Gardens: The madness of Perfection verses Imperfection

                                               I had that dream again...

                                               Andee in his nifty little artist beret

                                               with brush betwixt his teeth

                                               in the golden full moon light

                                               scampering up that huge maple

                                               towering above yard next door

                                               painting an O for obnoxious

                                               on just one dainty green leaf

                                               an O from brush dipped

                                               in a bit of concentrated Round Up -

                                               and as time passed from summer

                                               to fall to winter to spring...

                                               that giant ever so slowly

                                               dried up into lovely firewood

                                               as we drank a toast to the last

                                               of those zillion sapling babies

                                               we chopped, dug and whacked

                                               from our yard each of the

                                               twenty-one previous years.

                                               ...just a dream for now.

It's a bit of an understatement to casually say my gardens are slightly waterlogged.  My soil resembles silly putty, and rain runoff down the street challenges the Mississippi River.  Zoe swears a pair of little green frogs camped out under the deck table during that last straight line wind/rain deluge we had, most likely weary of blender ice crunching speed slushy waters in their smallish pond.

Everything in yard must be anchored down by roots or man made conglomerations to withstand anything short of a tornado, as horizontal winds and rains are not that uncommon of an occurrence here.  Backyard swing canopy was banished to the trash can, and heavy concrete blocks were braced against swing legs to smother all attempts of it ever becoming airborne, and crashing once again into that huge rebar trellis jutting out of dual planters on patio.  Trellis did manage to halt the airborne swing with no damage to trellis, but who wants to try for a second chance of it landing on the neighbor's roof.  

Wild Geranium

Allegheny Spurge

This huge trellis that spans the large planters on patio has a pattern to the way it was put together.  Sunk to the depth of the planters, it spans both planters, each piece held in place by pure pressure against other pieces.  Measurements were exact (hahaha), and I was working just off the top of my head with the idea of how the finished product would look.  Ask me now how I managed to make it all come together as one, I honestly couldn't tell you...just pure luck, I guess.  I could never do that type of work now, as my hands aren't strong enough anymore.  I do wire the joints with copper wire when all is as it should be, just for safety's sake; but that trellis was the second rebar project, and it has been only half wired for a decade now.  Hasn't budged an inch even with the swing slamming into it.  It is home to a group of native passion flower vines; although, I do have to leave the dead winter stems in place, so it can climb back up in late spring, as the rebar is a little too thick for it's tendrils.

A carolina wren house hangs from it, an english (house) sparrow claimed it, and babies chirping fills the air.  I'll be cleaning that nest box out after birds have fledged and tucking it into a corner of the garage.  I'm giving up with the nest boxes and feeders for a few years, as the english sparrows have taken over my yard, and I need to be rid of them.  Nothing is immune to the english sparrow, the bad boy of non-native birds, and a double dose headache for me.  He will nest anywhere, bird box, no bird box, loves the ones that are built to repel him, he's a robber of other bird boxes that already have inhabitants...he's an all around please-take-it-back present to the US that a homesick dude with no proper sense of native habitat saddled us with.  I live with them, as I haven't reached the point where I am comfortable killing them.  We are allowed to kill them, as they are not native song birds, and many bluebird trail managers do just that, as they are one of the main reasons all eastern bluebirds were on the verge of extinction the later part of the last century. 

Alumroot

Fothergilla

mild sweet fragrance

A walkway arbor was my first project, basically put together the same way as trellis.  Sunk about three feet into the clay soil...it's going nowhere.  It does need the copper wiring to keep the top bars from rolling off the edge, but it also has lasted forever without any movement.  A large grapevine adorned it until a few years ago when it up and died a quick silent death.  Now it's just clematis and two wren houses, one of which is always occupied by a house wren come summer.

Second trellis spans about one fourth the length of the back fence, with the notion of blocking the neighbor behind us out of our view when using the patio; but the grape vine is a slow one to mature, so it is still pretty airy back there.  The idea is to wrap the limbs loosely the length of top and keep it pruned to let downward branches block the view.  

Lily of the Valley  'Fortin's Giant'

beautiful fragrance

Hosta 'Halcyon'

Yellow Trillium, Columbine, Jacob's Ladder

Yellow Trillium

Mr. Dandy Lion

Backyard stepping stone pathway from patio to the side fence line is in reality a dry river bed, which turns into a raging river when it rains.  It was set up this way to divert rain runoff from slamming against the backside of our home.  Termite inspections kept yielding the same dampness results under house, so rain water was diverted also by blocking half of the patio with steps up and over a low concrete block wall sending that water down the driveway to street instead of under the back deck.

We purchased our home during dry weather, and after the first rain, the cable man told us we had a swimming pool underneath.  The drainage pipe opened to underneath house and the street, but RotoRooter could not unblock the obstruction, forcing us to find the contractor still working in the area.  Digging a trench from street to house revealed a three foot section of drainage pipe from street, and a three foot section of drainage pipe from house, and the rest of the distance in between was pure clay soil.

Complicated business working with so many problems that should never have existed in the first place. 

Fragrant Sumac

Wild Hyacinth

Flowering Dogwood  'Appalachian Spring'

Sapphireberry

Glossy Black Chokeberry

Multiple bird houses can co-exist on a property that's not large, if you choose birds to attract that are compatible with each other and remove all the feeders.  An overcrowded yard of birds constantly visiting feeders will most likely ruin any attempts of nesting.  What are birds that are compatible with each other?  The ones that don't kill each other.

Nature has a way of grounding your feet in reality when native wildlife gardening.  She's not always double rainbows, sweet sticky lollipops, and colorful yummy gumdrops.   Last year I cleaned out a bluebird box after the english sparrow family had fledged, and was disappointed beyond all disappointment that there was another nest under the english sparrow's nest that had three dead baby bluebirds in it.  Year before last when no more activity was coming from the chickadee nest box, I found the dead female on her nest of eggs.  The native house wren is the only other bird that can fit through that small hole sized for chickadees, so it is a good conclusion that one was the perpetrator of the death.

Don't get me wrong, as I do have good birds that fledge in this yard every year.  It's the ones using bird boxes that are in need of being monitored closely every day, and their survival in my gardens is as good as I choose to make it.  It really is a dog eat dog world out there; truly survival of the luckiest and most aggressive.  Takes a little hardening of the heart, and a cast iron stomach to accept nature as she really is.  In the old, old days everyone knew how nature was, now days not so many do.

Pesty plants

that are taking over my gardens

Spring Vetch

Catbrier - monster vine

The Cleavers Plant  - Velcro Plant

Every flower becomes a burr seed

At last count, close to five years ago, 172 species of plants inhabited this yard.  As a Master Gardener, I even had a map, used for my garden tours, of the entire front and back yard with all plants listed and their areas within the gardens identified.

Adversity met me head on in the beginning when gardens were first being converted to native plants.  People would yell at me out of their car windows when they drove by, screaming at me to mow the whole damn thing down.  I even had someone send the health department to check up on me, claiming I had too much vegetation.  I guess mother nature's friends don't ever live in the suburbs.  Health department didn't know what to write up or what to tell me, as they saw nothing wrong with it all.  Advised me to remove all seed heads first of winter, it would be void of all natural bird food, beneficial insects would be evicted from their winter homes, my yard would be more like everyone else's yards; therefore, no more complaints.  I left the bird food alone, but began to work on giving it more of the appearance of a city park.  People did stop by who adored it, and requested tours of the gardens.

If I could go back in time and live life over again here, would I have changed anything?  Of course I would!  I would have started native wildlife gardening from the very beginning.  I love sitting out in the wilds with a cup of coffee and a delicious breakfast before me, fresh breezes caressing my face, bird songs filling my head, butterflies, dragonflies, and bees always in house, and perhaps a glimpse of a bunny or two, while I eat amidst all this flowery green.  I don't see how it can get much better than this, even though at times I whine a bit too much about all the pain it is to my patootie.

 

Azalea 'My Mary'

fragrance of cloves and beeman's pepsin chewing gum

Coral Honeysuckle

I have a passion to document everything that blooms or comes into its own in my native wildlife gardens this year...hopefully my friends will not weary of this seemingly endless barrage of photos :)  Previous garden posts this year now have plant photos labeled, if anyone gives two hoots.