I think I mentioned how after leafing out, our sweet little River Birch was half dead or half alive (depending on how you look at it), so I called the nursery. They inspected it and agreed to replace it. The new River Birch 'Heritage', arrived Saturday. The new tree is the same height, but the caliper (thickness of trunks) is half again as thick as the original. It's also much denser so we've now staked it for safety from the winds we get here. If we had a large property, we would have simply moved it and let it be a beautiful Birch shrub until 5-10 years down the road, when it might develop new leaders upward. But with a small city lot, we just don't have space.
Our little feathered friends have been eating us out of house and home. We refill the song bird feeder 5 and six times a day!! But this is baby time and they all are feeding wee ones. I've made a discovery though. I bought a 20 lb bag of special supreme feed from Wild Birds Unlimited. Nothing but the best for our birdies. Three kinds of seed (I think) large sunflower, small black sunflower and safflower seed. I find an inordinate amount of small black sunflower in the "leavings" under the feeder. Even the doves and squirrels don't clean it up. Also I had been told there are basically no sticks etc. in WBU feed. Well, there were enough and big enough sticks to clog the feeder!! So it's back to Lowe's for me for bird seed.
Here's a lucky shot of a red faced finch arriving. BTW some of the House Finches (red face and back) seem to be redder than others....like this guy and the one on the right in the previous photo. Any ideas what that's all about?
This weekend we built/filled the second raised bed in the back yard. It runs along the garage and will be a warm sunny spot. I have dubbed it the Tomato Bed. So yesterday I planted it. My "tomato forest" of seedlings has now moved to it's permanent home.... well, half of it has moved. There are 34 tomatoes here. I think that's enough to feed a small army. Guess we'll be doing some canning. Salsa, here we come. About half of the rest went to my neighbor. The rest.... anyone want tomato plants?
I also finished the first bed in the back by planting 3 "store bought" peppers, an egg plant plant, two tomatoes (no room in the tomato inn). It is the largest and it is now full.
I must say it is a joy to plant in these raised beds. You just stick your hand in, make a hole and plant. No digging necessary.
Last night there was a freeze warning so we covered the tender plants in the back beds. We used a roll of weed blocker plastic which we also used on the bottom of the beds to stop weeds and grass from coming through. This is the Tomato Bed.
For the Onion/Pea Bed we only covered the large peppers and two lonely tomato plants. Everything else (I hoped) was strong enough to be safe from a light frost. By the way, the odd looking part of grass in front of bed #2 (the unfinished one) is where I removed the black weed block and two blocks because I didn't need that much more room to plant. The grass underneath will recover nicely, I think, except for where the two blocks were laying down. I've reseeded them. When that bed is filled with soil, I'll be planting beans and corn and herbs.
Well, that's probably more than you wanted to hear. To finish for today, suffice to say, the small Acer griseum 'Paperbark Maple' and the Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy', and the Picea orientalis 'Oriental Spruce' are doing just great. The birds love them (and the new birch) as staging spots to attack the feeder. We also have added a bird bath, but still no mulch in the beds so there will be more pictures coming. Oh, yes, I have two buds on the iris my cousin gave me and my neighbor gave me a bunch of Monarda Bee Balm for the front bed.
Hope everyone stays healthy and has a wonderful week.
