Blackbirds and Bluebirds

Because of unseasonably cold weather conditions, there are as yet no blooms to brag of in my backyard, or in my front yard for that matter. What I have instead are birds. Blackbirds. Several varieties, including Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoenicus), Common Grackles (Quiscalus quiscula), Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater), and European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).

Several Varieties of Blackbirds



A Starling With Suet



Starlings are not native to North America. Although there are approximately 200 million starlings in North America, they are all descendants of approximately 60 birds released in Central Park, New York, by people who wanted every bird species mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare to be introduced to North America.

The European Starling is a hole-nesting species and will nest in just about any cavity it finds. Native species such as the bluebird have been adversely affected by this introduced species, which multiplied rapidly and can now be found throughout North America to the point of overpopulation.

It is a common practice where possible to set up nest boxes in backyards and wooded areas for native species to give them a chance, and to destroy Starling nests. In some cities birds of prey such as the Peregrine Falcon have been introduced or allowed to nest in built-up areas to help control the starling population. (Note: most of the information in the previous paragraphs is adapted from this Wikipedia article.)

Building a Bluebird House



The Finished House



A few weeks ago, we participated in a project to build a bluebird house. These houses are specially designed to be specific to the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). The hole is exactly 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) which discourages larger birds such as the European Starling. As well, instead of a perch there are small indentations, as the Eastern Bluebird can cling to them. This prevents smaller, more aggressive birds such as the House Sparrow from using the nesting box as they cannot feed their young without using a perch to rest on.

It's very unlikely that we'd get bluebirds nesting here, even if we hung the birdhouse. However, it was fun for my son to build, and we certainly learned a lot about the plight of native birds who have been negatively affected by introduced species.

Snow!

Yes, it's April 5. Spring by all accounts. And we've got...



Snow!

That's right. Daffodils, daylilies, and...



Snow!

Hello to you from my snowy backyard.

April Showers

“April showers bring May flowers.” Which sort of means I don’t have any outdoor photos to show you. I am getting actual flower buds on some of my daffodils, though, so I’m hoping it won’t be long before there is something worth seeing. The little honeysuckle I planted in front of the porch last year is getting some green buds, too.

Tomato Plants



For photos I will have to stick to my indoor garden. I’ve been concentrating the news on the daylilies recently, because there are always new sprouts to count. (Current number as of this morning is an even 50.)

Two Daylily Sprouts Among the Sunflowers



However, my tomato plants are going strong, and the sunflowers are getting tall enough to topple over. The recycler in me has found a use for the wooden take-out chopsticks my husband and I would normally just throw away after using: they have become miniature plant stakes. They don't always work, but they help a bit.

Used Wooden Chopsticks Recycled as Plant Stakes



The petunias have all sprouted, too, and will soon need thinning. The expensive ones that came in a plastic vial (similar to a perfume sample container) I placed painstakingly using the saucer and toothpick method.

Petunia Sprouts



But the cheap ones that came in a foil packet I sprinkled liberally over the top of the peat pellets, resulting in a miniature forest of petunia sprouts. Luckily these don’t need staking. I don’t think my husband and I can eat that much Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food in such a short time—though it might be fun to try.

Sunflowers and Petunias: The Big Picture



And finally, this is for Dana in New Mexico: the hesperaloe (Pink Texas Yucca) sprouts are healthy. They reached a height of about 3 inches (8 cm) and seemed to stop growing—at least compared to the rate of growth I see with the daylily sprouts, the earliest of which are about 8 inches (20 cm) tall now.

Hesperaloe (Pink Texas Yucca)



And speaking of daylilies sprouting from seed...

Dana's second-year daylily seedlings (grown from seed I sent her in Fall 2005) were planted outdoors in Spring 2006. They have returned this year and are growing, but they seem to have turned yellow despite getting adequate water. I've said to check for insects (I've had problems with thrips before). Does anyone else have any ideas of what to look for with second-year daylily seedlings that have leaves turning yellow?

Purple Flowers

Today is the day I said I would open this blog again officially. It turns out I have had a few posts in March, too, which I did not anticipate. We'll just call that my little "April Fools" joke.

Another thing I did not anticipate was that I would have some flowers in my garden to show you. It seems the purple ones are doing well, like these pretty pansies. These are what we call Icicle Pansies, meaning that you plant them in the fall and they will bloom until the ground freezes. Then, as soon as the ground thaws, they start blooming again. (I even had some flowers in January, since we had some warm weather at that time.)

Icicle Pansies



I also have some flowers coming up that I have never planted before. But last fall when I was buying my tulip and daffodil bulbs, I got a FREE package of purple crocuses. The funny thing about these is that the package called them "Ruby Giant". These are really the smallest crocuses I have ever seen! They are less than 5 cm (2 inches) tall.

My "Giant" Crocuses



Lastly, there is some vinca blooming. Vinca has a few different names. It is also called periwinkle, and myrtle. There are different varieties. I also have some with white flowers. The leaves can be variegated as well.

Vinca (also Called "Periwinkle" or "Myrtle")



It's a nice groundcover, but it spreads uncontrollably and does not always co-exist well with other plants. For example, my daylilies that have been surrounded by vinca end up not blooming. So I am really of two minds about it. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I want to rip it all out. I'm sure most gardeners have a plant like that in their garden at some time, whether it's vinca or something else.

Oh, and by the way, I now have 46 viable daylily sprouts and my mother is very pleased that I will be planting some in her back yard.

Indoor Gardening (But Not For Much Longer)

My seedlings are doing well, despite accidents that can happen when your household includes a curious young cat. I have 36 daylilies that have sprouted from the seeds I planted. I no longer have 130 potential plants, though. We, uh, lost a few when one whole tray went toppling to the ground from a great height.

The great height was the top shelf of my new "greenhouse". The best sunny window we have is actually in our south-facing bedroom. The greenhouse unit makes it practical to use the sunny bedroom window as a light source for the seedling trays. (We just have to remember to close the door so the cat doesn't get in there where we can't see her.)

New Greenhouse in Bedroom Window



This frees up my festive table under the north window downstairs for my new acquisition: a succulent garden.

Succulents



Wal-Mart had these beautiful, inexpensive collections of succulents (mostly different echeveria, from what I can see -- including 'topsy turvy', my all-time favourite) in striped bowls. I really like the way the striped bowls go with my striped tablecloth.

Festive Bowls



However, one drawback is that the pea gravel being used as mulch is actually glued on. I am thinking that when the weather is nicer outside, I will end up breaking these bowls in order to extract the plants and place them in another container. (And if any of you crafty types can point me to some good instructions for making mosaic planters, I guess I will be able to put those colourful bowls to good use even if I do break them.)

Old-Fashioned Maple Syrup (Updated)

In this post, when I say "old-fashioned" about maple syrup, it's not just a marketing term. The month of March is the time for making maple syrup, when the sap is running, and not too far from us is a living history museum that demonstrates the making of maple syrup the way the natives and early pioneers used to do it.

The natives of course discovered that maple sap is sweet and can be boiled down to make a sugary liquid syrup that hardens on contact with snow to become maple sugar. It was sugar they were after, rather than syrup, since sugar will keep through the summer while syrup quickly goes bad in warm weather.

Since the natives did not have iron pots or tools, they used natural materials to create their implements. After tapping the trees and collecting the sap in birchbark containers, they put the sap into a hollowed-out log.

A Hollowed-Out Log



Obviously this one is a spare that is not being used right now. Those charred branches you see at the top left have a special purpose in making syrup the native way. They are used to carry red-hot stones over to a hollow log full of sap. The stones are heated up in the embers of a very hot fire. You can see some stones being heated up underneath the logs in the following photo.

Heating the Stones



The addition of hot stones causes water to evaporate out of the sap, eventually creating the thick, sweet syrup that is ladled onto the snow to harden as sugar.

Update: On a second visit closer to the end of March, I was able to get these photos of the later part of the process. The first one shows a log with hot rocks just added. You can still see the steam. The second one shows a log full of maple syrup made the way the natives did it.

Hot Stones Added to Sap



Maple Syrup Made the Native Way



When Europeans arrived bringing metal pots and tools, the process became a bit cleaner and more refined. The boiling step was done in large kettles over open fires. The liquid was boiled in kettles of progressively smaller size as it became less watery and closer to syrup.

Boiling the Sap



Update: I was able to get a photo of the contents of the smallest kettle. The pioneers would have used a small amount as syrup for pancakes, after filtering it through cheesecloth. The rest would be boiled down to sugar and poured into molds for storage.

Maple Syrup Made the Pioneer Way



In addition, the collection of sap was done in covered metal buckets, similar to the kind that are still used in small operations today. (Larger modern operations use lengths of tubing to convey the collected sap directly to the boiling house, or sugar shack, located in the bush.)

Update: I added a couple of photos that show a close-up view of how the sap is collected in the covered buckets.

Buckets Are Attached to Every Sugar Maple Tree



The Sap Is Collected Drop By Drop



It Looks Like Water in the Bucket


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Seedlings

I now have 23 daylily seedlings. I've had to transplant some of them already, but more keep sprouting all the time. I reused a large glass vase that had tulips planted in it, and planted some daylily seedlings there to replace them.

Most of My Daylily Seedlings



Daylily Transplants in a Large Glass Vase



I did some more planting on the weekend, sunflowers and petunias. I decided on all different colours of sunflowers, including pink and red. And some of the petunias are special double hybrid ones, which were expensive (for seeds), so I hope they sprout.

Sunflower and Petunia Seeds



The sunflowers are just starting to sprout. It's no wonder I'm so frustrated with the daylilies taking so long when there are other seeds that sprout this quickly. My guess with the sunflower seeds would be that, since they are so delicious for animals and birds to eat, they would have to sprout fast or else there would never be any plants for the next year. (I should know this. I am always having to clear the space under the bird feeder of sunflower sprouts in the summer.)

Sunflower Sprout (The Little White Dot)



My tomato seedlings are getting their second (and in some cases third) set of leaves, and they actually smell like tomato plants.



Our new cat is fascinated by the "greenhouse" area I have set up, and there have been a few near-accidents when she is around. But she is a good cat, and we love her. How could we not? She is very beautiful.


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Daffodils and Rabbit Damage

We still have winter here, as you can see in this photo of my work corner, which is still home to lots of snow and ice.

My Work Corner



Here are some photos of rabbit damage that became evident over the past few days.

Weigela in Late February



Actually, that first one of the weigela was taken in late February, when the worst of the damage was being done.

Japanese Maple



I know the damage was done by rabbits. They chewed several shrubs in my back and front yards, but they left lots of natural fertilizer behind in exchange.

This Is How I Know It's Rabbits




The good news is that daffodils are sprouting. Hope they do okay in this warm-again-cold-again weather.

Daffodils

Thaw

The deep, deep piles of snow behind which the garden has been hiding are thawing, turning to water, and trickling away.

Well, trickle is a misnomer. Miniature waterways course from high ground to low, seeking any open drain. The rivers and ponds will soon be rising to dangerous levels.

Yesterday, if you had sat relaxing on the sunny side of a south-facing wall, you could have worn a T-shirt and shorts and worked on your tan. I parked in such a place and the temperature inside the car reached 18 degrees C (somewhere in the high 60s F). I guess that doesn’t sound like much, but it is when you still have knee-high snow on your back deck.

But the piles of snow are receding.

They have pulled back from the edges of the front garden, revealing, among other things, a still-blooming purple pansy left over from January. It must have been protected by the snow. Winter started late this year, and I suppose it will be ending late too. Last year on March 12 there was no snow left anywhere except deep in the forest. Now we are at March 14 and the retreat is barely beginning.

I am already thinking of hyacinths and daffodils. I don’t even like hyacinths—they grow outdoors in the garden and still their scent is far too strong for me—but they are colourful early bloomers and I need something to look forward to right now. The latest batch of indoor tulips is well past its prime and I am bored of captive red gerbera.

The First Official Daylily Sprout!

Okay, well, I'm really excited to see my first official daylily sprout. You're gardeners. You understand. Right?


Photo belongs to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Sprouts!

I didn’t grow up with a sense of gardening as something fulfilling, something that I could ever see myself doing. You read about people who view their mother’s garden as some mystical place of wonder. I never had that. But still, in later years I have been able to make a garden for myself.

Tomato Sprouts


Photo belongs to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

I’m a bit frustrated right now, though.

None of my daylily seeds are sprouting yet—though the Hesperaloe (which is called “Pink Texas Yucca” by my friend in New Mexico) and now the tomatoes are sprouting.

I am not insane. I will not try the same thing and hope for a different result. No, now I will try something different. The cold stratification I vowed to do in the fall and didn’t get around to, I will do it now.

Time to see what seeds I have left and what I can do with them.

---

LATER: I have moved some of my containers to the garage (the equivalent of a fridge) which should give them a hint of winter and remind them they need to sprout when I bring them back out into the sunshine. I have also put some of my remaining unplanted seeds in between wet paper towels enclosed in a clear plastic bag. I'll keep my eye on them for the next few weeks and see what happens.

In the meantime, go and check out Alison's blog to see the wonderful sprout she has already got from one of the daylily seeds I sent her last fall.

I have also had an e-mail from my friend in New Mexico (who is very pregnant right now and not blogging much) about the wonderful progress of her garden and the daylilies grown from my seeds that are in their second year now. I am hoping she gets some blooms this year and can post some photos.

And, last but not least, I just took a magnifying glass to my Jiffy planters and much closer inspection reveals that some of the daylily seeds have cracked and are beginning to reveal their innards, so it's only a matter of days before I will be seeing some green daylily sprouts too!

Tulip Blooms

The tulip bud that I photographed earlier is now blooming. Here is a photo of the tulips now.


Photo belongs to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Seeds Are Germinating

The Pink Texas Yucca (Hesperaloe) seeds I planted a few days ago are germinating. My husband thinks this makes sense, since it is a desert plant. There is no point hanging around waiting for perfect conditions. Just give them a little water and they are "good to go."

Pink Texas Yucca (Hesperaloe) Sprout



Another View of the Hesperaloe Sprouts



I have taken these photos with the new macro lens that Mr. Wonderful bought with his yearly bonus from work. It is very exciting to get so close up and be able to focus so clearly.

Mr. Wonderful also bought me some tulips bulbs that are sprouting in a wide glass vase. I have taken a photo of one of the buds.

Tulip Bud


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.


Edit: I have added the references to "Hesperaloe" after receiving Annie in Austin's comment.

Ice Storm

We had an ice storm last night. It's not so bad, except the schools are not open today. (That's bad if you are a mom, like me.)

The only scary thing was in the middle of the night when the power went out. We have a UPS attached to the computer and when there is a power outage it beeps and beeps. Our power came back on again in the very early morning. The older parts of the city are not so lucky. When the wires are outside on poles instead of being underground, heavy ice and high winds can do a lot of damage.

But really, an ice storm can be pretty. Here are some photos from around my house.

Icy Trees



The Bike Path in the Distance



A Hidden Squirrel



My Neighbour's Garden Shed


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Well, it’s about time I did something with the pile of daylily seeds I have collected. So, out came the Jiffy pellets that I bought last year, along with some Jiffy mix (which I ultimately abandoned because it wasn’t soaking up water for some reason).

Jiffy Pellets and Mix (the Jiffy Mix Did Not Work Out)



The first seed tray worked out fine. It took a while for the pellets to expand, I guess because they were a year old. My other seed tray was not designed for the Jiffy pellets, but for another brand which is a little smaller. So Mr. Wonderful picked me up some of the smaller ones while he was out buying a new furnace filter. Maybe because they were fresh, or because they were a different brand, those ones soaked the water right up and expanded quickly.

Pink Texas Yucca Seeds from New Mexico



So now I have planted 10 Pink Texas Yucca, 9 heirloom tomato, and about 130 daylilies. (I forgot to do the preparation on the daylily seeds, so I am likely to get about a 10-15 percent success rate again. If I am more successful, then I will be planting a lot of seedlings in my mother’s back yard. If I am successful beyond my wildest dreams, then I will have to give some away.)

The Pink Texas Yucca seeds were sent to me by a blog friend in New Mexico. This plant is grown there where xeriscaping is a popular form of gardening. Although they might be a touch delicate for our winter, I plan to grow them as patio plants so I can move them to a sheltered location to overwinter.

My Greenhouse...er, I Mean Living Room



I suspect I will try planting some more Yucca seeds when I see the relative success rates for the daylilies sprouting.

Now, for the long months until spring I have been consoling myself with potted plants, mostly tulips, but here is a closeup of the gerbera daisy plant that currently keeps me grounded.

Gerbera Daisy Close Up


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.