Bees

I haven’t seen many bees since the peak of the drought and heat.  Not surprising since very few plants had flowers, but still I was concerned that the extreme weather had killed many of them.  

Most of the bees around here are the native bumblebee.  Nothing draws the bees like squash flowers, which must look like a buffet to them.  The Cocozelle squash that I planted on July 1 has grown like kudzu and lately has been setting flowers.  With the recent rain and more temperate weather the okra, beans, and tomatoes have also set a lot of blossoms.  And the bees are back.  Here a bumblebee is hovering around a squash blossom. 

The Cocozelle squash, unlike the previous plant in this spot is the picture of vigor.  Yesterday I picked a one pounder from this plant. 

 
It’s unusual for sure for a garden in this area to produce summer vegetables then stop then start again but that’s what happened here.  I stopped getting tomatoes, beans and squash in mid-July and now they are producing again.  The front bed has beans, scallions and carrots.   The back bed has tomatoes and peppers. 

This is the center row of beds:  The front bed has a later planting of beans and carrots.  The center bed has the lone squash plant.   Fall green manure mix is growing where the winter squash were.  The back bed has cucumbers and cabbage crops.  I finally got a batch of cabbage crops started in cells indoors – kale, kohlrabi, tatsoi, cauliflower and chinese cabbage.  I should have started them at the beginning of August.  

In the back bed the brussell sprouts are filling out.  I’ve tried for several years and never had success with brussell sprouts.  This year they look really good.  I tried a new variety this year – Jade Cross.  Maybe that’s why they are doing well.  

The two beds on the west end:   One bed has the last planting of snap beans for the season.  The plan is to freeze most of these beans.  Beans are the one vegetable that tastes almost as good frozen as fresh.  The other bed has parsnip, okra and a planting of carrots. 

What the. . . ?

This morning like any other morning I got up and made a pot of coffee.  Mug in hand I stepped out on the front porch for some fresh air.  I was looking at the plants in the flower beds around the porch when I saw it.  The perennial that I set in about a week ago, a Foxglove, looked like it needed life support.  The plant had been dug completely out of the soil, it’s roots stripped of any soil and many of the roots separated from the plant.  And I knew what was responsible for this wanton act of vandalism.  It’s got squirrel written all over it.  

Let me say right here that the porch beds are my pride and joy so I took this kind of hard.  I built them last year starting with the edging, then dug in a yard of compost into the hard clay soil.   I’m not a landscaper, and can’t plan out a bed since I don’t know the plants well enough.  I bought one or two shade tolerant plants at a time and put them in the bed, trying to get a diversity of foliage types.  A few did not make it, but most did.  Slowly the pieces came together.  The Foxglove was the last plant to go in, and it looked like it fit in nicely. 

This could be the work of a rabbit but not likely.  Squirrels like to dig, and they have a sordid history of digging holes in the gardens.  Why would it do this?  It’s tempting to believe that the animal does this out of pure malice, and I’m still not so sure it doesn’t, but there’s got to be a reason.  Some annual begonias that I planted about a month ago were also dug up a few days after they were put in.  What all these plants have in common is they were rooted in a sort of wood chip potting mixture.  There must be something in this that attracts the squirrels and drives them to dig through the roots.  At any rate I’ll be amazed if this plant makes it through this trauma. 

The moles have been a real nuisance in the beds this year.  Last year they were not much of a problem, but this year they are on a rampage.  And I know what they are going after – earthworms.  They’ll eat every earthworm in the beds.  I move the trap every day, but so far no luck.  One mole has been running roughshod through the brassica bed, laying down a network of trails.  The larger plants can handle the disturbance, but when one of these rodents tunnels near the roots of a smaller plant the void can leave the roots unable to take up water.  So far I’ve been able to press down the tunnels every day and keep the smaller plants from dying, although some have wilted badly.

The sugar snap peas have done very well this year in the abundant sunshine.  They are at the top of the trellis and full of young peas.  Problem is the next two or three days are supposed to have highs in the mid 90’s.  And peas just don’t like temperatures above 90 degrees.  I’m hoping the pods that are already set will fill out.  If the heat wave lasts only a few days the plants may stop setting flowers then resume when temperatures go down.  I’ll make sure they have plenty of water this weekend.

A bluebird in the wood stove

Most of us probably don’t find bluebirds inside their wood stoves with any frequency.   Saturday morning I heard a scratching noise from the stove’s fluepipe.  Suspecting that the bluebird was back and, like last spring looking for a place to nest in the fluecap, I hauled myself out of bed, got the extension ladder and went up on the roof.  I tapped around on the flue pipe a bit.  Satisfied that the bird was not inside I put a plastic cover on the top of the flue.

Back inside the house I made coffee and breakfast, then turned on the TV for a fix of March Madness and news about the Hoosier’s glorious first-round victory.  That’s when I heard a commotion from the wood stove.  Sure enough there was a bluebird inside the stove.  It had remained inside the flue and finding no way out came down into the stove.  Last spring a bluebird had done the same thing.  I was planning to cover the flue top soon since the weather forecasts weren’t showing any more days that might require wood heat.  Not soon enough I guess.

  
Now the last thing anybody wants is a wild bird inside the house.  Not only because of the damage a bird can do to the house and itself, but also because the bluebird is such an iconic American bird that it’s even more important to free the bird without injury.  It was time to do a bluebird extraction, a method I developed last spring.  I covered the stove with a large piece of Agribon row cover.  The plan was to open the front doors of the stove inside the Agribon, wait until the bird flew out and trap it in the folds of the row cover, then carry it outside and release it.

It was a nerve-wracking operation.  The bird finally came out of the doors and I managed to seal it into a pocket of the row cover.  I just got out the door when the bluebird worked out of its trap and flew off – a close call.  I think it’s time to build or buy a proper bluebird house.     

Pests

Every summer has its own unique set of pest problems.  Sometimes I get so focused on the pests which are causing problems this season that I don’t think about the pests that are not causing problems this year.  Last year the Japanese beetles were a plague, this year I see the occasional beetle but they are not a problem, not even worth the bother of setting out traps.  My best guess is that the heavy late spring rains drowned most of the larva.  This happened in 2008 when we got seven inches of rain in one day.  The beetle population was suppressed in 2008 and the following year, then returned with a vengeance in 2010.  So it’s likely that next year will see more beetles than this summer but it will probably take two years for them to return to their normal levels. 

A few days ago I realized that there has been no mole activity in the yard and garden for some time.  In 2008 and 2009 they were a real problem in the garden, then last year I saw fewer mole tunnels.  Now there aren’t any signs of mole activity.  Maybe it’s the black snake that I see around here on occasion.  Last year I came across a black snake that was about six feet long, sunning itself in one of the vegetable beds that hadn’t been planted.    A few weeks later I almost tripped over it walking out the back door.

This year I’ve had encounters with a smaller snake, about four feet long, that looks like the same species.  It made a move toward the chicken coop in June that I talked about in an earlier post - http://gardenvariety-hoosier.blogspot.com/2011/05/chickens-and-snakes.html.  I’ve also come across this snake in the pole barn and one of the minibarns, both of which have mice.  It gets around.  So have these snakes been the nemesis of the moles around here?  I really can’t come up with a better explanation.  They are welcome to make themselves at home in the yard, along with the many toads.

The new problem this year is bacterial wilt.  It has killed two squash plants and the Diva cucumber plant.  The weather certainly must be a factor, with cool rainy days alternating with very hot days in June.  This is just a pathogen that I have no control over, other than to make sure the plants have adequate spacing to allow for a free flow of air. 

The hot weather makes some insects more aggressive.  I was stung twice last week.  I was stung walking into the minibarn, where paper wasps get in and build nests.  These wasps are usually not aggressive.   The next day I was stung on the ankle while cutting out saplings on the banks of the pond.   This one really hurt, bad enough to swell up the ankle a little.  I never saw it.  The wasps are welcome too, since many are parasitic to insect pests in the garden.  They usually find tomato hornworms before I do and lay eggs on the caterpillar.  The caterpillar becomes a zombie and stops feeding.   I leave it alone so it can hatch more wasps.

Last summer I was sitting on the deck when a cicada killer, which is a very large wasp, intercepted a horsefly a few feet away.  I watched as the cicada killer set on the fly on the deck floor and cut off the fly’s abdomen and wings, which took only a few seconds, then flew off with the rest of it’s meal, leaving the discarded body parts on the deck.   Insects are gruesome killers.   

The dragonflies are back in numbers after being scarce in June.  I can now watch a variety of species darting over and around the pond, catching insects all day long.  Another insect friend.

Chickens and snakes

The chickens look like they are being chickens in their new home, arguing, sleeping, eating and pooping.  So far they have plenty of space.  One thing I would change if I was building it again is the height of the tractor.  The book about chicken tractors suggested building it three feet high.  That’s way more than is necessary – two feet high is enough – and a lower tractor will weigh less, always important when you have to move it once a day.  But it seems to work just fine. 

After the pen was built and moved into place the chicks were put in their new home.  About ten minutes after moving time I spied a snake about 20 feet away laying in a sunny spot.  As kids we called these black racers, very thin and fast non-venomous snakes.  This one was between three and four feet long, and pointing in the direction of the new pen.  Hmmm I thought.  So I got some pictures.

Now normally these snakes are welcome.  Since I began seeing them last year the moles have become much less of a problem.  In fact this spring there have been no subsurface tunnels in the yard, although the moles are putting up popholes around the yard.   I realized that a snake-chicken encounter was not in anyone’s best interests.  The chickens were already stressed by their change in abode and not yet adapted to the outdoors. The snake might be able to kill a chick, but there is no way it could swallow one, and if it tried it wouldn’t be able to get out of the pen and would probably get pecked to death by the chickens.

   

I guessed that the snake, being cold-blooded, was sunning itself until its body temperature warmed sufficiently for it to make a move.  Sure enough, after awhile in the sun, it moved directly for the pen.  By the time I got off the porch and close enough it was about a foot into the pen, going easily through the chicken wire.  I grabbed it by the tail, pulled it out and flipped it into the yard.  Then I tried to catch it with a rake to take it further away.  That's when I found out that they are very quick indeed.  It escaped under the porch and I haven’t seen it since.   

After several days in the outdoors I'm more confident of the chicken's ability to handle themselves.  Still you never know what nature will throw at you.

A strange start to the day

I got up this morning, always a good thing, and walked out into the sunroom to see what kind of day was in store.  I spied a bluish bird on the picnic table, found the binoculars and confirmed that it was an indigo bunting, a seedeater in the same family as cardinals.  I took a picture from outside the door but the 4x zoom wasn’t enough to get a good shot, so I was trying to get a little closer without spooking it. 

Just then a pair of Canada geese circled overhead and landed in the pond.  They made enough commotion to scare off Mr. Bunting.  Now I have an uneasy relationship with the geese.  They are welcome to visit awhile but I’m not going to offer them a timeshare.  If they set up nesting soon they will be into the garden and eating everything, not to mention that they are not the friendliest large bird around.  But they are a beautiful regal bird, even if it’s brain is the size of a pea.  I got a few pics of them from the deck.  I think the tall grass around the pond is not to their liking, because they paddled around about 15 minutes then left.  They do this about twice a month.

And this is where the story takes a turn for the worse.  After the geese took flight I walked toward the garden and noticed the bunting laying very still next to the sunroom.  Now I get a few birds a year that fly into the windows of the sunroom.  Some of them knock themselves silly, and some hit the windows hard enough to turn their lights out.  So the bunting must have flown into the window and met its demise.  I took a picture of it because it is a fine looking bird and hope that more of them will make themselves at home around here.  And now you know, if you didn’t already, that there are really two small blue birds native to this area, the bluebird and the bunting.

On to happier thoughts.  Harvest for the week:  one Kohlrabi, 11 oz.  Lettuce 4 oz.  The first kohlrabi of the season.

Kohlrabi just doesn’t get any respect, and that’s a shame.  Peeled, it emits a fresh cole smell.  Raw, it has a fresh sweet cabbage taste and a smooth buttery texture.  I cut up this one and sauteed it in a little olive oil with some seasoning.  Cooking brings out a nice mineral flavor, like a good Riesling, with just a little bit of pungent bite at the end.   Kohlrabi is also called German Turnip and was favored by Charlemagne.  The important thing is to make sure it’s growth has no interruptions and don’t wait too long to pick it.  I’m thinking that some wurst and horseradish with sauteed kohlrabi, sugar snap peas and chased with a Leinie’s Bock will have my Teutonic side singing a happy song.

Cheers!

Lichens and wetlands

Tuesday evening the sky cleared long enough to see a sunset.  The angle of the sun and the reflected light off the pond brought my attention to the lichens on the red oak in the backyard.  I had never noticed them before.  The oak is an old patriarch – 3 ½ feet diameter.  I got a few more shots of the upper end of the pond, which is marshy, then a shot of the sky at sunset. 

There’s a blue heron that likes to feed in this area.  It’s really skittish and flies off as soon as I walk into the sunroom.   

Fish, Country Eggs, and Chlorophyll

It really seems like spring is here for sure.  As I get older it gets a little harder to get rid of that nagging uncertainty that winter may have one last curtain call.  But yes I’m sure now that no more fires need to be lit in the woodstove, the heavy coats can be put away.  The weather system passed through yesterday and left an inch of rain.  Today was virtually cloudless, about 60 for a high and very windy.  This is the time of year in Southern Indiana when everything seems to become a neon green.   I walked out on the deck this afternoon and the catfish acted like they had too much coffee, or maybe they were just glad to see me.  The light was just right so I took more pictures.  Now I’m licking my chops thinking about a catfish dinner.

I got some eggs today from a neighbor down the road.  Got me thinking that country eggs sure don’t look like city eggs, unless you go to a farmer’s market.  All different kinds here, and boy are they good, with yolks that stand proud.

I’m beginning to believe that I’m getting a handle on the landscaping projects.  Last week a yard of compost was mixed into the flower beds in front of the house and this week I planted some eonymus, cotoneaster, and guara.  A few more hostas should fill the beds out.  The house was built 5 years ago and the builder did such a pathetic  job of landscaping that everything had to be torn out and redone.  Tomorrow I pick up a yard of dirt/compost mix to fill in some low areas and topdress some bare areas for reseeding.  I generally work at it until I reach the pre-back spasm condition.  Then it’s Miller time.   Cheers!  

Wildlife

This morning three deer, a buck and two does, were browsing in the field across the pond.  They look like yearlings.  The pictures are a little foggy since I took the shots through a window – if I had stepped outside I’m sure they would have spooked and run off.  The property across the pond  was formerly a cow pasture that has been neglected for about 10 years (my best guess) and is undergoing succession, that is the progression from weeds, shrubs and grass to forest.  A number of trees have already established themselves – red oak, tulip poplar, black cherry, ash, hickory and sycamore.  There is a small grove of black walnut further back.  The field will probably look a bit like a park as the trees get some size, although the grass and weeds are head high.

I don’t mow around the pond.  The first owners cut the grass up to the pond’s shore, all around the perimeter .  I tried mowing all around the pond once.  It took most of a day, and that was the last time for that.  Not only is all that mowing a waste of time but it eliminates wildlife cover at the pond's edge and slows the development of a well-rooted stand of vegetation in a graded soil that lacks organic matter.  Tall grass around the pond also discourages Canada geese, who don’t like walking through it since it might hide predators.  Maybe the best argument for not mowing around the pond is the lack of mosquitoes around the deck in the summertime.  The tall grass provides habitat for numerous dragonflies and the shoreline is thick with frogs.  After dusk the bats come out to feed.  The skeeters just don't have a chance.

Twice a year I cut down any tree saplings that have started within about 30 feet of the deck, and scythe the taller weeds.  Clusters of cattails are expanding around the shore and I’m hoping that they will establish around most of the pond.  Cattails harbor marsh wrens and redwing blackbirds, block erosion, clean the water, and they look great.  They aren’t likely to take over a large area since the shore slopes steeply enough to limit them to a narrow band.