The Kudzu Files

Operation Wren Nest

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that a little wren seemed to be spending lots of time in my garage. After checking around, I discovered that she had built a nest behind some jars on top of a shelf just inside the garage door. By the time I found it, there was one egg in the nest. Knowing there was no way she could successfully raise a family inside our garage, since the door is closed most of the day and all night, I decided to risk moving the nest. But I didn't want to scare her off, so I cleared away the jars, laid a bucket on it's side, and then while she was out for the day I gently placed the nest inside the bucket, in the same location as the nest originally was. I left the bucket alone for a few days, until I was sure she had returned. By now there were four eggs inside. Next, I moved the bucket down a few feet to the top of a cabinet just below the shelves, and left it there for three days. After making sure she had stayed with the nest, I moved it about three feet away, but this time the bucket was outside the garage, on a stool that was about the same height as the cabinet top. Because of concern about the neighborhood cats, I only left the bucket in that location until I saw mama bird on the nest. When she left again, I moved it around the corner into this little nook between the garage and the house, left it there for a day, once again confirmed she was back with the nest, and then moved the bucket to it's final location, under the eave of the house where the house and garage meet, well off the ground, in a sheltered location. She seems to be happy with it; after leaving it alone for two days I checked last night with a flashlight from several feet away, and was very happy to see two little wren eyes looking back at me.

Butterflies are free

I saw this little guy flitting around my garden while I was playing with my new camera today, and he was obliging enough to pose for a picture.

Spring Is Coming

Blue Sky Sunday Morning

Blue skies here this morning, didn't get as rough last night as they had predicted, it all went either north or south of me. Strong winds, some rain but only for about an hour; now it's nice and cool this morning. Yesterday I pruned back a big rose that I then moved back into the rose bed (he got moved in January '06 because he was a bully, maybe he's learned his lesson), did some clean up in the back yard. Walked around the yard, admired the crocuses beginning to bloom, noticed my first hyacinth is blooming. The back yard needs a makeover this year, I'm trying to figure out where to start.

I think I'll go watch the hawks again this afternoon, and maybe walk around the yard and ponder some more. Life is good.

Saturday In The Garden

Planted the last 108 tulip bulbs this morning - I didn't realize how many I had left to plant! In Mississippi, since it doesn't really get cold enough for tulips to complete their cycle naturally, you have to refrigerate them, and these have been in the refrigerator since early October. So planting them late shouldn't be a problem. To be honest, I can't remember how many (or where) I had planted earlier, so I guess spring will be a bit of a surprise. But it was a fine day, mid-60s, light breeze, slightly overcast. The kind of day I love in late February or early March, but not mid-January. I want some winter!

A Gardener's Prayer

Oh Lord, grant that it in some way may rain every day, say from about midnight until three o'clock in the morning...but You see, it must be gentle and warm so that it can soak in; grant that at the same time it would not rain on Campion, Alyssum, Helianthemum, Lavender and other plants which You in Your infinite wisdom know are drought-loving plants...I will write their names on a bit of paper if You like...and grant that the sun may shine the whole day long, but not everywhere (not for instance on Spirea, or on Gentian, Plantain-lily or Rhododendron), and not too much...that there be plenty of dew and little wind, enough worms, no plant lice and snails, no mildew, and that once a week thin, liquid manure and guano may fall from Heaven.

- Karel Capek

(I know how he felt)

More Fun Fun With Paintshop

Busy As A ...

bumblebee on salvia. The bumblebees have been working my Victoria Blue salvia hard this spring. While I was working in that bed Monday I noticed this guy was doing his thing about 12" from my head. I decided to grab my camera.

Then I started playing with the picture in Paintshop Pro and came up with this:

It doesn't look as nice as Loren's transformations, but then I've just figured out how to do this stuff.

Garden Photo Of The Day

Rose "Zepherin Douhin" blooming along my front fence (click on the picture for the full size image)...

What's Blooming Now

Grape Hyacinth, one of the last of my spring bulbs to bloom.

Right Place, Right Time (Gardening Edition)

Early Saturday morning I headed out to a special live gardening radio show and plant swap, part of fundraising week for my local public radio station. They asked that everyone bring a tree or shrub which would be planted on the coast in a couple of weeks. So I stopped by the garden center of one of the big-box home improvement stores on the way. They had some big carts filled with plants and wrapped in plastic, with a sign on each reading "$10, must take entire cart". One of the carts had some plants I was interested in, New Guinea impatiens and plumbago mainly. Then I found another cart with some red salvia and Wave petunias. Way too much temptation for a garden nerd to ignore, so I bought both carts. I could tell you that I ended up with about 45 New Guinea impatiens in 6" pots, about 45 plumbago in 6" pots, 18 Asiatic lilies, about 50 kalanchoe, 14 12" pots of mixed salvia and petunias, about 40 African violets, and a few other odds and ends. But pictures tell the story better.

Here's what you get for $10, if you're at the right place at the right time:

(plus the plants I had stuffed behind the seat of the truck).

And for another $10, you get:

Now I know some of you might say I bought a whole lot of work for $20. I think I bought a whole lot of playing in the dirt!

Pictures For A Friday Afternoon

This red and yellow tulip (variety unknown) asked to have its picture taken:

And in case you've never seen a picture of hyacinth taken from above...

And last, some young plants that may be larkspur, or maybe just a weed. I planted some larkspur seed early last fall, but forgot where I planted it. Now I have two clumps of these plants growing, but since I've never planted larkspur, I don't know what to look for...

Early flags

The first of my early irises...

Spring Haiku

Warm sun, gentle breeze
Azalea blossoms watching
Two swans on water

Seed into flower
Like one thing to another
Flower into seed

Another Dose Of Springtime

Click on the picture to see a higher resolution version...

Spring's Coming!

For those of you in northern climes who are still stuck in winter's icy grip:

The blooms of a crabapple...

January Afternoon In Mississippi

After a pretty cold December, January has been somewhere between mild and warm, with temperatures most afternoons in the 60s. In addition to being pretty nice for the people, it's been good for plants too. I took a few pictures in the front yard this afternoon... click on the picture for a larger pic...

Stock (Matthiola), an old-fashioned flower that's fallen out of favor for some reason.

Pansies in pots. Why a flower this tough is called a pansy, I've never understood.

Violas have been blooming for two months. Snapdragons have made it through temperatures in the mid-20s F without a problem. Blooms should come soon!

The bottle tree is always blooming...

Old Roses In The Cemetery

Saturday morning I met Felder Rushing, Dr. Dirt, and about a dozen old rose people and fellow travelers like me, and planted about 40 old roses at Greenwood Cemetery in downtown Jackson. It's an old cemetery, dating back to the very beginning of Jackson in the early 1800s. We planted roses between headstones and in the corners of fenced plots, to protect the roses from mowers and string trimmers, and also to make it easier for the groundskeepers to work around them. After planting the roses, I wandered and took cuttings from some of the existing roses; I ended up without about 15 cuttings. We don't know what varieties were planted. Felder and Dirt were allowed to wander around the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas (I think it was ARE, it may have been another Texas old rose nursery) and get a truckfull. They decided to not pay attention to varieties, just to get what looked good. A gray, overcast, cool (50s F) day, but no rain, a great day to plant roses in an old cemetery.

A few pictures from the cemetery (click on the picture to see the original):


An arched entryway into a family subplot.

The arches from a distance.

"Stone tears fall just as silently"

I liked the way this set of headstones was framed by the camellia, the cedar, and the boxwoods.

This picture, facing northwest, and the next, facing southeast, shows how this cemetery stands between the rich and the poor, or the weak and the powerful, in Jackson.

Many of the headstones had "Woodmen Of The World" engraved on them. This one did not, that I could find, but the message seems obvious.

The grave of Eudora Welty.

In the end, nature will be served.

MFB* Update

* - Mean Feathered Bastard

The day after the Great Blue Heron attack, there were three goldfish remaining in my pond. Two days later, there were none, despite my attempt at protecting them by laying a piece of wire mesh fencing across the pond. I don't know how the bird got them, but they're gone.

Nature Is Cruel

Two summers ago, I did something I had long wanted to do: I built a goldfish pond. It wasn't large - about 8 feet by 4 feet. But it was big enough to suit me, and well-placed - right beside the screen porch where I like to sit and read. I built a little rocky stream to recirculate the water into the pond, and I could listen to the water splashing down a small waterfall into the pond. I bought 10 goldfish at a local pet store, 24-cent "feeder" fish, a couple of inches long. Over the past 18 months, I've enjoyed watching my fish as they've grown to lengths of 6-8 inches. Sometimes I'd just sit on the little bridge I built over the pond and watch them swim slowly around their little world.

But not now. Because today this feathered bastard:

decided to wipe out my goldfish. My dog was in the back yard at the time, and was going crazy barking, but at only 14 pounds I guess he thought that was about all he could do. I was in the front yard, and finally decided to go see what was going on. The bird was standing in the pond. It flew off when I came around, but sat on top of my workshop. After I threw a rock at it, it flew away, but returned about 20 minutes later and apparently finished the job. I came around to check and found it by the pond again, and when I checked the pond there were no fish left.

OK, they were only goldfish. Less than $3 invested, if you don't count the food they've eaten. And I'm a nature-loving, tree-hugging environmentalist kind of guy. But dammit, why did that bird have to find my little pond?

Turkey Day Gardening

I spent my morning, and early afternoon after lunch, doing some gardening. I set out 80 tulip bulbs, 45 daffodil bulbs, about 45 hyacinth bulbs, a flat of pansies, a flat+ of snapdragons, and some matthiola (stock), plus transplanted the last 10 or so chrysanthemums from pots to permanent bed locations. I've done this the past few years - I buy chrysanthemums in late summer or early fall to replace the summer annuals in my big pots, and once they've bloomed, since the ones I buy tend to be perennial here, I transplant them into permanent beds. I'm slowly building a large number of chrysanthemums around the yard this way. I am once again caught up, everything is planted (except for some Hidden Ginger (curcuma) that I got from a friend a few weeks ago), the last of the summer annuals are pulled out and either thrown away or composted, except for some salvia that's still blooming. Not much left to do until spring, except mulching leaves. Except this morning I decided to find some big daffodil varieties to plant in a couple of areas that need some springtime color. And some azaleas I need to move now that I had to cut down a couple of trees after Katrina, throwing some azaleas I planted last year into a sunny spot. They won't be happy in the sun.

Rain! Plants! Cold!

It's been very, very dry here. It rained on September 26, then not another drop until this past Monday, when we got about .3 (3/10) inches of rain. But today, this afternoon, a strong front began moving through, and it's been raining since. It's a good day for it - Sunday I planted seeds of larkspur and sweet pea, and moved all the chrysanthemums I had gotten earlier in the fall from the pots I'd planted them in to permanent locations in various beds. But the back side of the rain is a strong cold front, which is expected to send temperatures which have been in the 70s and even 80s, down to the mid-20s tomorrow night. I've got a couple of flats of snapdragons and pansies, and some stock (Matthiola) still to plant, but I'm thinking I'd do better to wait until after the front passes. The pansies would be fine - it's amazing how a plant with a name like "pansy" can be so tough. I've had them encased in ice for several days, then seen them beging blooming again a few days later. Snapdragons aren't that tough, but I think they'll make it. They may lose the blooms, but they will pick back up after a few milder days. Stock is a new plant for me, I don't know how it will handle our winter (not that we have that much of a winter), but I've read that it can take it, so we'll see. The rain, however, is nice.

Things I've Been Doing In The Front Yard

My big project over the summer was building a deck and landscaping where a Bradfordpear used to be. OK, I finished the deck in early summer, and stopped during the heat of summer. I just finished the landscaping last week, it's now a great place to sit in the evenings...

Asters, Clara Curtis chrysanthemum, and cosmos along the picket fence...

A scarecrow!

and here's a little Happy Halloween...

Fall Garden Fest

Every October, Mississippi State University's Extension Service puts on a Fall Garden Festival at their research station at Crystal Springs, MS. They have several acres of ornamentals and vegetables in demonstration gardens. It's a chance to see how different varieties fare in Mississippi's climate, or to compare them to old standbys. There's talks on various garden topics, vendors, information booths, old friends, and new friends. I met a lady from my dad's home town who had known him, my aunt, and my grandfather when she was a little girl in Louisville, MS (in Mississippi, it's pronounced 'Lewis-ville'). Anyway, the skies were incredibly blue, the weather was great, and it was a great day of thinking about gardening. I'll now proceed to bore you with a few pictures...

The Ornamentals Demonstration Garden

The Vegetable Demonstration Garden

This trellis was completely covered by hyacinth bean vine.

Mississippi Tropical

And of course, some plants...

Rose Red Ribbon
Persicaria 'Red Dragon'
Gaura 'Pink Picofee'
Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost'

What's blooming

A couple of pictures from my yard today...

The front annual bed, with marigolds, gladiolus, dahlias, blue salvia, begonias, zinnias, and behind it the not-quite-finished deck and swing/arbor.

Magilla Perilla, a type of coleus, with pink Wave petunias and Terracotta Million Bells (Calibrachoa).

Another Rose Picture

This one is Iceberg, blooming along the front of my yard

An Unkown Rose

When I got ready to remove my old garden shed and build my workshop, I found a couple of old roses struggling to survive. I'd planted them years ago and forgot about them. So I moved them to the front yard, in front of the picket fence. One was Queen Elizabeth; this one I just can't remember the name. But it's blooming now.

This one is Martha Gonzalez. It's not a rose garden-type rose, but it's a great in a mixed perennial bed.

Playing in the garden

This was a pretty busy gardening week for me, the first one of spring really. I spent a good bit of time cleaning up - removing old mulch, the last of the oak leaves (I always leave a layer in the perennial beds until spring), pulling up treelets and weeds and related undesirable stuff, and getting rid of the tulips (no point in leaving them in the ground here) and other winter/early spring "annuals". That's the drudgery part. Then I got to start on the fun stuff. On a trip to north Mississippi Tuesday, I found a red twig dogwood at a garden center in Oxford. They're really, really borderline here - I'm near the edge of zone 8 and zone 7 - and it may not make it, but I wanted one, and decided I could possibly make a zone 6/7 microclimate for it. I planted it under the outer branches of the big oak next door, at a place where it will get morning sun, the filtered shade during mid-day, then shade from about 3PM onward, on a bit of a slope so it's feet won't be wet. And I'll mulch it heavily. Maybe it'll do OK. Some of you zone 5-6 gardeners, send it some cool vibes this summer. I also found an orange native azalea, which has found a home replacing an old Formosa azalea that had outlived it's usefulness.

Then today, after finishing up the cleanup, I went rambling through some local garden centers - that's the most fun anyway, right? And did some impulse buying - a weigela "Wine and Roses", some Aster oblongifolius, some angelonia Carita, which I planted in the midst of some rudbeckia hoping they'll bloom about the same time, and some 6-packs of red dianthus, purple verbena, and burgundy coleus for a couple of big pots near the street in front of the arbor over the sidewalk. I also stuck in a couple of Terracotta Million Bells petunia for each pot. I think it will all look good together. Then I planted two dozen mixed gladiolus corms in front of the picket fence, also near the street, behind some irises and daylilies where I can support them unobtrusively if I need to, and six dahlias - I've never tried dahlias, so I'll be interested to see how they do. Another first was a pack of 25 mixed asiatic lilies - when I was on Felder's radio program a few weeks ago, one of my Canadian gardening acquaintances emailed to ask how they did down here, so I figured I should find out. After losing last spring recovering from knee surgery, it's nice to be able to get back out in the dirt.

Driving through a Mississippi spring

I drove to our North Regional Office today, a roughly 3-hour excursion up I-55 to Oxford, MS. One of those bluebird days that makes you remember why you stay in Mississippi: clear, deep blue skies, warm sunshine, and a landscape that's practically vibrating with new growth. And I was reminded once again what makes Mississippi different from so many other states. Green is everywhere. An incredible array of textures, shades, tones. The most creative human artist could never select and use so many shades of green. Their imagination would run dry long before they approached the diversity that nature routinely paints upon her canvas. In Mississippi, it's mid-spring. The early bulbs - snowdrops, wild narcissus and jonquils, escapees from old homesites, have pretty much finished blooming. Crimson clover is beginning to bloom, along with roadside wildflowers in wide swaths of ywllow and blue (It's a little odd that we have few orange and red spring-flowering wildflowers). But these are just window dressing. Right now, it's the domain of green. And that's without the kudzu, which is still brown from winter.

How can you not want to hug a tree?

A lyrical essay by a friend...

Esther Czekalski
www.gaias-gift.com

Kudzu Flower

I'd be willing to bet you didn't know kudzu even had a flower. But it does, and it's really a pretty neat flower. The picture on the left is the kudzu flower.

Early Fall

It's been dry here. Really, really dry. Today was 35 days without rain - but it's been raining some today! We should get a good soak tonight and tomorrow, just in time for the state fair. Because it's been so dry, things have been on hold. My chrysanthemums have been budded out, but not blooming much. Maybe the rain will give them a push. Pineapple sage is blooming a little, but not like the display last fall. The main gardening event for me will be cutting down the Bradford pear in the front. I've decided it has to go - it's been spreading too far, it has a double trunk that's going to split eventually, and I'd rather go ahead and finish it so I can plan for next year's sun garden, where it once was shady. Some azaleas will need to be moved, I think full sun will be too much for them. I hate losing the Bradford, it's been a nice tree for us, but it's gotten too big, and the trunk has probably already survived a couple of storms it shouldn't have made it through. So, some time in the next couple of weeks, it will probably come down. I may wait to get one more season of crimson leaves out of it, but I'm really ready to move on. The tulip poplars in the back are already dropping their leaves, much earlier than last year. August was unusually cool this year, I guess that combined with the dry September flipped the switch. They start the sequence every year - tulip poplars, then the sycamores next door, then the Bradford pear, and last the enormous red oak in the neighbor's yard. The last couple of years, the oak didn't drop leaves until early December. I'm betting this year it won't take that long.

What's blooming...

Here's a picture of the perennial bed in the middle of my front yard, taken Saturday morning:

Purple coneflowers are beginning to bloom, rudbeckia "Cherokee Sunset", Hyperion daylily (the yellow in the back), fuchsia phlox, a few other things.