Bird brained

♫ Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory♫

And thus, it is time for planting those native plants you've been dying to add to your collection and that cool season garden again. I'm amazed at how many Californians ask, "You can garden in the winter?"

The answer is a resounding, "YES!"

In fact, the winter garden here is pretty much like the summer garden in Ireland. I'm looking forward to sugar snap peas, lettuce, beets, Brassicas like arugula, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts - did you know that most of the Brussels sprouts sold in the USA come from California? Now that's winter crops for ya! And the list of yummy things to plant right now goes on. See the Master Garden website for it warm and cool season charts.


What I have learned over the past couple of years here is to try to get the winter garden sewn in September  - before the rain comes and the slugs can have at it with the seedlings. The next major pests are the birds. You just have to be smarter than them. Though they have brains the size of peas, outwitting them is harder than it seems, but it can be done.

But be careful - I heard an account recently of how crows can memorize peoples faces and retaliate when they've been shooed out of someone's yard. Apparently they dive bomb the person and can even "tell their mates" by conveying this information somehow to other crows. Bottom line - be nice to the crows!

Better still be nice to your humming birds - these aggressive little monsters can actually chase other birds many times bigger than themselves from their territories. 

I was standing, minding my  own business, at my own back door when a humming bird hovered over me - it kind of "buzzed" me. Then it flew to the empty feeder and then flew to within a foot of my face and "buzzed" me again! I just had to drop everything and feed it. It makes you realize just how risky it is to feed the wildlife when a 2 inch long bird can bully you into feeding it.


Birds love to eat newly germinated beet. They may seem smart, but they are not quite smart enough to know that if they let seedlings grow a bit there'll be more food for everyone!  A mocking bird managed to get under the netting and took out all the seedlings in the middle of my beet patch with the result that I had to reseed that area (after having carefully extracted a very frightened wee bird from the net).

This time I secured the netting better and kept it to the middle so that the established beet leaves don't get all caught up in it.

What was particularly annoying was that I have been experimenting with spacing, trying to plant my seedlings at the Master Gardener recommend planting distance from each other. This totally screwed up my spacing. I had even cut out a little cardboard gismo that had 4 inches notched in it to help me get it right.

The carrots were even more fun with their 2 inch spacing. I got a piece of card about 1 square foot and  punched a hole every 2 inches. Out in the garden, I placed the card on the soil and then poured the seed packet into my left hand. I carefully picked out each seed and painstakingly put one in each hole. That done, I moved the card for the next section, but as I shuffled up I knocked my left elbow off my knee. Bam! The seeds from my hand lifted up into the air and fell on my carefully plotted area. I broad cast the rest of the carrot patch. Can you tell where the majority of the seeds fell?

It is so much easier to space seedlings than seeds. The lettuce patch looks very promising.

 And the bok choi are already nearly edible after only a week. In the middle of the bed are some arugula (rocket). I have peas in the corner. I'm happy to have them established now, after losing so many last year to the slugs, snails and then birds.

Beet seeds are usually clumped together and so two or even three plants can come up from what seems like one seed. The nice thing about thinning out beets is that you can eat the thinnings.

 

Byddi Lee

The Birds and the Bees!

When I was a biology teacher, (a hundred years ago, in another life), I used to love announcing to the kids, “Today we are doing reproduction.”  Their collective, poorly hidden excitement soon turned sour as I put up a diagram of a flower.  Plant reproduction was seemingly not that titillating for a teenager, yet who cannot gaze in wonder at these amazing reproductive organs – and right now they are everywhere!

My garden has surprised me with a burst of blossom.  Some of these plants I’ve inherited, like these fantastic Irises, that seem iridescent in the glow of the evening sun,

Even the wild root stock from a poorly pruned rose is beautiful and makes a nice indoor display.

Some of the plants I’ve grown especially for their blooms, yet their beauty still surprises me.  This sweetpea flower looks like it is made from satin.

Some I planted not expecting flowers – like the fabulous white orbs that my onions have produced.

Their cousins the chives have a smaller purple version of the same

The broccoli blossomed one day I didn’t get out to harvest for a while.  They made an attractive posy.

Tomato flowers are exquisite if you care to look closely.

Apparently, you can eat zucchini flowers – this early one surprised me.

Over the fence, the neighbors’ exotic bottle brush plant, a native of Australia that does well in the dry Californian climate, attracts lots of humming birds.

And where would all these gorgeous flowers be without their pollinators?  
  

Yesterday, whilst hiking in Rancho Canada del Oro we saw a swarm of bees.  The noise was incredible.  Having recently read “The Secret Life of Bees” I knew immediately what the sound was – it resonates through the air so that you can feel, not just hear, the hum.  I wasn’t as scared as I thought I might be to see so many bees in one place.  Sometimes you see something so awesome in nature that you forget about being afraid.  As it turned out, I had nothing to fear anyways – not a single person was stung.

They were right across the trail at one stage.

There were a few butterflies out that day too – this little Checkerspot looks like he’s just taking in the scenery!

I have a stack of photos from my hikes too, but I must stay on task and pull myself back to the garden.  And right now there is plenty of fun to be had there too.   This week I watched our resident mocking birds dive bomb crows who were trying to muscle into their territory (our front yard).  They chased it off towards the neighor’s and then came flying back at top speed – they in turn being chased by none other than two little humming birds!  These little guys are so brave – sometimes they “buzz” me if I’m in their way!

But love is in the air. Even the hummingbirds have stopped hovering long enough to gaze into each others eyes!  I took this through the kitchen window...

The mocking birds were it putting out there too!

And the squirrels – well, I nearly had to put my hands over my eyes with these guys – but here’s some that made it past the censor!

Byddi Lee