Project (Almost) Completed

Before

We've finally completed the major construction on the project on the north side of our back yard.

That area had been pretty much useless to us in the past because it had a huge Eugenia hedge all along the fence, and a smaller Boxwood hedge parallel to the Eugenia.  We didn't plant either of them and the whole arrangement never made any sense to us; even after we took out the Eugenia hedge, the area still wasn't useful because of the slope of the terrain.

So we decided to make that our next, and hopefully LAST major outdoor project.

The first phase of the project involved having Greg Eubanks of Serenity Gardens take out all the Eugenia stumps and tear out the boxwood hedge.

The next step was to create a series of broad steps down to the edge of the canyon.  That will give us an easy way to get down to that area on our feet, rather than on our butts, which is what tended to happen in the past.

Each step was filled in with dirt, then a layer of gravel, a layer of weed block fabric and topped off with a final layer of decomposed granite (DG).

This phase also involved the construction of a retaining wall beside the steps to make that area level with the rest of the back yard.

This construction will also give access to the canyon for the fire department if there's ever another fire in our canyon, as there was in October 2007.  That fire scared us into making our space as defensible as possible while keeping erosion in check as much as we can.  Just taking out the thirty-foot tall Eugenia hedge between the houses removed a lot of potential wildfire fuel, but now firefighters can get better access to the canyon itself if we eve need it.

It also makes it possible for Cindy to plant some small fruit trees in the 90 square feet of garden space we have now gained to the left of the new retaining wall.  It's all part of her continuing plan to get me to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Another feature of the construction was putting down a block patio area for the grill; Cindy inaugurated it Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the (almost) end of the project.

There's still work to be done on it; Cindy is currently moving a huge mound of dirt left from the excavations so she can level out the future orchard area, there's planting around the edges that needs to be done, we need to order a metal handrail for the back steps, and there's a piece that still needs something to retain the dirt, but at least now the major construction is finished.

Hooray!

Number One Reason Not To Have Chickens

Gray Fox

Cindy was awakened about 5:30 this morning by a commotion created by a pack of crows in the neighborhood.  When she looked out the kitchen window, she saw this little guy sitting on the garden wall.  She ran to get her camera and got a good picture of him (or her) climbing on our car.

Turns out it's a Gray Fox, (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), also called a Tree Fox because it is so adept at climbing.  In addition to garden walls and elderly Camry station wagons, these foxes are the only true tree climbers among the canid family and can climb just about any kind of fencing, telephone poles, and, of course, trees.  They are timid, elusive and primarily nocturnal, so Cindy was lucky to see this one at all, let alone get a picture of it.  

Gray foxes are omnivorous, eating small mammals, insects, fruits, birds, eggs, and carrion.  And chickens.

Having a resident fox in the near area could be very helpful in controlling the population explosion among the California Ground Squirrels (see Baby Boom), although we're going to have to be careful about putting food scraps in the compost heap.  Project Wildlife suggests adding small amounts of ammonia or cayenne pepper to garbage to discourage scavenging.

If we ever did get chickens, we would have to keep them secure; since foxes can dig under or climb over fencing, the chicken coop would have to be completely enclosed.  That makes sense because foxes are not the only predators in the area; coyotes, raccoons and rats also like chicken or eggs.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.  At least we know they're out there.

The information in this post came from one of our favorite nonprofit wildlife preservation organizations, Project Wildlife, which helps care for and rehabilitate injured wildlife in San Diego County, and also provides education to the public on how to co-exist with wildlife.

   

Slug Trails

Slug Rampant

The slugs that damaged the potato plants a few weeks ago are not too difficult to manage.  If there are just a few, they can be picked off by hand.  If there are more, a product like Sluggo, which is biodegradable and safe to use around pets, can get rid of them.

Cindy harvested a head of lettuce the other day and found three slugs on the leaves.  Ugh.

We took those lettuce leaves out and put them under the bird feeder to provide a little treat for the ground feeder birds, especially the Brown Towhees, the Spotted Towhees and the California Thrashers.  We don't know who got the slugs, but the next morning both the slugs and the lettuce leaves were completely gone, so somebody cleaned it up for us.

One of the old traditional methods of getting rid of slugs and snails is to put some beer out in a shallow dish; the slugs crawl in, drink the beer and drown.  End of slugs.

However, we won't be using that method for two reasons:  first, we prefer to drink the beer ourselves, and second, we don't even want to think how much damage a pack of drunken California Ground Squirrels could do to the garden.

UC Integrated Pest Management Pest Notes--Slugs and Snails

Jerusalem Cricket

Jerusalem Cricket

Cindy was moving some rocks today and found a very strange looking bug under one of the rocks.

Naturally, I grabbed my camera to try to get a picture of it.

With its dark brown head and stripped body, long antennae and articulated legs, it was pretty weird looking.

It turned out to be a Jerusalem Cricket, Stenopelmatus fuscus.
They mostly eat other insects, which we would be happy to encourage, but they are also known as a Potato Bug because they occasionally feed on the roots of potatoes.

That was not good news and could explain why our potatoes haven't been doing so well lately.

Bottoms Up

Squirrel Training

Selecting His Salad

O.K., we WISH we could train the California Ground Squirrels that threaten to overrun our yard (see "Baby Boom") to eat weeds and grasses and stay away from our veggies, but we thought this little guy was making a good start.  

The baby squirrels are getting bigger every day, thanks mostly to the quantities of bird seed they are consuming, but this little one spent quite a while chewing on grasses.

I guess he likes a little variety to his diet.  That's fine as long as he sticks to weeds.

Carrots

Our Carrots

Cindy brought in an armload of carrots straight from the garden the other day.  

It seems that, whatever the item of produce, there is either nothing much or else lots and lots of it.  

We've also been waiting and waiting for the blueberries on our bushes to ripen, and now we're up to our kneecaps in blueberries.

I guess it's a good thing we both love carrots.  And blueberries.

Blueberry pancakes, yum.

Butterflies of Malaysia

Emerald Swallowtail

While we were attending a family wedding in Fort Wayne, Indiana a couple of weeks ago, we realized that the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory was a mere two blocks from the Allen County Public Library (second largest genealogy collection in the country, in case you were wondering).

Red Lacewing Landed on My Hand!

Cindy and her dad wanted to see the Botanical Garden, so I took a break from pursuing dead relatives at the library to check out the exhibit of Butterflies of Malaysia with them.

The Conservatory has put on this exhibit, which runs from mid-April to early July, for the past ten years, but this was the first chance we had to see it, and the butterflies were absolutely spectacular.

The exhibit was in a large enclosed tent inside the Conservatory, with a secure entrance and exit staffed by volunteers to make sure no butterflies hitch-hiked their way out of the enclosure.  Since these butterflies are not native to North America, the plants in the enclosure were carefully chosen to avoid plants that these species of butterflies normally choose to lay eggs on; nobody wants to encourage non-native species of caterpillars which could chew up local crops.

Great Orange Tip

Great Eggfly

Leopard Lacewing

It was a spectacular exhibit with species we would never ordinarily see, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing these beautiful butterflies.

Thanks, Foellinger-Freimann Conservatory!

Dad's Garden

Rose Irrigation System

Cindy's dad, who lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, also loves gardening.  Last year Cindy helped him install most of a drip irrigation system for his plants; although free water often falls from the sky there during the summer, they sometimes have dry spells when their plants need to be watered.

They didn't get to the roses last year, so that was this year's project, which they successfully completed in a couple of days.

Although Indiana usually gets plenty of rain, now he doesn't have to worry about hand-watering the roses when they have dry periods.

It should be a beautiful garden this year.

Periwinkle