Notes from the Garden: Diversity, Not Just for Humans

A Tale of Two Properties

Once upon a time, I had a neighbor who was very, very particular about his lawn. He was often to be found clipping errant long blades of grass with scissors to keep it looking tidy. His lawn was lushly green and beautiful ... but there was no wildlife. Birds passed over it to yards beyond. Without trees, squirrels found no reason to stay. Rabbits went to the next lot in search of clover. If the wildlife you can spot at an easy glance is passing your yard by, you can almost bet the creatures you don't see are doing the same.

Matchy-Matchy

Mother Nature hates monocultures - those manmade, one-species wonders that allow no room for the wonderful variety of wildlife available even in suburban or urban areas. A grass lawn is exactly that; while it may be lovely to the human eye, there is no space for a real, natural ecosystem. Lawns need frequent care in the form of water, fertilizer, mowing, weed control, and pest control.

Nature doesn't need such helicopter parenting. Left to grow, a wild space will invite a variety of plant and animal species that will sustain itself. Planting native species reduces the amount of necessary yard work and encourages our greatest ally in food production: pollinators.

Also, a natural habitat isn't boring.

Save Them, Save Us

The two greatest threats to pollinators are pesticides and habitat destruction. Products such as glyphosate (the chemical in Roundup®) and neonicotinoids (pesticides used in big-box garden center plants and flowers) are persistent and harmful to pollinators of all species. These products can stay in plant tissues and soils for years. They poison insects. In short, they're killing bees.

Guess what happens if we kill the bees? No one is left to pollinate our food supply.  Farmers are finding it necessary to truck bees in from far afield in order to pollinate their crops. Pesticides are thought to be responsible for widespread bee colony collapse. Bees are dying at an unprecedented rate. When they go, so will we, unless we do something about it.

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

Planting native flowers not only beautifies your property and increases its value, but it helps the pollinators. Host plants are important for butterfly caterpillars such as that of the monarch butterfly, which is in desperate need of pesticide-free sanctuaries. Dedicating even a small area of your yard (or a large container if you're in an urban area) can help save these pollinators and enrich the ecosystem where you live.


Bees, in particular, have been in the news many times of late because their rate of decline is alarming. Fortunately, bees are easy to please. Plant as large an area as you can with a few varieties of brightly-colored, native flowers (and if you're lazy like me, plant perennials which will come back every year with no work on your part). Use this tool developed by the National Wildlife Federation to help you decide what will work in your area. Try to stagger bloom times of each variety. Vow to remove all pesticide use from your property in favor of natural weed controls such as hand-pulling ... or my favorite, native plants which will crowd out the unwanted weeds!

The Little Hedge that Could

My neighbor would do annual battle with the privet hedge on our shared border. He cut it to the ground each year, a sad little six-inch-tall row of shrubs struggling to survive. Privet is non-native in my area. I wondered if he thought he was doing the right thing by cutting it down, but it always left me scratching my head. When new neighbors moved in, they didn't cut the hedge. We didn't, either. It grew. And grew. And then flowered.

And then came the wildlife.

Birds took up residence, nesting and singing. I now have a catbird who serenades me beautifully outside my office window while I write. The hedge, now half again as tall as me, shelters and shades squirrels and rabbits. Bumblebees and honeybees flock to it like I've drawn them there with a magnet. My allergies go haywire every spring and summer, and this hedge is not a native to New York State, but the payoff is well worth the cost of leaving it there.

After all, I love food. Don't you?

Notes from the Garden

It's been a very hot, humid summer here in Upstate New York. We broke down and put air conditioners in the bedrooms so we could sleep comfortably at night. The garden, however, seems unbothered by the heat as long as I water daily. In the big pot on the corner of my deck, I planted some lavender, and was pleasantly surprised by the return of some perennials from the previous year, including alyssum and a carnation. It made a sweet little arrangement, and now that the spring carnations have faded, I have a bunch of sunny red and yellow gaillardia putting on a show.  (This photo is from spring, taken from an upper window, so it's a bit blurry. Below and to the right are a low planter filled with culinary and creeping thyme, and a slightly taller pot chock full of chives.)

With the passing of spring, I was disheartened to see that my beautiful Pulmonaria was killed off by the harsh winter, but my garden had another surprise for me: it survived! There are many little shoots which have grown up in the old spot, and what's more, my Purple Coneflower gave me a volunteer seedling in the empty spot right behind it! Mother Nature continues to surprise and delight me. The bees like it, too. After the Lamium has fed all the bumblebees, the Coneflower begins putting on a feast for the honeybees. I hope they have a big, active hive somewhere nearby. 😊

This summer, I must be doing something right in my vegetable garden, because my tomato plants are taller than me! I have Roma, Heirloom, Sweet 100 Cherry, and Beefsteak tomatoes, and they are beyond delicious. The peas didn't make it, but my bush green beans are providing us with a nice bumper crop. We've all the got Romaine lettuce we can eat, and even a little supply of carrots. Mind you, all this comes from a little 4' x 8' raised garden bed that I do not weed, apply with pesticides, or otherwise fuss with other than to water each morning for fifteen minutes when I know it won't rain. You CAN farm in a small space, and it's extremely satisfying to get good food right from your own backyard. That, and there's no better balm to the spirit than getting your hands in the dirt to provide for your family or grow something beautiful.

This morning, when I went out with my son to pick tomatoes for dinner, Mother Nature had yet another surprise for me: a Northern Leopard Frog! Frogs are endangered due to pesticide use, as they are sensitive to chemicals in their environment. Our mulched beds are packed full of crickets, and I wondered if I'd lure at least a toad into my yard. Imagine my surprise when I found this guy peeking up at me from beside my garden bed! So happy to see he felt our little corner of the world was a good visiting spot. I hope you're enjoying the rest of your summer, in spite of the heat. I know I am!

Notes From the Garden

It's mid-August, and I can already feel autumn on the horizon. Central New York got a lot of rain this spring and summer. My vegetable garden is thriving (tomatoes galore and zucchini for days!), and my plants and flowers are showing me just what a wildlife habitat is all about.

I have never tried growing zucchini before, but with our family's discovery that we love zucchini noodles ("zoodles"), we decided to give it a try. They do like lots of water. Make no mistake: if you let them get away from you, as we did, you will find yourself with zucchini that are a foot and a half long, and they will keep on going if you don't cut them (or until the squash borers find them). The one on the far right is the size they are supposed to be at harvest, a nice, tender inch and a half in diameter. Meanwhile, my grape tomatoes have exploded, and are still cheerfully producing as many as we can eat. We have planted our beefsteak tomato plants too close together, so they aren't getting as large as I'd like, but they are producing some delicious, meaty snack-size tomatoes. As I harvested, a bumblebee visited the new flowers. (I made sure to thank him. 😉) Next year, we plan to expand our garden, space out our plants more, and maybe install some new vegetable varieties. This year was for fun and practice! Tomatoes are so good right off the plant, still warm from the sun.

 

Meanwhile, my butterfly garden has been playing host to all sorts of insects. The crickets serenade us each evening. Honeybees are enjoying my purple coneflower. I never use pesticides on my property, so I'm thrilled to have them visit in the hope that someone, somewhere, is benefiting from the delicious honey they provide (even if it's just the bees themselves!).

 

This evening, to my delight, I found a Cherry-Faced Meadowhawk Dragonfly resting on my tall phlox. He was hard to miss, being 2-1/2" to 3" in length. Most dragonflies seem to be rather skittish, but this fellow was clearly not bothered when I got right up close to him to snap a photograph on my phone.

I had thought my swamp milkweed was a goner, but it has managed to surprise me with a couple of hardy plants, one of which is now in bloom. It has been a great spring and summer for the gardens. My sedum is beginning to bud in preparation for fall bloom, and I'll be back with more pictures. See you soon!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

I hope you're doing something outdoorsy today - at least for a little while.  I spent last weekend planting flower and vegetable seeds in preparation for the growing season.  I've already got some sprouts!  I can't wait to get out there into my butterfly garden and positively pack it with butterfly-friendly flowers.  I've started spinach, lettuce, and beet greens in my raised bed greenhouse, and the warmer-season seeds like beans, peppers, and tomatoes in peat pots indoors.

Free Book!

The Earth Day Giveaway is still going on, and there aren't a lot of entries yet, so if you're looking for a free read this spring, what better way than to fill out the simple form at this link, and tell me what you're up to this Earth Day? Click here to enter: https://nickigreenwood.wufoo.com/forms/nickigreenwoodcom-earth-day-giveaway/

Have a terrific Earth Day, everyone!

A Little St. Patrick's Day Lesson About Snakes

Whether you're Irish, or Irish at heart, I hope you have a magnificent St. Patrick's Day! In between your bouts of green beer and Irish food today, you might be interested in a little factoid I dug up on the Internet.

You may have heard the legend of Saint Patrick, who is said to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland. While good ol' Saint Pat might have done some amazing things in other respects, the absence of snakes in Ireland was not actually his doing. Wikipedia also mentions that New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica are also snake-free (make a note of that, ophidiophobics).

There's a very interesting article at Popular Science about Ireland's snakeless state. While Ireland is currently free of native snakes, there are pet and zoo snakes living there. Imported snakes are not illegal. However, if these pets get free of their owners, they run the risk of becoming an invasive species. As anyone in Australia can tell you, invasive species are bad news. Snakes have many uses, but in a foreign environment with no limiting factors, they could be devastating to an ecosystem.

For now, though, Ireland remains largely snake-free, so you can sip that green beer and listen to some traditional Irish harp music. Sláinte!

Take a Walk!

Today, I did something I haven't done in quite some time: took a walk behind my mother's house, around the lake and into the woods.  It was amazing.  I had forgotten how beautiful and peaceful it can be.  Just the smell of the woods alone is worth the walk!

Before I started out, I found an enormous black dragonfly on the driveway.  He must have been sunning himself!  He didn't even seem to mind me sticking my face in at him to take a photo.  He was almost as big as my hand!

This is what "refilling the well" is all about.  How I missed those trees!  It was a long walk, but I feel refreshed, and I'm fairly certain I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight.  *deep sigh*

Gardening for Bees

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I have three gardens: one is my front landscape, one is specifically for butterflies, and one is for veggies to feed my family.  The landscape and butterfly gardens are also a favorite haunt of many different kinds of insects, including bees.

 

I get excited when I see bees these days, because worldwide, they're in decline, just like butterflies.  Beekeepers have been reporting a 30 to 50 percent loss of their hives.  That's staggering, and it means trouble for our food industry.  We are much more dependent on bees than most people realize for our fruits and vegetables.  Losing them would mean a huge hole in the food web, and we could find ourselves quite literally starving.

 

The Culprit

 

Research is pointing at systemic insecticides called neonicotinoids, which infiltrate all parts of the plants on which they are used.  That includes the pollen which bees collect and eat.  This mass application of a pesticide is having a ripple effect that, ultimately, harms our food supply rather than helping it.

 

Pesticides are not a new threat.  In 1962, Rachel Carson published a book called Silent Spring, which addressed the negative effects of pesticides on birds.  More than fifty years later, we're still fighting this fight, and it's hard to understand why.

 

Bee-ing the Solution

 

What can you do?  Well, you can do what I did: plant native-plant gardens, and vow to go pesticide-free.  There are many articles and resources on environmental gardening, and the results are healthier for you and your planet.  Share your yard with insects and wildlife, and form a mutual respect for your wild neighbors.  (Most bees are actually quite docile - too busy dotting your flowers in search of pollen to be bothered with you!)

 

There are caveats to bee- and butterfly-friendly plant claims.  A recent article in Organic Gardening caught my attention on this subject, and I did some investigating.  The environmental group Friends of the Earth tested a small sampling of plants purchased from major chain stores like Home Depot and Lowe's.  They found neonicotinoids in over half of the plants tested, even though the plants were labeled "bee friendly."  So, a warning: although that species of aster might be favored by bees, the specimen you're looking at could poison them.

 

Your best bet is to find plants from reputable garden centers that use no pesticides on their bee-friendly stock ... or from a friendly, local gardener who does the same.  Neonicotinoids can stay present in plant tissue for several years, so you could be doing harm to the bee and butterfly populations without even realizing it.  Make sure that what you put into your garden is truly organic and pesticide-free.  The bees will thank you by making sure your flowers, fruits and vegetables come back fuller and more robust each year.

Congrats to the Winner of my LASR Halloween Blogfest Prize!

 
Congratulations to Trix, who won my prize at LASR's Halloween Blogfest! (See the previous post for details.) Trix commented that she has a garden full of hummingbirds, now that she has planted red sage. What a great way to invite wildlife into your garden!

Habitat loss is a hummingbird's worst enemy, but humans can be their best friends. A garden full of shrubs to hide or nest in, flowers to use for nectar sources, and even artificial feeders, can be life-saving habitat for a hungry hummingbird. These birds need to eat about every ten minutes because of their outstanding metabolism! Watch a feeder or nectar source long enough, and you will see these little flying jewels return, zip-zip-zip, to feed again and again.

When using an artificial feeder, it's extremely important to clean it regularly - every three to four days, or more frequently when it's hot out. Purchase one with bee guards, and invest in an ant guard to keep unwanted pests away from the food source. These migratory birds will show up at your feeders and gardens from spring through fall to tank up for their long flights. Help them out with a variety of flowers that bloom at staggered times, and keep those artificial feeders stocked and ready for the show.

Happy Autumn, everyone! Hope you (and your resident wildlife) enjoy the season.

Guest Blogging TODAY at Long and Short Reviews!

I'm guest blogging TODAY at the Long and Short Reviews Halloween Blogfest!  LASR is celebrating the season with autumn-themed posts from authors across many exciting genres.  The best part is, you can win prizes!  Comment on my blog at LASR TODAY for a chance to win a $10 Williams-Sonoma eGift card! Hurry, because the Halloween Blogfest ends November 1st!

To comment, follow this link: http://ow.ly/qgsMp

If You Build It, They Will Come (v. 2.0)

Today's the day my persistence (and environmentally-concerned determination) paid off. Close to a year and a half after building my butterfly garden, I got what I've been waiting for.

I was outside today, thinking, "Gee, I really ought to trim back some of the leggier stuff in my garden. It's been so hot, I haven't done much, and everything's gone haywire." No sooner did I start trimming back the leggy stuff and unwanted volunteer seedings, than I hit the brakes. There, tucked in the back on a milkweed seedling, I found a Monarch Butterfly caterpillar!



Needless to say, I'm elated. This is what I built the garden for: to help along the Monarch species, which has been in a devastating decline due to habitat loss and pesticide use. And now, proof positive that my garden lives up to the purpose for which I built it!

Well, I ran right out and bought some mulch and began laying it ever-so-gently in between plants, where bare soil still existed (never did any mulching except a "green mulch" this year with a thick mat of Alyssum "Carpet-of-Snow" plants to keep the soil in place and somewhat moist). This will also help the various insects find places to hide.

Well, there I am with a bag of mulch on my shoulder, and as I approach the garden, I see a Giant Swallowtail on my butterfly bush:



Double yay! I am now considering registering my little side garden with Monarch Watch, an organization dedicated to helping this butterfly species survive. Of course, other species of butterfly and insect are always welcome. My property is wildlife-friendly, and I'm proud of that.

I don't even mind when the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds fly by and holler at me to refill their feeder ... again. :)

Lots of Visitors Today!

Many visitors at Greenwood House today! Images are not my own. In order of appearance, they are: Downy Woodpecker, courtesy of stock.xchng; Question Mark Butterfly, courtesy of djringer.com; Clouded Sulphur Butterfly, courtesy of Ecobirder. I really need to get a better camera, because all these critters are right in my backyard, and I don't have a decent camera anymore to snap a shot of them!






The Downy Woodpecker visited my suet feeders this morning. The Question Mark Butterfly was hanging out by my garden's compost heap, and the Clouded Sulphur Butterfly was flitting across the lawn. We also discovered that our Colorado Blue Spruce tree sports a nest of baby birds! I hope we didn't disturb them too much. Once we realized they were there - and alive - we kept our distance. I think they may be Purple Finch babies. I'll have to watch to see if Mom and Dad show up to feed them!

A Goose of a Different Color

Visited my mother today, and found she had a surprise on the pond behind her house: a white Canada Goose! We were unsure if it was, in fact, a Canada Goose at first, but it was the same size and shape (and likewise, still not fully fledged) as the goslings in the family of geese with whom it was eating. None of the others either chased it away or treated it any differently. Its bill and legs were orange, and from what I could tell, it was dark-eyed. In fact, it looked virtually the same as the gosling shown in this picture, taken by Flickr poster aerial2.

This is a condition called leucism, where the pigment in an animal's skin fails to develop properly. It's not to be confused with albinism, where the animal's eyes would be red or pink.

I hope the little guy grows up to be a strong, healthy bird. I can't wait to see him fully fledged. What an interesting anomaly. I'll have to keep track of him and see if progress through life is different for the "odd bird out" than for his siblings. So far, he seems to love life on Mom's pond. :)

Supermoth!

We had a visitor at work today - and not the two-legged kind.

My coworker came in from her break with a picture of a striking - and very big, she said - critter that looked, at first glance, like a butterfly. Since it was out in broad daylight, and sitting with its wings straight up, I assumed it was a butterfly.



Turns out, it is Hyalophora cecropia, North America's largest moth. I went out to get a better look at it, and it sports the fuzzy body and feathered antennae common to all moths. But unlike other moths (and most butterflies) I have seen, this fellow was huge. He was about 5-1/2 to 6 inches in wingspan, by my guess. And very striking for a moth, too. My only question is, why was he out in the daytime?

Maybe he was telling us to go home and get a nap.

...And Sometimes It's Just Dumb Luck

Today, while hubby was out in the yard working on our new deck, I noticed several Red Admiral butterflies, who had decided to stay over in our yard following this past week's huge migration of them.

They invariably lit on the dandelions in the sunny parts of our not-yet-mowed yard, and after following them around for a half hour with a camera, I managed to sneak up behind one and snap this spectacular shot:


When I say "sneak," I mean it. After losing out by approaching each of the previous prospects from the front or side, when they fluttered away, I decided to approach from behind. Success! This one was too busy getting nectar to be bothered with me. It rested for a while, ate, and then opened its wings for the perfect shot. My first butterfly photo! Woot!

Just goes to show you: if you want something, keep trying. Fifty percent of it is work. The other half is just dumb luck. :)

I'm A Mom Again (Sort Of)!

This morning I had a treat waiting for me when I visited my butterfly garden: the (alleged) Monarch butterfly eggs have hatched! It took three days from the time I first noticed the eggs. They're tiny yet, not even 1 x 3 millimeter in size, and they barely look like anything yet. (They bear a creepy resemblance to tiny maggots right now ... eww.) I will be keeping a close eye on them over the next two weeks while they grow. At two weeks, they should be fat, 2-inch caterpillars with black, white, and yellow stripes, assuming they are in fact Monarchs. Here's the picture I snapped today:


The thing that makes me wonder if they are Monarchs is that the eggs were laid in a cluster, rather than dotted all around the underside of the leaf as I have read Monarchs do. It could be that my Monarch mom was an anomaly. It could even be that these are a whole different species of butterfly ... though from everything I've read, if you find butterfly eggs on a milkweed, they're bound to be Monarch eggs. Time will tell! If you want to learn more about the Monarch butterfly life cycle, which takes about a month to complete from egg to adult, visit Rose Franklin's Monarch Metamorphosis page!

Success (I think)!

Took a tour of my butterfly garden yesterday, whilst lamenting that I hadn't seen more than two species of butterfly anywhere in the vicinity. (The insects are enjoying it quite a bit, though.) I examined my Asclepias incarnata 'Ice Ballet' (known by the less pretty name Swamp Milkweed), to find a cluster of some 50 eggs which I hope will turn out to be Monarch butterfly eggs!


Only after I mentioned this to my husband did he remember to tell me he'd seen a Monarch flit through our backyard the previous day. *rolls eyes*

I will keep you all posted, as I plan to make daily trips out to the butterfly garden to see how and when the eggs hatch. If my milkweed starts looking like Swiss cheese, and I see little black, yellow and white striped caterpillars, I'll know I've hit the jackpot.

I also saw a pair of damselflies hovering around my Morning Glories. Not sure what species it was, but this is what he looked like. These guys are voracious eaters of pesky insects like beetles, flies and mosquitoes, so I was happy to welcome him:


My 'Pink Delight' butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) was also blooming nicely. Looked like the bugs had been visiting it, since it was a bit chewed here and there. With a butterfly garden, you want things to be a bit ragged. That means you have customers!


The garden is in full bloom now, and it's such a pleasure to see everything so green and lush. I can't wait to see if I get lots of flying flowers, now that I know the butterflies have discovered my garden. Keep watching here for updates!

If You Build It, They Will Come (Hopefully)

I've been out in my new butterfly garden nearly every day - at the very least, to fill the birdbath (Coolest birdbath ever, btw - got it at a home store and put a solar fountain in it. Moving water attracts butterflies and hummingbirds - and other visitors, as you'll see). Being in the garden is therapeutic, and also a nice breather to turn to as another creative outlet when I'm not writing. Most of the seeds I sowed early in the spring seem to have survived. Some have begun to flourish. Others, not so much, which may be due in part to the insane rainstorms we have been getting. So, I bit the bullet and bought some live plants.


I admit to going a little nuts ... and I am still not done tinkering. :)

The terra-cotta saucer you see in the background is filled with wet sand. Several species of butterflies will engage in a behavior called "puddling," where they will land on wet sand and sip at nutrients in it, especially salts, which they can't get from nectar. Interestingly enough, this is exclusively a male butterfly thing. You can do something similar in your own yard by burying a dish, pan, or bucket to its rim, filling it with sand and enough water to dampen it, then sprinkling a pinch of non-iodized salt over it. Just be sure to keep it moist.

Besides salts, butterflies also like a lot of things that might gross you out: rotten fruit, carrion, and manure. Boy, that sounds just ... well, it's icky, is what it is, but hey, I'm not a butterfly. I opted out of adding those to my garden anyway. LOL

So far, I have seen one cabbage white butterfly flitting across my lawn (though I think he was more interested in the clover than the butterfly garden). The birds are visiting my birdbath daily, in particular some house sparrows who nest in a birdhouse next door. I have more varieties of insect and spider than I know what to do with, including this potter wasp who surprised me while he was having a sip of water from the wet stone at the edge of my birdbath:


I also noticed a spider carring her egg sac across the ground, presumably to bring it somewhere safe. That was pretty cool - I had never seen a spider "move house" before. So far, no butterflies visiting the garden itself, that I have noticed yet, but I have high hopes. I have provided some caterpillar host plants, and lots of nectar plants for the adults. I hope it's a veritable buffet by summer.

Meanwhile, I'll be the one doing the enjoying.

On The Bright Side

It always seems to pour when I want to garden. And, silly me, I find myself doing the gardening anyway.

Last year, it was two days of pouring rain while I did our front foundation landscaping. REALLY pouring. As in, Take Three Showers That Day, Look Like The Loser In A Mud Wrestling Match, pouring. And yet, I have a lovely garden in front, just beginning to wake up to spring. The lamium is already beginning to flower, which makes those early bumblebees happy. One of my "Autumn Joy" sedums did not survive the winter, and will probably be replaced by some spring or fall bloomer. The boxwood is sprouting new growth, and even my astilbe (the blooms of which I have not yet seen because I bought it at the end of the season on clearance last year) have burst from the ground in what seems one day.

This year, I am battling the rain to get my butterfly garden in. I started over the weekend in what was, by divine Providence, the Perfect Weekend to do this. I wasn't finished by the time the sun went down, but I decided to save the rest for today.

Naturally, it rained. But, on the heels of last year's rain battle, I forged ahead anyway and got the last of my plants in, as well as the edging. (Much easier than the edging I used for the front, since this just connects to itself and then stakes into the ground. Not perfect, and not breathtaking, but I hope to have so many flowers in there ya just can't see the darn stuff for long. Hope springing eternal, and all that.) And when I was done, and decided to photograph my efforts, I was rewarded with two very lovely portraits of two of my new charges. The first is the aquilegia, or columbine, you see at the top of this entry.

The second is this beautiful little shot, totally unplanned and somehow perfectly sprinkled with rain. This is dianthus "Neon Star," also called pinks because of the zigzag border of its flower petals. This is a cousin to your familiar carnations, and smells like cloves! Mmmmmm. Reminds me of my mother's Easter baking.

The flowers I am putting in this butterfly garden are purported to be magnets for butterflies and hummingbirds. All of which will, I hope, afford me lots and lots of great new pictures to share with you. Cheers!

Squirrel Wars 3: Fuzzy Strikes Back

They're at it again.

After the rousing success of my squirrel-proof suet feeder (not for lack of their trying, mind you; the thing's covered in tiny scratches from their foiled attempts at opening the cage), Fuzzy and his gang regrouped. They have taken to shaking the squirrel-proof tube feeder so that some of its contents will spill to the ground, and they can feast. They are also still hanging upside-down from the roof of my squirrel-proof hopper feeder, and scooping out bits of the food within. Smart little suckers, ain't they? It still takes them quite a while to make any sort of dent in the seed, though, so I suppose I should take my victories as they come.

But Fuzzy's not done tweaking my nose yet.

Yesterday, the Greenwood family spent the afternoon at the local zoo (which, by the way, is still fun in winter, especially if you're one of the penguins - one of them spent a good ten minutes showing off for my son, who loved it). When we arrived home, Fuzzy and one of his little lookouts (or maybe his squirrel hitman) had found their way into our trash can, and were fast making off with the remains of a tortilla. They scattered once we got out of the car, but this time, I just shook my head, pulled out the rest of the tortilla, and dropped it on the ground for them. (It's gone as of this morning, in case you wondered.) You may have won this time, Fuzzy, but I will prevail!

Squirrel Wars 2: Revenge of the Fuzzballs

OK, now that I have the birdseed situation ironed out and squirrel-proofed (the Squirrel-Proof Tube Feeder is working - see Squirrel Wars), I have to contend with what the lil' monsters are doing to my suet - as in, eating it in 3 days. At ten bucks a case, I am going to be eaten out of suet and home by the end of the winter. I had - sort of - outsmarted them by using these ingenious little screw-shut chain links, called Quick Links:


and though they try like heck, they haven't managed to open my suet cages. That doesn't stop them wolfing it down faster than a blue-ribbon champ at a pie eating contest. Help, gods of wildlife management, what's a girl to do?

Enter my hero, the unimposing but brilliant Squirrel-Proof Suet Cage:


Hooray! My sleek, wiry green hero, whatever did I do until you came along? This feeder works on the same principle as the tube feeder. Small birds can get through the baffle to dine on the suet, but Evil Grey Fuzzball cannot vanquish the wire to suck down the goods. (Note that I still have to screw it shut with its silvery sidekick, Quick Link.)

Both these nifty gadgets, and the tube feeder as well, are available at Tractor Supply. If you're a birder, it's well worth checking them out. Go, go! Defend your yard against the Squirrel Army of Doom!

All is well now in Greenwood House. I can't wait for spring, so I can sit out there with my coffee again and watch the birds visit - and actually get to eat something.