Year In Review

As another year draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on all of the changes in the gardens and in our lives.

We finished the back side of our privacy fence as well as most of the east side.  It's amazing what a difference it makes not just in privacy level, but also in the visual interest that it adds.  The birds enjoy perching and pooping on it too.

We added a bench to the bird garden area.  In the mornings we like to sit there and enjoy the shade from the aspen tree.

We also expanded the landscaping bed in front of our house so that it extends to the outer edge of the fence.  Now we just need to add some plantings between the viburnum shrub and the white pine.

There is still a lot of work to be done in this front bed, but now all of the shaping and edging is complete.

Then there was the creation of a new planting bed on the west edge of our property.  I wanted to define the property line and also add some interest to this area.  We planted three "Little Henry" sweetspire shrubs near the existing black chokeberry.  They provide a real riot of fall color and won't outgrow the space.

I planted some daffodil bulbs in the edge of this new bed up near the fence.  I plan to add some perennials next year.  I hope they will help to keep some of the weeds at bay and add a pop of color during the summer months.

Digging the trench and laying those edge pavers was a lot of strenuous work, but I love the end result.

In October, we went to visit my sister and her family in Illinois.  They treated us to a delicious dinner and cocktails to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary.

I also spent time playing in the Fall leaves with my awesome nephew, Simon.  It's so much fun watching him explore and experience the world around him.  My sister and brother-in-law are doing a fantastic job raising him to be a sweet, intelligent, and entertaining little boy.

This November, we adopted a new little kitty that we named Sgt. Pepper.  He was a semi-feral kitten, one of three that we'd been looking after in our backyard.  We successfully trapped all of the kittens and got them into foster homes.  Our seven year old cat, Digit, has really taken to the little guy, and they can often by found napping together or chasing each other through the house.

Overall, it's been a year of positive change for us.  We look to 2012 with great optimism and wish all of our friends and family a very Happy New Year!

Summer In Pictures

Hey, garden blog.  Long time, no see!  I've been busy enjoying the warm weather and sunshine of the past few months.  I thought I'd write a recap of the summer and post some photos.

In April, the hummingbirds arrived!  I got some great shots as they braved the chilly Spring weather.  I watched them visit on a daily basis all summer long.  They not only sipped nectar from the feeder but also from some potted mini petunias, and then later in the season from prairie dock and the blooms on my blue mist spirea shrub.  The weather has been getting quite chilly at night for the past couple of weeks now.  Most of the hummingbirds have migrated south already.  I did see one at the feeder today fueling up for it's long flight.  I will leave my feeder up until mid October to aid any hungry stragglers. 

I had some new successes in the gardens this year.  My native bee balm bloomed for the first time!  I have not seen any hummingbird action on it yet, but the bees certainly took notice.  The blooms are so interesting looking and a beautiful pale lavender.  Unfortunately this plant later succumbed to a wicked case of powdery mildew as they are known to do.  Maybe I'll have better luck if I transplant some to an area that gets full sun all day long.  I still consider this a success since the foliage did not develop the mildew until long after the blooms were spent.

Another gardening success this year was our vegetable garden.  We created two new raised beds and planted pole beans and peppers in one, tomatoes and chives in the other.  The tomatoes suffered foliar damage from early blight but still produced a decent crop.  The pole beans grew up a trellis structure we purchased from Burpee.  It worked out really well and we were able to harvest plenty to eat fresh and some to freeze.  It was an excellent year for peppers!  Jeremy was thrilled.  Typically we do not have a long enough growing season to get much of a crop.  This year the weather was nice and warm in early May and I think it helped them get a good jump start.  The cajun bell pepper plants from Daddy yielded the biggest crop and had a subtle but tasty heat.  We also grew yellow bell peppers, jalapenos, and a mini bell plant.  Our cucumber crop was the best I've ever grown.  I can say with great certainty that beans are not the only musical fruit. ;)

In other exciting news, Jeremy built the entire back side of the privacy fence!  He finished it in early May and what a difference it has made!  Now when I wander out to the bird garden in my pajamas to refill the feeders, the hungry birds are my only audience.  I can lie down in the grass to photograph from interesting perspectives without worrying my neighbors will call 911.  I can wander braless back to the veggie garden to check on my plants.  Oh, sweet freedom!

I'm not the only one enjoying the privacy.  The birds and the bunnies seem to enjoy it too.  I snapped this shot of a flicker hopping around the backyard in search of a buggy snack.  See how the marking on the back of it's head forms a perfect heart?  Yes, little feathered friend, I do love you!

One For The Record Books

This April has been fraught with extreme weather.  On April 10th, we had unseasonably warm temps in the mid 70s.  Conditions were favorable for the development of severe storms.  Around 8pm the tornado siren in our small town sounded.  We scooped up our cat and our laptops and headed for the basement.  We were lucky on this night as the most severe weather was just to the south of us.  Surrounding areas were not so lucky.  Kaukauna, WI experienced the devastating impact of an F1 tornado.  I found the following video footage on YouTube.

 

Menasha, WI was also hit.  I was amazed at the number of mature trees that had been ripped right out of the ground.  Thankfully few injuries were reported. 

This April has produced more tornadoes than any other April in recorded history.

Eight days later, we experienced a record breaking snowstorm.






A week later and it's now rained so much that we've attracted a couple of new visitors to the backyard.



I'm relieved that April is almost over and hopeful that May will be kinder.

And just for fun, here is a video I took today of my newest piece of garden art.  Look deep into the center of the pinwheel.  Focus.  You are getting sleepy.  You are now under my control.  You will come to my house, weed my garden beds, and mow the lawn.

The Secret Garden

When I was young, my older sister, Rachel, read "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett to me at bedtime.  I recall with great fondness the vivid details of Mary Lennox exploring the secret garden at Misselthwaite Manor.  I still think of this book now and again as I work in my own garden.

Yesterday, while on a leisurely country drive with my husband, Jeremy,  we came upon a large pile of chopped up wood alongside the road.  We decided to grab some for use in our backyard fire pit.   I even convinced Jeremy to load in a really long forked branch so that I could bury it like a post out in the yard and attach various bird feeders to it.  What a guy!

While he was busy hauling wood to the trunk, I was busy snapping photos of a grove of pine trees nearby.  As I zoomed in to photograph the branches, I fixed my lens on a small opening between the branches.  It was then that I noticed a bunch of birds flitting around in a sunny clearing beyond the first row of trees.  As I studied the scene further, I realized that there was a small garden tucked behind the pines, almost completely hidden from sight and surrounded on all sides by the trees.  My camera had uncovered an actual secret garden!  How exciting!

Jeremy has been working for the past two years at enclosing our back yard in cedar fencing.  I designed it, he builds it.  I think I got the better end of that deal.  I like to imagine my backyard years into the future, now full of mature plants that block any sign of our neighbors' houses.  A secret garden of my own accessible only to me and those whom I invite inside.

Wisconsin Winters

They do drag on, and on.  This was the view as seen through our living room window on March 20th.  The snow had melted.  The robins had returned and were busy searching the waterlogged soil for worms.  I had begun putting together a mental checklist of the outdoor projects I wanted to tackle this year.
                                                                                                               
And then this happened.
Snow began falling on the night of March 22nd and continued through the next day leaving us with a staggering 17 inches of wet, heavy snow.  The birds weathered the storm in nearby evergreens and left only to quickly fill their bellies with seed or to clean their feathers in our heated bird bath.  I've read that March is the toughest month for birds and this storm really emphasized that fact.

I adore killdeer.  This pair showed up in the backyard a couple of weeks ago.  They just scream, "Look at me!", with their long legs, prominently striped bodies, and bright red eyes.  They scurry around so quickly and are particularly camera shy.  I love listening to them call out to each other.

There is a second killdeer hiding in the above photo.  Can you find it?

March in Wisconsin is like a wild roller coaster ride full of dramatic twists and turns, highs and lows.  One day you're opening your windows and breathing in that wonderfully perfumed, damp Spring air and the next you're shoveling snow.  And so it goes.  Mother Nature may be a bit of a sadist but patience has shown that she always relents.