The Gardening Bug Has Bitten, and a Kitten Update

It happens around this time every year.  The sun is shining, but it's cool enough to garden in comfort.  That rare season when I can plant and dig without breaking a sweat in Houston!

I have plans for preparing the border along the back wall for some seasonal color. Since that's the bed I expanded last year by laying down landscape fabric and covering with mulch to kill off the grass underneath, that will probably be quite a lengthy process of digging and adding some compost.  


So yesterday, I just did some more weeding, and also planted a clematis.

I planted it in front of the small trellis I put in to hide the utility boxes. I had already amended the soil in that bed, so I hope it does well there.

While I was pottering around weeding, my husband, enticed by the opportunity to employ power tools, was using a drill and auger to deep root fertilize the trees.  He followed up by mulching over the holes he had drilled. 

So now the garden looks like it has been invaded by gophers...

 
But that's okay, a few rains and once the grass starts growing, we won't even see that, and hopefully the tree will show it's appreciation by not dying. 

Someone had asked for an update on the mother cat and her kittens that we took in last summer.  Well, they're still with us and doing well.  They are such a joy, and so entertaining we don't regret taking them in for a single moment.

They all get on well together and our other cats tolerate them pretty well.

We're particularly happy that Cali, the mother cat, has bonded so well with Merlin, a stray I took in when I moved from my previous home.  My other cats didn't take to him so well, so I was really pleased that Cali and Merlin are now the best of friends.

Last summer I was concerned for the safety of the birds in the garden, since Cali and the kittens had strong hunting instincts.  Well, I'm happy to the report that the birds are now thriving in the garden unmolested by felines.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Mystery Solved!

I had thought raccoons had damaged my Tropicannas and my Flame Acanthus, but Houston garden blogger Ursula said the culprit was more likely to be the kittens of the stray cat that appeared in our garden a few weeks ago ... I think she was right...

While I didn't get a photo of any of them actually climbing into the pots, they *do* seem to like playing in that corner of the garden and drinking from the large clay saucer I keep filled with water for the birds.

And although the kittens won't come too close to us yet, they are very curious and watch intently as mom trots over to us and rubs against us and lets us pet her. 

I have a four day weekend coming up and, in addition to getting some gardening done, we're going to see if we can entice the kittens and bring them indoors, along with mom, who would probably walk right in if we let her.

Wish us luck!



Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Of Cannas, Cats and Wrens

If you recall, I'm thinking of ways to enhance a corner of the garden where I can't plant in the ground, due to excessive pine roots.  I had mentioned one idea of putting up a trellis and growing vines.

Well, in a typical moment of impulse spending, I purchased a couple of metal trelllises and some Cannas, which I felt might give a tropical feel to that corner.  Quite an about-turn from what I originally envisioned.

The only problem... while that area gets morning shade, as seen here, it gets a few hours of blazing afternoon sun, before the sun goes down behind the fence.

According to the plant tag on the Cannas, they are supposed to be able to take sun or shade. But I guess "sun" is relative and the leaves of the cannas are already showing signs of burning.

I think I'm going to have to find somewhere else for them, although there's not really anywhere around the house that doesn't get blazing sun at least part of the time. 

Even the section on the north side that is in deep shade most of the day gets blazing afternoon sun, because the house isn't exactly on a north|south axis and actually faces more of a north-west direction.

I wonder if they would do better in the ground somewhere than being in a container (and being dependant on me to remember to water them). Any suggestions re: cannas would be much appreciated.

Here's the view from inside the house.

And a view along the border, looking toward the corner where I put the cannas.

On to other news... Facebook friends may remember that I posted recently that the stray cat that we've been feeding trusted us enough to bring her kittens over to visit...

Well, that's been going very well.  I've been putting food out for her when I feed the birds at 5:30 in the morning.  She weaves around me and lets me stroke her a bit and sniffs my hand.  The plan is to eventually catch her and get her fixed. Then, if she wants to, she is welcome to join our seven cat household.  The kittens, we'll try to catch and socialze with the plan of finding homes for them.

Well as I mentioned above, she's got used to me feeding her at 5 am, so what did I see last weekend when I didn't get up until 7:30?  Miss Cali (yes, we gave her a name already!) was helping herself at the buffet line. I actually saw her jump up and hang off the hanging feeder with her front paws and then drop back to the ground with a mouthful of feathers. (not sure whether all she got was feathers or if she actually got a bird)

After apologizing profusely to the local avian population, since then I've been diligent about feeding her at 5:30 and every morning she's waiting and she greets me with a meow.  But the best part is that once she and the kittens have eaten their fill, she'll either take them back to the thicket next door, or she'll curl up and snooze on the patio. She doesn't pay any attention to the birds at all.

In fact, remember that pair of wrens that built a nest in the container on the patio? Well, just yesterday I went around to the side of the house to turn on the hose so I could water those containers and who should greet me on the fence but one of the wrens. 

A flutter at my feet made me look down and there was a fledgling wren!! It had obviously only recently fledged and was still more than a bit wobbly in flight. But the big thing was that it had left the nest right under Cali's nose.  She was laying in the shade on a blanket, surveying the garden and completely ignoring the wrens, even with the noise the parent bird was making!

At one point the fledgling got a bit stuck between the star jasmine and the fence and the fluttering around attracted Cali's attention and she started creeping stealthily toward it. But we opened the back door and called (okay, yelled) to her to go away and she wandered off, climbed the other fence and disappeared into the thicket.

With the mama (or pappa) bird giving constant vocal encouragement, I witnessed the fledgling fly rather haphazardly to the sweetgum tree on the other side of the house.

I'm so glad I happened to decide to water the containers at that exact moment or I would have missed that!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.