In the Yard

By Eilene Lyon

I’ve been slow to restart the blog this month. It seems the yard is constantly calling me to do something…anything but sit at my computer. Watering, weeding, dead-heading, feeding hummers, sitting on my butt with an iced chai latte. You get the idea.

Let’s begin with the birds and the bees.

The birdhouse: a house wren threw a few twigs in this year, but then the violet-green swallows claimed it and are still in the nest-building stage. Mrs. Swallow is peeking out the hole. House wrens can be aggressive, but he apparently decided to move on. We have another pair of swallows nesting in a tree cavity, possibly the fifth year in a row. They get an earlier start.

We had to buy new hummingbird feeders this year. Got the same brand, but slightly different design (the older design was superior, of course). The holes are just slits in this one. I hoped it would keep the Bullock’s orioles out, but their weight tips it enough that nectar flows. We hang two feeders close together (about 3 ft. apart) to prevent dominance behavior. Yes, this really works!

The new feeder with slits instead of round holes.

Two feeders about 3 feet apart prevent hummers from dominating them.

Bullock’s oriole eying the hummingbird feeder.

Right now we just have black-chinned hummingbirds. Earlier there were broad-tailed and an occasional caliope. The rufous ones will arrive in July and late summer we’ll have all four species. Sometimes the feeders will have up to 10 birds at a time!

The Rocky Mountain penstemons are a gangbuster spring flower for us and a favorite of the bumblebees. Now that the penstemons are about done, the bees have switched to the abundant lamb’s ears.

Rocky Mountain penstemon

Bumblebee on lamb’s ear.

Daylilies, blanket flowers and lamb’s ears in the south yard.

Our resident lizards have been out and about. I saw many plateau-striped whiptails yesterday, but they are hard to photograph–they are quick to get away! These lizards reproduce by parthenogenesis (self-fertilization). They are all female clones.

The fence lizards are not shy at all. I spied this one with wings hanging out of his mouth. Looks like he got one of the cicadas I wrote about on my author blog.

Plateau-striped whiptail

Fence lizard with cicada

A few other critters are not so benign.

A deer ate the geranium in this pot down to a nub. So I repurposed an old hanging basket as an unobtrusive cage and it’s growing back and blooming again.

The chipmunks and squirrels love to eat petunias and marigolds (among other flowers). They also dig tunnels through the landscaping. Squirrels have quite the complex behind the railroad-tie retaining wall. Hunter knows the word “Squirrel!” and he chases them for me, but has no hope of ever catching one!

The neighborhood bear wrecked my old compost bin (no great loss), but he hasn’t been able to crack the new one. I love it because it’s easy to rotate and composts quickly.

Hunter on the porch, watching for squirrels.

Old compost bin (bad), in front. New compost bin (good) in back.

Three down, nine to go! We’ll see how long they last.

After wildlife comes the weeds. I’ve been tackling some patches of Canada thistle next to our newish barn. (Note to Canadians: please keep your thistles at home! Ditto to Russians.😉) That whole section of the property is overrun with difficult-to-control invasives: cheatgrass, bindweed, storksbill, mustards of many stripes. Bane of my existence, I tell you! They hide some lovely cacti, sego lilies (if the deer don’t eat) and some other native wildflowers.

The last patch of Canada thistle in the middle with the reed canary grass. It will grow back next year, but the more I pull it, the smaller the patch.

Our handy bench next to the road is a good place to sit and remove weed seeds from my clothing before going back into the house.

There’s a lovely cholla cactus there, but hard to see for all the cheatgrass!

Across from the weed patch is the meadow I planted last year on top of barn excavation material. Earlier in the spring I had a nice showing of blue flax. The Mexican hats are starting to bloom now as some of the native grasses turn brown from our summer heatwave.

And finally, a few garden beds. I put in a new 5.5 ft.x 6.5 ft. raised bed for squash and sunflowers. Right now it’s more aspirational than inspirational. We’ll have to revisit it in a couple months. I have some volunteer delphinium and dill next to the asparagus patch. The asparagus was plentiful and yummy this year. Last year some microscopic aphids showed up. Aphids have become a big problem as our winters have warmed.

My lettuce (from seed) is finally getting to the point I can harvest a little. The backyard perennials are something I just let run wild, for the most part. The columbines were spectacular earlier. The daylilies just starting to bloom now. The south flower bed poppies are done now, but the delphiniums and yellow cosmos-type flowers are looking good now.

The new raised bed installed, after creating a level-ish area on the hillside.

Poppies are done, but more blooms coming on.

Salad greens coming up!

Tons of dill growing in the asparagus bed, and a volunteer delphinium.

The squash and sunflowers off to a sloooowwww start.

The backyard vegetation runs amok.

I think you can see now why I’ve been out in the yard quite a bit. Now that daily temps are in the 90s, I’ll be more inclined to enjoy the cooler temps indoors. I’ll be back to my usual fare here soon!