May, 16, 2011

Voles can do quite a bit of damage in the garden. Here they have girdled (gnawed the bark off all the way around) a fully grown cherry tree which we then plucked out of the ground with no roots to hold it in place. Unfortunately voles breed all year long and are quite prolific. To prevent damage by voles, you can surround the tree with wire mesh, going 3″-6″ below the surface and 18″ high. You can also set mouse traps at the opening of their tunnels.

This winter with the ice and deep snow preventing walks around the garden, my favorite sport is bird watching. I can sit snuggly in front of the fire and look out the window at the bird feeder. A flutter of colorful birds including cardinals, blue jays, goldfinches, black-capped chickadees, morning doves, and red-bellied woodpeckers share the feeders.  There is a pecking order. The smaller birds move beneath the feeder to eat the seeds off the snow when the cardinals or blue Jays arrive. When a hawk sweeps down they all disappear.

Lately three squirrels have been depleting the birdseed at an alarming rate. I have tried a number of ways to keep them off the feeder, all to no avail. Last week a sharp-shinned or Cooper’s hawk did my job for me. I’m not sure of his identity or even if it is a male or female. However, the hawk did me a great service. He scooped up a squirrel took it to the higher branches of a near-by tree and had him for lunch.  I hope he comes back for more. Our squirrel population is large and does a lot of damage in the garden.

Gina Norgard captured all of these pictures. Click on each picture to enlarge it so you can see the details.

Each garden year brings new challenges and new glories. This is the year of drought, high heat and vermin. In the spring I found a nest of five rabbits in the vegetable garden and caught 14 voles in my woodland gardens.  An occasional rabbit is seen around the gardens but they moved out of the vegetable garden without any help from me and I haven’t noticed any damage since. The voles, I hope are gone for good.

My latest problem is an abundance of chipmunks, in part because our fox and raccoon population is down. In the thirty-two years I have gardened here a chipmunk sighting was rare until last year when I saw a few. Now they are everywhere. I found a three-foot mound of sand next to our stonewall. Industriously they had shoveled out the sand to make a home.  I carted the sand away and crossed my fingers that the wall would still stand. I couldn’t spoon it back in between the cracks.

Yesterday as I was digging a hole to plant a fall perennial I discovered they had burrowed through the garden. I uncovered an elaborate tunnel, complete with side chambers. One of the chambers was filled with seeds and berries, the other was a nest of leaves.  After exploring the 5 feet of tunnel and admiring the workmanship and careful planning, I destroyed it and replanted my garden laying chicken wire between the plants. After all, I had given them the rock wall. Enough is enough!

The middle of the tunnel was only visiable after I dug a hole for a new planting.

Although the entrance was small, the tunnel was quite large.

A chamber off of the main tunnel was filled with seeds for winter dining.

For the last month I felt like I was gardening in a blast furnace. Our daily temperatures hovered in the high 90’s and even reached above a 100 several times.

We had record-breaking heat and hardly any rain. The plants, as well as myself, felt the pain. I struggled to move from my chair under the porch fan. The weeds gloried in their freedom, knowing I haven’t the energy to remove them. Most days, I only looked at the garden from the shade and the only energy I had was for reading novels.

Now that the temperatures have dropped, I’m back at work and loving it. Many of our plants are burned to a crisp from the intense heat. Some like the hosta, are easy to renew. Hosta leaves grow in layers and if the damaged leaves are removed the underneath layer of foliage looks great. Check out the difference in the pictures below.

Many of the top leaves of this hosta are sunburned.

After clipping off the damaged leaves, the hosta looks good as new.

Another hosta with damaged leaves waiting for its haircut.

The hosta look just like new after the clean-up.

Picking flowers from your own garden is the best way to get to know your plants. Often I make discoveries. A few weeks ago, I found a rabbit’s nest among the chamomile in the vegetable garden. The mother had dug a shallow bowl in the soft earth, delivered her young and then covered them up with dried grass and sticks. When I inadvertently uncovered the nest, they were shivering. Didn’t even have their eyes open and they had very little fur. I covered them back up to keep them warm. The mother was crouched under a rose bush near-by, keeping an eye on me. Whenever I spy her in the yard she freezes, as if I won’t notice her if she doesn’t move.

Over the next few weeks, I found the babies running around the garden. I don’t really like that they have robbed me of my beans, cutting the vines off near the ground, but I won’t be the one that stops them. They have enough natural enemies, fox and dogs among them, that I know they can’t all survive.

When we first bought our house 32 years ago, rabbits were a regular sight and I used chicken wire to keep them out of the vegetable garden. Now that our dog is old and the fox population is down, they are making a comeback. It is cute for the moment.

The nest of baby rabbits hidden in the chamomile.

The mother rabbit standing still so I won't notice her.

A baby rabbit peaks out of the nest.

During the day, the mother rabbit keeps an eye on her young from under this rose bush.

Picking flowers and foliage from my garden for indoor arrangements lets me examine plants closer than I normally would. For example the gold-leaved dogwood along the driveway looks beautiful to all who drive by, but once I cut some of its foliage to use in a floral foam wreath, I discovered the back of the leaves were covered with scale. Scale are insects that look like white or brown bumps on the back side of leaves. They suck sap from leaves and can weaken the plant. In the garden it is difficult to dislodge the insects from large trees. The bugs are a feast for the birds. On smaller plants and indoors the scale can be washed off with insecticidal soaps.  On foliage I cut for flower arrangements I wipe the scale off with a soapy rag and dispose of the insects in the garbage.

Children across the country are spending less time outdoors getting to know their natural surroundings and more time on computers, televisions and cell phones. They are alienated from nature.

The cure for Nature Deficit Disorder starts by leaving no child inside. Take a child for a visit to a botanical garden near you. For both of you it could be the rebirth of wonder and joy.

A new botanical garden in Naples Florida that opened in November 2009, is doing its part to interest kids, their parents and grandparents in gardens and the natural world. Instead of putting a children’s garden on a wish list, they planted it first. Their children’s garden, their bird lookout and their butterfly garden are places for kids to explore, to play, to imagine and to laugh.

A sense of humor is key to interesting kids in everything.  In the children’s garden many of the planters and garden ornaments were taken from a junkyard. Purses, toilets, a basketball hoop and an iron bedstead are among their finds. The signs too are drawing that capture the imagination of a child.

A basket ball hoop becomes a planter.

A crib makes a wonderful garden bed.

Sunflowers always make children smile.

The butterfly garden is a favorite for all ages.  The cycle of life from caterpillar to cocoon to the hatching of a full grown butterfly is on view.

The butterfly garden is inside netting.

A cupboard filled with hatching butterflies.

Butterflies are hatching inside the cupboard.

A close-up of butterfiles hatching.

Even without a child in hand, the Naples Botanical garden has much to interest birdwatchers, gardeners and nature lovers.

An area to commune with nature and bird watch.

Birds are plentiful at the garden.

A willow tree brought down several rose arbors.

A tree crashed into the vegetable garden.

Our heavy metal, antique bench was smashed.

The wind knocked the furniture on the terrace around.

Several weeks after the worst snowfall of the century we were hit with three days of gale force winds and heavy downpours. 51.4 inches of rain has fallen on my clay soil since October. The normal rainfall for the year is less, 49.69 inches. Our soil can’t absorb it and streams are forming along the flower borders and ponds glisten on the front lawn.

Luckily we only lost electricity for a few hours. Several communities near us lost it for days. Sadly, we had two large trees fall down smashing our vegetable garden fence and two rose arbors. Furniture and garden ornaments were blown about and damaged. One of a pair of heavy metal garden benches blew over and its back broke. The benches had sat in the same place for twenty-eight years.

Walking around to assess the damage on Sunday morning after the winds slowed and the rain turned to drizzle, I was more amazed by what survived, then what was damaged. A terra-cotta pot of grass still sat on top of a pedestal in the herb garden, a few yard from a felled tree. It was untouched by the wind. The snowdrops, crocus, dwarf iris and winter aconite were closed up tight but didn’t show any damage from the beating they took. Daffodils in several protected corners had opened, despite the storm. I realized it is the shining example of the plants that keeps me gardening. They won’t be defeated.

It is a miracle that this pot wasn't smashed.

A vole nest of dried grass sits along the path they run on.

Now that the snow has melted and the ground is bare, it is easy to see where meadow voles have taken up residency. With teeth like a rabbit, a dark brown fir body and a tail like a rat, only a mother vole could want one. Although they are small, 5 to 8 inches long, they do a lot of damage. Unfortunately for gardeners, voles dine on tulips, crocus and other bulbs as well as the roots of trees and perennials. Digging tunnels through garden beds, they are the devil to dislodge.

We have found evidence of their tunnels in the perennial garden, by the pond and along the driveway among the groundcovers. One nest was woven in the liriope along one of their footpaths and another in the vegetable garden compost. The nests are made of dried plants and grasses.  One had a bit of string among the grasses.

I have been slow to recognize the problem. It is a new one for us. When I noticed last summer that my red jade tree was loosing leaves, I thought it might be drowning from all the rain. I did find a holes in the ground around its base but I assumed the squirrels had eaten more of my spring bulbs. Now it appears that my fifteen-year old tree is dead, along with the colonies of spring bulbs that bloomed underneath it. All perished so voles could feast. It’s the original underground party.

Thankfully voles are unprotected animals in New York State, probably because they reproduce readily. They can breed any time but the peak breeding time is spring. Females mature in 35 to 40 days and can have five to ten litters of three to six babies a year. You do the math. Just thinking about it wears me out. The only good news is they rarely live longer than a year.

We’re setting mousetraps at each tunnel opening even though the best time to capture them is in the fall when their population is highest.  We have captured three already, only two hundred more to go. For more information on how to trap them, check out the vole videos on youtube.

The entrance to a vole tunnel is a round hole in the ground.

One of many beautiful gardens at the show.

Sadly, our slumped economy has shut down flower shows across the country. The Northwest Flower & Garden Show set in Seattle was in danger of closing last year. Luckily for us, it was bought and produced this year by the family owned, O’Loughlin Trade Shows, Inc.

I was privileged to be one of the speakers at the 2010 show that was held last week. It showcased top garden creators, integrating thousands of flowers and plants with their rich colors, fragrances and textures into dazzling full‐scale gardens. As soon as I walked into the main show room I was overwhelmed by the flower fragrances. It was a happy place in deed.

I want to share some of my pictures of the show with you.

A cozy livingroom with a mossy chair, dog andTV.

Flowers in the bath has a new meaning.

An old truck became a planter.

The back of the pickup was a vegetable garden.