Garden Detective: March 2009

Gulf Coast gardening (last week at my house): Pay tree service an unholy amount of money to bring down three 35 foot tall (and 35year +) trees close to the house.   Common sense, the advice of my 'wood industry' brother, and scenes around the neighborhood after Hurricane Ike prevailed ove affection.  It was them or (possibly) my home.... 

Having a tree lying across ones broken-back roof as gale force winds and driving rain soak everything one ones is not a pretty thought...

P.S.  The azaleas just finished blooming and their tired petals are now brownish remnants.  And yesterday, Saturday, was the coldest day in recorded history: the high was 48 degrees.  It rained all day.  Good for the garden.  Good for the lawn.  

I'm going hiking in the forests surrrounding Lake Houston today (group activity) .... the rain should keep the less than dedicated away....

My gardening haiku (and typographic/spelling mistakes) reveal a truth: I haven't had my first coffee yet.  Apologies.

It was +24 when the weather page was opened this morning but should double before it's over.

Hard to think about flowers and gardening. Easy to consider that if this is considered a "game day," that the Comet Cafe in Milwaukee, may well be offering their free basket of bacon.

But, we are not in Milwaukee today and the prospect of a batch of bacon wrapped water chestnuts has taken over as a reasonable alternative. If there were someone willing to share, it would make sense. There isn't. It doesn't.

I wonder if they deliver these:

http://www.baconunwrapped.com/2007/10/bacon-bloody-mary-milwaukee-style.html

camellias still here

azaleas beginning, too

cold and wet today

The thermometer in the sun is showing 65 but the weather service says 37.  Time to get out and poke around the garden and clean up the back lawn a little.  Still a foot of snow on the ground up at the folks house, but its early spring.

Gotta laugh, our azalea survived the winter, pretty cool, we often lose them, and its been a tough winter.  I'll start checking for stray Japanese Maples seedlings from my neighbor's tree soon, one of my rites of spring.

Willie,

It was an annoyance to be unable to find the collective for robins so that I could report to you that part of it has finally shown up here.

It is unclear whether we have seen two, or one twice.

The unproductive search did turn up: "A charm of finches" and "A gallon of petrels," which was nice.

Looking south, out of the french doors in the dining room, the park-like view of backyards is beneath a foot of old hard snow.

Just a guess that the first summer of my wife's retirement will probably result in a lot more agriculture. Not sure how to feel about that.

Stoney,
What a difference a couple hundred miles makes. Our snow has been gone since last week's rains, which transformed themselves into all of those white flakes that have since turned into a hard blanket with a white crust that you are looking at this morning. I can almost smell the bacon and hear it sizzle and pop in the kitchen, which can only mean one thing........ I must be in the wrong house again damnit!
We've been blessed with both the sight and sound of the robin's return. We are still awaiting the return of the snow white cranes and blue heron that find rest stops and homes in the many small ponds and field puddles around here.

I fully expect the spring concert season for chorus frogs will erupt any day now. If there is mud and water, they are happy and singing.

The first blades of tulips, lily's and other assorted bulbs that keep their identity a secret until they flower are about an inch above the ground.

On the sad side, it appears that one of the squirrels that feeds in the back yard everyday has lost about half its tale. I suspect a narrow escape from his/her death defying races across the street, speeding toward no particular objective at all.

Willy T and Doc N,, good to see you fellas today.
Looks to be 60 degrees and sunny all day.

Peace out.
John

tail that is,  Ah say a squirrel has a tail, not a tale... unless he recounts how he lost half of it.

All right, gentlemen: I'm about to get dressed and go to my last performance (maybe-I may decide to bring it to my school) of the Vagina Monologues. Today is a matinee. We will rock the theatre...again. Today it's a tight silk and cashmere 'V-day red' v-neck coed sweater, an even tighter black micro mini spandex skirt, leopard tights, stilettoes, and enough attitude for several wild women.

So, now you know what's been keeping me busy this last couple of weeks. ACTIVISM lol.

For some reason, the shorter my skirts, the better everyone likes it. Go figure...

I am sure yours IS a "Go" figure, Olivia...

The Virginia Monologues? Never saw that one...  Something to do with Pocahontas, I am guessing...

Peter Lake,

Streets are to squirrels what the Beechcraft Bonanaza is to doctors: Without them, we'd be overrun.

The egrets, herons and cranes have become fixtures hereabouts when it warms up and it's getting to be an unusual week that doesn't present a pretty good look at a bald eagle or two.

Sandhill cranes, always residents to the west, have become local as well.

It has warmed into the forties but the air still doesn't carry that long awaited smell of earth.

Play outside!

Stoney

Stoney - too funny. I have a friend that just hates squirrels, says they are nothing more than rats with fluffy tails.

The daffodils are just beginning to bloom with the tulips close behind.

I always garden with flowers and herbs mixed grown in with the veggies. Companion planting helps with the bugs, helps the veggies too by exchanging nutrients in the soil. Nasturtiums deters bugs, beetles, aphids. To repel leaf hoppers use Geraniums or Petunias.

Thanks for a great link Mr. Peterman!

I envy you those cranes, Stoney.

I see GB Herons year-round and don't have to go far to run into a cattle egret or two. Still, I was taken by surprise to see a big old white Egret on friday morning. AFAIK, we are out of sandhill crane territory, though you couldn't tell it by looking at the P-poor soil around here.  We HAVE the sand, just maybe not enugh hills, I suppose. We get Miss. Kites seasonally and redtails and others year -round.  I have seen one bald eagle very near to here, but that was a remarkable thing. Up at the lake ( 25 miles) we see  Ospreys, too.

There ain't nothing like a big bird.  Seeing as how I am probably kin to 'em, I can't complain about the vultures when they come through on occasion.

As for the doctors and the Beechcrafts, don't forget condo deals. Many a lawyer has made a  fine living helping  doctors out of  bad real estate inverstments.

Olivia: actress, teacher, poet and wordsmith, and apparently a 'wild woman'.... And for the next act....

PL & Willie,

Oshkosh, WI

53°F
Current: Clear
Wind: NE at 0 mph
Humidity: 48%

Pretty nice and if it weren't calm as a closet, there would be more melting.

Our former eighth grade science teacher is a neighbor of late and stands amazed at the hawks, falcons and owls that call our yards home.

At the suggestion that it was like living in the country, he said that he had done that and never seen wildlife like he sees here.

The falcons (Sparrow Hawks) do for doves and that ain't easy. They execute as well a taunting move on the squirrels that could be called a breezer: Glide in close, give 'em the down beat and scare hell out of them. Fun to watch unless you are a squirrel and probably even then if you are not THE squirrel.

I was driving back from my parents yesterday and saw a bunch of Herons.  One was actually perched in a tree which I hadnt seen before.  We have a lot of red tail hawks here and one was flying around the complex this morning, not sure what it was eating.  My dad claims there are a bunch of Bald Eagles living on a hill near him but the farmers wont let anyone near them.  Why not, we have falcons living on top of the Kodak building here.

http://tomhoehn.1000words.kodak.com/default.asp?item=576852

I'm only interested in one kind of seedings today. The NCAA tournament.

Dutchman, good seeds indeed, Syracuse lost the Big East so they could go places.  Vermont seems to be missing, but Cornell is there surprisingly.  Let the games begin.

It was Guest and his sister, Celeste, (don't blame me, I would have called her: Ex Post Facto) who got me to wondering what happened to the Honor Roll. That's how they follow The Eye. Some might call it cheating just to pop in for the cream but I won't.

We were having a threeway- i-chat that is- while I tried to pin one of them down to an address to send things that they want and need. It's like Bop-A-Mole. They just keep moving around.

For his part, Guest was being stern and trying to get me to focus. I was. His sister, on the split screen, was swaying around a kitchen while visiting with us.

She looks, not to put too fine a point on it, like someone built for close dancing or close work of some sort.

The suggestion that if they want to see honor roll work, maybe they should do some, seemed to fall upon deaf ears.

He has a way of thinking and being that I can't even fake and she writes the most beautiful, compact plain-seeming sentences that stay with you.

In a written message, everything she means to convey is neat, stylish and correct in all ways. Though her fingertips cannot lie, her lips cannot get the truth in order. Case in point:

"Are you going to watch my brother on TV in a pile of puppies?"

"Wow, yes," I answer, "When is it?"

"The twelfth," she responds.

"Celeste," I suggest, "You know that today is the thirteenth- right?"

"Whatevah,"

Hard to say if this little bit of impertinence will draw one or the other out. If so, you may thank me later.

And personally, I think that some of your roll work has been overlooked- maybe the medal project has been a distraction.

Yes, unhinged, I can't wait. Early round action seems fascinating. UCLA...VCU. Is the Big East that good? Could Memphis play a weaker schedule? Questions soon to be answered.