starting out - finally!

After months of boring my friends on facebook, I decided to blog about my yard away from FB. I've been wanting to do this since I started the gardens this spring, to keep track of what I'm doing. Or rather what I'm trying to do. :) But as usual I procrastinated.

I've only been working on gardening a couple years, with the past year being a bit more serious about it, thanks to my sister. She inspires me.

This season I've begun to build a garden for the butterflies and hummingbirds. 

I have a bank along side my home, that was built in 1973 by the army corp of engineers after flooding devastated the mobile home park I reside in. Needless to say, the dirt isn't really dirt at all. It's silt, sand, rock, stones, and whatever else they dredged up from the stream. (including metal from old car parts from a salvage yard nearby!) 

Luckily there are plants that love the 'soil' there. Other plants are surviving, but aren't growing as much as I'd like them to.  Much of this I will have to see how it is next spring to decide where to go with things.  a little late in the game I've started looking into more native plants, since they are acclimated to such ground.

On the other side of the yard, the ground is ...clay,rocks, stones.  I'm told that this whole property was a swamp, backfilled in the 50's.  I can believe it.  It's difficult to dig anything as deep as recommended. Not to mention very hard work.   And you know the weeds have no problem growing in either place!

A few years ago, they came through and cut down all the trees ...it was a nightmare. I have a stream out front, which began to seriously erode the ground. I've lost several feet of yard, so it's something I'm working on stopping.  The property owner doesn't seem to understand what a problem this is.  I live near a small airport, as well as a military supply depot, and the cutting was a bizarre knee jerk reaction to 9/11. As though what..snipers were going to be hiding in the trees shooting down small aircraft?

The other problem is japanese knotweed.  When I first moved in over 10 years ago, there was this lovely thick wall of plant, that gave me privacy. I thought - GREAT!  Until I found out what it was. YIKES!  It keeps me busy especially in the Spring to keep it from completely taking over.  I can't yank it all out, or my yard will fall into the stream.  Sadly, with all the trees gone, the knotweed has thrived along the other side of the stream. 

Anyhow, I'd planted some holly bushes  a few years ago, but this year, understanding native planting a little more, I now have a fragrant sumac planted too.  It seems to be surviving, so next year I'll probably plant more, and find other suitable plants/ bushes. 

Planting trees is difficult here, since anything that gets to big will be lopped off every two years thanks to the airport.  That and I'm running out of room :D  Plus I do want to be able to enjoy the stream and all the life it brings to the yard.  Ducks, egrets, blue and green herons, snapping turtles, muskrats, etc.   Not to mention I get to watch the birds bathe and the butterflies 'puddle' nearby.

The other day I was watching some eastern tiger swallowtails puddling. And I was amazed to see that one was forcing out clear fluid from his hind end. I ended up with a nice video of it - for who would have believed me otherwise!  Usually it is the males puddling, they take in amino acides and salt, and expel all the excess water almost immediately while retaining some of the minerals...sort of a digestive tract cleansing! But the minerals and salt are also needed to enhance their sperm, and passed on to the female to help make her eggs more viable. 

Isn't nature amazing!

In the days to come I hope to post some photos and list some of what I have growing here.