Azalea With Split Personality

Once again the Elephant Ears next to the garage made it through the winter and are coming back strong. These are the same ones that did so well last year after staying in the ground over the winter. We have an interesting Azalea just 20 feet away at the end of the garage. This Azalea is planted on the outside of the fence but half of the branches are inside the fence. The inside is covered with beautiful white flowers but the outside is bare because the Deer have been chowing down. This shows how lucky we are with the bunch of Azalea unprotected in the front yard that are big enough to have a bunch of flowers out of the reach of the deer.

Squirrel Fake Out

Last year the squirrels destroyed our tomatoes so this year we are trying to fake them out. As you can see our tomatoes are growing and flowers and tiny green tomatoes are appearing. We are hanging Christmas decorations on the plants to convince the squirrels that there isn't any good food here. So they should move on to some of the bounty provided by Mother Nature instead of the plants in our garden. We are trying the hanging tomato again this year. Last years attempt was not very successful so I modified the watering process with the thought that it will work better.

Tadpoles are Now Frogs

Again the magic of nature is on display at the large pond. This all started in March with the toads spring fling. They laid a bunch of eggs that morphed into tadpoles. Now those tadpoles have developed into the cutest tiny frogs you've ever seen. They are kind of hard to see in the first picture but it shows them crawling out of the pond as they leave the safety of the pond for the big wild world. The second picture shows four of the little guys lounging on a rock as they move out of the pond. You have to watch where you step because the tiny frogs are all over the patio around the pond.

Invasive Sweet Flag

I can see why the Sweet Flag is called an invasive plant. The frog pond was being taken over by the Sweet Flag and the Spade plant. I was concerned that the toads partying in the spring stayed away from this pond so I decided to clean it. The Sweet Flag had taken over the end of the pond with thick roots and under the water surface. The Spade plant had filled the deep section of the pond. During cleaning we rescued about 30 Bullfrog tadpoles and relocated them to the large pond. At least that told me the pond wasn't toxic, the toads weren't interested in it.

Hawk Close Up

These pictures are a little washed out from the bright sunshine but you get a good idea of the size of this big bird. He is standing on the large rock in the pond and then he spreads his wings. Maybe he was getting ready to take off or just showing off. In the picture with his wings spread, it looks like he has something in one of his feet. He flew away before getting any more pictures.

Line Up Tadpoles

The tadpoles in the small pond were attracted to a Sweet Flag leaf laying just under the surface of the water. There are too many to count and they stretch the entire length of the leaf. You can see there are a bunch of tadpoles that haven't taken us a spot on the leaf. It won't be too long before these guys grow some tiny legs and start to morph from tadpoles to toads.