Kaseys Korner

overwintering Dahlia tubers

The temperatures outside this past week have been brutal.  We shattered some records for earliest low temperatures going -14 degrees several nights. 

It's almost surreal to think just a week ago it was still in the 70's & I was out digging dahlia tubers!

Above:  Dahlia 'Honka Surprise'

I usually let the Dahlias get lightly frosted (at least once but hopefully) several times before lifting the tubers from their containers or the ground. 

If the weather cooperates, I temporarily store the freshly dug tubers in the garage while they dry out a bit.

This year, I had to bring them directly into the house because my garage is not insulated and the below zero temperatures would have killed them.

Above:  Dahlia 'Floorinoor'

Once dug, I cut off the blackened foliage an inch or two above the tubers and "tag" them so I know which tuber is which. 

After the tubers have dried, the excess soil can be shaken off & the name of the dahlia can be written directly onto the tubers. 

Some people divide the tubers at this point.  I've had better results waiting until spring so I overwinter mine as a whole.  Whichever method you prefer, I've always read (and been told) to discard the "parent" tuber and keep the new "babies." 

Now that we've dug the tubers, dried them, divided or not, we're ready to store them.  As with most things there are various methods.  I pick a box or other container, add some slightly moistened peat to the bottom, nestle the tubers into the peat then cover with more peat.  Some people prefer shredded newspaper to peat.  My Mom puts them in a paper bag in her refrigerator!

Whatever you decide, now comes the trickiest part of getting them thru the winter ~ making sure they stay moist enough to survive but aren't overly wet where they'll rot.  

They also need to be in a cool (above freezing) place, preferrably between 40 - 50 degrees, which for me is my unfinished basement. 

After they're placed there, check on them about once a month to make sure they aren't drying out (shriveling up) or rotting.  If your storage material is not overly wet to start with, drying out should be more of a problem than rotting.  Spritz the surrounding peat (or other packing material) with water and you're good for another month.  If one of your tubers does happen to be rotting, you should cut the rotten part off so you can save what's left & prevent the rot from spreading.

Hopefully by March or April, they've all survived and are ready to be potted up again for another season of enjoyment. 

Meanwhile back to current reality, there was a beautiful Red Fox Squirrel frequenting the garden during the deep freeze this past week.

He/she was polite enough to pose atop the arbor.

Pretty picturesque framed amidst the rose hips.

A perfect complement to his coat!

I imagine creatures of every form will be happier this week as temperatures are supposed to moderate. 

Still below "average" but after last week, even the smallest reprieve will be greatly appreciated...

 

Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi'

Talk about a late bloomer! 

The first bud just started unfurling six days ago:

Lucky are we to even see it, at this late date in October.

I've never grown a yellow Brugmansia before, for years I kept an 'Ecuador Pink' but finally let it go two gardening seasons ago.

Not sure why I decided to try another?

They are so labor intensive in our climate.  I have to lug them indoors and down to the basement to force a dormancy period on them if I want them to ever reach their full potential.

Maybe I caved because 'Charles Grimaldi' was supposed to be a fast growing cultivar ~ apparently possible to reach 10' in his first year!

We fell FAR short of that height but it could be partially my fault since I didn't have him ideally situated (full sun) for the first part of the summer.  Then, poor guy, got hailed on (notice the tattered leaves in the photo above) which also set him back.

There he is on the left (that sun glare blob), perhaps three foot tall??

Soon I'll start him on his trek indoors as these fabulous warmer-than-normal days won't go on forever.

Above:  North garden pathway

Above:  Do you see what I see???  I *think* it's the Western Hognose snake from earlier this summer ~ soaking up some late October sun along the foundation of my house.  This is directly left of my faucet & I almost stuck my hand on him when I reached down to turn on the water!!!

Something prettier ~ a fenceline of cosmos:

Taken Wednesday, along the road where I drive my dog to his groomer.

The owner of the property said she was worried they weren't going to bloom, they opened so late. 

That was interesting to me because mine behaved the same way.  I hope these will bloom awhile longer, they really are eyecatching along that stretch of highway.

Now back to my clean up, I'm finally getting some things put away. 

About time, right??!!!

wildlife in the garden

I was thinking (rather mistakenly) that the garden was in a lull.

Oh there are a few things blooming, like Monarda 'Coral Reef:'

A stunning, almost inflorescent pink Bee Balm, much loved by bumblebees.

But, as I touched on in the Western Kingbird post, the garden is so much more than the blooms it flaunts. 

There is bird life.  Above:  Male Bullock's Oriole on sugar water feeder.

the fluttering of butterflies (Western Tiger Swallowtail on Lantana)

Quick and agile Amphibians, like the baby toad pictured above.  This year the garden has been inundated by toads. More specifically, baby toads.

They are everywhere ~ even in the window wells (like the four pictured above.)  It's impossible to tell scale from my photos but these toads are all only dime or nickel size!! 

Their population explosion has attracted another visitor:

 

A Western Hognose Snake! 

Excuse the bad photo, I was lucky to get it at all.  Apparently they feed predominantly on amphibians!  A virtual smorgasbord awaits in my garden....  But hold up.  Let's backtrack. 

Before photographing the snake, I had noticed the smallest baby bunny I'd ever seen, quivering near the house:

He barely seemed able to move around.  I wondered if he was too small to be out of the nest; which I believed to be under the overhang of my dining room bay window. 

Exactly the spot the snake's head is emerging from!!!!! 

Look closely at the photo above & notice the top of the bunnies head at the very bottom of the photo with the hognose snake about a foot above.  I don't know what happened to this baby bunny.  He was gone in the morning & I haven't seen the snake since either.  I have a theory the snake could still be digesting a whole nest of bunnies...

On a happier note, the garden is again home to hummingbirds!

We wait all year for the two short months they liven up the landscape in and around our garden.

Photo below is of note because it shows the small spot of orange on the juvenile hummingbirds throat:

Over the next year, this spot will spread until it covers his whole throat in a blaze of color.

A fiery sight to behold.

I strung garden lights this year mostly for their benefit:

They love to perch, preen, view & defend their territory from the suspended strings.

Oh no, the garden is definitely NOT in a "lull." 

Far from it....

clusters in the garden

Everywhere I look these days I'm seeing "bunches."  Sometimes it's good, like (finally) fruit to harvest from the tomato vines:

I thought I'd been watering a lost cause!

and berries on the Viburnum hedge:

Robins have been gorging themselves on these!

Even insects are crowding together:

I understand ~ I've been seeking the warmth of a sweatshirt in the early AM's & PM's too.

There are a few clusters I'd rather not see. 

Like these oak galls found abundantly on the undersides of the Bur Oak leaves:

At least I now know why I have so MANY yellow jackets on the Mugo Pine (that grows beneath the oak.)  The galls secrete a sweet substance the bees eat.  I'm hoping a neem oil application next spring will help because I'm frustrated at not being able to enjoy the front patio area.

I've also noticed quite a few Tachinid flies, this one on a cluster of aster blooms:

Too many Tachinids could spell disaster for the caterpillars recently discovered in the garden. 

One thing I've been looking for all summer and wishing I'd see in multiples ~ toads.  Finally, at the edge of summer, an appearance:

Hoping for greater numbers next summer. 

So many other "groupings" not photographed ~ flocks of geese flying overhead morning and evening,  gatherings of starlings ~ sorry, but I won't miss them at all ~ etc., etc.  No matter how hard I try to deny the arrival of fall, there's no escaping.  The change is in motion as evidenced in the garden.  I'm sure you've noticed it too...

what's a gardener to do

when temperatures hover around 100 day after day after day?? 

There is work to be done but only if the "gardener" is not adverse to major perspiration. 

The seating areas are appealing but the most pleasant time to enjoy them are early in the morning:

and late in the evening:

The sun won't be scalding then but those are prime times for the bumper crop of mosquitoes inhabiting the garden this year.  It's almost impossible to win.

Sometimes the best bet is to observe the garden from indoors and run out like a mad woman when something flits by to photograph ~ like this butterfly:

I think it's a Fritillary but I couldn't positively identify which one?  The best side view I was able to capture is the one below:

Perhaps there will be other opportunities as it seemed to be really interested in Clematis texensis 'Duchess of Albany:'

It's one of two "texensis" varieties grown here.  The other, 'gravetye beauty,' you've seen many times:

I had butterflies on the brain this spring when I planted two new Asclepias Incarnata but I have yet to see any light upon them ~ there's 'Princess:'

and 'Ice Ballet:'

It's too early to give up tho ~ I usually see the most butterflies in August and we are (too) quickly approaching that month. 

Something else occupying (worrying) me during this heat wave is an injured Robin:

He's been hanging around the garden for over a week now trying to recover from what looks like a narrow predator escape.  His left leg has to be broken (I never see him put it down), he's missing feathers including most of the tail ones (which you can tell better in the photo below:)

I'm also uncertain about his left wing (whether it's broken or not.)  I know the odds are stacked against his survival but I'm pulling for him.  I've done an online search for a rehabilitation place in my area but can't locate one ~ what would you do??? 

 

 

the "trick" that really wasn't

Yesterday I was doing some yard clean-up and thought I saw a "fake" snake lying in my front yard.  I figured one of the neighborhood kids threw it over on Halloween night.  Imagine my surprise when I stooped down to pick it up and realized it was not fake at all but rather a very real (and very dead) garter snake!

If any of my neighbors saw me at that moment, they must have chuckled because I'm sure I jumped pretty high upwards and backwards!

After I recovered from the surprise of it all, I felt bad that he wasn't alive anymore.  Although snakes startle me, I really don't mind having them in the garden because they are so beneficial.  The only exception would be a rattle snake ~ I would NOT want to see one of those!  This guy looked like he had been eating pretty well ~ probably lots of grasshoppers that were so plentiful this year?  I estimated he was about two foot long which my yardstick confirmed (and then some):

I'm not sure what took him out ~ it looked like he had a vise around his neck:

He's compost now ~ I buried him in my garden bed ~ but I hope to not make anymore surprise discoveries like him for a while!

where is a bull snake

when you need one??  and you know you need one when you find out your "mostly indoors only cat" has lost his mouse hunting 101 skills.  Well, not completely, he DID find the mouse and one step further, he brought it to me (who trains them to do that??) but he sure didn't finish the job.  You should have seen me jump when I saw what he had in his mouth ~ and that's amazing considering the hour of the morning!  See the coffee cup ~ I had been sitting on my front step as I often do first thing in the morning (with my camera in hand) when this whole episode occurred:

Just so you know, while I was photographing said mouse, it escaped because my cat became distracted by a Miller moth!  egads.  How's that for attention span?  I hope the mouse doesn't tell all his nest mates ~ I'll have a house full of mice this winter because they now know my cat isn't much of a threat!

To help me not perseverate on that last thought, let's look instead at what's new in the garden.  Lobelia x 'gerardii' has begun to bloom by the pond:

That's a nice and much more beautiful subject to focus our attention on, right?!   It was bought as a companion to Lobelia cardinalis which you can see in the background of the photo below has not yet begun to bloom:

Close tho.  You might remember I finally had success overwintering several 'cardinalis' plants last year so I'm hoping I have the same luck with 'gerardii' too.  I think it's all about "location, location, location" especially during rough Colorado winters.

The first tomato has also been harvested ~ although I may have jumped the gun by a day or so in my eagerness:

 

I'm very excited about having homegrown tomatoes ~ I hope I can harvest thru September if we don't have an early frost.

The same day I harvested the tomato, I'm happy to tell you I almost stepped on a baby toad.  Wait, that came out wrong.  I SAW a baby toad which made me happy because there have been very few toads in my garden this year ~ I definitely did NOT want to step on him!  Notice how tiny he is (about the size of a quarter) ~ for scale he is nestled in some vinca leaves, which many of you grow, so you know a size comparison:

Cute little fella, isn't he?  I hope he has siblings although I haven't seen (or stepped on) any yet. 

I also managed to work up a sweat in the hot sun trying to snap two butterfly photos for you (and me), one of a tattered Painted Lady:

and the other unknown to me and not the best photo to boot: 

It did not appear to be a Monarch to me although it had an orange and black color combination ~ the markings just seemed different??  Maybe it will return so I can try again for a better image?  or maybe one of you knows off the hand an identification???  That would be fabulous.  Just as I hope your weekend is....

if you're a praying mantis

the best dining spot in the garden is not really in the garden but underneath a light at night.  I found that out this morning as I was watering my viola basket (which sits underneath my back door light).  When I turned the spray on the basket, up popped a praying mantis:

Smart guy.  I haven't seen him there before, but it's a terrific spot.  The light attracts tons of insects at night so he'll eat well if he stays put.  They must have good hearing ~ the first click of the camera caused his head to turn in my direction:

I'm more convinced than ever that the E.T. character was based on them!

I resumed watering my other containers and when I finished, I looked for him again.  He had disappeared from the top of the basket but a keen eye spotted him, in a "ready" position, clinging to a viola bloom:

Never fear.  I won't "out" you ~ stay as long as you want.  It's a good deal for both of us.

For another winged visitor, apparently Verbena bonariensis is the best place to dine.  Planted to attract bees and butterflies, to date it's only drawn in Tachinid Flies:

Lots of them too.  I counted seven flies this morning on just this group of plants.

I'm not sure how I feel about them in the garden.  Knowing they parasitize caterpillars, my first instinct is to exterminate them.  I know they have some beneficial qualities tho and considering I've been warned to tread cautiously when it comes to "policing" nature, I'm leaving them alone.

The weather was perfect for photography this morning.  Overcast and cooler, with rain in our forecast for today.  The western horizon looks promising:

so it just might happen.  I better get my gardening done before the drops fly!

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.

Fresh coat of white

just in time for Christmas.  If there was any doubt about having a white holiday, this snowstorm cinches it.  Not that I was dreaming of one or anything.  :-) 
But even I (a confirmed non-snow lover) had to admit it was pretty.   Soooooo, thinking along those lines, I thought you might appreciate seeing some wintry scenes around my yard too.  If you have some beach photos, maybe we could swap?? 
First photo is of our neighborhood gazebo.  My house sits "kitty corner" to the green space area where this is located.  I simply raised my garage door, pointed my camera across the street and snapped:

Next I poked my head around the corner of the garage and clicked again:

We won't be sitting in these chairs today!  But lime green and white go together pretty well, don't they?  As you can see we have at least 5 inches so far and it's supposed to snow all day today and into tomorrow.  A bit to the right of the chairs is the vintage wheelbarrow that I showed you light photos of the other day:

It will be pretty tonight with the lights glowing from under the snow, won't it?  

I put away my camera (just for a moment) to fill the bird feeders and make sure there was plenty of water in the bird bath.  My trusty sidekick (sans coat) accompanied me, like he always does.   He doesn't mind the snow at all, in fact, he rather enjoys the winter landscape.  Lhasa Apsos originated in Tibet so that makes complete sense.  Maybe I have tropical roots to explain my opposing feelings about the cold?  ha.  Awww, come here little teddy bear, let's go back indoors and dry off.

Before stepping inside, I turned around and snapped a shot of the arbor draped in its Christmas finery:

No sooner had I shut the door, removed my boots and coat, a commotion started up in the backyard.  Grabbing my camera (an instinct now) I headed to the kitchen window to see what was the matter.  Yep, that's what I thought.  The little Sharp-shinned hawk was doing some snow hunting too but this time he came up empty handed:

So much for filling the feeders.  There won't be a bird in sight while he's around.  What's it like where you are?  Will you have a white Christmas this year?  I'm wondering why I didn't accept that invitation to join my brother in the Dominican Republic?  Seems crazy now....