Helianthus Annuus

It was just about a year ago this month that we were talking with the folks at one of the orchards that sells their bounty to us city slickers.  Ginger, being ever interested in plants, asked them about some plants growing by the side of the road.  They told us they were Helianthus.  We had never heard of them.

They explained that each year, sometime after the first hard freeze, they would cut the plants down to the ground.  In the spring they would sprout and grow to 6 - 8 feet and then, in the fall, produce an abundant number of sunflowers.  A very hardy plant with very pretty flowers.

They offered to split some roots and give them to us.  We accepted with the understanding that we would have to wait until after the first hard freeze, that would probably be November.

In November we returned and they dug up a plant and chopped the root ball into a couple of pieces. 
Tossing them in a box they instructed us to take them home, dig a hole, drop one of the sections in the hole and cover it with dirt.  In the spring when they sprouted make sure we watered them often as they liked "wet feet."

We did as instructed. Sure enough, to our happy surprise they sprouted in the spring.  Late this summer they started to develop buds then just about a week ago they started to flower. 

We are very pleased with this tough and beautiful Helianthus annuus.

The subject flowers are pictured center next to the back fence... Yea, the yellow ones.

I think this is just pretty as a picture... so to speak.

As it turns out, Helianthus Annuus is genus for any number of sunflowers.  Go ahead, Google it!

Whoohoo.

3rd Shift Goldfish

If you've been paying attention then you know I introduced 5 goldfish to the pond on September 16.  These were decent sized goldfish measuring at least 6 inches long.  Once release into the pond they swam around a bit and within an hour had disappeared.

We figured they were probably a bit timid in their new digs and after a couple of days would come out of hiding and become part of our backyard circus.

Not a chance.  Not one sighting on Friday or Saturday or Sunday... where were these guys.  I started thinking something terrible was wrong with my pond water and they had died.  I checked the skimmer each day but no fish bodies showed up. I tossed a little food in the pond and it just floated over the waterfall.  I didn't know what had happened but I was sure something bad had happened.

On Monday I went back to "The Lily Pad" pond store where I bought the fish and was telling the owner my concerns.  He asked if I had found any fish floating up-side-down.  I told him no.  He said that was a good sign.  He told me that sometimes when fish are introduced to a new environment they hide in the rocks during the day but will come out at night.  He suggested that I get up early some morning, grab my flashlight, quietly approach the pond, shine the light into the pond and if the fish Gods have been look'n out for these guys I would see some of them swimming around.

The thought did cross my mind that he could have been sending me on a snipe hunt.  He was that kinda guy.  I decided to throw caution to the wind (it was 4:30 in the morning for cry'n out loud... who would see me?) and Tuesday morning, day 5 after fish introduction to the pond.  I got up early, grabbed the flashlight and off I went in search of the elusive (snipe) goldfish.

Well color me orange and call me Goldie.  I immediately saw 2 fish cruising around the pond.  It was just like the guy had predicted and I've never been on a snipe hunt that was successful either.

I'm relieved they are okay.  I'm wondering what I have to do to get them to make an appearance during the day.  My theory is the water is cold, 62 degrees, and thus they aren't needing much in the way of food.  Once the water warms into the 70's I expect they will be happy to take a handout.  When they get hungry I'll have a tool to get their schedule so we can see them from time to time.  At least that's the current plan.  It will also help once the August algae clears... it's getting there but maybe another couple of weeks.

Now I just need to figure out how the fish and the toadlets can get along next summer.  I've read that toads taste bad... hope so for their sake.

Whoohoo.

Lily Planting

I told you in my previous post that we had planted lilies in the bridge pond.  When we did that I wasn't able to take pictures for the most part because I was up to my arm pits in pond water. 

As luck(?) would have it I decided to purchase another lily pad plant and did just that early this afternoon.  My granddaughter was over today after school and we recruited her to be the photographer and I would be the pond plant planter with Ginger there for moral support and to hand me the lily plant.

Without further ado, I present the pictures of lily:


With a little luck this stinky mass of muck and roots will grow lily pads
to grace the surface to the bridge pond.



I don my "ectomy" gloves so the stink of the lily mud and muck doesn't
stick to my hands.  Note, Ginger doesn't care what her hands smell like!
She probably washes her hands. ;) 





Get'n down and dirty with the lily.  I had removed rocks to make a "bed" for the
root mass and then put some rocks on top of it so it wouldn't float to the surface.




Another successful job completed said the guy with the smurf hands.

  Whoohoo.

Pond Additions

I received a letter in the mail last week stating the local pond store, "The Lily Pad," was closing it's doors because of the slowing economy.  When I talked to the owner today he told me a local nursery was going to take on the sales and service of pond paraphernalia. 

It's a good news, bad news story for me.  You see, I liked the guy who owned the business and I'm really sorry to see him go, but on the other hand, I really like the local nursery and glad there will still be a reputable business taking care of the needs of people who own ponds. 

Part of the The Lily Pad closing process is the need to get rid of inventory.  Would you believe they are having a "going out of business" sale?  Yep, and this week it's 25% off everything in the store.  Next week on Monday and Tuesday it will be 50% off.  Closed on Wednesday.  On Thursday and Friday it's 70% off or best offer.

So in the name of good consumerism Ginger and I went to the pond store just to look around and see what they still had.  I was surprised that a whole bunch of stock had already been sold.  Then we saw all the fish and the pond plants and I guess got a little caught-up in the moment and bought 5 fish and 6 plants.  

Two of the plants we bought are, hopefully, going to be lily pads starting in the spring.  I had to wade into the pond (it was pretty cool to my 'ol legs), remove some rocks on the bottom, put this mass of roots and stinky mud in the hole and cover with enough rocks to keep it from floating to the surface.  It was a bit challenging as the pond hasn't recovered from "algae August" (lots of algae in the water due to warm water and sun, you'll see the "green water" in the pictures below) and I couldn't see what I was doing.  At least nothing bit me.

The rest of the plants were either in pots or just bare roots that were placed in the rocks.  They will secure themselves as the roots grow.  We're hoping there is enough growing season left for them to secure themselves before they give it up for the winter.

Below are pictures of the plants (sans the lily's) as well as the fish before we released them. 

WhooHoo!

Toadlet Sighting!

It was Wednesday, September 8 when Ginger saw some movement out of the corner of her eye.  She thought it was a leaf at first but then realized it was a tiny toadlet.  The little guy was in the front yard doing whatever these little guys do.  I was able to capture him and get a close look but have to report he wasn't wearing his name tag so I don't know which one he was.

I got a few pictures.  He was very small.  I would guess about 1 1/4 inches from lips to butt. 

We also got a report from a neighbor that a "huge" toad was sitting on the sidewalk in front of our house on this same day at sunset.  She first thought it was a rock and was going to kick it.  Lucky for both of them she realized it wasn't a rock.  She was grossed out to find a toad on the sidewalk.  "Euuwwww" was how she described it.  These toads better watch out if they don't get steped on or kicked a B-52 (blue heron) may swoop down and relieve them of their lives while enjoying them for a snack.

I just love it when the Toad Daddy runs into one of his own.

Whoohoo.

First Hawk of the 2010 Fall Season

I won't argue with you about when fall actually starts.  In fact I'll even concede that it's still summer.  That's nothing but calendar stuff just like daylight saving time... smoke.  The real indicator of fall is when the summer temperatures start to fade from our memories, the trees and plants start to cycle down and when the hawks start dropping by in an effort to reduce the bird population.

We had our first (observed) hawk earlier this week, Tuesday I believe, around noon.  S/he was a beauty and luckily I got a few pictures of this majestic creature before Alejandro F. started filling the pond scaring the hawk away.

Here are three of the pictures I was lucky enough to get.  Not bad are they.

So what kind of hawk is this?  I don't know for sure.  My first thought was a "sharp-shinned hawk" but I read in my Peterson Field Guide that they have red eyes.  As you can clearly see, this beauty has the nicest blue eyes.  I like the color.

We, Ginger and I, figured it was either a Cooper's Hawk or a Harrier Hawk, and definitely a juvenile.  A query to a friend in Denver who queried a friend in Denver report they think it is a Juvenile Cooper's Hawk.  So that's the story and I'm stick'n with it.

Whoohoo.

First Sign of Fall

It seems too early in the year to be seriously talking about fall but it appears to be sneak'n in the back door.  The things that make the fall season are varied and plentiful.  There is football, lower temperatures, if your growing garlic it has to be in the ground soon, school is back in session, every tomato in the whole world becomes ripe, snow starts to fall in the mountains, Charlie Brown doesn't kick the football, migrating birds start head'n south, The Chase starts in NASCAR, the clocks FALL back when daylight saving time is suspended, the Fall Lineup begins on television, you can't find any shorts or tank-tops in Wal-Mart, it's dark when you finish dinner and it's dark when you get out of bed in the morning, you see squirrels but no acorns, trick or treaters, the Fall Harvest comes in, mosquitoes disappear, it's chilly or maybe even cold in the shade, pumpkins start showing up in the store, it takes more hot water for a comfortable shower, the air conditioning is replaced by the heater, you blow out your sprinkler system, the hawks return to our backyard, space heaters start appearing under desks, sweaters, Granny Smith apples are in season, long pants, there are no more Farmer's Market sales, finally the leaves on the trees change color before falling to earth... then it's winter.

A fall leaf stuck in the waterfall.

Pampas Grass Flowers

This is the time of year when the pampas grass flowers and goes to seed.  The birds will begin to feed on these seeds in late September until the seeds are gone.  The reward for these wonderful people who planted the pampas grass is also this time of year when our eyes fall on the feathery flowers.

The afternoon sun shines onto the flowers.  The result is sometimes stunning outlines and highlights of the flowers. 

This pampas grass is a tall native to southern South America.  This includes, are you ready, the pampas for which it is named.  Can you imagine.  The grass in our yard will grow to about 7 feet.  In the temperate climates of California, Hawaii and parts of Spain it is considered an invasive weed.  One mans weed is another mans flower... or something like that.  We like our pampas grass and don't consider it a weed.

In any case, here are a few pictures of our pampas grass that have caught our eye.

Want to see for yourself?  Well come on over.

Whoohoo!

Gorgeous Gourds

With all this talk about the gourd I bought and it's flash to oblivion, I thought it might be inspiring to tell you, quickly, what happened to the seeds I retrieved from that now vaporized gourd. 
When I drilled a hole in the gourd it was for bird access.  Since the birds didn't enter the gourd I guess the hole I put was actually for the wasp's to enter... or it could be, I suppose, the access point for the propane torch. Take your pick. Let's move on.

I drilled a hole in the dried gourd and dumped out all the dried detritus.  Most of what would have been pulp when the gourd was "green" was now nothing more than a whitish powder and some hard stuff that resembles the walls of a spaceship I saw on the sci-fi channel.  In addition to the detritus there were gourd seeds about the size of sunflower seeds with the husks intact.  I put the seeds in a cup and presented them to she who has a green thumb, Ginger.

This spring Ginger planted some of those seeds in the planter boxes you can see in the picture below.  They had a rough start as there were creatures in the soil that liked to eat baby gourds.  Once discovered they were short work for the man with the poison sprayer... yep, that would be me, your most humble author.

So now we're into late summer and the gourd vine has been struggling during the summer months.  But as things start to cool and the days become shorter the vine growth took off and there are gourds sprouting everywhere.  The vine is just growing like a weed and it had best hurry because it's running out of time.  The gourds are growing so fast we can see a marked difference in them each day.

Female flower.  You can tell by
the sensous curves and full body.

I did learn the gourd has male and female flowers.  The males fertilize the females and then the females produce the fruit/gourd (parents feel free to use this post as an introduction to sex education).  I also learned that sometimes when you take seeds directly from a gourd those seeds produce a plant that is called a "mule."  The "mule" doesn't produce fruit... the plant is sterile like a "mule" (I know parents, we're quickly going over your head... feel free to ask little Johnny to explain about mules).

Male flower, standing erect.

By the end of July when we didn't have any baby gourds and were fearful that we had a sterile (mule) plant.  We just were not patient enough as now the gourds are popping up all over the plant.  All this time has passed since spring when we planted the gourd seeds and just now they are getting around to producing fruit.  This plant was spending the whole summer getting ready for the sprint to the finish line, hopfully beating the freeze.

So with these home grown gourds literally coming to fruition I have to start planning what I'm going to do with them.  I have considered making a bird house out of one but might let that idea pass because of the problem described in the previous post.

I know, this is a great idea!  I'll send them out as Christmas presents this year.  I'm sure all the grandkids will love them and probably like the gourds better than the check we usually send.  Yea, I like that idea.

Since we'll be harvesting before Thanksgiving we can make gourd pies.  Heck, pumpkin is part of the gourd family... why not our gourds?

Oh my, what a season it's going to be.  Gourd pie, gourd Christmas presents. I'll save a special pair of gourds, paint them and give them to Ginger and call 'em maracas.  She'll be happier with home grown maracas than that white fox coat I bought her some years ago... I'm sure she will love 'em.

Oh I love it when a plan comes together.

Anyone wanting a gourd just let me know, we'll have plenty.

Whoohoo!