Creature Feature

Happy summertime to you all!  It's been hot and dry for a while now so I was glad to see some rain this morning.  Just wish it had waited until I had taken our tent down and brought in the bedding we had drying out on our deck (we had been camping over the weekend and as usual it rained, leaving me with a big wet mess to deal with when we got home.) 

While camping, we got the chance to care for a baby cedar waxwing that the storm had knocked out of its tree.  We had it just long enough to warm and dry it off and feed it some grape bits before we got it back to its tree.  It was a cute little bugger, full of personality.  Made me think of other critters I've run across over the years in my garden.  The ones that made an impression on me or my family. 

My previous garden was an acre of grass in full sun and sandy soil with only a couple of trees.  Over the years I added a wide assortment of perennials, trees and shrubs, including a bit of prairie.  It wasn't long before we had lots of critters visiting the garden. 

There was a hummingbird who thought he was the king of everything and would harass anything that got close to his favorite plants.  There was the little gray-green tree frog who would cling to our windows at night to eat moths attracted to our lighted interior.  One time we accidentally brought him inside on the back of a chair cushion.  It caused quite the commotion when it panicked and started jumping on us instead of trying to get away, which made us scream and jump in panic!  We finally calmed down enough to get him safely back outside but it was all my kids could talk about for days. 

There were the sandhill cranes that came every year; they are SO scary up close.  You don't realize how big they are and how sharp their beaks look until you are face-to-face with them. 

There were so many animals and birds and bugs, but it was a couple of our snake residents that really stuck out.  I'm not into snakes.  They freak me out, especially when you are weeding under a large hosta or shrub and a snake zips out from the plant you have your hand under.  That'll make anyone jump!

Still, I figure that it meant I had a healthy garden going if snakes were there and so I decided to leave any snake found to go about its business in peace.  There was one snake that really made me laugh.  The kids and I found a eeny-weeny green grass snake in our garage one day.  Oh, how it hissed at us as we tried to scoop it up with a dustpan to put it back outside.  It had the tiniest little head with the tiniest little mouth and an itty-bitty hiss.  It was trying so hard to look mean and fierce!  Adorable! 

I will never know if it was the same one but a couple of years later I was weeding among my daylilies and I saw an adult grass snake.  It was staying very still but when it realized I saw it, it started gently waving its head so it would look like a blade of grass blowing in the wind.  I laughed so hard! It really did have the movement of wind-blown grass down perfect!  I decided to take a break from weeding and went inside for a cup of chai.  That would give the snake time to find a better hiding spot.

I haven't seen any snakes in my new garden but we have at least one tree frog who likes to sit on our window at night to catch a snack.  And the first sound I heard when we got home from camping was the sound of cedar waxwings in our trees out front.  I hope I can provide a safe haven for the critters that live here (but they better not eat my plants down to the ground!  Bambi and Thumper, I'm talking to you!)

A gift from the storm

(NOTE:  This post was started over a week ago but I forgot to post it.  Since I first wrote this, it's been hot and dry. That's WI weather for you.)



'Hummelo' in bloom



Hey!  It actually felt like summer today!  And the mosquitoes have finally arrived.  It's weird; others in our town have been complaining about the mosquitoes for weeks and weeks but we didn't really see any until a couple of days ago.  Probably due to the cold but I'd like to think there are additional reasons.  Maybe my organic gardening methods have increased my amphibian population and that's why we  haven't had many mosquitoes?  Or maybe the rotting cupola on our garage has a new bat family in residence?  Whatever the reason, I am very thankful for the respite we had from those bloodsucking pests!

We are also thankful for a gift from the storm that blew through last week.  Last year, the top half of an aspen was knocked over by another storm and got hung up in a maple tree.  It was just out of reach on a steep slope and it was going to be pricey to get it removed.  It was pretty darn scary weeding under it, let me tell you, as it creaked and groaned in the slightest wind.  Well, our latest storm took it down from it's lofty perch and laid it out on the slope <i>perfectly</i>, avoiding every plant and shrub we didn't want it to hit.  Yay!

It was supposed to rain again today so I decided to transplant some sweet cicely to one of my shade beds.  The woods is once again full of garlic mustard.  We had just finished bagging up what we pulled a couple of weeks ago.   Ugh.



Maidenhair fern with Sweet Woodruff
at its feet: both Wisconsin natives



On the bright side, my 'Hummelo' betony is blooming and its reddish purple blooms look so nice with the variegated 'Goldwell' veronica near it.  I've never grown 'Hummelo' so wasn't sure if it would do well especially because it started off so slow.   It's leaves aren't felty like regular lamb's ear.  I like it alot and plan on adding more.

 

Another plant that has me clapping in admiration is maidenhair fern.  Now that it is settled in, it's looking really good.  Of course, we've had a really wet growing season so how it will look in a droughty year has yet to be seen. 

 While clearing out some space in the back yard for a lawn I found a shrub that I had overlooked last year.  After some digging on the 'net I think it's an elderberry, specifically Canadian Elderberry.  It's actually kind of pretty, although I suspect it suckers.  I hope it's the edible kind of elderberry...

Could this be Canadian Elderberry?  What a nice surprise if it is!