Embracing Wildlife

 "If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love." 

~ Steve Irwin

Yay! I am certified!

Embracing wildlife in the garden brings innumerable rewards. Creating wildlife-friendly plantings is how we do it.  Consider what comes into your yard already. Do you want them to keep coming?  Do you want something that you don’t see?

It’s simple really. Animals and insects need food, water and shelter just like you and me. Incorporate plants that will attract what you want to see more of into your garden spaces.

When buying plants for your garden, many plant labels give some wildlife information that can help you make your choices. The most common symbols I see on labels are for attracting butterflies, pollinators and hummingbirds and for deterring rabbits and deer.

 Firstly, water. Be sure to add a fresh water source or two to your garden for them to drink and/or bathe in. And remember to keep the water fresh and its container clean. You may need to hose it out and refill it daily depending on its popularity. Be sure to locate your water container where you can see it often, every day. You will be rewarded by seeing the wildlife that comes to it.

 Thrush at the fountain.

 

 Robin at the water bowl.

It doesn’t have to be elaborate. This (above) water bowl is just a saucer that is sold for catching water under pots.

If you have cats or dogs that visit your garden, I would suggest not putting a water source this low to the ground. You can raise it up on a tall stump or a stack of bricks or concrete blocks. Safety to the wildlife is key in enjoying them in your garden.

The depth of the water will attract different size birds for bathing. Shallow bowls will attract smaller songbirds while deeper water will be easier for large birds to bathe in. And hummingbirds love flitting through a mist, so a pump with spray may be in order for you.

 As for shelter, birds not only use birdhouses for rearing their young in the spring and summer, they can also use it for shelter during winter storms. 

Be sure to keep them mounted at an accessible height for you but out of reach for cats. I do clean the bird houses out late each winter before birds actively begin searching for a place to nest. A couple of times there were unhatched eggs that had rotted or babies inside that had died. It needed to be cleaned out or new lodgers would not have come, I think.

Lastly is the topic of feed. Best, first and foremost, are plants that offer natural food sources like nectar, pollen and berries all throughout the year, not just summer. In the two photos below, honeybees are gathering pollen or nectar to take back to their hive.

 Honey bee on Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’

 Honeybee on Verbascum chaxii ‘Album’

When you attract insects, don’t begrudge them taking advantage of your plants for their needs other than food. In the next photo, this is not damage in my opinion. This is evidence of the leaf cutter bee.

 

They cut out perfect circles in soft leaves. They then fly back with the disc to use as packing material for its tubular nest to protect the larvae till ready to hatch. I welcome these holes and smile every year when I see leaf cutter bees are active in my garden. If you happen to see one in the very act of leaf cutting, you are very lucky indeed. It is fun to watch. Leaf cutter bees are passive and one of the many native pollinators here in the U.S. We need them.

 Food supplementation is not without controversy, but I do believe it has a legitimate place in the wildlife friendly garden. If your garden does not offer winter food sources naturally, you may consider feeding.

Suet for bird feeding is a debated form of feed, but I do offer it during all the cold, rainy months.

Winter winds drive winter’s rain into seed feeders of all types in my experience. Soggy seed feeders are a mess to keep clean and molded seed is hazardous to your feathered visitors. I choose to feed suet because it is not affected by rain, it is consumed quickly and many species of birds come to it.

The hummingbirds will find nectar in a very large variety of flowers.

Commonly they are seen sipping from the plants with more tubular shaped flowers like penstemon, salvia and fuchsia.  However, I have also seen them on roses, and in the winter months they visit my Camelia ‘Yuletide’ which is not tubular, yet attractive to them by its red flowers and nectar stores.

 Here a green Anna’s hummingbird enjoying nectar from flowers on the right hand side of this pot of fuchsia plants.

  

If you feed them with a syrup mixture, it is not recommended to use that red dye stuff you buy at the store in a box. It contains a red chemical dye which is toxic for people and birds alike. The red plastic tops and tubes on feeders are enough to catch the hummingbird’s attention.

 

A simple syrup you make yourself with equal parts table sugar and boiling water, dissolved and cooled is better for them. Frankly they will find your offering with no color on the feeder at all but if you want red, buy one that has red parts. Or you could hang it with a red ribbon, tie on a red flower or use a red ‘write-on-glass’ pen to add some color to the glass bottle.

In reality, hummingbirds also feed on lots of flowers that are not red. While the color is attractive to them, it is not critical. Once they find your syrup feeder, they will be back as long as you keep it clean and filled. Give it a good wash out with a bottle brush before each refill. Check it weekly if not more often. Sugar water can mold quickly especially if in a sunny location. Shade is a more desirable choice. Depending on traffic, be prepared to fill it weekly or every couple of days.

You may find suggestions online for various syrup recipe ratios based on seasonal changes. Honestly, I used to do that but don’t anymore. They come year-round to my feeder with the same 1:1 water/sugar ratio recipe.

Feeding deer or rabbit is another matter. Plant tags with a slash through an image of deer or rabbit signifies plants that neither will tend to eat. If you have a lot of foraging deer in your vicinity, don’t plant roses or other plants they are known to devour. Personally, I would rather have the occasional deer wander through my yard instead of a lot of roses.

Don’t get me wrong. I like roses and have had many over the years. In my previous garden I had 3 Old English roses in the back yard where the deer didn’t go.

There are two roses in this garden that have been here for a very long time judging by the size of the older canes. This guy nibbles a few blossoms each time he comes by but he doesn’t devour the whole plant.

 

I will keep the roses for the time being. I don’t really like where they are planted nor do I know what kind they are, but they bloom all summer and well into the winter, don’t require extra summer watering or fertilizer and must not be like candy to the deer, like most fussy hybrid teas roses are.

Apparently, deer like fuchsias too. I see hoof prints often in my garden after one or more has been by the night before. Other than hoof prints the only evidence of browsing I have seen was that he ate all the top blossoms off this big pot of fuchsias pictured above. I don’t mind. I love seeing deer and we are not overrun with herds of them where I live and garden. They left enough flowers for me and hummingbird to enjoy too.

Deer are foraging wildlife. When food is abundant they will be choosy. When food is scarce they will be less so. Understanding this, there are many lists of deer resistant plants any internet search will provide you with, as well as symbols on plant lables, but accept the fact that when food is scarce they will eat even that which they may not prefer. They don’t read those lists. The lists are simply guides for you and me based on someone elses previous experience.

As for bunnies, we had tons of them in the spring. They nibbled a few low-to-the-ground flowers on the veronica but I didn’t mind at all.  Mostly they just ate the soft fresh leaves of the clover, dandelion and grass. I always leave clover in the grass anyway. It feeds nectar to bees and pollinators and clover root fixes nitrogen in the soil which feeds the grass. I have enjoyed seeing bunnies come by as part of my local wildlife mix too and don’t mind their nibbling on some of the plants. There’s enough to go around for us all to enjoy.

There is so much more I could write on this subject, but hopefully this is enough to whet your appetite for ideas if you want to create a wildlife friendly garden.

Here in the USA, many states have a backyard sanctuary program. The signage in the first photo proves my certification based on the requirements of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. If where you live has such a program, I encourage you look into the certification requirements. The signage sparks interest and conversation and maybe more wildlife friendly gardens will grow.

Thanks for reading and happy gardening!

In bloom in my garden today: Geum, Camellia ‘Yuletide’, Primrose, Calendula, Erica carnea winter heath, Lithodora, Erysimum (wallflower)

Bird photos courtesy of Patrick L. Chissus photography. You can see more of his work on Instagram @nwmaritimephotography

All other photos are mine.

Outcropping Obsession

Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire.

~ Wiliam Butler Yeats

 

I have been playing with outcropping rocks again.

This property is sloped on all sides. We sit atop a hill on a corner lot so, all four sides of the house consist of sloped ground. Therefore, there are lots of opportunities to play around with differing ways to keep water accessible to the plants rather than simply flowing past.

Above is a picture of the back yard, taken by the seller’s realtor, so it was taken just weeks before we bought the house. To be proper, this photo credit belongs to NWMLS. Reader Kathy G asked for views that express the larger picture of the yard areas so as to get a better idea of the grounds overall, so I will endeavor to do that as I can. My camera phone is limited needless to say.

More posts on these terraces will come later but today’s post will only be about the lower terrace section next to the walkway, way in the far ground but not visible in the above photo. So (below)now we are from the other end, where this post is concerned.

As you can see, aside from 3 lovely deciduous trees, there was nothing back here but an overgrown laurel, weeds, grass and two vinca’s about to overtake the lower walkway.

 

Note the rocks lining the beds on both sides of the stairwell. I don’t really like rocks all lined up like this. I need to be able to step carefully into a bed this wide for weeding and this solid edge created a tripping hazard, both going up or down the stairs and stepping in for weeding. Also, the rocks caught the hose as I pulled it up or down.

Firstly, I sprayed the weeds and grass with an organic herbicide. After a few weeks, I turned over the decomposing remnants. Now I have a blank slate to work with.

(Note: in my experience, organic herbicides work best on shallow rooted, weak weeds and grasses. As you can see it killed the grass and Nigella weeds, some of the baby dandelions but not the established dandelion roots nor the vinca. Those I dug out. Organic sprays don’t really travel all the way to the root, in my experience but they do weaken the weed considerably so hand digging is easier when dealing with as thick a mass as I was faced with here.)

 

There is such a slope (left to right) to the soil here that water runoff would keep the plants from being watered. So I dug some of it out to level it. Mind you, I moved that soil to other parts of the garden that I needed soil, but since it was so full of weed seeds, understand you are moving those seeds too. Weeding will now be expanded to include where ever I moved that dirt. But alas, I needed to do it.

Working my way up, turning over soil. The now cleaned-up bed, with only the vinca to be dug out. Note again the rocks lining the bed against the stairs.

 Now comes the fun part. Since the slope is so steep, I needed to create pockets in which to plant that could slow down the progression of water run off so the soil around the plants could absorb water and hold for the roots to take it up. So, I took the rocks lining the stairs and created outcropping pockets. It was actually fun and creative in a way, placing them with different plants in mind. As I “planted” the rocks, I also started planting succulents and heat / dry loving plants since this on the south side of the property.

 I added a saucer of water for the birds. They love it!

This angle is shot from above, the top of the stairs. All the others were from the bottom of the stairs.

 

In this photo, on the left lower, you can actually still see the collapsed retaining wall that I spoke of in an earlier post titled “In The Hot Bed” that my better half rebuilt.

 

I love the out-cropped side (right) so much more than the lined up side (left). I will be removing the rocks from the left side and creating out cropping there as well someday. For sure the right side holds water far more effectively than the left side.

 

What do you think? Outcropped or lined up all in a row?

 

This is today as plants have filled in. Not bad considering it’s only been 6 months from the very first photo to this one.

 I have left the rocks lined up at the base of this bed as you can see, In this situation they keep the water and dirt from spilling out onto the walkway. But I did reposition them all.  I had to lift many that had been buried and shifted others. I think here lining them up works. I don’t trip over them and the hose doesn’t catch on them.

 I am much happier with this bed now, and it holds water longer so it can seep deeper. And once these plants get established, I won’t have to water much at all.

* Sorry for the haphazard placement of photos and differing fonts in this post. The blogger platform kept making changes and wouldn't let me correct them. I gave up. I am skilled at gardening, but not skilled at I.T. It is what it is.

In bloom in my garden today: Geum, salvia, fuchsia, rose, kniphofia, coreopsis, lavender, aster, hesperaloe, hardy geranium, lobelia, cuphea, asclepias, verbena, persicaria, eupatorium

First photo credit NWMLS

All other photos are author’s photos

 

 

The Rock Whisperer

 If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song.

~Carl Perkins

 

 

 I am told there is a rock whisperer here on the island. I believe it. I have seen examples of his work. His rock walls are a beautiful sight to behold, built to perfection, like they came out of a mold or something. Stunning.

 Well, I make no claims of being a rock whisperer, that’s for sure, but I do see beauty in rocks.  Rocks are unending in variation in color, shape, size, intricate patterns and composition. I am fascinated when I really take the time to quietly examine rocks.

 Some gardeners view rocks with rancor, as if the presence of rocks somehow spoils the garden. They toss them into an ever-growing heap somewhere out of sight, never to be seen again or enjoyed, never to be utilized.

 One or more previous keepers of this yard had such an opinion of rocks. Waaayyy back in the furthest, darkest corner of the property I found the gathering of the rocks.

  

 It was about 4 feet wide by 10 feet long until a massive maple trunk ended it. Then it grew taller, as more rocks had been tossed on top. And it went deeeep. A privacy screen of lilac and forsythia was there too. Trunks, weeds, dead branches, dried leaves and the rocks all snarled into a congested, unattractive muddle.

  

  I don’t know which came first the rocks or the shrubs but both were vying for space. Since it is the darkest corner of the yard, the forsythia and lilac didn’t bloom. They need sun, after all. So, picture a dark corner with overgrown yet leggy shrubbery and piles of rocks. Not a pretty sight. True enough, it is where I located my composting operations, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be gardenly.

 Where others saw a place for discarded rocks, I see a deeply shaded corner space that would grow 4 lovely Fatsia japonica for the privacy screen, anchored by a green skirt of billowy ferns and heleborus underneath. 

The variegated Fatsia “Camouflage” variety will be perfect here. Its light green variegation on the leaf will brighten the dark area. It is a shade plant that will grow  about 8 feet tall under the maple’s canopy and wide enough to provide the privacy between neighboring yards. The ferns too will love this shady space. It is fairly dry, being under a huge maple, so I will choose ferns that like their roots a little on the drier side. It would not make sense to plant fern species here that need constantly moist soil. Right plant, right place makes a gardener’s life easier.

 Rocks have their purpose and I like to find attractive ways to use them. Their uses depend on their size. So, I cleared out a lot of the rocks and sorted them somewhat by size. Afterall, I can think of lots of interesting things to do with rocks. I bet you can too.

 

  

 

 

   

 

This narrow row hugging the steps (above) stops water runoff from washing away a lot of soil on a steep slope.

  

 In bloom in my garden today: helianthus Lemon Queen, salvia, coreopsis, sedum, lobelia, rose, nepeta, kirengeshoma, penstemon, hesperaloe, asclepias, hardy geranium, fuchsia, aster, oregano, calendula, verbena bonariensis, thyme, hydrangea

 Authors photos

In the Hot Bed

 

Gardening requires lots of water – most of it in the form of perspiration. 

~Lou Erickson

There is a set of stairs at the back of the house dividing the sloped south facing yard into two terraced levels. This is how the beds on both sides of the stairs looked in April when we moved in. The post today is only about the left side, which is up against the foundation of the house and south facing, so it is hot and dry.

 

My first thoughts were that lavender and sedums would be perfect plants for this area. Once established (after next year) they wouldn’t require a lot of watering as both thrive in hot dryish areas with all day sun, and they would provide food for bees, hummingbirds and other pollinators.

 

The only plants in that bed, aside from weeds, was a vinca tangled up with a Euonymus. The bed is just shy of 3 feet wide and 10 feet long.

Vinca is a vining, far reaching ground cover that is very ineffective at smothering out weeds and it will have to be constantly cut back if it isn’t to interfere with the walkway. It’s out.

The Euonymus is, to my taste, an uninteresting shrub that can reach out 4-6 feet wide and even taller. In this location it too would have to be pruned annually once it reached its mature size. And it would block the view of the garden I planned to create on the other side of the walk. Out it goes too.

The bed was bordered with rocks on the stair edge, presumably to stop the dirt from spilling out onto the stairs. As you can see over time the lower rocks became buried and weren’t doing the job. Lastly, there was a makeshift retaining wall made of mis-matched blocks at the bottom of the bed which had collapsed. Sorry, I didn't get a good photo of that.

 

All cleared away, now I have a blank slate to work with. First in goes 3 lavenders. “Goodwin Creek” to be specific. I have grown this one before and it is a favorite of mine. I love the indented leaf shape and it puts up long willowy wands of blooms which create lovely movement in the breeze. It also had a longer bloom time in my previous garden than other lavenders. It is a lovely variety. 

Along with the lavender, I added a broken portion of a Mexican pottery pot. I like using broken pots as a little interest, or whole pots turned on their side and angled just so. A little eye candy if you will.

 

After the lavenders are placed as the “bones” of the space, I filled in with sedums of many varieties from trailing types to hen’s and chicks types, all of which came with me from my previous garden. Sedums are incredibly easy to propagate. They will spread and fill in quickly.

As for the lost rocks edging the lowest steps, I pulled them up and re positioned them. I don’t really like rocks used that way but for now they will stay.

 

If all that isn’t exciting enough, now the icing on the cake happens! This is where my better half comes into his own. He is so creative and talented when it comes to hardscaping our garden spaces. He set about making a beautiful retaining wall to support the end of this bed. He used concrete blocks and capped them with flat stones. The blocks and stones had been left, stashed and buried in different places in this yard, by past owners.

 

First, he carved out the shape, and poured a footing in concrete.

 

Then cemented together blocks.

 

Then he ‘faced’ the blocks with a rough smear of mortar. 

He adds color powder to the mortar to give an aged look to his stucco finish. New concrete dries bright whitish and isn’t particularly lovely. The new brightness can be distracting in the garden, I think. Concrete does darken over time but it takes years. He ‘ages’ it by darkening it with coloring agents so the new wall looks like it’s been there for a long time and it blends better in the garden. I love the rough look of a stucco finish. It transports me to Tuscany or south of the border.

 

Then he capped it all off with some slate or what ever this stone is. There were several pieces of this stone laying around, apparently left-overs from the construction of the patio some years ago. I am so glad to have them as they are just perfect to finish this wall.

 

So… what do you think? Coming along nicely, I think. In a year or two you won’t see much, if any, soil after these plants fill in. Covered soil means less weeds. Win Win.

Cheers!

In Bloom in my Garden Today: Rose, Sedum, Agastache, Geum, Fuchsia, Salvia, Verbena, Gladiolus, Mullen, Thyme, Oregano, Calendula, Yarrow, Dianthus, Germander, Cuphea,

Author’s photos

The Front Walk Bed

 

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summer's best of weather
and autumn's best of cheer."
~unknown author

When we moved in, the garden beds along the walkway leading to the front door looked like this.

 

The walkway moves you alongside a long deck. Under the deck is storage and the deck skirting is inexpensive lattice, which many folks consider something to be covered up. So naturally a previous owner planted vines to do so. There are aggressive vines and there are well behaved vines. In this case they choose 2 very aggressive hydrangea vine varieties. Fast to grow and cover no doubt they were told but when you plant under a deck, the vine will eventually get up to the height of the deck and beyond, and into everything stored under the deck, so you now have an annual pruning and untangling chore to add to your yearly list of things to do. And bear in mind if you plant vines…vine trunks grow wide too and will break your lattice as it outgrows the space it intertwines with.

 

 There was also some sword Fern. I love ferns but there are other varieties I love more than our native Sword (Polystichum munitum). There was also a thick carpet of invasive violets covering every inch of dirt, making weeding a difficult and unpleasant activity. And seeding its way into the lawn and nearby beds so - out it goes.

Deck skirting can be beautiful but this lattice is ugly and at this point brittle and broken in some places so in the future my better half will replace it with something wonderful, because that’s what he does. He builds our beautiful hardscapes.

In the meantime, my job is to get rid of all the wrong plants and put in some better choices.

 

Months ago, I cut all the vines close to the soil to stop their progression and kill them. A couple months later I dig out the sword ferns and violas and clean up the whole area. Much to my dismay I also encountered yards of weed barrier cloth, 4-6 inches under the whole mess, so I had to get it out too. I hate the stuff but that’s another post coming. Needless to say, if I wanted my new plantings to grow into a healthy garden, I needed to get the weed barrier cloth out.

 

 Then I planted. Yay! The fun part. I chose Sarcoccoa ruscifolia for its eventual size and late winter fragrance to go by the front door and I underplanted it with Pachysandra.

  

For the narrow bed under the deck, I chose Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ which should stay well within the height of under the deck (a tad over 5 feet) and if it should reach the top, it is much easier to control than a vine. Then I underplanted it with black Mondo grass and a lovely variety of heuchera for shade named Dolce Silver Gumdrop. I thought the silvery plum leaves with black veining would brighten the shady bed and look stunning intermingling with the black mondo grass.

 

 I am glad I spent time at my former garden taking cuttings and divisions. It has saved me a lot of money in new plants. Black Mondo grass is very costly, and all I have here, I have brought with me. And it will spread. Same with the pachysandra. Cuttings are easy to root in place if you keep it moist as it forms new roots. And the heuchera I bought on sale and in a few years’ time, I will be able to propagate more from these 3 and fill in this space.

Now all I have to do is keep it watered and wait till it all fills in. No worries…I have plenty of other areas needing work in this yard. Stay tuned!

In bloom in my garden today: fuschia, heuchera, sedum, germander, Agastache, calendula, dianthus, salvia, coryopsis, geum, rose, nepeta, cuphea, verbascum, asclepias, thyme 

Authors photos