Kaseys Korner

the "secret" to

getting those pre-packaged bulbs and plants to bloom is to buy them and start them as soon as they hit the shelves ~ at least that's what I've decided.  In previous years, I've bombed out with many of those bags.  It seems like I buy them (in early Feb) then by the time I am ready to start them, the plants are dried out.  So frustrating.  That happened to me last year with pink lily of the valley roots: 

photo above is packaging photo, not mine

I really wanted some in my garden tho so this year I tried again but this time I started them immediately.  Total difference.  Look what I was able to plant outside yesterday:

Yep, two beautiful shoots (only one shown), growing healthy as can be.  I wish I'd bought another two roots now.  Dang! Live and learn, right?

Look what else I photographed:

Clematis 'texensis' seedhead

I am about to cut down the old vine but the seedheads are so cool looking I couldn't resist a photo before composting them. 

Happy last day of March everyone!  Looking forward to April here.

lookin' good

the spring garden that is ~ I snapped a couple photos to share with you today.  Not sure how much I'll be writing and/or posting the rest of the week since my daughter is on spring break.  It may be a photo here or there, a big post or nothing at all!  We'll see how it goes.  I had to post today tho because the first daffodil of the season has opened!  Check out 'Lemon Glow:'

This particular bulb was planted next to the flagstone terrace wall so I'm sure the extra heat helped it open first (although the very end of March is about the latest it's ever been for daffodils to begin blooming here.)  'Lemon Glow' was just added to our Paper Posie garden last fall.  In real life, it doesn't look quite like the catalog picture from whence it was ordered ~ it but maybe my memory is fuzzy??  Here's another look:

Lovin' me some 'Lemon Glow' ~ what do you think? I think I'll keep it!

Over the weekend, I also noticed pink bleeding heart sprouting up:

 

Don't you love the look of new sprouts?? 

The purple Primula 'denticulata,' that has been pictured previously, is finally beginning to shoot up too ~ now it actually looks like a drumstick primula instead of another variety:

How pretty is that?  There are more drumsticks waiting to open but they aren't any where near as far along as this one.  While I was photographing it, a bee buzzed by and landed on a nearby snowdrop bloom:

 

He struggled a bit to get inside the bloom but finally figured it out.  Lucky for him, there will soon be much more (easier to obtain) pollen sources.  Something we can all be happy about.  :-)

project modifications

After a week of chasing starlings, I'd almost decided the flicker box (as much as I wanted to help them out) HAD to come down.  The responsibility of managing the box for them (until they actually claimed it and set up house) was wearing me out and becoming a time-consuming job.  As luck would have it, about this time, I visited my local Wild Birds Unlimited store.  During conversation with the sales person, I learned about a new improved version of flicker nest boxes that are supposed to be "starling-proof."  Sign me up ~ I'm all over that!!!!

Thanks to friends with power tools and willing spirits, I now have my own new box:

This box has an angled front (not sure if you can discern that from this photo or not) so that the sides are higher than the entrance hole.  Plexiglass is screwed onto the sides (or slid into grooves) just over the hole portion of the box to prevent Kestrels and starlings (who have to fly straight to the hole) from using the box.  Flickers are able to land on the bottom part of the box and climb up (under the plexiglass) and into the hole.  Ingenious, don't you think???  I can't wait to see if it works and what my resident flickers think.  Here's another view, from a slightly different angle, that perhaps shows the design better:

If you would like to erect such a box in your own yard but don't have the tools (or handy friends) here's a link where you can purchase one:

http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/RTProduct.asp?SKU=COV-10072

I bet the flickers would thank you.  I've been reading a lot about how their numbers are dwindling because of nest site competition with European Starlings.  The Starlings wait until the Flickers excavate a nest site then usually take over the cavity.  Anything we can do to help out is a good thing. I'm also VERY excited NOT to have to chase off the starlings every five minutes like a crazy woman!  I'm sure my neighbors will be happy too since they were probably wondering what had come over me.  ;-)

Another project footnote, triangles were cut for the corners of the raised bed and now the finials fit perfectly!  Yay.  

 

No more fretting about the finial bases overhanging the bed edges (not that it was a big problem but details matter to people like myself with perfectionist tendencies!!)  It's a happy Saturday here!  Oh, and it didn't snow either so everything is good in my little world right now.  Hope it is in yours too? 

snow blooms

The snow is not going to get the best of me.  That's my latest decision.  I am going to work with it instead of fighting it ~ isn't that a healthy attitude?  (we'll see if I can keep it up!!!)  Mother Nature is contributing to my new positive energy by beginning the melt down and giving me "the something" to work with ~ buds & blooms that refuse to be kept snowed under.  Although, it has to be said, photographing blooms surrounded by snow can be a bit challenging.  All that glare and reflection has to be accounted for...   Check out my lone 'Blue Lady' hellebore stalk who poked her head out yesterday:

She almost appears like a studio shot using a white backdrop, don't you think?  Very cool (and I can appreciate the affect) but everyone knows I prefer to vanish the white stuff and forget about cool.  Wait, that's not my new 'tude so enough of that kind of talk! 

Back to the snow blooms and a cluster of purple striped crocus who pushed their way up:

I'm glad spring bloomers are so hardy ~ they have to be, don't they? We're about to test just how hardy ~ get this ~ another 2-5 inches of snow is in the forecast for tonight!  I am not stressed tho ~ after tomorrow, the real warm up begins ~ it looks like 60's and maybe even a 70 degree day into next week.  Whatever falls will not stay around long with that kind of warming.  I may just have my first daffodil to share with you too.  I know you're on the edge of your seat about that!  :-)

how does your mailbox

grow??  Thinking I want to spiff up around my mailbox this year.  I've never had anything planted around the one at this house.  In fact I never liked my mailbox until I replaced it last year.  Now that I have the new one, I would like something growing around the base.  See how plain it looks surrounded by rock:

Maybe I should plant morning glories around the post like this one I fell in love with last summer:

 

or maybe even a clematis??

I'd love to see or hear about what graces your mailbox.  Is it important to you to "dress it up?"  Do you think it makes a statement about your home?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Spring snowstorm

Sharing some photos of what I woke up to this morning (for everyone enjoying 70 degrees and sunshine, please take a moment and feel sorry for me!!!)  Just kidding.  (kinda)  A section of my backyard:

Our local TV station said we received 10.5" ~ I absolutely believe it.  And my back would 100% concur ~ it's very heavy, wet snow ~ hard to shovel. 

Moving around to the front yard:

That's a good amount of snow, wouldn't you say?  Luckily, the sun is already out so it will start melting very soon.  The forecast is for 50 degrees tomorrow.  I'm hoping it will all be a distant memory by the weekend.  My daughter is on Spring Break next week so you know we want it to be warm and nice!

I'm headed back out to beat some of the snow off the branches but just so you know it's not all gloom around here, an update on my orchid (the one flown in from Hawaii by my brother).  The original bud is still in bloom plus the second bud split in two and one of those buds is now also in bloom.  Here's a group shot:

Then a solo of the stem that split:

Being new to the realm of orchids, I wonder how common it is to get two (or more??) blooms from one stem??  Anyone know?? 

admiring the crocus

while they're still center stage.  Isn't it funny how we can afford to give each little bulb it's day of glory in spring?  For me, there's little else in the garden to photograph yet, unless you want to see endless shot after endless shot of emerging perennial foliage.  I didn't think so.   Predicting your response, I snapped these shots for our enjoyment before they're covered in snow again.  Yes, that's right ~ we're forecasted to receive another 5 - 12 inches of snow tonight thru tomorrow.  grump, grump, grump and for good measure, a little more grump.   You probably won't hear from me if it really happens, I'll be wallowing in self pity...

Before the wallowing begins, let's stick our heads in the sand and pretend tomorrow will be another repeat of glorious yesterday:

Above:  pretty little striped crocus sharing a space with even daintier Eranthis.  Below:  zooming in and cutting Eranthis out of the shot (sorry dude):

I liked the fuzzy lamb's ear foliage in the foreground ~ what do you think? 

A different crocus and an even tighter shot:

 

I feel just like they do:  when the sun is shining, I want to stretch out and soak up every ray.  When it's not, I feel like closing myself in and hibernating.  Life mimics nature, does it not?!!  If you should happen to hear about snow in Colorado, you'll know which I'm doing....

I imagine

not many of you can walk to the end of your street (like my daughter and I did last night) and see a town of prairie dogs???

Not the greatest photo but they are very wary of humans after the developer has tried to exterminate them several times.  When we first moved here 9 years ago, you could get remarkably close before they dove into their burrows.  Things have changed. 

I also imagine most of you also don't have Killdeer as neighbors??  I could be wrong...

They have nested near my house every year since I moved in.  Amazing considering all the dogs in the neighborhood etc. (although most are kept leashed).

When the young hatch, it's the cutest thing to watch them darting around the fields.  Dart is the operative word here ~ they are so fast!

If you haven't guessed, I live on the edge of a development that was never completed.  More housing was scheduled to fill in the fields behind and around my house but for various reasons has never happened.  It's a little like living in the country but not really.  I know it will be sad when it finally does build up (that seems inevitable) ~ wildlife like the killdeer & prairie dog that have lived here for so long, will disappear.  Every year it stays the same, we are happy.  With a lake on one side and fields on the other, the diversity provides some interesting inhabitants that we don't want to give up.

slow warm up

of course it is never fast enough for me.  I was hoping the snow would be gone by the end of today but unless something changes SOON, that won't be the case.  It's particularly depressing because we barely got rid of it and now the ground is covered again.  ugh.  I am trying to keep myself busy indoors, and not think about the white stuff, separating out the lovely pink columbine seedlings that Catherine sent me.

 

Photo from last year, but why re-invent the wheel, right?

I do have a new "side-to" photo of Eranthis hyemalis to share with you.

I took it before the snow but I am happy to say, I see their cheery yellow faces brightening the beds despite that nasty bump in the road.  It only reinforces how happy I am to have added them (along with the snowdrops).  Otherwise it would be a pretty dismal view today ~ not counting the one or two brave crocus spotting the landscape.

Waiting for spring to "really arrive" can try a girls gardeners patience.  I think this time of year is sometimes harder than January when you know there isn't a chance of it showing up.  What do you think?

Least I'm in jeopardy of depressing you, let me show you what I just noticed in the garage (of all places),  Clematis 'Josephine:' 

How did I overlook that?  The new growth is amazing, certainly something to cheer about!  I was never sure she was happy in a container but it seems like she made out fine there over the winter.  Even the gardenia (in the same container) appears to be showing signs of life. 

Things are stirring.  Despite the little setbacks, things are stirring.  I am going to take hope in that and say tomorrow will be a better (& hopefully warmer) day.  :-)

Occupied????

Old Man Winter is not going to pass the baton to Spring with an easy hand-off ~ that was quite apparent yesterday.  Today, for the first day of Spring, we awoke to 10 degree temperatures and six inches of snow.  Ouch.  Anything but springlike, right?  It is supposed to improve rapidly, least you start feeling really bad for me ~ although I do love commiseration!  :-)

There was one bright spot that occurred during the driving snow yesterday that I HAVE to share with you ~  a flicker has found the nest box I mounted for him a week ago today:

How cool is that??  He hung on the outside of the box for the longest time.  Looking in:

Then all around:

I have numerous Flickers in my yard during the winter months but when I pull the suet in the spring (because of the Starlings and Grackles) they disappear.  I'm hoping maybe, just maybe, if he likes what he sees, he'll stick around.... Baby flickers would be the cutest, wouldn't they?

Note:  There's always the possibility I may have to pull the box.  If the Starlings claim the nesting box, it will come down pronto ~ I am NOT an equal opportunity hostess!   I simply refuse to help them increase their numbers.  Let's hope the "better" bird wins...