Just some moody fall images from last weekend headed for the time-lapse stack that I’ll finish up over the holidays.
It’s also deer season, meaning that the hunters are driving them into our yard. Just one of the bolder ones in a herd of a dozen.
Filed under Design, Meta, Wildlife by on Dec 1st, 2009. 6 Comments. 
In case you missed it this week, Zonker and Zipper explore the erotica that is bulb catalogs. You can view Start with Monday’s strip and work you’re way through the week by clicking on the next tab.
Email from UPS says my bulb order arrives Tuesday.
While shooting pix the other day I heard the tell-tale squawks of crows harassing a hawk, then they flew right overhead.
Colchicums at Billie Jean Isbell’s garden. Billie Jean hosted our first fall 2009 program of the Adirondack Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. Love her garden.
On Billie Jean’s barn, ‘Flying fish’ sculpture that looks to be fashioned from a piece of warped slapwood.
Living, Growing Architecture – Great post over at Dark Roasted Blend, full of root and vine bridges, reed construction, espalier, arborisculpture and more.
Filed under Art, Other blogs,websites, Other gardens, other places, Wildlife by on Oct 4th, 2009. 3 Comments.
I always chuckle when I read that keeping dogs deters deer. I think this one knows exactly where the invisible fence ends and knows Jade is never going to cross it.
Filed under Bummers, Wildlife by on May 3rd, 2009. 2 Comments.
For this month’s Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop – Wildlife in the Garden over at Gardening Gone Wild
Click on image for larger view. See if you can find all 9 in this particular herd.
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There are so many things to write about when it comes to wildlife in the garden — the pollinators, the crows, the songbirds and the beavers. But the wildlife that has the biggest influence on my gardening is deer.
There are lots in the neighborhood. I’m five miles outside of Ithaca, and I regularly see deer in town. In fact, twice this week walking from the parking lot to my office, I saw deer on the astroturf inside fence surrounding the practice fields on the Cornell campus. (Not the best grazing.) The deer pressure out here is even heavier.
Here’s how I deal with them:
- Fence the vegetable garden. Plastic mesh about 7 feet high. It’s a pain to maintain. I repaired it already this spring which practically guarantees we’ll get freezing rain or a heavy wet snow to drag it down again.
- Plant ‘deer-proof’ plants as much as possible. If deer are hungry enough. But poisonous stuff like castor beans and foxglove are way down on their list. I’ll buy daffodils, but not tulips. (The rodents like them less, too.) My garden is definitely not child-safe. There are lots of deer-resistant plant lists. They make great guides to get you started. But your mileage may vary. Deer in different areas definitely have different tastes.
- ‘Hide’ plants. I don’t buy hostas any more. But I moved some from our old place. Most are against the front of the house in a clautrophobic corner at the back of a bed with a fence on one side and a porch jutting out on the other. The deer haven’t touched them in the 10 years we’ve been here. I have the same hosta against the back of the house in a bed that juts out away from a corner of the house. There’s an easy escape route to the wetland. It gets chomped down every year.
- Tolerate some damage. I’ve got dwarf ninebark. Well, it’s not genetically a dwarf. But the deer keep in small for me. I’m waiting for the year they decide to skip it and I get some compensatory growth and it starts getting up to its potential. But until then, I’ll just enjoy this dwarf form. Most trees and shrubs I plant are real slow to get started. The deer provide a good excuse, rather than my own neglect.
Truth be told, rabbits are as big if not bigger nuisance. But they aren’t as easy to shoot — I mean take pictures of.
Filed under Wildlife by on Mar 20th, 2009. 6 Comments.
