When I first got into gardening I was attacted to large blooming perennials, and planted mostly those. I have come a long way since then, namely I appreciate things like edibles more, interesting foliage, and length of bloom time as much as bloom shape, size, or color.

But sometimes that interest in large blooming perennials rears up. Enter Kniphofia, other wise known as Red Hot Poker plant. A few years ago on a walk I saw it in bloom, thought it looked cool, and wondered why I had never seen it before. I couldn’t find a good source for plants, so I bought some seeds and started them.

Unlike many of my seed starting endeavors this worked out, and I transplanted them outside, and generally took care of them. Three years later they got big and bushy and were ready to bloom. For a perennial from seed that sort of length is typical. I was pretty excited as I watched the scapes rise.

In the end this plant only bloomed for about three days, and it never got “red hot” remaining more a muted salmon color at best. What is more it had the bloom habit of a gladiolus where the lower flowers bloom and close before the uppers open, so the whole “poker” was never in bloom at once.

It bloomed for such a little amount of time, that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it, so below you see it not in bloom.

Now, if I’m going to give roughly 4 or 5 square feet to a plant in my garden it better bloom for more than 3 days, or provide me something edible.

A few days after it had stopped blooming, I dug it up… oops.

A rabbit had taken advantage of the messy foliage mound and dug a burrow directly underneath it, which I had now destroyed. Luckily my shovel did not crush any of the 4 eyes-still-closed baby bunnies inside of it.

I reconstructed a fake burrow by cutting a black plastic nursery pot in half and then covering it with mulch. I placed the babies back inside and on advice put down markers so I could tell if the mother returned. After two days the mother had not returned so I took the babies to a local wildlife rescue place where they could be nursed. Apparently they were really closed to being weaned naturally, despite still having their eyes closed, so they had a good chance at survival I was told.

This just shows you never know what you’ll find when digging in your garden, though next time I’d rather it be gold coins.

In the place of the horrible Red Hot Poker plant I ordered something truly hot, a double echinacea called ‘Hot Papaya’. Coneflowers have a long bloom period, which I like, but I dislike the big brown center on the standard coneflower. The double varietes are like much more attractive to me and I grow one of the original pink cultivars already. I noticed my neighbor had one of these the other day, and it was doing well, and it seems like it would be the perfect plant for the spot where the kniphofia was. I had originally wanted a nicely blooming bright red perennial for that spot after all.

I can tell where the creature, undoubtedly a groundhog I’m sure, entered my yard. It ate the leaves off a new paw paw tree I had just planted. Then ate the top growth off my single small boysenberry plant. Waltzed across the driveway, ate 3 or 4 small petunias I had just planted, ate all the small leaves off the lowest branches of my yellow delicious apple tree, ditto on my honeycrisp apple tree, which it then climbed to destroy my primary branches. Then it continued to eat the tops off some hardy hibiscus, and finally off to the neighbor’s yard.

It figures too. I had just critter-proofed my back yard. Nothing bigger than a squirrel can get in the entire backyard now (not unless it can climb a 6 foot privacy fence). I had to do it because every once in awhile a skunk will wander in, and my toddler son has no idea that a skunk is not a dog or a cat and would probaby run at it waving and screaming and that is not something I wanted to deal with. Not that I needed much arm twisting to do so, having dealt with groundhog damage over the years. But, now they’re hitting my front yard, the devious rodents.

So, I learned a lesson. I normally leave limbs on trees as much as possible, to provide more leaves, and thus more energy for growth. But I immediately went out and pruned off all the small lowest branches on my dwarf apple trees. On the honeycrisp the critter had used these small lowest branches as a ladder to reach the higher and thicker (and far more important) primary branches, which it then tried to climb to the end of, until the branch snapped. Then the stupid thing went back and did it on the other side. The point being, without the ladder-like small lower branches, I don’t think it could have reached so high.

So, from now on, I’ll remove the option of climbing the tree. Now, hopefully, I just have to worry about them gnawing at the trunk.

It immediately jumped out at me, so I’m sure it hadn’t been there long, or I would have seen it previously. It is a big egg, maybe a little bigger than a chicken egg. It has a tuft of feather attached to it, a few brown smears, and a somewhat waxy smooth texture, not the gritty texture of a chicken egg. It also felt sturdier. I tested it with a flashlight and it definitely is a real egg, there is something in there (something small).

I’m told by Google that it may be a Duck egg, well, it is big enough certainly. But how did it get there? Did Mrs. Duck lay it there on purpose? Why? I’ve read that some animals will carry an egg, like a fox, but we don’t have foxes, and I can’t see a squrrel doing this. I’ve seen one raccoon in 7 years of living here, and this is also fairly near a fairly busy 4 lane road. Plus… if it was stolen from a duck nest, where is the nest? It would seem like if it was stolen, the thief brought it a long distance. I’ve got a small water feature in my back yard, but it doesn’t support ducks. There is some wetland areas about a half mile away where I have seen ducks, but that is still a half mile, and surely there are better hiding places for your cache of stolen eggs in forest and wetlands than a city neighborhood by a street?

Any ideas? Can I do anything to help this egg hatch? Or is that a lost cause without mom around?

This little guy had no fear of me, and at one point flew down within inches of my feet. Watch the video below, or at Youtube for HD. Also included are partial shots of my water feature, and this just underlines another reason to have a water feature, they attract wildlife like nothing else.

In 2008 some robins built a nest in a barberry bush just outside our kitchen window, and so I was able to monitor it daily.

May 26th

I first noticed a single egg on May 26th. By June 1st there were 3 eggs, so apparently robins do not lay all at once, or even on the same consecutive days.

June 1st

By June 9th they had started hatching. First two, then the third.

June 9th

They continued their growth and I could watch their parents feed them from our kitchen. Here they are, 5 days old.

June 14th

Finally, just 2 days later, look at the growth spurt they put on, adult feathers are coming in.

June 16th

That was the last picture I had of them, the next time I looked they were gone. Apparently Robins will hop out of the nest at 10-13 days old, but they do not know how to fly yet, and I remember seeing a fledgling robin hopping around shortly thereafter. Still, they need two weeks to learn how to fly after leaving the nest, that has to be the most vulnerable time for a baby robin. Especially if you’ve got neighbors who do not understand why they should keep cats indoors.

One of the nicest things about building a nice garden if you’re also building a nice habitat for wildlife, and while we battle with the wildlife as well, seeing their life cycles is fun. Just the other day I watched a male and female red finch (which are rare around here) flirt with each other, and we’ve had cardinals build nests before, and robins. Even before this robin nest there was a fledgling robin in our yard for awhile and I helped protect it and fed it some worms and raspberries. I’ve also stumbled upon baby rabbits no bigger than the palm of your hand. I can’t wait to share that with my kids when they’re a little older.

So, last night I made some skillet apples, and as I do normally I got out a brown paper bag to put all the scraps into for taking out to one of my compost tumblers. I like this because the bag adds brown material the same time I’m adding the scraps (which are considered green) so it helps with the ratio.

It was late, and cold, and windy though, so I thought to myself “Hey, I’ll just put this bag outside on the back porch on the deck and run it to the composter tommorow.”

A few hours later my wife comes upstairs and says our cats are being well enterained by an opossum just out our (mostly glass, which is why the cats could see) back door. It was sitting there just a foot from our door and us, not a care in the world, eating the apple peels and cores.

So, not going to do that again, but you can look at it a couple ways, the opossum needed to eat too right? But do you really want a wild animal hanging around your small yard looking for food scraps? What if you have a family pet that goes outdoors, it could be bitten and have to be put down. The animal can also attack your food crops (if this was summer) or get into your garbage, or eat all your bird seed, or eat ornamentals even, plus, opossums are ugly.

It only took 3 hours maybe for the opossum to narrow in on that bag of stuff (and I’ve put bags out before without a problem, so it wasn’t as if this guy was already established in our yard).

This is why people who aren’t living out in the woods or on a farm or something anyways, people like us who live in a fairly densely populated area, should not run open compost piles. Imagine how many critters I’d have if I had an open compost pile? Raccooms, opossums, and yes, SKUNKS! Imagine that. Instead, I have 1 fully enclosed compost bin that is even on large concrete stepping stones so that nothing can burrow up into it, and 2 fully enclosed compost tumblers. Compost tumblers may be more expensive than freeform piles or large open bins, and they hold less in the end, but they work faster, and not having a bunch of nuisance critters living in your yard is a big plus. The last thing anyone wants is a skunk to take up residence under your deck because your composting kitchen scraps are readily accessible, after you pay $200 to have that skunk removed, a tumbler suddenly looks like a bargain.

And yes, I grew up in the country, in a house in the woods, and we had shotguns to deal with nuisance animals trying to live in our garage, under our deck, etc. Just for the heat and catfood. But, that too, is not an option here in town.

I planted some squash on the south side of my house near my raised beds (but not within them) where I plant veggies yearly. This area used to be full sun but I realized this year that the tree back behind it has growth enough to make it only part sun. Additionally I assumed that since the spot where I planted my squash was well rested, it had been covered by mulch for 5 years, I thought I wouldn’t need to improve the soil. I planted it on the corner just outside a raised bed after digging away the mulch, and my plan was the wrap the vine around the raised bed.

So I planted my squash, and it wouldn’t germinate, because the squirrels kept digging up the seeds I planted and taking them. So, eventually I started seeds in pots and transplanted the vines.

Meanwhile, out in front of my house in one of my ornamental beds (that has very improved soil and is in full sun) a squirrel apparently hoarded my stolen seeds, and one of them sprouted. I decided to let it grow, and I’m glad I did. For without that squirrel, I’d have hardly any squash.

In the picture, all of the squash on the left was planted by the squirrel, all the squash on the right was planted by me. Notice the difference. In total my squash weighed 1 pound 6 ounces. The squirrel grew 41 pounds of squash, including a whopping 7 pounder which is about twice as big as the typical store bought kind I normally find.

So, it is official, at least where butternut squash is concerned. Squirrels are better gardeners than I am.

I like butternut squash because of all the types of squash, I think they taste the least bad. Honestly, after eating some travesty of a squash preparation at a family Thanksgiving when I was like 10 I’ve avoided them like the plaque, but I’ve since warmed up to them and cook butternut and spaghetti squash regularly. They also have a really long shelf life when properly stored, up to a year even, and are incredibly healthy.

As to how to cook them, try my butternut squash soup recipe. It’s good.

The easiest way to attract these birds is with a sock full of niger thistle seeds. You can get these at most home improvement stores, but I’ve seen them for really cheap at Walmart. These mesh socks nicely contain the seed and allows the finches to eat at varying angles (such as upside down) that they’re oft to do at times.

There are also more expensive finch feeders, large plastic contraptions with multiple eating locations. These, I do not recommend. The socks accomplish the same thing, in a better way, for less money. We had one of these finch feeders before, and the birds would never use it, whereas they use the socks every day. So, apparently 9 in 10 goldfinches agree, simple socks are more useable.

These yellow birds love the seeds of thistles, dandelions, goldenrod, sunflowers (especially maximillian sunflowers, they’ve literally attacked mine for the seed), and coneflowers. They do not use cavities (houses) for nesting, prefering to nest in shrubs and trees, so a wooded lot of some sort is a good idea. And of course when trying to attract any sort of wildlife, water is a good idea as well. So a nice birdbath or fountain is recommended.

The American Gold Finch is a somewhat shy bird, they prefer to eat away from other species, so place don’t place your sock right next to any other type of birdfeeder.

I don’t really have deer where I live in town. However I do have three types of squirrels, ground hogs, lots of birds, a few snakes, raccoons, evil moles, and of course, rabbits. Rabbits drive my crazy. Complicating the matter is the fact that my wife loves the cute little critters.

During the growing season the rabbits seem to leave well enough alone, or atleast they don’t eat anything important. Every once in awhile I’ll notice that one has eaten a few leaves off a daylily, but that is it. In Winter though, when food is scarce, they’ll eat low branches, stems, or other growth from small deciduous bushes and shrubs. This really, really, really annoys me. It annoys me even more when they’re eating a fruiting or flowering shrub that doesn’t fruit or flower on the current years growth (meaning you need that old growth for it to bloom).

The solution I’ve found, and it works well, is to place simple wire cages around the plants I do not want the rabbits to eat. I simply go to the store and buy a 4 foot high coil of garden fence/chicken fence/rabbit fence (it goes by many different names) and using tin snips I cut it into sections which I then wire together to form circular cages. These go around the plants I do not want the rabbits to eat and the rabbits can’t get to them.

Additionally you can loosely fill the cages with leaves, leaves from hardwood trees are best, and it will insulate the plants as well. This is a great way to give hydrangeas extra winter protection.

For deer, you do the same thing except a 6 or 8 foot high section of fence is probably best and you need to anchor it into the ground in some way, landscape fabric pins work alright for that.

As for what they won’t eat. Well they’ve eaten my roses despite the thorns, my raspberries despite the thorns. My blueberries, my hardy kiwi, my euonymus, my hydrangeas, any and all of my young trees, privet, thuja, viburnum, etc. So its easier to say what they won’t eat. Rabbits have never touched my barberry, my spruces, my yews, or my boxwoods. I’m not sure about deer, not having them around here, but I know for sure deer will not eat spruces or barberries.

However… I was out enjoying the beautiful (finally) weather on Thursday and noticed some damage to our birdhouses that wasn’t there on Wednesday. Then I remembered my wife said that she saw Rudy tearing nesting materials out of the birdhouses.

Well, we have these large 4 unit bird houses dotting our property and Rudy, in the course of one day, gnawed at all 8 openings of two of them (the two closest to trees). He made the most progress in the opening pictured and it was from there that he stole the nesting materials.

I did a little research and learned from this article that red squirrels are known to raid birdhouses for food, both in the form of eggs and baby birds.

I have mixed feelings about this. Mostly I am annoyed at the damage to the houses that I must now repair, but also I like Rudy but I don’t like the idea of Rudy eating up baby birds. On the other hand its the circle of life and all that, and after I get the newest ones up this spring we’re going to have like 41 “units” of birdhouses on our 1/4 acre so we have a lot of birds. I’m sure this time his raid was just for the nesting supplies (lazy bugger) because the birds aren’t breeding yet, and last fall when there were babies he left them alone. So I do not know what provoked this attack.