Day Lilies

The deer are very hard on the day lilies in our flower beds. Most of the time they eat the buds before they can open. This year I have implemented a strategy of sticking the small branches that self-prune from our oak among the day lilies so that the deer get a bite of sticks along with the buds. It has slowed them down a little….but not much. The yellow ones that blooms were very low in other foliage and almost under some bushes.

The only orange ones that survived looked like they were blooming inside the bush!

I cut some buds the deer skipped because of the sticks (eating all the others that did not have enough sticks) and put them in a vase to so some photography. I discovered just how fast the flowers open. The first picture was at 6:40 AM.

Two hours later they were about half open. And I took a lot more pictures of them (including the picture of the stalk in the vase. I liked the lighting outside – using the green of the trees as a backdrop.

By noon the flowers were open. They only last the day – hence the name of these flowers.

After last year’s fiasco when I had no flowers at all because of the deer, I dug up some of the bulbs to put in pots on the deck. I noted the times for the photographs. This first set was at 7 AM. Not there were was already a spent flower to the left of the one that is opening…and lots of enlarging buds.

By 11 AM the flower was open.

Two days later, many of the buds had opened and were already wilting.

Another pot had a different lily. The first picture was at 9 AM.

The second is at 8 PM the same day. The petals are already beginning to wilt…the pollen has been spent....but there are still buds to open on subsequent days.

I’m going to dig up more bulbs this season so that I can enjoy them on the next next summer.

Mourning Doves in May

I noticed a mourning dove with a sheen on his neck feathers and immediately wondered if maybe there would be dove pair mating on our deck railing like we’ve had for at least twice this spring already.

He fluffed his feathers and strutted. He lifted and spread his tail feathers as he preened while a female looked on. At first the female seemed interested. She approached but then sat down on the railing. The male continued to show off his plumage. He tried grooming the female but she continued to sit although she did groom him a little – not very enthusiastically. Then she moved away. The male seemed surprised and looked around to determine where she went but she had already flown much further away.

Our Backyard During a Break from Rain

After checking the front flower beds, I walked around to check out the backyard. The chaos garden needs weeding; the honey suckle is beginning to take over (again). I’ll put it out but leave the fleabane. It’s a weed, but I tolerate it because the small flowers last a long time and add some additional color next to the chives, lemon balm, and mint that I want in the garden.

The Christmas ferns I planted last year survived the winter and may be reproducing! The new fronds are splattered with dirt because the run off from the deck is so violent during heavy rains. If the stand of ferns grows, the muddy area under the deck could reduce the mud and provide some nice greenery that would not need mowing. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The violets are also doing well under the deck since they thrive in shade.

There was a jack-in-the-pulpit with a drying out bloom in the boundary area between our yard and the forest. I’d put a lot of leaves into the area last fall and was glad to see this forest plant in bloom. I watch to see if it produces the red seeds.

The black walnut is the trey I am trying to watch this spring. The end of each branch sprouts a crown of new growth (stems and leaves) which I always think of as a ‘bad hair’ configuration. The tree is young enough that I only saw one nut on it last year. Maybe there will be more this year – but I imagine they will be well above the deer browse line.

The tulip poplar is full of flowers and buds. These trees are the most common large trees in the forest behind our house.

As I went up the stairs to our deck, I saw a crane fly – still. I left it there after taking photographs from several angles.

The old turtle sandbox on our deck has several dandelion plants that I’ve been harvesting when I need greens for a salad….and there is quite a lot of mint coming up as well.

Overall, the backyard is in pretty good shape. The main weeding work is in the chaos garden. The challenge on the deck it to make sure all the pots are draining adequately and that the bird bath water is changed frequently enough to avoid breeding mosquitos.