I would love that Donna! When the time is right please PM me & we can discuss details, maybe even trade plants. Thank you

Caught in the act!

Mark_Thompson wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 3:07 am Caught in the act!

Is that one of those monsters? How do you's get rid of 'em; beer?

The Gotch

@Cornelius_Gotchberg My man Sam Walton sells snail tamers at his general store. Highly effective if used properly. Sometimes I do indeed drink beer while doing snail eradication, but never before 1200 local time.

I bought a small potted tropical hibiscus plant at Walmart several days ago and planted it in the ground. The plant was covered with buds and many of them decided to open all at once. The variety was not specified on the tag. So pretty! It will grow 3 to 4 ft high.

First time growing jamaican scotch bonnet chili, the seedlings are very stocky and attractive.

Hot lips salvia, Cat's whiskers, bowl of Bluebonnets, Nun's orchid,
Orange Chiclet Esperanza.

Love the orange chiclet Tecoma!

I saw a chickadee making nest in my birdhouse today, or at least interested in it. Very pleasant hearing it sing.
https://rumble.com/v4ph9yw-20240414-chickadee.html

Just a riot of birdsong the past couple of days. Grouse in the garden today, so I put a little chicken wire over a few hollyhocks that are sprouting. Eat something else!

War with my ultimate enemies, tree rats. I thought buying the suet feeder would solved the issue but they are so smart that they know how to open the feeder hatch.

Cow's Eggs

A 4yo named the mama Killdeer "Cow"...because the egg's are spotted like a cow.

Two more weeks of broken wing antics. And there might be an orphan to for someone to raise. They are born pretty advanced, and sometimes the parents pull up stakes with just three hatched.

My first bread seed poppy bloomed today.

Two more bread seed poppy flowers today. These only bloom for one day.

A couple of C. moschata blooms. Bees are loving these.

spinach

JRinPA wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 11:38 pm Cow's Eggs
A 4yo named the mama Killdeer "Cow"...because the egg's are spotted like a cow.
Two more weeks of broken wing antics. And there might be an orphan to for someone to raise. They are born pretty advanced, and sometimes the parents pull up stakes with just three hatched.

Any update on the eggs? Prospects seem poor, out in the open like that.

They'll be fine I think...both parents...I guess that would Cow and Bull...have been actively guarding/sitting on them. All four eggs are still intact. I think the father is the more calm one, I was 5 ft from the nest with the mower yesterday and he sat tight. The mom I think tends to be more dramatic and will run off and play broken wing, come eat me over here. But my phones camera is terrible. And I have more and more away from taking my actual old digital camera since it got dirt/grit in the zoom lens last year. It is still better than the cell cam though for stuff like this.

The nest is actually quite secure, inside a fence, so no cats or nest raiders. I'll try to take a pic tonight.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 4:14 pm They'll be fine I think...both parents...I guess that would Cow and Bull...have been actively guarding/sitting on them. All four eggs are still intact. I think the father is the more calm one, I was 5 ft from the nest with the mower yesterday and he sat tight. The mom I think tends to be more dramatic and will run off and play broken wing, come eat me over here. But my phones camera is terrible. And I have more and more away from taking my actual old digital camera since it got dirt/grit in the zoom lens last year. It is still better than the cell cam though for stuff like this.

The nest is actually quite secure, inside a fence, so no cats or nest raiders. I'll try to take a pic tonight.

Great news, didn't realize that about the fence. Thanks for the update.

Yeah there is a fence around the whole comm garden. Keeps deer out until snow drifts in January. A few places for rabbits and groundhogs, but cats don't come on any regular basis, nor do any other predators, other than me. I should make cat stairway over the fence with catnip on top to get them in there to eat voles...that might actually work....Skunk under the shed at times, but never saw it in the garden. And that actually lived over in the drainage pond, which was back up for years and became a cattail swamp. That was fixed so it empties properly last year. No more skunk habitat.

I put flags around the nest the first day I think and they accepted it but we still have people just about walk on the flag before remembering. Very good camo on those birds. They get low and explode off making a racket to distract and the play broken wing.

Yesterday evening I took some pics of the nest.

I was over this morning and just read a book for a bit, sitting on the benches. The first bird was a little spooky with it and wouldn't sit on the nest. Came back, but sat 2 ft on this side, 1 ft on that side. Wouldn't indicate to me where the nest actually was. I think that is Cow. Smaller and the black throat stripe aren't as broad. Then there was some calling and they switched. The slightly larger bird with thicker black throat bands/stripes (I think that would be the male) came over and sat right down on the eggs and stared right toward me, facing me. Call that 6 oclock.
Later when they switched again, she sat down with her head pointing to about 11 oclock. Watching me with her left eye. Giving me the stink eye..
The bigger one just seems to be the male, they are pretty much alike, just a little sharper contrast on the mail and he acts out less.


Seems like with this cell cam there is no point at all in zooming in before shooting the pic. I can zoom in on a 2x zoom pic and it looks exactly as pixelated and harshly contrasted as a 10x zoom pic does.

Last year, I grew in raised beds, but this year I tested my soil and found that all my garden has high lead and the raised bed has even higher than the rest. It's container gardening for me this year. I bought dwarf tomato seeds last minute and sowed direct and I'm just hoping I get a melon.