Spring is Springing

I do love the sound of birds singing out in the garden. One bird that has a particularly loud and beautiful song, especially for a bird of its size, is the Carolina Wren.

I woke up to hear the beautiful notes of his song and as I looked out the window I saw him approach the patio with a mouth full of nesting materials.  I later managed to catch this photo of him in the pine tree (and check out that pollen!!)

I was getting excited because it appeared that a pair of wrens were going to nest on the patio, this time in  decorative watering can, next to an assortment of bird houses on a bakers rack in the corner.

Unfortunately, last weekend, I thought I'd offer them some more nesting material by hanging a suet feeder filled with horse hair on the rack and as I did so, I accidentally bumped the rack and a bird flew out of the watering can.  To my knowledge they never returned :-(

I took a peek today after ensuring it wasn't occupied.  There's a perfectly complete nest in there.  All it needs is a bird family.

I do know though, that the male wren will build a selection of nests and then the female will choose which one to lay her eggs in.  I guess when I bumped the shelf she decided to pick a nest in a less trafficked spot.

Oh well, maybe next year....

I've been reading good news about the Monarch butterflies leaving their wintering grounds in Mexico and heading north so I wanted to be prepared for them.

A lot of our milkweed was damaged in the winter freezes and some of it never returned, so I got proactive and headed to Plants for all Seasons, where they had just received a shipment in.

I'm also going to get some more which will be kept in containers to go in the new Monarch nursery I just purchased.  The new on is taller than the one I had last year (which I will use also).  The taller height will allow me to keep container plants in it, instead of having to snip cuttings every day and keep them in water picks, transferring the caterpillars to the fresh cuttings as necessary.

When we first moved in here I planted a Vitex tree and since then we haven't really touched it.  It was a total mess with lots of suckers and criss-crossing branches.  Today we had our arborist out to take care of it.  He did a good job and carted off all the trimmings.  However the tree was such a mess, I still think it needs tidying up some more. (No pics today)

While he was here, he also gave one of the Live Oak trees in the front yard a much needed trim. Now my husband Eric doesn't have to do the limbo every time he wants to mow the grass underneath it.

The cosmos I planted last year has reseeded prolifically and is putting on a beautiful display.

We had been wondering what to do with the peach tree.  It had never really put its roots down into the soil and we could move it back and forth quite easily.  It suffered from the freezes over the winter too and when my husband asked the arborist about it, he literally lifted it out of the ground with no resistance at all.  Question answered!

I seized the opportunity, since there was room in the island bed now, to relocate the Angel Trumpets, that was in a half barrel and was getting root bound.  It too had frozen back in the winter, but I was happy to see some new growth, so I'm hopefully it will do well where the peach tree failed.

Around the corner in the veggie garden, the runner type beans I put in beneath a new bean tower have all sprouted (well a couple didn't but most did)  I'm looking forward to seeing these grow up the bean tower, which reaches above my head.

Also in the veggie garden, the "Sir Crunch-a-lot" cucumbers have sprouted.  I hope these do well this year, we've had mixed luck with cucumbers in the past including one year when we had precisely zero -- all the flowers dropped off.  I'll let these establish a little and then probably thin them out

It was so lovely being able to work in the garden when I got home from work today. First of all, the weather was perfect, something we don't often get here, and second - now I'm working locally I no longer have the grueling two-hour commute I used to have.

Life is good!

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

The Turk's Cap Gets a New Home

Oops - here I am posting once a month again! I really do need to step it up a bit!

Last Friday I decided to see if I could do some rearranging that I had been wanting to do for quite some time.   My Turk's Cap , Malvaviscus drummondii , was in a container underneath the wax myrtle and had managed to root itself through the drainage holes.  The pot was leaning and the Turk's Cap really needed to be relocated.

As it happens, I have a small raised bed right next to it with only the native honeysuckle and a recently planted mandevilla, which hadn't had a chance to get going yet.  

So the first thing to do was to snip through the Turk's Cap's roots and detach it from it's current located (ever hoping that it doesn't mind the disruption)

As you can see, it's a pretty decent sized plant.  It was definitely time to move on from it's little container.

The next task was to dig a hole for it in the raised bed.  This proved more difficult that I expected.

On a hot and humid day I was trying to dig through a mass of roots which almost proved too much for me.  I ended up getting in there with snippers and cutting roots to enable me to dig a hole big enough for planting.

The roots appeared to be coming from all directions, so I think there was a combination of honeysuckle, Wax Myrtle and even Turk's Cap roots in there.

Anyway, after several breaks of sitting in the shade of the pine tree, and drinking at least a gallon of ice tea, I finally got the Turk's Cap replanted.

I'm really happy with how it fills the raised bed, and it hides the bare lower stems of the native honeysuckle (as well as the "volunteer" millet that the birds planted behind the trellis).

To learn more about Turk's Cap, visit:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/nativeshrubs/malvaviscusdrum.htm

The Mandevilla got a new home too.  I planted it in the container that the Turk's Cap came out of (after it was well cleaned, of course) and set it by the trellis on the western fence.

To learn more about Mandeville, visit:
http://floridata.com/Plants/Apocynaceae/Mandevilla%20spp./68

Finally, to let me know she approved of my rearranging the garden, this little hummingbird stopped by.  (she was actually browsing the native honeysuckle while I was taking a break in the shade, but I didn't get a picture until later, when she visited one of the feeders.

I think my gardening for the rest of the summer will be confined to gently pulling weeds, in the early mornings or in the evenings.

No more digging in the heat of the day for me!

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