Dear Deer,

To the deer in MY neighborhood, I have something to say. You are not welcome here. You must leave immediately. We are too close to the city for you to be hanging around, scarfing up your free, all-you-can-eat buffet. It's not free, by the way. That Hosta you ate will be $24.99 please. The Heuchera that you nibbled the new leaves and flower stalks off of? Yeah, that will be another $19.99.

You are not supposed to be here. I mean, it's not like this is a new neighborhood in the suburbs, and you've been forced out of your home. This area (did I mention that it is close to the Richmond city limits?) has been around since the mid 50s, maybe even earlier. Now I understand that in those new subdivisions, you used to romp through the woods, drink from the streams and rest in the fields. Now that has been taken away from you. I also know that you have no natural predators left in Virginia, maybe for 100 years or more, so you think you can breed like, well, rabbits?

I have a surprise for you. I've got veggies and herbs that you don't like. I found out a few years ago that you don't like Chives. I planted them around the Hostas and you stayed away. We planted a huge amount of Rosemary, which seem to love our yard and stay green all year long. I just found out about Thyme also. We have planted some of that and will be planting more. It stays green all year, and is a perfect ground cover. I has nice little flowers, and comes in different varieties. My wife is partial to Lemon Thyme. Lavender and Allium are no good to you either. There will be more. I promise.

I will be planting more of each. All over the yard. They fill in the spaces between our specimen trees and shrubs, give us something to look at all year long, and provide us with wonderful spices for our kitchen and flowers for our table. 

So, shoo. Go away.

Yours truly,
A disgruntled gardener

Lavender

Rosemary front and back

Look at all the empty space for these goodies!

Allium

Feathered friends abound

Very young Downy Woodpecker venturing out for the first time.

The noises coming out of the hole in the tree are enough to make a mom freak out. You would think that the mother Downy Woodpecker would do something to keep her babies quiet. These little guys are loud and are constantly chirping.

I watched a few weeks ago, as a Downy Woodpecker chose the dying twin trunk of a tree in our yard that I to this day, still do not know of which it is called. I see this trunk every day, while buttoning my shirt before heading for my first very large cup of java. It pecked away, day after day. I saw it a few times and then forgot about it. Several days ago I was walking through the yard under the tree and I could hear the babies chirping away. I then watched either mom or dad Downy Woodpecker come to the hole and dip their heard in, and fly away.

This morning I saw this little guy, first one out, clinging to our newly planted Japanese Maple next to the shed. He didn't move, just blinked. I ran and got my camera and he still didn't move. Later in the day I saw him closer to the nest hole, right above it in fact. His siblings still not ready to leave. My wife speculates that he was the first one near the nest hole and was probably fed the most frequently, and I concur.

This got me thinking of all the bird species I have seen in our yard since moving in. I know they have increased quite a bit, having given them a habitat in which to thrive, birdbaths, low shelter, tall trees, flowers and plants for them to eat and in which to take refuge. Here is my very hastily prepared list, in no particular order:

Red-Tailed Hawk
Great Horned Owl
Mourning Dove
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Common Flicker
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
downy Woodpecker
Tree Swallow
American Crow
Blue Jay
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-Breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Brown Thrasher
Grey Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Red-Winged Blackbird
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
European Starling
House Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch
Rufous-Sided Towhee
Northern Junco

Whew. I do hope to see more!

You say toe-may-toe. I say toe-MA-toe.

Paeoniaceae Paeonia Peonies are a recent addition in my life. I never saw them growing up. My mother never had any. So when my wife introduced me to them I was enamored. The old man who lived across the street from us grew them by the hundreds. He has since passed, but they still come up every year.

I was upended the other day when a coworker, a northerner, laughed at me when I was explaining about my Peonies. See, in the south, as far as I have ever heard, it was pronounced, Pea-OH-knees. My coworker told me that it was pronounced, Pea-oh-KNEES, with the emphasis on the knees part.

This had happened to me once before, no wait, twice before. Once we were at a small mom & pop type nursery. I asked the lady if she had any Cotoneaster, I pronounced it cotton-easter. She said, oh no, it is pronounced, Co-toe-knee-aster. Okay. The other was my neighbor, who seems to likes gardening, but really doesn't know much about it and also plants and then forgets. Literally. Anyway, I noticed that he had some Liriope near his porch. So I said, "I see you have some Liriope near your porch." What would you say? Anyway, I pronounced it "Li-ri-ope, extremely phonetically. He laughed and said it was Li-Ry-Oh-Pea. Head hung low, I left for my yard. My yard doesn't talk back to me. It doesn't correct me when I mispronounce something. I like my yard.

The first year after planting Peonies, you probably won't get any blooms. It takes a year or sometimes two before it produces. That said, these plants never fail after that, to provide you with large showy flowers that have a wonderful, rose-like sent. Cut them, and bring some inside to enjoy. Make sure you rinse them outside, as the ants, the guardians of the Peonies, will hitch a ride into your house. Peonies produce a nectar, which the ants like. They will defend the flower buds until they bloom from any and all creepy crawlies that would harm the buds. Pretty cool actually. They can live for many many years if taken care of. Feed them during the summer, so they will store the nutrients for next years blooms.

A strange Spring and other notes

Black locust blooming

This is by far one of the strangest Springs we have ever had. With the exception of 4-5 days in mid March, it has been unseasonably cool and extremely overcast for almost every day. Some days it is chilly and overcast up until around 3pm or 4pm, the sun comes out for a short while but is sporadic at best. The photo above of my Black Locust tree was taken in April of last year. I have yet to see a sky that cloudless and blue this year.

Black Locust blooms are fragrant

I wish that I could send you floral smells through the internet. These are fairly short-lived blossoms, 1-2 weeks is all they last. But they are very fragrant, especially in the evening

Mockingbird. Internet photo. wildlifenorthamerica.com.

We have a Weeping Pussy Willow that is one corner of our yard. We put it there due to the fact that they are supposed to like "wet feet" and this is an area that gets plenty of water. The Mockingbirds have tried and failed several times in our yard. Sometimes the neighbors cat gets them or their young, or they are first time parents and don't really know where or how to build a nest properly. They tried once before in the Pussy Willow only to have the cat get the babies. They tried in the Barberry bush next to the driveway, not knowing that we have to get close when we get in and out of the car. It disturbed them but they had babies, only to have the cat get them again.

3 very hungry baby Mockingbirds

I took this photo today of 3 new babies in the nest. Mom and dad did their best to scare me off, dive bombing me and screaming at me. I was worried about them due to the torrential rains we had last night and this morning. But I guess Mom covered them well.

Azaleas in bloom and other stuff

I love spring. I love spring. Have I ever told you I love spring? Shaking off the cold, watching all of the plants that I lovingly dote on all the rest of the year finally come to life. I love spring. I like to watch the insects mingle with the plants. I will have to say that they are late in coming due to the cold, although I have seen a few bees around, but not many. I will also say that I loath, absolutely abhor these god damned Cankerworms. They are trying my patience. Here I am, trying to be a good earth inhabitant, not using any pesticides and here come along the killjoys to the party. They are wreaking havoc on my favorite plants. I'm most worried about my newly planted Japanese maples I told you about in the fall. They got to one before it even leafed out, ate all the buds! So I hope that it will survive. I gave it a boost of Superthrive today. Great stuff. Vitamins for your plants! I use it after every repotting of my bonsai or houseplants.

The rest of the garden is coming along quite nicely. We have expanded some beds, moved some stuff around, and I am quite sure, I will be moving more stuff around in the near future. We found some beautiful yellow Azaleas at, of all places, Home Depot. HD usually lacks in the variety of other stores, but this year they have some good stuff. The yellow azalea is called Admiral Semmes and is quite nice and bright yellow. Pair that with the knockout color of our orange azaleas and I think we are on to something! You see, we are not too keen on the average, red, white, pink or fuchsia azaleas. They are everywhere. Especially around here. That is why we are so excited about these. They are absolutely beautiful. I don't know what the name is of the orange azalea. A couple of years ago we had purchased some, what we were told, yellow azaleas. But for the last couple of years they are more of a mix. The third pic below is that one, for right now I'm going to call Creamsicle.

Admiral Semmes Azalea

Orange Azalea

Creamsicle

I can't express to you how bright these orange ones are. The camera just can't capture it. This is the first spring in their new home. We moved them late spring last year and I think they like it. I think they also like not being pee'd on by the neighbors dogs twice a day. I know I would.