Pileated Woodpeckers

I got excited when two huge woodpeckers landed in the neighbor's tree this morning. I heard them before I saw them. Their calls sounded like a kitten mewling. I got excited because I thought they might be the rare Ivory-billed woodpeckers causing the big stir here in Arkansas.




After I examined the photos I realized they were the common Pileated woodpeckers found everywhere in Arkansas. They were pretty and I enjoyed watching them interract with each other. Who knew woodpeckers were so loving?

I guess it is a blessing in a way that they weren't the rare birds. While it would have been exciting to be the person who took the landmark photograph, I would have gotten mad when all the crazed bird watchers descended on my house and started stomping around in my garden. Ugh!

Garden Photos - July 01, 2007

The garden is getting a little droopy in the summer heat. My prized celosia were beautiful earlier but are now toast. I'm ripping them all out soon.

The bugs have had a field day eating up the plants this summer. It has been chemical warfare out there and the bugs are still winning. Some critter who is immune to Sevin and miticide and fungicide is destroying the big crock of verbena and geranium. I don't know what to do and have given up hope.

The lantana in the hanging pot that I lusted after for so long has been a big disappointment. I don't know what's wrong with it. It starts to bloom, then the bloom falls off and goes to seed. The bloom never completely develops. This guy gets dust dry in a matter of hours. Is lantana a very thirsty plant???

Here are a few things that are still doing well.

The window boxes on the back deck:
They are luciously full and flowing down the side of the deck just like I had envisioned. Hubby admires these every morning through the window. He likes having bloomy things more than he will admit.

Here is a close-up of Wave petunias.
These guys look like velvet.

This is Kong coleus. They grow huge! I had three last year and they didn't do much. This guy is in a shadier area and is doing mighty fine.


The green and white caladium:
I planted these in the same spot as last year. By June 1st I decided they weren't coming up, so I planted the coleus plants there. Then, of course, the caladium sprouted. I didn't know how the two plants would co-exist right on top of each other, but the caladium seem to be very, very happy living under the skirt of the coleus.

The Freckled Sunshine Canna:
Freckled Sunshine isn't the real name. But it suits it, don't you think? These guys are growing and blooming profusely this year.

The Basketball Marigolds:
I love these orange pom-pom marigolds. The blooms are big and round. I wish I knew what kind they were. There wasn't a plant tag when I bought them.

The Squirrel in the Teacup:
I made this little teacup birdfeeder after seeing the project in the Arkansas Gardener magazine. The instructions were to drill through the cup and saucer with a special drill bit then screw it to a cork. The cork fits into a piece of PVC pipe. That was all too complicated for me. I didn't want to buy a special drill bit, find a screw to fit, then find a cork. Screwing the cup and saucer set-up to the cork would probably break it anyway. I also didn't want to buy PVC pipe. You can't kabammer that stuff into the ground, it shatters.

My re-engineered solution was to glue the cup to the saucer with Gorilla Glue, then glue a small PVC fitting to the bottom of the saucer. Then I jabbed an old broomstick into the ground. The PVC fitting slips over the end of the broomstick. The teacup lifts off easily for cleaning. The whole set-up is sitting right in the middle of the impatiens bed.

The lady who submitted the project wrote that she had not had any trouble with squirrels raiding her teacup feeder. Well, she doesn't live around here where the tree rat population is at infestation level.

If you look closely you can see a skeeter hovering just over the squirrel's ear. I'm glad the skeeters pester the tree rats too.

Garden Photos

The garden is lovely now. Not quite the bushy jungle I was aiming for, but it's only late May. Here are a few photos of my favorite garden goodies:

-----PINK HYDRANGEA-----

The blooms on this are intense pink and big as cantaloupes. They have been glorious with all the rain we've been having.

-----HOSTA-----

I was afraid the after last year's drought, the hosta might not make it to a second year. They came back with a vengeance early this spring and even weathered the Easter frost. Then they started growing straight up like a canna and I didn't know what was going on. I thought hosta were just a low mounding plant. I discovered the tall bits are the bloom stalks. They now have the most delicate little lilac colored blooms.

-----IMPATIENS-----

The front bed is a sea of bushy, mounding impatiens. They too are just glorious this year. In addition to the solid red, pink, and salmon ones in the photo, there are candy-striped varieties in these same colors. Just glorious.

-----WINDOW BOXES-----

The window boxes on the back deck are about the only space I can find to have sun plants. Shown above are: (top to bottom) black sweet potato vine, orange marigolds, lime sweet potato vine, and an electric red variety of geranium. The lime sweet potato vine glows neon green in the noonday sun; grows bushy as well as drips out of the box; and is happy in wet or dry, sunny or shady conditions. Too bad it is an annual. I love the high contrast of color and foliage in this little mini garden.

-----GYM LOCKER MARIGOLDS-----

These are 'Bonanza Bee' marigolds planted in old gym locker baskets. I think they are charming. Hubby says they are cute. The other gym locker basket has rusty-colored marigolds.

-----CALLA LILY-----

I was holding my breath to see if this little guy would bloom this year. I planted three bulbs this spring as an afterthought in the experimental bed. He seems pretty happy there. I hope his two brothers bloom too.