Unexpected Sights Out the Back Window

One of my favourite things to do on a winter Saturday morning is to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the birds out the back window (which faces south.) We have two feeders filled with black oil sunflower, and one finch feeder filled with niger seeds.

Last year we sometimes had 4 pairs of cardinals visiting, plus house finches, the little American goldfinches, and the odd woodpecker. This year, it's the same type of birds but there have been a lot less of them, which I attribute to another visitor...

I believe he (or she?) is a Cooper's Hawk. Last year we had the odd visit from a larger hawk, but it wasn't too frequent. However, this Cooper's Hawk seems to have figured out that we have a very nice bird restaurant, and he's not talking about the black oil sunflower seed... :-(

He's a fairly frequent visitor. This shot was taken a few weeks ago, as he sat in the cherry tree right outside the window.









This morning, as I sat with my coffee, I didn't see too much bird activity at the feeders. There was one pair of cardinals sitting in the cherry tree. I figured they'd come down to the feeders eventually, so I started reading the Saturday paper and drinking my coffee, with a glance out the window every few pages to see what was happening.

After awhile I realized that the cardinals weren't moving...at all.

And, they were kind of...flattened against the braches.

You have to look hard to see her, but there's a female cardinal in the top left corner of this picture. The male (who is brighter red) was on the south side of the tree.













I looked up into the big tree further south in the yard, and sure enough, there was a hawk.

He was looking in the other direction (with his back to the north, where the cherry tree with the cardinals was.)







 

So there we had the cardinals, not moving a feather, scrunched as close in to the branches on the tree as they could, terrified, trying to make themselves invisible.  Which is kind of difficult when you're bright red and everything else outside at this time of year is greyish or white.

I realize this probably happens all the time. And yes, the hawk has to eat too. But these are "my" cardinals!

So I threw a coat on over my pajamas, boots over my bare feet, grabbed some gloves, and tromped out to the back yard. I headed toward the big tree, looking at the hawk. He looked at me, saw how close I was getting (even though he's up pretty high) and took off. I clapped my hands to give him a further bad experience at my "restaurant," hoping he wouldn't be a return client.

When I turned around, the cardinals still weren't moving a feather, but they were certainly watching me! I didn't go too close, figuring they were probably stressed enough already.

But what I saw next surprised me so much I almost exclaimed something out loud.

Hiding on the north side of the tree, below the branches with the cardinals, were a pair of woodpeckers!

Do you see them? 

If you scroll back up and look at the picture of the cardinal...they're there, but they blend in so well I hadn't seen them until I went outside.










I didn't take the camera outside with me, which is a real shame, since I was only about a metre away from them. Once I was back inside the house I took these pictures out the window.

Just like the cardinals, they weren't moving a feather. And they were glued to the tree. Just their eyes were moving as they watched me closely.


















After a while, the male woodpecker (the one with the red bit on his head) figured out that the hawk was gone and flew off. A little later, so did his lady companion.

But the cardinals still didn't move! Eventually I had to leave to run some errands, so I don't know how much longer they stayed there. I guess when you're that colourful, you have to take extra precautions!

It was certainly a more exciting morning of birdwatching than I had expected!

Fall Roses and Horse Manure

There is one last rose still blooming in the front yard. Any surprise that it’s the English Rose “Summer Song”? I saw it on my way in the front door after work. It called me over to take one last sniff I think. I can't describe how vibrantly it glowed against everything else that’s browning and falling. Unfortunately, with our shorter days, there wasn’t enough light for a decent photo by the time I reached my camera. Kind of fitting though—the rest of the garden flowers are quickly turning into memories only as well.

The photo I do have to share with you is really the opposite of the rose. Although I suppose it does lead to roses.

You see, I’ve been on a hunt for horse manure for the garden. In Toronto, this is a little challenging to find. But a resourceful older gardening friend told me where to find it. Two tries later (we drove right past it the first time) I had two (sealed) containers full in the back of the car.

Since it took some effort to find, I’ll share the location with you (if you’re reading this blog I’m going to guess you’re the kind of gardener who might be interested in this sort of thing). It’s on Jane Street, north of Highway 7, on the east side of the street, past the little cemetery, and past the Wal-mart (which is on the west side of Jane.)   

You’ll be looking for a sign like this:














If you hadn't seen the photo I bet you'd have driven past it too. Note that this is a "shovel it yourself" operation if you're looking for small quantities. If you want it by the cubic yard they'll deliver. For a small home garden bring your own containers. Pricing is by the bushel--I brought along a green garbage can (with a lid!) that they priced as two bushels. They may be set up for credit cards for larger quantities, but bring cash if you only want a few bushels. There were several mountains of horse manure, in various states of composting. What I bought (from the oldest pile) was quite well composted with very little odour.

I'll let you know next year, whether it was worth the drive (hopefully after I fight my way past the giant tomatoes...)

Vegetable variety

As the days and nights are cooling down, my vegetable garden is slowing down, at least in the tomato department. There are lots of green ones, so I'm hoping for another month of tomato-friendly weather!

Earlier in September, the horticultural society I belong to held our fall flower show. My entry, pictured at left, won in the vegetable category. It includes zucchini (the climbing 'Trombetta' and a yellow variety), eggplant, pole beans (rattlesnake and purple), ground cherries, garlic, arugula and tomatoes ('mortgage lifter' and 'bloody butcher'.) I was quite pleased to be able to come up with this kind of selection out of a rather tiny space.  Of course I'm already planning to make it even more productive next year...

I was also delighted to win 'best flower' for a spray of miniature roses.

I didn't do much in the design categories this time around, mostly due to lack of time. The entry I was happiest with was this arrangement of 'Limelight' hydrangeas in a bright blue watering can. It just looked happy to me!

 

 

 

The Zucchini Bread Recipe I Couldn't Find

My garden has entered that late summer stage where, as far as flowers go, it's all about the dahlias and the rudbeckias. Rudbeckia Triloba has self seeded in several places (not all of which are convenient, but I let it go anyway) and it certainly must be one of the cheeriest flowers on the planet.












And as far as the vegetable garden, it's all about the tomatoes (yum and yay!) and zucchini. This year I tried out 'Trombeta di Albenga' a climbing heirloom Italian variety from Renee's Garden. To say that it is a vigorous grower would be an understatement--I think the vine is somewhere between 12 and 15 metres long now. And the zucchini! Well, take a look...

'Trombetta'

If you grow the more conventional zucchinis (the smaller green or yellow ones) you might think I've left this on the vine far too long, but I consulted with a friend whose family has grown these, and she assures me that they are indeed supposed to be allowed to get this big. In fact, I received a little talking to when I picked one too young.



 




The first mature one that I grated (in order to bake with it) measured in at over 7 cups! Time to get baking!

So I went in search of a good zucchini bread recipe.

I tested several (on my coworkers and my husband ,and even on my husband's coworkers) and found that they were either too oily, or too cakey, or just not the right bread-like consistency I was going for.

I wanted something with a texture like banana bread, not coffee cake. So I took the closest recipe to that out of my collection and started playing...


...and I came up with something that's pretty much exactly what I had in mind (I love it when that happens! Too bad it doesn't occur more often.) If you're looking for something similar, I'll share it with you: 

Zucchini Orange Oat Bread

Makes 2 loaves

4 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

¾ cup vegetable oil

1 ½ cups orange juice

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini

3 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon

½ tsp cloves

1 cup chopped nuts (preferably toasted)

Heat oven to 350’. Place a piece of parchment paper crossways in the bottom of each of two non-stick 8 x 4” loaf pans. 

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs until thick and lemon coloured; gradually beat in sugar. Add in oil, orange juice, vanilla extract, and zucchini. In separate bowl place all dry ingredients, combine with a whisk, and then stir by hand into wet mixture until everything is well mixed. 

Pour batter into pans.  Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Use a flat spatula to release loaf from ends of pan; lift loaf out by lifting on edges of parchment paper. Store in a sealed container. Freezes well.

And if you have as much zucchini as I do...repeat all of the above!

First tomato of 2011!

Tonight I picked the first tomato out of the garden. The colour of a ripe Pineapple tomato is a bit more orange than traditional tomato red. I am going to wait until tomorrow to slice into it--it's just barely ripe now, by tomorrow evening it should be perfect.

I almost left it in the garden until tomorrow. But then I thought about how the raccoons have been using the raspberry bushes (laden with almost ripe raspberries one day) as a dance floor (no more ripe raspberries). How they seem to be having food fights with the baby peppers. And even (eww) how, in recent nights, they've been DRINKING the plastic container of soapy water and drowned japanese beetles I keep handy near my rosebushes. 

And I picked my almost perfectly ripe tomato. It's safely on the kitchen windowsill until tomorrow.

Garden snapshots - July 2011

Helianthus "Lorraine Sunshine"

The thing about a garden blog is that in spring, when there's lots of activity to blog about, you're too busy gardening to sit down at your computer! Here we are in July and I haven't posted anything since May. Oops!

So, without further ado, here's a little tour of what the garden looks like now.

Front yard, July 9, 2011

View from the driveway

Rosa "The Fairy" is blooming it's heart out...

The tall scabiosa-like yellow flowers that I can never remember the name of are towering over everything... I'm sure passers-by wonder why on earth I planted them at the front of the garden and not the back. I kind of like how you can look through them into the garden.

Cephalaria gigantea

And Echinacea "Hot Papaya" is proving to be worth every cent I paid for it. I first saw it during Garden Walk Buffalo last year and had to have it (I can resist a lot of beautiful plants, but every once in a while I see one that sends me directly to PlantWorld with credit card in hand.)

Echinace "Hot Papaya"

I love shasta daisies, too bad their bloom time is so short.

Some of the clematis have started to put on a show.

I've done quite a few containers in the front yard this year.

Coleus sets off this container pair.

Trailing begonia. I planted the corms a little late but they're taking off now.

Wait until the cannas bloom!

A hanging basket of fuschias on the front porch frame my view as I look out on the garden.

English Rose "Constance Spry"

At the side of the house I have a pretty  way of capturing the water that comes out of our air conditioning unit:

Self-watering planter

There's LOTS more going on in the back yard but I think this blog site will shut down if I put any more pictures in one post (it's been complaining over the last 3) so I'll just show you the most exciting thing happening in the back yard right now...

"Pineapple" tomato

The slowest thing ever to ripen is the first tomato of summer. I have some toasted bread and mayo waiting for this one...

Our Annual Plant Sale is This Weekend!

I'm heavily involved with Roselands Horticultural Society, so when it's time for our annual plant sale, that means a whole lot of digging, dividing, potting, labeling, and lugging. Which is what I've been doing for the past three weeks.

The weather around here has been pretty miserable--cold and wet, or just wet--so it hasn't exactly been conducive to all of the above activities. I've spent about 6 hours last weekend locked away in the garage (it was slightly warmer out of the wind, and definitely drier than outside!) with all my plants, some packing tape, and a whole bunch of printed plant descriptions, ensuring that even new gardeners would have some idea of what plant they were buying and whether it was appropriate for the site they had in mind.

I expect that many of our Society's other members were engaged in similar activities on the weekend (we're a wild and crazy bunch, I tell you!)

Several years before I joined Roselands I discovered hort society plant sales and I was hooked--where else can you buy a couple full boxes of interesting perennials for $20 or $30? As a new homeowner with a lot of garden to plant (well, after I ripped out all the grass,) I certainly made the rounds of several society's sales!

And now that I have an established garden there are lots of things that can be divided up and shared. Here's some of what I potted up for this year:

Lamium, Hens & Chicks, and on the top right, you can see the stems of some Ostrich Ferns.

 

 

 

A tray of Clematis 'Radar Love' that I grew from seed (I think they're kind of cute, all tied to their little skewers), and more lamium (it's always popular so I potted up LOTS of it)

Now providing they survive until Saturday (and the way the temperature dipped today I'm not sure what's going to happen), I'm planning to have some Ground Cherries (physalis) at the sale. 

Hiding in the cold frame, are my 'Mortgage Lifter' tomatoes. If I was a tomato today I'd be hiding in there too--and saying shut the door, it's cold out there! Again, providing they survive, some of these will be at the sale.

I've potted up a Slender Deutzia and three of her little offspring--it's the same plant (just growing in a different spot) as the white flowered beauty you see above. Note that this picture was taken at this time last year; this year there are just little buds on the deutzia and other things aren't nearly as far along.

So that's some of what I'm contributing.  Last year we had about 10 tables of perennials:

That's a LOT of perennials..

And then we have trays and trays of commercially grown annuals, vegetables, and herbs...

So, if you're in the Toronto area this weekend here are the details:


Roselands Horitcultural Society Plant Sale
Saturday, May 21, 2011
9 am until noon (arrive at 9:00 for best selection. There won't be anything left by noon, and probably not much interesting by 10:00)
Northwest quadrant of Eglinton Flats Park (west of Jane, turn on Emmett Avenue, from Eglinton. Just google "Eglinton Flats Park" and the red marker will be almost where we are).

There will be yellow signs on Eglinton directing you in to the sale. It's rain or shine (and I'm praying for shine!). Cash sales only.


The Mount Dennis Social Club will have a BBQ breakfast available for purchase on site and the Emmett Avenue Community Garden (located a few steps away from the plant sale) will be having their kick-off.

Hope you can join us!