The Gathering

The deer are gathering at Russell Hill Road. It should be green. Instead, we had new snow yesterday. Melting today. What a cycle! Spring is coming... spring is coming... spring is coming.

A Sure Sign of Spring

Summer and Tuk had a raccoon treed in the Forest of the Damned last week. This is a sure sign of spring. It took us almost a half hour to convince them to go all the way back to the house. It was easy to get them to stop barking and jumping. Getting them to the shop wasn't that hard either. But convincing them to go all the way to the house was tough. Tuk kept stopping and looking longingly back. When we noticed the raccoon, we were on our way to town. When we came back, the dogs were at the house and the raccoon was gone. No blood. So I guess in the end, they did listen. Now just to determine where the raccoons are living. Although, it doesn't really matter. The dogs will convince them to move to a more peaceful residence quickly. I hope.

Pine Grosbeak

 

I normally don't share crappy photographs but this is a Pine Grosbeak and all the other shots I got were crappier! We have been here 10 years now and this is the first time we have seen them. We had two pairs of them stop for several days in February. It was all so exciting!

Protecting your Garden

I have often posted about the adventures of my pets in my garden. Although there is some work involved in having so many dogs and cats AND a large garden, it has been well worth it for me. One of the big benefits of all my cats and dogs is that wildlife, generally speaking, stays out of the yard. We get the odd gopher or two and Hannah brings me mice that are no longer alive but we are not overrun with anything in the rodent family. This year I am starting my new kitchen garden and it will have an 8 foot fence around it because I need to keep my animals out of it as well. Digging in my flowers is one thing, digging in my food is quite another!

If you have wildlife bothering your garden, Organic Gardening magazine has a good article here on protecting it from wild things.

Snowy Owl

This afternoon, Sean and I were driving home from Weyburn when we saw a Snowy Owl. It was huge and beautiful. I could see it long before it landed but it did land before we passed. It perched on top of a power pole and watched as we went by. I have never seen a Snowy Owl that wasn't a photograph. We had a Great Horned Owl take up residence on our acreage for about 3 days one year but never a Snowy Owl. When I got home, a blog I read had a post about a Snowy Owl. That landed me at an article telling me that there have been unusually large numbers of Snowy Owls showing up in places they do not normally show up. Hawaii for example! I also did some reading to find they are daytime owls so that explains why we saw him in the afternoon. Normally, we only see Owls at dusk or night. It was a nice experience.

Hens & Chicks Again

I love groundcovers of all types, especially sedums. Of all of them, my far and away favourite is hens & chicks. Any variety will do but the larger the better and if they are bicolour green/red I tend to gravitate to them first. Of course, my favourite would also be the one that is the most challenging for me to grow. I did manage to find and save all three of these this year. Their reward for resilience will be a more protected spot for next season.

First challenge is that they are small. Small can get lost in my garden and sometimes be found too late to save. I have more than one day a season that I look out the kitchen window and wonder if I am growing a weed garden or a flower garden. Worse still, I can't even try to call it a wildflower garden because thistle and goldenrod do not a garden make. Under any definition.

The next and biggest challenge can be summed up in one word... animals. From the crows that peck them up every spring to the dogs that seem to live only to paw them up out of the dirt and baby hammy who likes to take them into the tree to munch and then spit them out - animals of all kinds love hens & chicks. Many days I can do my garden walk-about to find hens & chicks sitting root upward, smiling at the sun. The afternoon sun here is hot. +35 and dry today. An afternoon of that would kill most plants. Not hens & chicks. I pop them back in and they always recover. Always. It is one of the many things I admire about them. This week, I need to find all three of these a new, permanent home. They are currently in temporary spots. I am determined to have their roots in the earth by the end of this week!

Winter Garden Pleasure

The winter birds are what pulls us out into the garden when everything is white. Chickadee's are always happy to land on Miles when he takes out the seed.

Fall Visitors

Although we have visitors to the garden all year, their numbers seem to increase dramatically in the Fall. I think the deer start to come in closer because it is hunting season and they seem to sense they are safer here. The Woodpeckers, on the other hand, leave for Summer and return in Fall. I don't know where they go or why they want to be here in Winter. This little guy is baby Hammy and he has found a couple of new friends in recent days. I hope one of them is building a warmer house than baby Hammy is because baby may be looking for a roommate come snow!

Food!

I have always been a flower gardener and still consider myself as such. This year I added food to my garden and was surprised to find that it was as easy as growing flowers. This was the first of my potatoe crop to be made into a meal. It was yummy! I had success with everything I planted so I am going to expand that next year with the addition of a fenced kitchen garden. Although the dogs did not bother potatoes, onion and chard, I have a feeling they may feel differently about carrots, spinach and lettuce. Add to that our visitors from this morning and I think the kitchen garden will need a fence.