Thirsty Birds!

I was sitting on the porch, talking on the phone and saw that the birds were going nuts. A couple of them landed on the edge of the pond and made efforts to reach the water. They couldn't, it was too far down. I saw other birds landing near a wet spot in the yard, that's not wet at all right now. I can't believe it; how did I not think of the drought's impact on birds!

Not having yet found the perfect cobalt blue bird bath for my kitchen garden, I have nothing set up for them on a regular basis, but I could improvise! I took a plastic saucer, put a rock in the middle to stabilize it and filled it with water. The next day about ten birds were queuing up for a turn! If you haven't yet found the perfect bird bath for your garden consider at least putting something together. The birds are thirsty!

Attack of the Cicada Killers! Not!

My family thinks I'm nuts, but I was very happy to have a gigantic bee fly at me when I walked across the deck a couple of weeks ago. I know, now that you've read that you think I'm crazy too, but there's just something about cicada killers.

They're scary looking at more than an inch long, but they rarely use their stingers, more content just to give you a warning fly-by, much like those Maverick enjoyed in Top Gun. Luckily I wasn't drinking coffee. Unafraid of challenge, I have seen them wrestling with cicada's as long, but twice as wide as they are. Plus, and I know this is only my 2nd summer with them, they have already come to mean late summer; the time of year when it's too hot to use the porch anyway so it's okay to share it with some oversized bees. They nest under our porch and their eyes are frequently bigger than their stomachs, or at least the cracks between our decks. Every day we find multiple cicadas stuck like this. They're not dead just paralyzed an intended larval meal. I don't know yet if they ever wake up from their slumber and wonder how they got wedged in our deck. Maybe I'll pay attention this weekend; if I find out I'll let you know.

For some actual, factual information about cicada killers:

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef004.asp

For some just for fun and funny information:

http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com/2007/07/return-of-cicada-killers.html

Is my Garden Half Empty or Half Full?

Lately, between the deer and the drought, I've defintely been feeling all of my beds are half empty. My neighbors warned me that the deer would be devestating and discouraged me even trying. Never one to let someone else tell me I can't or shouldn't do something just because it didn't work for them, I persisted. As I watched my tomatoes and peppers be eaten again and again, I told myself that at least the herbs were all right and came up with strategies to try for next year. Nonetheless, somewhere along the line (I think when the cranesbill I planted in the spring was pulled up and devoured) I started to forget all of my positive thinking.--half empty they were!

Then, one of my neighbors came over. I was ready for her subtly crafted, "I told you so" having rehearsed my response and practiced it on my husband, but do you know what she said? "I can't believe the deer haven't eaten more of your garden, it looks great." I wasn't ready for that, I had nothing to say, but I looked around and I saw that she was right; parts of the garden were thriving. My rosemary is growing, my lemongrass is shooting skyward, my sage has never looked so good and my scented geraniums are sprawling! I can breathe a sigh of relief--half full after all!

Hypothesis: I Need a New Camera

I was sitting on my stoop when out of the woods across the street came a young fox, slightly larger than a cat. I watched him for a while and then noticed a doe coming out of the forest. She and the fox ignored each other and actually stood quite close. Then the buck arrived and while he seemed okay with the fox at first, he apparently changed his mind and began crowding the fox until it got the hint and headed over to our yard. It was amazing and I couldn't get any of it on film!

I knew this because the doe and the buck have been hanging out across the stree every evening for several weeks now. Occassionally, a fawn emerges from the grass as well, but usually it's just the two of them. Our dog, Archie, fierce hunter that he is, looks for them every night and just lies there gazing at them. They will occassionally, look up at him, or me if I'm out there, and then go back to grazing. They never seem bothered by Archie, but if I get too close they will stamp their feet until they've decided they can't let me get any closer and one of them, usually the buck, will give a whooping cough-like bark and away they go. So a few nights ago, thinking of the blog, I tried to take a picture of the deer and Archie watching them. This is the best of them.




and now you see the conclusion is clear: I need a new camera!

Pond Renovations

I couldn't take it anymore!


I hadn't wanted rocks all the way around the pond. I thought draping plants would be a nicer accent and I'm sure they would have been eventually, but in the meantime the black vinyl was just plain UGLY. There was also a tiny problem with those two uncovered sides; they were uneven so when it rained (not something I've had to worry about recently) some of the water drained out on the right side.

So last Tuesday, I began the renovations. I didn't need a lot of rock so I called my favorite dealer, Cortney's, and asked if they had any pieces available. They happened to have a broken pallet they let me go through to choose what I needed and gave me a great deal! At first I thought I could just raise the sides by laying the rocks. You can see by the big wet spot in the picture to the left how well that worked (of course, I completely laid out the right side in the heat before I thought to check!)

The second time around, I put inexpensive pavers under the liner first; putting some effort (but not too much) into making them level. If I had to have rocks all around I didn't want it looking too perfect and scream"landscaping!" Once the rock was laid, I climbed around applying cement while Mike handed me the supply. Finally, I could backfill and on Sunday, Simon and I lay newspaper in the bare spots and mulched everything. It looks much better!


The biggest obstacle in all of this was not the horrendous heat, but the dozens of tiny baby frogs surrounding the pond. I had to walk on tiptoe and wave my hands around the ground to shoo them out of the way before I knelt or laid any rock . Here's a picture to give you an idea of just how challenging this was; there were a couple of times I almost took a head dive to avoid a last minute jumper!


Oh yeah, and if all of that wasn't enough, one of the new rocks had a great shape that Simon recommended we incorporate into the waterfall. Fine-tuning the waterfall has almost become an addiction for me so I was certainly game! While we were working, we finally solved the flow problem we had been having. The waterfall would pump perfectly for a day, maybe two, and then the flow would slow to a trickle. It turns out we had a major leak in one of the plastic tubes! We put that part of the tube into the pond itself and the problem is solved! A perfectly flowing waterfall completes our newly refurbished pond! Now if only Fall would arrive so I could do some more landscaping...Of course, now that I've added the picture, I'm noticing how the top rock doesn't quite cover enough of the rock on the left...

Shhh...Don't Tell the Deer

Some new asiatic lilies have appeared; note the deeper pink raised part inside.

The Kitchen Garden

The one thing I missed from our old house more than anything was my herb garden, only this time I had the room to not only expand my herbs, but grow vegetables too! I knew I didn't want a traditional row garden and I definitely wanted herbs, vegetables and flowers grown together. Not only would it be pretty with everything combined, but it would also let me practice companion gardening. Once the spot was picked it was so close to the house that once again its colonial style dictated part of the design. Of course, for me all of that combined meant research, research and research.

Eventually, I put my design to paper; a 36' by 16' rectangle on the "inside" with four 4' by 16' beds on either side of the "gates" (fencing to come.) The interior beds are mirror images with one exception. On either side of the main walkway the beds are 8' at the back, 6' wide on the sides; the two beds together form a sort of hexagon in the walkway. Behind each of them is a rectangular bed and at the back another long rectangle. The only fracture in the mirror comes at the far end from the house, where the long rectangle is broken in two, leaving room for a future trellis and bench. The bench you see now is strictly a placeholder.

The inside is mainly devoted to vegetables and their companion plants. The outside beds closest to the backyard holds edible herbs and the ones facing the front are old-fashioned herbs of the kind Brother Cadfael himself would have grown.

Creating all of this was, well, horrible! I learned a technique from The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith for "easily" making right angles--"The Magic Triangle." Apparently it was first developed by the ancient Egyptians about 4,000 years ago and the formula is: if one leg of a triangle is 3 units, the 2nd is 4 units, and the hypotenuse is 5 units you have a right angle. Got it? Okay now repeat it approximately 40 times and keep your sanity! I began sometime in April and finished the end of May. It was a little late in the growing season for planting vegetables, but after all of that I still had to try. Things are growing slowly and as you know I've had some challenges from the deer. The crows too. I came home one day after planting seeds over the weekend to find the straw removed from the beds! Oh well, we're plugging along!