The 2021 Garden, Landscape, and Other Stuff Thread...

eisman

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
6,504
Well, it's been a fairly warm, wet, winter so far in the PNW, and we're finally getting some sun after almost three continuous weeks of rain. I've got lot's of moss, green grass, the bulbs are already starting to show, and the birds are keeping me busy filling the feeders. I have one new visitor, by type, some of the families I've been seeing are getting bigger. This Norther Harrier has started to hang out in my trees. It chases the crows and keeps the smaller birds under cover, but the blue jays tend to gang up on it.



I'm pretty sure it's after mice and voles, which we do have, so I'm glad to see it.
 
Nice shot eisman eisman ... your visitor has hungry eyes! The barred owl that was perching here on my bird feeder has been absent for a while, but that hungry fox leaves his tracks in the snow regularly on his way through.

I'm feeding redpolls, chickadees, blue jays, woodpeckers, some numbers of evening grosbeaks and 6 pair of mourning doves ... can't explain why I am not seeing nuthatches lately. Add 5 red and a couple of black squirrels to the hungry hordes as well. The grey is absent for now.

DSCF3969 BLUE JAY FLUFFS IN COLD 650 MED.jpg


Inside, the Red Hot Cattails (Chenille) are thriving along with three planters of coleus (not pictured) which has survived for three years now with overwintering indoors.

DSCF3985 CHENILLE RED HOT CATTAILS 650 MED.jpg

Cuttings from the coleus are rooted and planted here in pots in my 'concrete mixing basin' ... and more cuttings are taken off the original plants for rooting (not pictured). Thunbergia seeds are started in the Jiffy Pellets - they take a while to germinate.

DSCF3979 PLANTINGS COLEUS THUNBEERRGIA 650 MED.jpg

Winter garden - bee balm standing. Planters tunneled under and roamed over by squirrels makes for the lumpy landscape.

DSCF3973 WINTER GARDEN BEE BALM PLANTERS BENCH 650 MED.jpg

Lastly - turnip decided to grow so they are given their spot on the South facing windowsill too - we'll see where this goes :cool:

DSCF3977 TURNIP SPROUTS 650 MED.jpg
 
Here’s a 1 week old Calamondin. I’ll let it go for about a month and then drop it into a container.
A7B19948-CD1D-49B7-814A-19D66C22ABEC.jpeg
 
Hope everybody is hanging in there through the winter storms. It’s been fairly mild in NE FL, just a couple frost days. Here’s one of our winter visitors.
629BB25B-B8E2-4E37-87C2-5F11CBDEDD1E.jpeg
 
IMG-20210131-111827860.jpg
 
Sorry, too busy hauling wood to enter this fun snow contest :D !

And, the forecast promises 4 days and nights of snow coming in tomorrow, so I hope you will count me in ... today is my last chance for a run to town to fill the snowblower gas can up before the storm. Wishing well to Southern latitudes in snow accumulation as always :)


DSCF3997 WOODPILE SNOW 650 MED.jpg
 
If these geese stay in my neighborhood long enough......we’ll be able to build a fort out of something else!

taldesta taldesta .....please call these back home!

6A3E4641-E0F2-4BC3-A4CA-CFCC214039D5.jpeg
 
Sorry, too busy hauling wood to enter this fun snow contest :D !

And, the forecast promises 4 days and nights of snow coming in tomorrow, so I hope you will count me in ... today is my last chance for a run to town to fill the snowblower gas can up before the storm. Wishing well to Southern latitudes in snow accumulation as always :)


View attachment 1503357
Snow—something better appreciated from afar and in someone else’s yard/road/lane.:p
 
We have had a wet, fairly warm, winter. No snow, very few days below freezing. And the bulbs are coming up. Daffodils 6" high already, tulips up too. Strangely only a few crocus...
SuH0TRH.jpg


It quit raining for a while so I got busy on a long delayed project and chopped the lilac bush way back. Took out almost all the old stuff and hopefully this will get some of the new, clean, growth going.
bzPebKL.jpg

PmG3vhF.jpg


The birds are kind of upset, because that was a major playground/hiding place, but I had to get it off the roof and side of the house. I figure a couple years and it'll be pretty much filled in again.

They say we're going to have a week without rain. It's been months since that happened. I'm kind of looking forward to that.
 
IUiNXrM.jpg
fi1KRi3.jpg
50SKvwa.jpg
MDKtL12.jpg
TX1oJYu.jpg

Winter on the CA coast.

But it ain't always roses... er, uh Paperwhites. Since these photos we had 10.5 inches of rain in 4 days. A 4am downpour brought the outdoor groundwater above the foundation. My wife's tentative, "I don't want to freak you out, but the carpet is soaked in the living room," was how I woke up. Some abrupt digging followed by a half cord of oak through the stove and a high velocity fan and we're good as new!
 
I've been calling them home for days now ... is it working? ;)

In a word, No! They are still fertilizing all areas of my homestead. Not sure the quality of their fertilizer, but the quantity is huge!
 
In a word, No! They are still fertilizing all areas of my homestead. Not sure the quality of their fertilizer, but the quantity is huge!
I wish I had information to share that could discourage the geese, yet we have similar issues with these geese when they migrate North. Your homestead must be on water .... what is it like? The geese do like a gentle path to short grass from the water from my observation of their habit. They do love lawns. I'll try to find what might work here and pass it along. The high river bank here and the tall weeds in the lower field put them off all along my river here ... but they have no pooping mercy (doing what comes naturally) in easily accessible, grassy, park-like environments. And my dog Daisy, new to me, with her long legs, youthful energy and protective instincts ... would relish the chance to route them too. My sense is that your best defense might be to make the homestead unpalatable or scary. My best to you. Keep me posted.
 
I wish I had information to share that could discourage the geese, yet we have similar issues with these geese when they migrate North. Your homestead must be on water .... what is it like? The geese do like a gentle path to short grass from the water from my observation of their habit. They do love lawns. I'll try to find what might work here and pass it along. The high river bank here and the tall weeds in the lower field put them off all along my river here ... but they have no pooping mercy (doing what comes naturally) in easily accessible, grassy, park-like environments. And my dog Daisy, new to me, with her long legs, youthful energy and protective instincts ... would relish the chance to route them too. My sense is that your best defense might be to make the homestead unpalatable or scary. My best to you. Keep me posted.

In our neighborhood, everybody has a couple acres per lot. There’s a couple of retention ponds, and plenty of green grass. Perfect conditions for lots of our northern friends! I walk my large white shepherd a couple times a day. She gets their lookout’s attention as we go by, and they start sounding off. Must think she’s a wolf looking for a meal!
 
My neighborhood started out with big lots, with the exception of those right down by the water which were originally 4-5 to the acre. A couple blocks up and it's 2-3 to the acre. I'm about 5 minutes up the hill and have a 1/3 acre lot on a cul-de-sac. But what's happening now is the old houses are being bought up and they're building anywhere from 4-8 houses on them turning the driveways into private roads. It's driving up the prices like crazy.

It's been snowing for a couple days. It was pretty much melted off yesterday morning, but started again about noon and has been coming down since then.

rLUevj0.jpg
 
Back
Top