Best Clematis Yet

We have three different Clematis plants in various locations around the yard. This year the one by the garage door is giving the best display yet. It has more than a dozen beautiful colorful blooms. The interesting thing about this plant is every year it starts out great but quickly fades and die back. We'll see in a month if that happens again this year. In the second picture is another Clematis that is not nearly as dramatic as the first one. But it does add to the beauty of the yard.

Potatoes and Tomatoes

Always willing to try something new, this year we'll change our process for Tomatoes and Potatoes. A minor change for the Tomatoes; rather than using a Tomato cage to support the plants, we'll hang twine from the bamboo cross bar. As the plant grows, the length of the twine will be adjusted to maintain support. I doubt it will do anything to stop the squirrels that were stealing our Tomatoes last year. A new idea for growing Potatoes is using a barrel. As you can see, after a couple of weeks the Potatoes are growing like crazy but we won't know if the plan is successful until harvest time. I am looking forward to some home grown mashed potatoes. The other barrel is our attempt to grow carrots.

The Hawk Wins One

The Hawk didn't let a few floats or a bunch of water stop him. He came in with the intent of getting a juicy Goldfish and darned if he didn't get one. In the first picture he is half submerged in the water - fishing around for a big Goldfish with his claw like feet. In the second picture he has dragged his fish out onto one of the floats and is holding the fish down while he chomps away with his razor sharp beak. So sad that was one of our large black and orange Goldfish. One less fish in the pond.

Dawn Redwood Planted

A couple of years ago a neighbor gave me a gift of a small tree in a pot. The tree was a Dawn Redwood he grew from seeds he collected on the campus of the College of William and Mary. The trees are mentioned on the college website at http://www.wm.edu - just search for Dawn Redwood and you'll see the two Dawn Redwoods are at the far end of the Crim Dell Meadow. Another tree is behind the McGlothlin-Street Hall near by. Over the past two years we have cared for this tree moving it into ever larger pots. Finally it was time to plant it in the yard. Here it is starting its new life in the yard so eventually it can grow to the size of the parents which are really tall. This little guy is just three feet tall now but we expect good growth in the next few years. I'll update on the blog as it grows.

Thousands of Tadpoles

The party the frogs had a couple of weeks ago have produced dramatic results. There are so many tadpoles in the small pond that it would be impossible to count them. The first picture shows a bunch of them hanging onto some rocks in the pond framed by flower petals from the Cherry tree. While the tree is beautiful, it sure dumps a bunch of petals on the ponds. The other picture shows a bunch of others on the rocks six inches below the water. Looking around tadpoles are all over the sides of the pond. We hope this abundance of tadpoles will result in a wonderful March of the Frogs very soon.

Day and Night Guests

Got a nice side view of the Raccoon visiting the pond. A little washed out by the flash but you can kind of see his burglar like mask on his eyes and the distinctive stripes on his tail. The next day the hawk was back checking out the pond. He is looking for a way through the Styrofoam protection to the juicy Goldfish below. Look at how the Sweetflag is coming back strong.