if you build it, they will come

I recently commented to Adam that I’d love a frog pond.  The evening chorus is what I am after…it tickles me.  A few days after sharing my secret wish, a lone croak appeared in the garden late one night. I investigated, and found this little guy raising a ruckus all on his own.  He is well camouflaged – look at the center of the photo:

He has taken up residence in my little pot o’ pond.  What is this, you ask?  Man made ponds can be beautiful when done right, but they also can be high maintenance and prone to leaks.  I keep my water features pint sized and in a pot.  With some creative engineering, you can wire the pot for a dripper or bubbler that will create soothing sounds and help to keep the mosquitoes down by moving the water.  Throw in some water plants and a few floating lettuce and voila – a pond in a pot.  I’ve created many glazed pot water features and have also ventured into galvanized metal stock tanks which work well in the right setting.  Typically I prefer a low & wide pot that is glazed both inside and out.  If the pot’s interior is unglazed, it can be better sealed by painting on a thin silicone coating.  If you want to get fancy, you can hard wire the pump to a switch that is controlled via a remote.  Impress your friends.

A few of the water features I’ve created:

Dragonfly dripper with black taro and dwarf papyrus

Bubbler is a copper pipe snugged just below the lip so you only see the water...

Stainless steel dripper in a galvanized stock tank

Still pond in a pot in the backdrop (the frog's home)

Not long after Frog A took up residence, I was heading outside for my evening slug hunt (no further details – I want you to still like me). I opened the front door to find another small green frog on the doorstep.   Since our resident frog has been calling out for a mate every night, I guessed that perhaps this was his Cinderella.  Since she (I am making some storyline assumptions here) was headed the wrong way and at risk underfoot, I moved her closer to her frog prince.  Maybe we will get some tadpoles.

The sun was out today, as was our resident frog who took to sunning himself on his private pond edge.  I think he is living the high life.

Read Full Post »

spring in my step

Yesterday was that first “true” spring day for me.  You know what I am talking about – everyone has one.  Its not always the same day for each person…the planets have to align for you to be outside on your special day.  Its that day when you first realize the seasonal tide is turning away from winter’s grip to the embrace of spring. The harder the winter, the better your day will be.  Kind of like a tall glass of iced water on a hot day.  On my day, we reached the high 60s, the sun was strong and the breeze warm.  I think birds sing more on sunny days…or maybe that is just me.

Spring is a very special time on Bainbridge Island.  After months of gray, color returns.  A fresh layer of compost in the gardens last weekend shows off the new foliage beautifully and everything is filling in.   A few things I caught on film…

Polystichum makinoi – This is my favorite fern.  The new fronds appear bedecked with jewels.  This one takes a variety of soil conditions in my garden from dry to damp and also takes some northern sun in stride.  I was surprised to see it at a LA nursery last month – it seems to have a wide range.  Though it should be more at home here than there, sadly, I rarely see it at nurseries here.

Helleborus x hybridus ‘Blue Lady’ looking more red than blue when backlit in the sun.  Grow this one for its nearly black flowers.

Corylopsis pauciflora – If you do not have one of these in your Pacific Northwest garden, it is a crime!  Go get one…if you can find one, that is.  Demand never seems to be high enough for this winter blooming beauty and nurseries only keep a few in stock.  Typically I clean out Bainbridge nurseries in spring because I love to use Corylopsis in my designs.  Corylopsis spicata is quite similar and readily available, though overall a much larger shrub.  Flowers on spicata are not quite as dense as the abundant pauciflora…which is why “pauci” makes no sense. I’ve underplanted mine with black mondo grass which sets the flowers off nicely.

The promise of a fragrance that perfumes the entire garden – Korean Spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii).    Powerfully sweet, it introduces the season in my garden.

I’m not a fan of garden chotchkies, though I do have a few small stone or metal birds perched here and there.  Birds are the lifeblood of our garden, constantly flitting through the trees.  They are welcome here, we feed them year round, leave winter debris for them to kick around and keep the predatory kitties inside.  I like to think of these little sculptures as the bird welcome wagon.  This one is perched on a well-aged rock (no shortage of moss here!) with fresh blades of Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ in the background.

Spring is in!  Enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

frogs

An abundance of frogs in the garden this year.  Specifically my favorite – the Pacific Tree Frog.  These colorful little guys are always a treat to see, and every year we have at least a couple.  This year they are everywhere in the garden, which is fabulous.  They have been hopping out of the beds as I am watering.   Today, I snapped one sunning on a blade of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’.   Hang out here as long as you like little green buddy.

Read Full Post »

vole toll

Acorus gramineus in better days...

Last year, my sweep of Acorus gramineus in the front gulley was devastated.  I first noticed some browning and went in to investigate with rake in hand.  To my horror, not only the brown, but huge clumps of seemingly healthy sections came out.  At the bottom of each one was a jagged edge.  Upon closer inspection, I could see the plants’ fleshy roots had been eaten.  My conclusion: voles.  

 

Voles are burrowing rodents – similar to moles.  They look like field mice with a little longer nose. They prefer grassy, low lying areas and wetlands.  Where moles cause damage in their burrowing, they are after grubs and worms.  On the other hand, voles eat your plants.  They prefer things with fleshy roots, but are not above sampling others.  My theory about this invasion was the loss of nearly all the outdoor cats on our street over the past 5 years – likely due to coyotes or raccoons.  The voles were unchallenged. I checked around with other landscapers and found that they too had seen a rise in numbers, so my vole invasion was probably part of a larger population boom.  

I love this part of my garden and was very troubled by the damage.  Poisoning was not an option.  Voles are part of the larger food chain, and anything that poisons them in a bait station could also poison whatever eats them while the voles are still alive or once dead – such as coyotes, eagles, owls or even cats & dogs.  Most rodent poisons are anticoagulants.  Not nice at all.  Body gripping or kill traps were out of the question with no explanation needed. I started with Mole Mover ultrasonic devices even though the data about use with voles was sketchy.  The damage seemed to abate for a while. Then, this spring I noticed the piles of dirt again and knew I had to take further action.  

A little research and purchase on Havahart’s site (www.havahart.com/ ), some peanut butter and…well…the voles got new homes.  Let me tell you – they love peanut butter.  When I first started, I’d set a trap at dusk (they are nocturnal) and within a few minutes I’d hear the click of the trap doors.  Since organic peanut butter was all we had when I started this experiment, they were living the luxe life.  My success led Adam to keep track of the “vole toll” on our chalkboard… 

Then last night, a new development in the vole vs. Tish saga: reinforcements.  At dusk, we were breaking up one of the usual animal squabbles (Lola (cat) 1, Owen (dog) zero), and Adam called me over to the window in a hushed but very excited voice, “Come here…NOW.”  Sitting on a branch about 10 feet off the ground and literally staring in our kitchen window, no doubt entertained by the antics, were two large owls.  Once noticed, after some head bobbing, they both flew to another part of the garden.  We crept out quietly (after securing Owen in the car because by this time he knew something was up), and were treated to even lower perches in another part of the garden, and flight directly overhead.  They were scanning the ground and calling out to each other with a high-pitched eerie hiss.  They were hunting!  We ran back inside and grabbed the bird book, and checked out The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Guide – a fabulous resource all about birds and aptly named this – www.allaboutbirds.org.  Through their sample recordings, we concluded that our visitors were barn owls.  Then the good part from the bird book - ”A barn owl can eat up 1,500 rodents a year.”  Wonderful.  Welcome my friends, make yourselves at home and enjoy the plethora of food (note: our cats are indoor). 

For now, I’ll sideline the traps and let nature take its course.  We have heard these guys in the neighborhood for a few weeks now, the screech is unmistakable.  They seem to have set up home close by.  Watch out voles!

Read Full Post »