture window. About the time I gave up hope that the birds would decide it was okay, the sparrows and then some blue birds found it. I would not be surprised to see the squirrel there too someday.

The weather has been unbearably (to me) temperate. The ground just won't freeze and stay frozen, which causes one major problem with muddy dog paws. I spread straw over the worst places in the yard and invested in a Paw Plunger and limit the number of times the dogs can go out during the day, but the routine of cleaning them up whenever they want back in is getting OLD.

On the other hand, on nice enough days, I am out in the yard, piddling around. In today's rare sunshine, I cut back the catmint and blue false indigo. Earlier I cleaned out the garden shed. Bit by bit.

The lazy blogger

I can't believe it has been more than a month since I last posted. Part of the reason is the season - not much is happening in the yard and garden these days besides a little fall clean up. I don't make the beds all neat and tidy, but any time it is reasonably nice out, I putter a bit.

The barberry shrubs are getting hacked up quite a bit. They are supposedly invasive, but my primary concern is they crowd the big Gold Mop. Ditto for the burning bush, but it keeps trying to keep on. Some plants just don't want to say die even when the gardener wishes they would, like the yucca.

I stopped feeding the birds for a while, as the sparrows had driven everyone else away plus they were ruining the lower branches of the thin skinned tulip tree by stripping off bark for their nests. The dogs have the run of the backyard - and they like to chase away the sparrows (good dogs!) - so this fall I set up the bird feeders in the front yard, away from the tulip tree, where the old fashioned lilac once stood. The stump of that shrub refuses to decompose, so now it is surrounded with mulch and topped with the feeders. It is not a very popular spot yet, although the blue jays have been helping themselves to the unshelled peanuts. I'm still contemplating a spot for the bird bath.

Seed catalogs started arriving just before Thanksgiving, but they go right in the recycle bin. I am reducing my gardening footprint because it is becoming just too much for me to keep up. Instead of new plants, I plan to rearrange the ones I have. If there are holes to fill, I may use annuals for the time being.

In case it is another month before I post again, happy holidays!

Snow more!

The previous snow melted away. Last night I thought we were supposed to get rain but replacement snow arrived instead. Fortunately, it is nearly gone, again. This weather is positively bipolar.

I first planted this coleus in 2012, in the flower box on the front porch. Since then, each fall I save a "mother plant" to winter over inside and be cloned for the following year's transplants. Unfortunately, I can't find the name of this variety in my blog. I think it is 'Velvet'.

I actually did some yardening yesterday, in a desperate attempt to fight off the late February blahs. All I did was cut down the clematis, slogging around in the mushy top half-inch of lawn. The dogs kept me company, which meant they both needed baths afterwards. Mud season - ugh!

Bed by bed

Anne Lamott wrote a book called Bird by Bird. It's mostly about writing, but maxims for writers can apply to gardeners as well. The title reflects how to attack a large project: bit by bit.

Native sampler

My yard is rather large, which I consider a good thing, but sometimes the sheer amount of work to keep it up overwhelms me. Despite my attempts to make things easier, they seem to get more complicated. But if I can take things one bed at a time, I shall prevail.

Native sampler getting fenced in

For several years I've contemplated adding another structure to the yard, leaning toward a screened-in gazebo. The new fence provides so much privacy now, that idea has evaporated. But my g'daughter has been trying to build a clubhouse of sorts in the bushes. This inexpensive resin shed should serve that purpose, plus give me some place to store lawn furniture in the winter.

Resin shed

The brand/model is Keter Manor (purchased at Menards), size 4'x6'. And it is a BEAR to assemble. It takes two people, and it is especially helpful if one of them is tallish with a certain amount of upper body strength. And power tools. My SO did most of the actual labor while I supervised/assisted. Be prepared to argue over discuss the instructions.

The garden proper evolves, and will continue to do so in the near and distant future. We removed the movable fence, then reduced the footprint by doubling the height of the raised beds and shoving them closer together. I have a reminder on my calendar to take photos from these five perspectives throughout the growing season, so we can track further changes.

Looking SW

Looking NW

Looking NE

Looking SE

Orchard - looking SW

Today it is rainy, so I'm glad I soldiered on yesterday. Not much is blooming - a few daffodils, even fewer crocus, the forsythia. Many buds look ready to burst on the early-blooming shrubs. Hope a frost does not ruin the show.