A Patient Craftsman Creating Exceptional Landscapes
We had light snow today which left the backyard with some interesting patterns. In an effort to uncover tasty birdseed the birds left some interesting patterns in the back yard. Needless to say, I spread the seed around the backyard so everyone who visits has a chance to eat!
This picture says it all!
A couple of months ago I planted a few Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) on a whim. For this reason, within hours, possibly minutes, butterflies started gathering on the plants.
Consequently, this morning, as I topped off the bird baths I found two Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars.
Here’s the secret to attracting butterflies.
Choose plants butterflies like you’ll get butterflies. It’s that simple
Generally speaking, every time I’ve walked out the door and looked at the Swamp Milkweed there have been butterflies flitting around. It makes the yard an even more peaceful place to be.
Below is the grouping of Swamp Milkweed. It’s a spindly plant that grows 3-4 feet tall with small pink clusters of flowers. For this reason, it’s best for the back of the border or, obviously, wetland plantings.
A closeup of Swamp Milkweed flowers past their prime with some seedpods developing.
Here’s the picture from the top of the post. That’s a big, healthy Monarch Caterpillar.
Over the summer I planted a couple of Mandevilla Tropical Breeze ‘Velvet Red’ on a client’s property; moreover, the Mandevilla has bright red trumpet-shaped flowers which hummingbirds love. As a result, within minutes of planting a hummingbird was drinking nectar from the flowers.
Choose plants hummingbirds like you’ll get hummingbirds. It’s that simple.
I’d love to hear about any plants or methods, you’ve used to attract Monarch Butterflies, Monarch Caterpillars or other wildlife.
This spring as I was raking leaves a bird quickly, yet conspicuously, flew away from where I was working. It was a little bird with four eggs in her nest.
If you’re walking and a bird conspicuously flies away and chirps you’re too close to her nest. Indeed, the bird is trying to trick you into chasing her rather than find her nest. Robins are the biggest offenders of this behavior.
The tree she built her nest on is a Yoshino Cryptomeria (Cryptomeria japonica ‘Yoshino’). The tree suffers from winter burn. I already pruned the damage from the other trees.
Winter burn is when evergreens lose water quicker than they can replace it. In particular, you see winter burn when there’s either a brief winter warm spell or strong winter winds with frozen ground.
If your trees or shrubs have winter burn all you can do is prune out the dead branches and hope they regrow.
I decided not to cut the tip where the bird’s nest was to give her cover and mark where I shouldn’t walk. The nest was at the base of the burnt foliage.
I’m not sure what’s going to become of the Cryptomeria. Every one of them lost a central leader. I guess they’re going to become large shrubs.
Cryptomeria responds extremely well to pruning. The tree sprouts new growth better than most needle-leaved evergreens after heavy pruning. While I know they’re going to grow, unfortunately, I’m not sure in which direction.
Sadly, the momma bird lost her chicks a week after they were born. One morning all was well. That afternoon the nest was tumbled and the chicks were gone with momma flitting in the tree above.
You can see water droplets on her wings in the pictue below. She’s a great mom!
Let me know the type of bird that is and I’ll update the post. I’m thinking Finch but birds aren’t my specialty.
Yesterday, I started the search for a bird bath for the back yard. I was hoping to find something simple, a flat stone with a bowl carved into it. Indeed I’ve admired a few like that over the years.
I headed off to Swenson Granite.
I spotted what I was looking for. Unfortunately, there was only one in stock and it was chipped. Therefore, I headed to the office to ask if they had more.
The model I was looking for was no longer available. Consequently, I asked about another bird bath I liked. It was a Deer Isle Lo-boy bird bath.
Lo-boy means the bird bath is half the height and Deer Isle is a darker, less showy, granite. The Lo-boy base looks, and may be, hand cut. I like that.
I’m not a fan of flimsy bird baths and sundials. They’re prone to lose their tops in the wind or shifting ground from freeze-thaw cycles.
Gregg lifted the heavy stones and gently placed the bird bath in my pickup. Thank you, Gregg!
Next, I placed the bird bath next to my feeding platform under the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) where it can be viewed from the kitchen.
While the granite looks great it doesn’t match my low budget feeding platform. It’s like having a salt and pepper shaker that doesn’t match. In fact, I need a granite feeding platform too. But not this year.
Did you notice the second bird bath in the picture?
There’s a funny story to that.
Today was Father’s Day and my wife and daughter spent hours searching for the perfect bird bath yesterday, unbeknownst to me. They decided a lower style would look just right in the spot.
Yesterday, within minutes of arriving home, my wife spotted my new bird bath. Equally important, she couldn’t believe I bought myself something the day before Father’s day.
For this reason I’m a heel.
Consequently, my Father’s Day gift will be going in our Memorial Garden.
I bet more than one reader can relate to the story…
The last couple of nights this rabbit has been sitting on the edge of the woods eating carrots. It’s encouraging to see rabbits in the garden.
The past few years I’ve been walking green kitchen scraps to the compost pile in the hopes of improving my soil and saving the environment.
Unfortunately, the compost pile is about 80 feet from the kitchen. It takes time and I don’t enjoy making the trip in the rain, snow, and cold.
I don’t like keeping rotting waste in the house so I decided to put a pot on my patio, away from the house, for scraps. Unfortunately, windy days knocked the pot over, chipmunks jumped in the pot, and my dog rummaged through the scraps.
I decided to kill two birds with one stone by attaching the container to the dog’s fence with a bungee cord. The wind won’t blow the container over, and chipmunks and the dog can’t get to it.
Now the funny part.
Yesterday, I noticed a stream of ants climbing the wall and disappearing into our patio. I couldn’t figure out what they were doing there.
I worried the porch was in need of immediate repair because ants had made their home in rotted wood. Don’t get me wrong, the porch is due for a rebuild, but I’ve been putting that off for years.
As I contemplated how I was going to rebuild the porch I figured out the source of the problem. Ants were walking from the porch to the kitchen compost bin using the fence as a highway.
Needless to say, I’ll be moving the kitchen compost bin farther from the house tomorrow. How far remains to be seen.
This blog isn’t about fish but I need to share this story for anyone with a clamped goldfish.
Clamping is when a fish stays at the bottom of the tank and doesn’t move much. The fish may also be ‘breathing’ more quickly than usual.
About three weeks ago, Zoomer, the fish on the left, clamped.
Zoomer has clamped before when I waited too long to clean the tank. Shimmer, the fish on the right, has never clamped.
The first thing I did was clean the water and filter. The water was dirty and overdue for a change.
One word of caution is to not change the water in the tank all at once. Change it a little at a time. If you change the water quickly it stresses fish out. I’ll let blogs on fish care handle the details of that.
Over the course of 4 to 5 days, I removed a little water, and debris, from the tank until it was clear. The water turned a milky color a few days after changing. I knew something wasn’t right.
After cleaning I tried a product by API called PIMAFIX for fungal infections.
After 3 days I stopped using the PIMAFIX. I didn’t want to make the poor fish’s life any harder. I wasn’t sure the fish even had a fungal infection. I was grasping at straws.
It was a case of me overdoing the quick remedies and possibly hurting rather than helping the poor fish.
Next, I visited YouTube and watched a video about feeding fish the inside of a pea to cure constipation which can cause problems with their swim bladders. I stopped feeding the fish for three days and then gave them the inside of peas for about three days.
The fish weren’t impressed with the peas though they did eat them. Unfortunately, Zoomer was still clamped.
I thought it was the end for poor Zoomer.
This morning, after over three weeks of lingering on the bottom of the tank, Zoomer has buoyancy again. I’m so happy!
I can’t say if the peas helped or not but there was a large piece of fish waste floating on top of the water this morning.
In my research I read that if a fish is clamped for over two weeks it probably won’t heal. Don’t give up too quickly!
What was the cure?
Clean water and time, over three weeks time.
If your goldfish is clamped be sure the water is clean and give the fish time to heal. Sometimes that’s all it takes.
Yesterday while working in the yard I almost stepped on this little fellah or little girl. This is officially the first toad I’ve seen this year. The local toad population must be loving all the rain.
