Lovely! The dahlias and 2 gerbera daisies have come back so far, and I'm waiting for the jasmine to bloom here. How to you keep the squirrels from digging up your tulips for snacks?
The only way I know how--by giving them a few hundred other things to dig up so they wear out before it's all gone.
Actually we've had very little problem with squirrels and bulbs; little nibble here or there, and one or two bad seasons. Hard to protect a moss garden from nest-building birds, though, and the raccoons have a particular affinity for my Poor Wife's collection of plastic animals, which they enjoy dragging around just to be funny.
This is really quite lovely, and I regret that I can't photographically reciprocate. We had a trough of some sort of plant life on the balcony for a while, but it seems to have committed a sort of Jonestown-style mass suicide.
The only thing I've ever succeeded in growing is fungus in a coffee cup, and even then I need to be out of town for it to really bloom...
I think you may be correct on the greggii; I've got some of the exact same bulbs - they multiply and spread nicely.
Squirrels? Meh. Try having elk (Wapiti for the properly educated biologist) tromping about in your backyard, plus their buddies the ravenous deer. The backyard fronts to open space, so anything the elk or deer munch out there gets moved to the front yard, where they are much less likely to do a midnight raid (too many cars, no cover). The main risk now is their large hooves detaching portions of the drip irrigation system (also known as "tinker toys for obsessive adults. Oh, and tulips are elk/deer candy; daffodils not so much.
Word to the wise: if you have deer, then you have mountain lions; you just don't know it. At least this is true here in Colorado. Fun fact: the first Denver-area suburban yappy dog to get eaten by a mountain lion after their population rebounded was a poodle. Named Fifi.
Wow, an on-purpose moss garden! I don't think I've ever seen or heard of such before. My congrats, it's lovely.
I'm in suburban NJ, where we have deer in plenty and as yet no pumas. I planted some species tulipams (jolly li'l fire-engine red numbers, don't recall their name) fall before last... and got to see their blooms for one (count it, one) day before some beast or other came along and nip, nip, neatly as if done with surgical scissors. It was just the flowers, the foliage didn't interest whoever it was. The neighbors commiserated - these tulips were right where anyone going by could appreciate their cheerful color,and they were sorry to see them disappear. But this spring, there they are again, unfazed. The tulips, not the neighbors.
Biological nature is not that predictable.
Raccoons do have an excellent collective sense of humor, though.
And maybe your top deer predator is the ever adaptable coyote. Or the automobile. Both are tough on deer, but neither have that scare du wildlife that puma does when you're out hiking by yourself.
Those tulips are tulipa tarda. They're a native type of tulip, closer to the original than the hybridized varieties we get now (since the seventeenth century, any way).
Lovely! The dahlias and 2 gerbera daisies have come back so far, and I'm waiting for the jasmine to bloom here. How to you keep the squirrels from digging up your tulips for snacks?
ReplyDeleteThe only way I know how--by giving them a few hundred other things to dig up so they wear out before it's all gone.
ReplyDeleteActually we've had very little problem with squirrels and bulbs; little nibble here or there, and one or two bad seasons. Hard to protect a moss garden from nest-building birds, though, and the raccoons have a particular affinity for my Poor Wife's collection of plastic animals, which they enjoy dragging around just to be funny.
This is really quite lovely, and I regret that I can't photographically reciprocate. We had a trough of some sort of plant life on the balcony for a while, but it seems to have committed a sort of Jonestown-style mass suicide.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I've ever succeeded in growing is fungus in a coffee cup, and even then I need to be out of town for it to really bloom...
Sound advice about the purchase of mulch.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be correct on the greggii; I've got some of the exact same bulbs - they multiply and spread nicely.
ReplyDeleteSquirrels? Meh. Try having elk (Wapiti for the properly educated biologist) tromping about in your backyard, plus their buddies the ravenous deer. The backyard fronts to open space, so anything the elk or deer munch out there gets moved to the front yard, where they are much less likely to do a midnight raid (too many cars, no cover). The main risk now is their large hooves detaching portions of the drip irrigation system (also known as "tinker toys for obsessive adults. Oh, and tulips are elk/deer candy; daffodils not so much.
Word to the wise: if you have deer, then you have mountain lions; you just don't know it. At least this is true here in Colorado. Fun fact: the first Denver-area suburban yappy dog to get eaten by a mountain lion after their population rebounded was a poodle. Named Fifi.
Wow, an on-purpose moss garden! I don't think I've ever seen or heard of such before. My congrats, it's lovely.
ReplyDeleteI'm in suburban NJ, where we have deer in plenty and as yet no pumas. I planted some species tulipams (jolly li'l fire-engine red numbers, don't recall their name) fall before last... and got to see their blooms for one (count it, one) day before some beast or other came along and nip, nip, neatly as if done with surgical scissors. It was just the flowers, the foliage didn't interest whoever it was. The neighbors commiserated - these tulips were right where anyone going by could appreciate their cheerful color,and they were sorry to see them disappear. But this spring, there they are again, unfazed. The tulips, not the neighbors.
Biological nature is not that predictable.
Raccoons do have an excellent collective sense of humor, though.
Li'l Innocent
Nip, nip, nip = deer. Guaranteed.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe your top deer predator is the ever adaptable coyote. Or the automobile. Both are tough on deer, but neither have that scare du wildlife that puma does when you're out hiking by yourself.
Those tulips are tulipa tarda. They're a native type of tulip, closer to the original than the hybridized varieties we get now (since the seventeenth century, any way).
ReplyDelete