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.

Related posts:

1. Fledging Robin Visitor
2. Baby Cardinals
3. Endless Summer Hydrangea Diary

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.

Related posts:

1. San Francisco’s New Composting Law
2. Smelly Soupy Poopy Compost Tumbler
3. Fledging Robin Visitor

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.

Related posts:

1. Pictures of My Front Yard
2. Zucchini Plants Dying from Squash Vine Borer
3. Early Onions and the Miracle of Microclimates

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.

Related posts:

1. Golden Yellow Ground Cover for Shade
2. I must be doing something right…
3. Baby Cardinals

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.

Related posts:

1. I must be doing something right…
2. Train Clematis up a Post
3. Roses from Cuttings, or Roses from Grafts

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.

Related posts:

1. Baby Cardinals
2. I must be doing something right…
3. Butternut Squash & Squirrels

Now I live in the city, I have my entire backyard surrounded by a privacy fence, and overall my lot is only 90×160. Yet in my backyard there are families of 3 different kinds of squirrels, a family of rabbits, chipmunks, scores of birds, and now this raccoon. My garden must be some amazing wildlife habitat to attract all of these critters.

Now I’m not a huge fan of squirrels & rabbits for the destruction they cause, especially the rabbits in winter, but my wife likes them. Growing up in the country I also have no love of raccoons and the messes they make but my wife grew up in the city and this was actually her first time seeing a raccoon not dead by the side of the road. So I’ll put up with it.

Its nice to think that in this sprawling suburbia I’m providing habitat for these animals, I just wish they wouldn’t eat my plants. Luckily the squirrels just annoyingly dig and as long as I’m not planting any new irises they don’t seem to harm my other plants. The rabbits though, the only plant they really eat during the growing season is the crocuses, and then just the foliage and not the flowers, but in the winter they’ll eat anything poking up above the snow. My bamboo, my climbing roses, my trumpet vine, my hydrangeas, my hardy kiwi, and low hanging or small branches from all my smaller trees and shrubs. My plan this winter is to build cages out of chicken fence and surround all the plants they like to eat. I don’t mind when they eat the dead remains of a plant that comes back every year, but when I’m trying to train a vine on a fence or over a trellis I don’t want to start from scratch every year and when they eat something that blooms on old wood and not new growth I get annoyed as well.

Related posts:

1. Stop Rabbits (and Deer) from Eating Shrubs in Winter
2. Attack of the Red Squirrel!
3. Train Clematis up a Post

I was really quite worried about it. Our neighbors let their cats out and they’re always coming over to our yard and a flightless bird like this would be quite a morsel for them. Apparently too robins are in this state of being able to walk but not fly for quite awhile as they mature and so I really don’t know if it’ll be able to avoid the cats for that long. They also apparently need to eat constantly so when I was done with it I fed it some worms (which it took quite readily). I figured I had probably stressed it out the least I could do is feed it.

Apparently, by the way, there is a whole Keep Cats Indoors campaign. The idea is that domestic house cats exist with greater density than any natural predator would be able to and still survive so they disproportionately threaten the species they hunt. Anyways, our cats are house cats and that works fine for us.

Related posts:

1. Baby Robin Photo Diary

This Spring a family of cardinals made a nest in one of our spruces and they’ve already had their first babies. In the photo (click to enlarge) you’ll notice that there are two hatchlings and two still whole eggs. I don’t know how old these babies are, but considering their siblings are still in eggs I’m guessing a day or two at the most, they might have been born this morning for all I know. Supposedly they leave the nest in as little as 10 days after hatching so these birds have some major growing to do.

Cardinal females do the nesting, but once the young are born it is usually the male that takes over feeding while the female makes a new nest. In this way they can have multiple broods per year. They also do not migrate and so I hope we’ll eventually have more cardinals living in our backyard as this family multiplies.

For more on cardinals try this link.

I also want to apologize for not posting much the last few weeks. There are two reasons for this, the first is that I’ve been busy gardening. However in this time I’ve gathered a bunch of materials and pictures for later posts. The other reason is that I’m working on a large expansion for this site. I realized that many of the things I wish to write about do not fit well with the blog format and so I am going to expand. I hope to have that done by the end of May and a deluge of new content for you.

For now though I’m taking my wife on a well deserved week long vacation. Adios.

Related posts:

1. Baby Robin Photo Diary
2. Attack of the Red Squirrel!
3. I must be doing something right…