Sadness

For the last few weeks, my family has been watching a pair of Carolina wrens building a nest and feeding babies in a potted geranium on our deck.  We watched them build, then they seemed to disappear for about a week.  We wondered if they were on the nest, or if it was just a decoy, and the real nest was somewhere else.  Then they started bringing in food, taking turns bringing bugs to the babies.  Every time one of them came out, he (I think) would perch on the deck railing and belt out a song, before taking off in search of more bugs.  We managed to sneak a few peeks at the babies--they were very small and in a very dark nest, but we saw lots of pointed yellow beaks. 

Last night everything changed.  When we went into the kitchen this morning, we could see that the geranium pot had been knocked off the table, and the nest materials were scattered across the deck.   Apparently, a raccoon made a late-night raid.  There weren't even any little feathers left.  

I get the circle of life thing.  Really, I do.  But it broke my heart to see one of the parents come flying in with a bug in its mouth a few minutes later. 

I heard wrens singing in the back woods this afternoon.  They'll try again, someplace safer, I hope.  If we're lucky, they'll bring the babies to the birdbath in a few weeks, or feed them on the deck rail.

Lawn? Bah, Humbug.

I just finished mowing the lawn.  It took a little less than an hour.  When we moved to this house nine years ago, the lawn took over two hours.  We have a lot less lawn now, and a lot more flowers, shrubs, and vegetable beds.  Which is just fine with me.   At best, our lawn suffers from benign neglect.  At worst, I actively work to get rid of it. 

Not only do I prefer other plants to grass, but I'm uncomfortable with what it takes to maintain a showcase lawn.  In my gardening, I avoid pesticides and herbicides, and use as little chemical fertilizers as possible.  That same strategy makes for an ugly lawn.  I take some comfort in realizing that my lawn is not a monoculture of turf grass, but rather a thriving, diverse ecosystem.  I noticed dozens of species of plants out there this morning, plus two enormous rabbit (I hope!) holes.  There are grasses, but also sedges, clover, violets, mosses, and the odd mushroom.  There's even some Virginia creeper and a few red cedars encroaching from the woods.  As long as it's mostly green, and it doesn't take too much time, energy, or money, I'm happy with it.

Bees

I'm writing this on my front porch, drinking coffee and watching bees. There are so many bees on the holly tree next door that I can hear it buzzing. There must be hundreds of bees--bumble bees, little tiny bees, and even a few honeybees. As they make their rounds, they also visit my lavender, and even the sunflowers.

I've noticed a small hole at the edge of my porch, between the concrete slab and the brick edging. Some small species of bees has noticed it, too. Apparently, there's enough room down there for a colony. Bees are constantly coming and going, off pollinating the flowers and vegetable gardens in the neighborhood. I'll let them be busy today--it's my first day of summer vacation, and I'm trying to remember what relaxing feels like.

Sunflowers

One of my most frequent gardening laments is about how hard it is to grow the things I'm trying to grow, but how easy it is to grow weeds. This spring, however, I have a lovely border of sunflowers that I didn't plant. Last spring, I planted sunflower seeds nearby, only to have a monsoon a few days later that washed everything away--there was six inches of standing (and flowing) water where I'd just planted seeds. So maybe the seeds landed a few feet away, waited a year, then came up this spring. Or, more likely, the chipmunks or squirrels or blue jays buried the seeds there some time this winter (after getting them from the feeder in our backyard). Either way, they make me smile every morning.

Garlic!

This weekend I dug up the garlic. It's drying on my front porch. Tomorrow, I'll put it on screens in the garage to cure for a few days. We should have garlic into next spring! It smells wonderful.

May Flowers

Peonies and irises and roses, oh my! It's true. For about two weeks in May, my front garden is awesome. Some people complain that peonies and irises are overrated--they only look good for a short time, then it's all over. It's worth it, if you ask me.

Springtime!

It's finally, unquestionably, spring here. We had a cold winter that seemed to last forever. Then suddenly it was ninety degrees in early April, so it felt like we went straight to summer. We're back to normal now and there are lots of things blooming. Just this week, I have irises, columbine, pinks, and viburnum (see photo) in the front yard. The peonies and rhododendron are going to be next.

In the vegetable garden, the peas, spinach, cabbage, and broccoli are looking great. We had our first salad with homegrown lettuce for dinner tonight! Tomorrow I'm planning to plant the tomatoes--I've had them growing (from seed) in my living room under grow lights for the last two months or so. I'll need to find room for the basil, too, but I'll probably wait on the eggplant and peppers until it warms up a bit more.

Overall, things look pretty good out there. Two disappointments--both of the palm trees seem to have died. They looked good all winter, even under lots of snow, then they turned brown and crunchy when it started getting warm. Go figure. Several branches on the lilac have died, too. I love lilacs in bloom, but I haven't had much success with this one. It's about four years old, and no flowers yet. I'm thinking about moving it to a different location, but I'm not sure what it needs.

Looking forward to thunderstorms tonight and digging in the dirt tomorrow!