Green The Grounds for Earth Day

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Most gardeners I've met are fairly environmentally conscious. This follows our chosen hobby naturally since we deal so closely with plants, soil, weather patterns and the animals that interact with our gardens. Susan Harris at Garden Rant is one of those special gardeners who cares about the environment; managing to inspire other garden bloggers involvement as well by creating Green The Grounds.org. Thanks Susan!

Recently the First Family started an Organic Victory Garden at the White House. This was exciting news. I continue to hope that the media attention will influence others to learn more about gardening without herbicides and pesticides. A world where more people start their very own Organic Victory Gardens seems like a much better place to me.

Hopefully, the Obama's Organic Victory Garden at the White House is only the first step. Green The Grounds is "encouraging the First Families -- in the White House and governors' mansions -- to adopt more sustainable landscaping practices."

One fine example of public lands being use for the good of the community is the huge Organic Victory Garden in front of San Francisco's City Hall...



While Victory Gardens are cool and certainly have their place, I would also love to see more native plants added to the First Families' grounds. Native plants need less water, feeding and overall maintenance. It would be terrific if plants were included in these public gardens that would attract birds, butterflies and other animals. Adding permanent, naturalized water features would benefit native wildlife and be a pleasant focal point for visitors to the mansions as well. If I had my wish each governor's mansion garden would be a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat. Well, I can dream, can't I?

Unfortunately, the Texas Governor's Mansion suffered a fire in June 8, 2008. At the present time they are focused on restoring the building to its former glory. Recently there was even a suggestion to make the Pease Mansion the new Texas Governor's Mansion. Hopefully once the mansion's problems have been resolved there will be more time and energy to concentrate on its gardens.

In the meantime we can all try to make our own gardens as green and environmentally friendly as possible. I try to limit my use of biocides on my property, though I admit I used Roundup on a tenacious section of poison ivy when we first moved here. But by using organic gardening methods and including food, water and cover for wildlife, almost any garden can make the most of its environmental potential. Mine is still a work in progress...

"I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs." –Joseph Addison

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

The Mirror is Up!

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Someone finally helped me get my wooden mirror up on the dining room wall today. Thank goodness my cats approve. ;-) Actually, I don't usually allow Mariah and Lily on to the buffet -- nor tables, counters, or any other food-serving surface -- but I wanted to give a sense of proportion to the photo. Plus they pose really well.


I was planning on using Robin of Get Grounded's "go-to guy", (who remodeled her beautiful kitchen), to put up my mirror. However, I was surprised today when the first mirror company I'd contacted sent someone over to put it up in record time. I'm still going to hire Robin's carpenter for a tricky kitchen project. So thanks again, Robin, for recommending Mr. G, because I'm determined to use him.

Anyway, I am relieved my mirror is off the floor and on the wall where it belongs.


Though I have the uneasy feeling that I've now raised the decorating bar, so to speak, and will have to upgrade a few things here and there.

Ah well. Thank goodness for consignment stores.


"In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room. The very first thing she did was to look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quite pleased to find that there was a real one, blazing away as brightly as the one she had left behind." Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Easter Lilies and Eggs

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

I hope those of you who celebrate Easter had a very happy day. I'm enjoying the fragrance of the Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum) on our breakfast table this year. I was wondering if I could plant it in my garden, so I checked and saw the MSS at Zanthan Gardens has written a great deal of information about the lily here. Edit: MSS points out that her entry is actually about "LA hybrids, which are Longiflorum lilies (like the Easter lily) crossed with Asiatic lilies. This hybrid is more hardy in the garden. It does not, however (like the Asiatics) have a scent." Thanks MSS!

The day before Easter, my son and I dyed 8 hardboiled eggs using a PAAS kit. I read the PAAS site and learned that the company has been around for 125 years! PAAS is short for Passen, the Pennsylvania Dutch word for "Easter".

Our dyed eggs turned out pretty well; though a couple were a bit spotty...

Our friends in Scotland sent my son a lovely box of Easter treasures which I put in the basket on the right in the photo below. The rest of the bounty was from our local U.S. Easter Bunny...

My garden surprise this morning was a visit from a uniquely dark Texas Spiny Lizard. I'd never seen one this dark before. Not sure if it's his natural coloring or if he's darker when he's feeling cooler.

Happy Easter!


"I think of the garden after the rain; And hope to my heart comes singing,
'At morn the cherry-blooms will be white,
And the Easter bells be ringing!'" ~Edna Dean Procter, Easter Bells

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Mirror, Mirror on the...Floor

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

I was feeling rather pleased with myself, because I'd finally found a mirror to fit over my dining room buffet. Here it is sitting (heavily) on the dining room floor...


And here is my buffet over which I plan to hang said mirror:


I started worrying today when I saw that it took two delivery men to carry the mirror into my house. It's 52" in diameter, carved solid hardwood and very heavy. And let's just say it didn't look quite as imposing in the consignment warehouse as it does right now. Uh oh.

My blooming orchid

As feared, my dh took one look at the mirror and said there was no way he could hang it himself. I thought, "No problem, I'll just look up "Mirror Hangers". Ha! Several unsuccessful phone calls later, I'm not feeling so pleased with myself. It's a mystery how I'm going to get this thing up on my dining room wall.

My blooming Oxalis

If any of you know someone who can safely hang a zillion-pound framed mirror in NW Austin Texas so it actually stays on my wall and doesn't fall & kill man or beast, I'd be very appreciative to know their name & number.

Thanks!

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott. ~The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892).

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

All Hail Precipitation!

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

We're experiencing a major drought here in Austin, so I relish most anything that falls from the sky. I would, however, like to draw the line at large chunks of ice that break car & house windows like we had on Wednesday. Most of the hailstones in my garden were about the diameter of a quarter, like this one...

Though I've read and seen on the news that some parts of NW Austin had some tennis ball-sized hailstones.

When the hail hit the noise was tremendous! You can see a slideshow of the Greater Austin hailstorm here. My property did not have too much apparent damage, other than beat-up plants, but we're still waiting for someone to come out and take a look at our roof. We were very lucky compared to others in the area.

This is the first photo I took during the storm...

Right after taking the photo I sat with my son under the stairs to calm him down until the noise was over. He's been afraid of storms since we were hit by 3 hurricanes in 2004. Poor kid.

Once the hail had mostly stopped I opened the door to get a closer look...

and grabbed a piece of ice for the photo at the top of this entry.

To get a good idea of the force with which this hail actually hit, you may want to watch the amazing video below that I found on YouTube. You can see how high the water splashes in the pool when the biggest hailstones hit. The video was made by someone whose house is relatively near my own as well as Annie's from The Transplantable Rose:



The day before the storm I caught these two doves relaxing on my newly-cleaned container water garden. The pair stayed there until well after dusk. I hope they weren't hurt by the hail.

Of course, crazy hailstorms are nothing new to Texas, as one can glean from reading about Isaac Cline's experience with them in the late 1800's:

"Visitors from the town of Ben Ficklin fifty miles up the Concho came to San Angelo [Texas] and reported that a monstrous hailstorm had struck about ten days earlier, the day of the flood. The storm discharged stones the size of ostrich eggs that killed hundreds of cattle and fell in such volume they filled erosion gulches and piled to depths of up to three feet on level ground." from [p.61] Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Useful Garden Pottery

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

I've been on the lookout for a large pot or urn for my front porch. This week I finally found one at Hill Country Water Gardens. It's always a joy to visit this unique nursery.

They seem to have everything I love; from plants...

...to pottery...

...complete with wildlife like this green anole...

...and fountains with very special goldfish and koi.


I was tempted to buy another birdbath for my back garden as well.

But in the end I decided on a pot from the clearance area. It has a hairline crack at the top, but since I don't plan on using it to hold water that's okay. Here it is on my porch.

The staff at Hill Country recommended that I add some pea gravel to the base as ballast. I may also try hanging a light-weight pot of flowers just inside the top. For now I'm enjoying the fact that I finally have something on my front porch besides my welcome mat.

BTW, I hope all of you had a very Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here's the Oxalis that's decorating our breakfast table this week.

‘I’m very glad,’ said Pooh happily, ‘that I thought of giving you a Useful Pot to put things in.’
‘I’m very glad,’ said Piglet happily, ‘that I thought of giving you Something to put in a Useful Pot.’ ~ A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Birds in My Garden

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

After several months of trying, I was finally able to get a photo of the male black-backed form of The Lesser Goldfinch, (Carduelis psaltria), that keeps visiting my garden...


These are not the best pics in the world, but I was thrilled to capture him at all since he's so skittish...





And I think this may be his girlfriend...


They were stuck together like glue up in the oak tree and flew away as one once they were finished drinking...





I had another visit from my friend the Yellow-rumped Warbler as well. He checked out my sedum urn first...

Then had a drink in the container water garden...



This winter I've fed a few Superworms to my wrens each day...



I bought a container of two-dozen worms from the local pet store and kept them alive by feeding them bits of carrot and oats. My cat, Mariah, thought they were very interesting...


But she didn't eat them, of course. She seems to be thinking, "Very funny Mom. Now where's the tuna?"



"I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm." Franklin D. Roosevelt

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.