FishinBC's Blog

Summer has hit.
Jun 18, 2008 | 6:05 AM PST
Tags: Frogs , Bugs , Fungus , Critters

 

 Frogs are doing the nasty in my pond again.  That has got to be a sign of summer, right?  I bought a large fish bowl and netted a bunch of tadpoles for the two little kids up the street.  Complete with pond plants and shiny stones. They love watching them grow legs and then let them go.  I noticed this morning that my pond clover is full of froggy eggs again.   Time to fish them out or I will have pinky fingernail size frogs all over the place in no time.  The gold fish will mack out on the rest and help keep numbers down.  I’m brutal, huh! 

Chickadees have taken up residence in two of the old bird houses in the front.  I have added to the bird housing market.  I have four small vintage trailer bird houses hanging from posts on the old stump.  Birdie Trailer Trash Park right in the front yard!!   So far no takers, they have chosen the more upscale houses in the neighborhood. 

The squirrels are behaving, or maybe it is more a matter of who has who trained.  They stay out of my bird feeders and stay to their trough and I keep it filled.  No signs of Mr. D this year (Pig of a Squirrel).  Wonder if he became one of those little speed bumps in life?  My seed costs have plummeted since his disappearance.  I caught one of the coonies raiding the feeders last night though.  After tangling with Robdog last week, I am very leery of them now and think I have created a monster issue by feeding them.

 In the veggie patch there are some nice sized tomatoes now and actually had one ripe one.  Yummy good.  I got the beans and the cukes in.  I have some large empty pots let over and think I will do some more containers of veggies.  Maybe a few peppers and some plum tomatoes.  I could not find the Lemon Boy tomato at the nursery this year.  Should have saved seed, that one did so well for me last year. 

 The wild Black Berries are green and growing large.  So much rain this year the vines are heavy with fruit!  We will have some good cobblers this year.  Before DH’s surgery, he leveled out a path on the black berry hillside behind the dog yard.  Now I don’t have to fight the thorns, ticks and snakes to get at all them berries!  My black raspberries are finishing up and I will miss the fresh warm fruit on my cereal in the mornings.

 Deadheaded a few of the beds last night, excited about all the daylilies getting ready to bloom.  Hoping for more rain so I don’t have to water.  All containers got a drink though, as some are under cover and don’t get the rain.  Oh and very pleased with the zoysia sod we put in last year.  It has come back really green and nice and thick.  Love to walk out there bare foot and crunching my toes in it.

 Daughter #2 is coming for 4th of July week.  No big plans yet, just hang out and relax.  She said she would like to do the canoe float.  11 miles on Big Sugar creek.  It’s a great easy paddle with lots of bluffs, wildflowers and critters.  We pack a big lunch and take the day stopping where we want.  Be kind of nice to go during the week, less people, more critters to watch.  Must remember the fishing rod, left it in the truck two weeks ago! 

 Oh, and my Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' is covered in little white fuzz balls, WHAT IS THAT!?!  Fungus or bug?  I babied this thing in the house all winter and it did great.  Put it back out where it spent last summer and now something has attacked it.  Please if anyone knows what this is let me know!

 

 

If you can't beat them, feed them
Jun 5, 2007 | 10:19 AM PST
Tags: Squirrels , Veggies , containers , Shade , Fungus , elephant ears , Bird Feeder , maters , Tomato , Bell Peppers

The battles with the bushy tailed beasties over my bird feeders and potted herbs on the deck continued until this weekend.  I had been putting feed and bird seed on the railing for them to try and deter the ravages to my herb pots.  The mess they made with the seed shells on the deck was driving hubby bonkers.  While I was out in the garden he went to work on a solution to our problem. 

 

He built them a squirrel trough!  It’s a six foot by six inch platform with a 1 inch rail all the way around.  The whole contraption is hinged so that it can be dumped out for cleaning and has a guard chain so it doesn’t flop all the way down.  The trough sits on long shelf brackets on the outside of the deck railing so any shells fall down to the ground.  There is a steep slope down to the lake on that side of the house so no harm cleaning it out there.  It works great!!  I can fill it with enough feed and seeds to keep them happy all day and out of my pots!!  The jays love it because they are too big for my bird feeders and the titmice love it because they can pick all the peanuts out of the seed.  Everyone is happy, especially Hubby who doesn’t have to go blow the shells off the deck everyday.

 

Gave the maters a feed yesterday.  I was up to 53 tomatoes but there are too many to count now. I love it!!  Yummy!  Squashes have blooms all over and the cukes are trying there best to start too.  Pulled out the last of the lettuce and spinach, it was pretty much done and our last pounding rain did them no favors.  Peppers are starting to get a little bigger.  Now that we have sun and warm maybe they will think about growing, you can see the little peppers on the plants, they just haven’t done much with all the rain we have had.  Going to put in more beans where the lettuce and spinach was, I have some starts that I will put out this weekend.

 

Got all the containers watered last night because we are up in the 90’s today.  Thank goodness it is not humid yet.  My daylilies I put in a couple of weeks ago now are doing wonderful; one that was about a three fan size is thinking about blooming, it is called “Go Figure”.  The others are all late bloomers.  I have a Masquerade Ball daylily that is getting ready to bloom, I put it in right before the freeze and it made it.  All three elephant ears are up at the back of the pond.  The leafs are huge and it really filled in that side in front of the garage.  The new willow that took the place of the Japanese maple we lost is doing great.  Lot’s of new stems and foliage.

 

And best of all my dinner plate dahlias are all about to bloom!!!  I have had to stake a few of them they were getting so tall.  But soon they will all be flowering.  I will take some photos as soon as they do.  The sunflowers have all bloomed.  I think I will plant some more of those on the hill side just for the birds.  They really are pretty.  

 

The shade bed has really filled in.  I was watering a container near there last night and notice this fungus growing on the mulch.  Looked kinda yellowish and spongy.  I gave is a squirt of the hose and the whole thing exploded in a big brown cloud!!  So great, I can just imagine the whole shade bed is going to be covered with this fungus from all the spores I released by hosing the thing down.  So how do I get rid of that????