Spike's Wildlife Almanac

Greetings from Susie’s Gardens

By Spike Knuth

We are getting some heat with days in the 80s and 90s recently. On Memorial Day evening we got a little much needed rain. Heat plus that special life giving liquid from above means things grow—fast!

So much has happened since the last “Notes..” The Siberian irises are bloomed out, as are the many peonies which were really beautiful this year. The many clematis are blooming, hydrangeas are starting, but they got hurt by a late frost back in April. I had mentioned how I expected we’d get a lot of holly berries this year, well the frost got them too. Parts of the Japanese maple in the south border got hit as well. The roses (new dawn) along the southside of the house have been spectacular; hundreds of blossoms and still going. Many other roses around the yard are doing well. The pink carpet roses in the center garden are now blooming. The first stella d’oro daylilies are beginning to bloom as are the gallardia, gaura, and red hot poker. The magnolia started the first week of May and is full of large, fragrant blossoms. Not as fragrant but almost sickeningly sweet is the ligustrum (privet)on the north border. The mock orange in back is almost done—this is the fragrant one, and the viburnum (as yet unidentified) next to it is beginning to bloom. The cousa dogwood on the south side of the house is also blooming. We have found two separate passion flower vines growing; one in back and one right outside my workroom window. I noticed it when we were taking delivery of a truck load of mulch. Our son had wild passion flower vines in his yard and we took some seed pods some time ago. I suspect somehow some seed got misplaced or blown off the table on the patio and germinated. We had been trying to get them to grow in a variety of places but sometimes its best to let Nature handle it.

We finally got the vegetable garden in. The tomato, pepper, and basil plants are in. On Tuesday and Wednesday I mulched the tomatoes with newspaper and will mulch the whole garden with straw within the week (I hope). I also planted the okra, some chard, and the zucchini, plus some herbs and flowers. Still have to put up cages and stakes and then lay soaker hoses.  I scattered some radish, kohlrabi, and turnip seeds on one side (although its way too late for them) and I have to replant some beans that didn’t germinate. Then there is some dill and a few flowers I put at one end. In planters I have a nice pot of lettuce, some borage, romaine, and parsley. We should have at least one more asparagus meal and then I’ll let them go and grow—although it’s always so tempting to pick one of those thumb-sized shoots when it comes up!

 That first week in May I again heard the blackpoll warbler in the neighbor’s big spruce. This is the fourth straight year it’s come through our area, and I have to think we are on its specific spring migrational route. I never see him but its quiet little “tzee tzee tzee”  (dropping on the end) call is distinctive once you learn to recognize it. The yard has been full of robins; the fledglings uttering their sharp chirping calls to the parent birds so they can feed them. The brown thrasher is bringing off a brood in the larger mock orange on the north border. Until last week, the catbird had not shown up, but lately it’s been “singing” its scratchy calls from the big cedar. I think it’s been around but maybe nesting in one of the neighbor’s shrubs, since the brown thrasher beat it to it in our yard. They seek out similar habitats. In the wild, the wild black cherry is long done in our area and small green cherries are already forming. The blackberries were blooming up until a week ago and now the elderberries are heavy with blossoms.

I was honored with being featured in the May Outdoors Unlimited Magazine—the 32 page newsletter of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA). Then I found out that they had chosen my walleye art for the cover of the 2007-2008 Membership Directory. It’s getting near the time when I aestivate. That is, to stay in the air conditioning; it’s like hibernation only in the heat. The mold count was 11,600 a day ago. No wonder I feel draggy. We have one more scheduled trip to make; to Roanoke for the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) conference, June 16-19. Then I’m staying home! We wait now for the daylilies and the tomatoes to do their thing. What a blessing it is to be allowed to experience new life through each season of the year.

Rev. 4:11-“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for
 thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
 
Hope you are all doing well. Take Care, Be Safe, Hang Tuff, and God Bless You.

 Spike