Goldfish (and water hyacinth) seen from underwater:
Flowers and critters August 6, 2008
The front-yard rain garden is still pretty sparse, as one might expect for a first-year bed of perennials. However, the nodding onion (Allium cernuum) and sweet black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia subtomentosa) are putting on a small late summer show.
We have confirmed that both our tadpoles have turned into frogs, but it’s still unclear to me whether they are bullfrogs or green frogs. So far, their only observed activities are sitting on rocks and lily pads, and jumping into the pond when we get close. No croaking, bug eating, or other entertaining activities have yet been demonstrated.
The great blue lobelia is in bloom, and so the bees have been visiting us (they also seem to like the nodding onion, but not as much). But isn’t this picture the essence of summer?
Good weather for frogs July 20, 2008
The rain I’ve been hoping for – a nice steady rain to make up for the dryness of the past month – fell yesterday. Unfortunately, that was also our pond tour day. So, instead of spending the day in the backyard, we set up camp on our big covered front porch, escorting the occasional umbrella-laden group to the pond. Everything looked pretty good except for the Annabelle hydrangeas, which were pretty droopy from the rain (and from my inadequate pruning job in late winter – something that I will endeavor to learn from). We received a bunch of compliments, and perhaps even some excess goldfish from other ponders. It ended up being a good but exhausting day.
Besides the garden getting a good drink, the rain brought another benefit: one of our tadpoles is now a frog! The tadpoles were purported to be from leopard frogs, but it seems like this one might be a green frog instead.
We’ve been seeing something jump from our “beach” into the water when we walk by, but we never actually saw it stationary before yesterday morning.
Mid-Summer Update July 7, 2008
The hydrangeas — oakleaf & Annabelle — are in full bloom now, and the bees just love the Annabelle blossoms that have reverted to the wild type. The oakleafs are the bees’ second choice, and the regular Annabelle blooms are practically ignored. Does anyone know what kind of bee this is? Gloria?
There are lots of berries in the garden now. Solomon’s plume (Smilacina racemosa – above), red baneberry (Actaea rubra), and Caroline raspberry are all ripening. Unfortunately, there aren’t many berries on the blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) or Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum), although the latter may be due to someone making a meal of them before they ripen.
I was so worried about the mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) after it got nibbled down to nothing over the winter. It’s sprung back quite admirably.
The Blue Cushion lavender is in bloom now and it smells wonderful. I planted two other Blue Cushion plants this spring, and they’re blooming too, albeit not as prolifically.
Late spring developments May 22, 2008
I’m still in the dark about whether I inadvertently planted an invasive bittersweet, but that’s not the only thing going on these days.
The wild hyacinth (Camassia scilloides) that I got last fall from Prairie Moon nursery is blooming! It’s not as showy as the garden hyacinth that bloomed in early spring, but it’s still an awfully pretty native for the rain garden.
The mapleleaf viburnum is making a valiant effort to rebound from being nibbled to death over the winter. I might still keep my eyes open for another plant to put next to it since mapleleaf viburnum does tend towards suckers and shrubbiness, but I’m so glad it survived.
Thanks to a sick day, I was able to see the indigo bunting visiting the pond again and snap a photo without having a windowpane in the way. I sure hope it’s nesting in the neighborhood.
Another bird sighting May 14, 2008
This indigo bunting stopped by to take a bath while I was using the sprinkler to refill the pond. I saw one just about this time a year ago, so perhaps this is a regular stop on its migration route. This shot was from the 2nd floor through the windowpane.
Stone Silo and a bird May 11, 2008
I went a bit overboard ordering from Stone Silo this spring – I ended up grabbing at least one of each plant they had that grows in clay and likes at least some shade (and that I don’t already have). The result was two heavy boxes on the porch this week.
All the plants were big and healthy and packed with care, just like all my previous shipments from Stone Silo. Most of these plants (the Virginia bluebells and white false indigo on the top and the awl-fruited sedge on the bottom, for example) are headed for the rain garden (which I will photograph once we stop having 40 mph winds and heavy rain coming off the lake).
This rose-breasted grosbeak stopped by the pond for a quick drink. I barely had time to get a shot through the windowpane before he flew away.
Project Budburst, New Bird, & An Earthquake April 18, 2008
I got to enter my first observation at Project Budburst today: the forsythia got its first blossoms overnight. And yesterday I saw what I believe is a hermit thrush for the first time. I didn’t hear it singing; it visited the pond and I identified it by its reddish tail (which it flicked quite a bit, helping the ID) and white eyering. It appears to be a migrant, but I’m going to keep an eye and ear out for it this summer.
Unfortunately, I slept through our earthquake this morning. The last time I was in a magnitude 5+ earthquake, it woke me up, so either I sleep more soundly than I did 20 years ago, or the geological properties of California make earthquakes more noticable than they are in Illinois (with all of our lovely glacial soil).
Who is pruning my shrubs? March 21, 2008
Annabelle hydrangea before I pruned it myself.
Someone’s been pruning my shrubs over the winter, and it definitely wasn’t me. When I first saw all this damage, I thought it might be from the heavy snows we’ve had this winter, but the stems don’t look broken.
I don’t prune my oakleaf hydrangeas, but someone does.
All of my hydrangeas – both oakleaf and Annabelle – show this damage, as does the mapleleaf viburnum.
Has anyone else seen this? Do you think it might be squirrels or rabbits? It could even be raccoons or opossums, since we have a large population of those as well. I don’t really care about the Annabelles since they do better with a pruning, but to lose so many branches of the mapleleaf viburnum and oakleaf hydrangeas really hurts. Perhaps everything will grow back bigger and stronger, but I’ll have to wait to find that out until summertime.
Running the pond all winter December 18, 2007
Even when the temperatures stay below freezing for a week and we get over half a foot of snow, the pond doesn’t ice over immediately. The wild irises (lower right) had some small sprouts poking out before the snowfall, but I think they’re reconsidering about now.
A lot of people turn off their pond in winter. Maybe they redirect the pump out the skimmer, or turn the pump off and rely on air stones to keep some oxygen in the water. We don’t – we let it run all winter long. Part of this (or maybe most) is nothing but laziness – I don’t even want to contemplate blowing all the water out of the pipe running underground from the skimmer pump to the top of the biofalls. Another part is that the pond looks really pretty in the winter, whether the falls are open or iced over.
If you’re contemplating joining in the all-year pond club, here’s what I’ve learned:
- You probably want to live in a place that doesn’t get much colder than Chicago does if you have a small shallow pond. We had a couple of weeks of Minnesota-level temperatures (below 0 F every night and not getting much above 10 F during the day) in February, and the pond started running low and having ice dams. (That nice little stream seen above froze all the way through!) If your typical winter highs are in the 20s, though, the ice won’t get all that thick and will start melting on sunny late-winter days.
- You still need a low-voltage ring de-icer so nitrogen can escape from the pond. You might only use it for a couple of days here and there, but it’s necessary during times when the entire pond freezes over.
- Check on the pond level even during the winter. Dry air means lots of evaporation, and you do need to keep an eye out for ice dams that divert water out of the pond.
Your reward? Hordes of animal visitors to your pond, and a lot less work in the fall.
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