Thank Heaven for Volunteers!

My woodland path that runs from one side of my yard around to the porch on the other side is a "work in progress".
Oh my, yes.
Much more progress needs to be made on this piece of construction.
It looks sort of lost - not really knowing where it's going, or just how to get there.

Perhaps some edging would keep that gravel going in the right direction.
Now if I can just find something easy to install, and cheap. It needs to fit in with the rest of the path and, most important, and to fit into a plastic bucket so that it can be carried from the front drive down to the back. This yard is NOT accessible by wheelbarrow.
I'll keep looking for that perfect solution, and in the meantime, the bracken ferns will cover a lot of unfinished business.

Yes, Thank Heavens for Volunteers!

BUZZ, BUzz, buzz...

Thank heavens the wildlife in my front yard is much smaller!
They're busy working those azaleas and rhodos for all they're worth, but I'm not sure who they all are. I recognize the regulars - bumblebees, wasps, black flies. This year, however, there's a new guy in town. He (she?) looks the size of a bumblebee, is just as furry, but has different colours. The head is light brown, the thorax black, but end section of the abdomen is orangey-brown. I don't think he's a mason bee, though we did build a small hotel for the masons out back. So I'm calling him (her) my "orangey-bum bee" until I find a proper name.
This picture (you can just see him in the middle) doesn't show him well, as my little digital camera cannot get close enough without alarming him. I thought about trying to catch him in a jar, then cool him off in the fridge, as suggested on some sites as the best way to photograph small insects. Decided not to - after all, he is working.
If my drawing skills were better, I would try to sketch him. I greatly admire the skills of Valerie Littlewood, who shares her fantastic pictures of bees and flowers on her blog "Pencil & Leaf". I have been checking out her bees pics at pencilandleaf.blogspot.com/
As she is based in Florida, I have not found a match for my little worker.
I also checked the Xerces Society site,www.xerces.org/bees/, as they have lots of info about bees, but couldn't find a match.
I'll keep looking, and watching these little guys, and leaving them bee.

Three days ago, I was standing at the kitchen window, checking on those salmonberries and enjoying my morning coffee, when I spotted something odd on the ground by the dry creek.
"Who's been throwing pieces of wood in my yard?" I wondered. Surely my neighbours wouldn't have done this - they like our wild space. So after breakfast, I trekked back along the creek to see what was happening.

Looking up at the tree, just one side of my birdhouse was still attached. That pile of wood down on the ground was the rest of it, obviously pulled apart by some very strong animal with sharp claws who climbs well! Those scratches were six feet off the ground.
Looks like the local black bear has returned for the summer. We'd not seen any sign of him since early spring, and were hoping he'd moved to a neighbourhood with better garbage. No luck.
Those scratches were really deep. But we didn't hear him (I'm assuming it was a male, though three years ago the resident bear was a female with two cubs) when he took that birdhouse apart.
Not a sound.


There were no birds in the house, so I'm not sure why he destroyed it.
The winter berries have fed the birds, and the summer berries will be a while yet, so there's not much in the way of easy food here.

If it wasn't a bear, what creature made these deep gashes?

If it it Mr. Black Bear, I'm glad I left that hole in the hedge so that we can duck through and cross the neighbour's yard to get to the street.
Our evening 'glass on the patio' may be quite exciting this summer!

How To Love A Stump

In the "Back 40", we have a section that lives under a building restriction. We cannot build anything in this space, nor change anything that's there. It's part a set-back for the creek that is at the bottom of the ravine behind our property. When we bought the lot, years ago, we knew there was a creek down there, but didn't realize that the set-back area crossed on to the back corner of our lot.
Last year, as I developed the landscape plan for the back, I went down to visit the city hall to check on the back boundary. That's when the fun began.
I spoke to a cute young engineer at the permits desk, and he looked more and more puzzled as he searched out the maps for this hill. Then he read off the restrictions on this set-back to me:
No sidewalks, sheds, fences or structures of any kind.
No planting of trees, shrubs or gardens.

So I started asking questions.
Can I plant a vegetable garden?.....No.
Can I clean out the weeds and blackberry vines?.....No.
Can I prune down the tall Salmonberry bushes to let some light into
my yard?.....No.
Can I dig out the stumps?.....No.

Now this young whipper-snapper had my back up!
Neither he, nor those silly rules were going to get in the way of my redesign of the back 40! So I thanked him politely for searching up all that information for me, and marched out of the building.

After some weeks working on the plans, and several conversations with a city planner in a neighbouring municipality, I decided that I would go "half-way", that is , I would not try to clear and plant this strip pf land, but quietly "manicure" it into a transition area between my garden and the wild forest along the ravine.
And so the fun started - pulling out the blackberry vine that strayed close to my garden (I have the scars to show you), and quietly chopping back the Salmonberry bushes, one by one, with my heavy duty loppers. I pulled weeds, and quietly relocated several 2-3 foot cedars to the back property line. I tidied up several nice sword ferns, and gave them some plant food. Now there's some sun getting into my yard, and the stumps, all 7 of them are partly visible above the green. Some of these are just ordinary short ends of the trees that have fallen in storms, but 2 of them are old. Really old for this area of Coquitlam , anyway. They're 3 - 4 feet across, and 5 or more feet high. I'm guessing at the exact height as I cannot get close enough to measure with a tape - the undergrowth is that thick. These guys must have been cut way back, when this area was first logged in the early 1900's. They are ragged and black, but have not rotted away. One has a red huckleberry bush growing from the top. The other old giant has a cedar tree growing from the side that has been pushed over, and which now grows upward in a gentle arc.

With a little care and a few lucky finds at the upcoming plants sales in my neighbourhood, perhaps My stumps will look as good as the one at the beginning of this post. That one is not mine, but lives in a provincial park just around the mountain from me, next to a cold little lake. Nature has planted it up wonderfully. It's going to take some work to match her!

Bring on the Hummers!

Marion says her hummers always come on March 19th. So Bob put the feeder out in the second week of March, just to be ready for them. It was, after all, a very warm winter, and the Back Forty has stared to grow a couple a weeks earlier than usual. The red current bushes were in bloom (I was told hummers like these flowers), and the Pieris in the front yard were showing off long white plumes. So we waited, and watched. And finally - there he was. A tiny Rufus hummingbird on or about the 21st of March. We watched as he checked out the feeder, and the other birds that were close to his space. He was very nervous each time we approached the window, but he was drinking. Next day, no sign of him. Then bad weather - cold nights and blowing rain, not a pleasant welcome for the little guy. He's still here (the male), and very occasionally we see the female. But neither will stay long enough for one of us to get the camera, and sneak up to the window for a photo. We're still very happy to see them!

What To Do With A Fallen Hemlock?

At the very back of our lot, we have this fallen giant. It died shortly after we finished building, and we thought the cause was "Global Warming" - the 90's were hotter and drier in this area that the previous decade had been. After some research, and many conversations with local tree people, I have come to the conclusion that the sewer lines that were dug across the back of this lot (when the area was subdivided) were more likely to be the cause of its premature death, as that digging damaged its roots. Now that it has become a Nurse Log, I'm trying to find ways to work it into my landscape plan - if you live in my yard, you work!
It is growing neat mushrooms, and the squirrels love to use it as a highway to the wild, but I've come up with a different job for that giant (it was 45 ft.+). That log is going to hold up the back of my lasagna garden. There's lot of sticks , leaves, worn-out soil, shredded paper (tax time) and compost to build the layers, and then I can plant some sun loving perennials and shrubs to hide that neighbour's shed and deter those hungry deer. I'll post a picture of the finished bed, before it's planted. Right now, while it is in process, it looks disgusting.

I Think It Might Be Spring!!

What a difference a year makes! I cannot believe the temperatures out there 9, or 10 degrees in the daytime.This is far too warm for January/February. The sedums are poking up their green sprouts, and the roses have tiny purple leaves on the tips of their branches. Now I must do something drastic about those deer!

Last August, my roses were just looking their best ( I had planted 3 new bushes in the Spring ), when those pesky deer found their little corner, and chomped off all the blooms and most of the leaves as well. I know that they're hungry - after all that doe was raising 2 fawns, but there's lots of other stuff that is just as tasty! I've never been able to understand why they don't eat all those lovely lawns on this cul-de-sac. The neighbours spend hours cutting, and watering them, and the deer just avoid them. Is it the stuff they spray on the grass? Or the variety of grass types used? Perhaps those pesky deer know something about REAL food.
Hmmm....

But I just wanted a Birdhouse!

In the middle of my back yard, where that massive New Years storm blew down 3 trees several years ago, there is a new open space, just looking for something to move in.
The Salmonberries saw the opportunity, and moved fast. There used to be
about 6 smallish bushes, spread around the edges of the back 40. Now that the space has opened to the sunlight, there must be 20 - 30 of those suckers! And they're 7-8 feet tall now.
I cut them back in the spring, to about 3-4 feet, hoping to clear a space around the tree stumps left from the blow downs.

"That would make a great bird bath" I thought.
"There's room on that taller stump for a bird house, next to the bath."
"What more could a bird family need?"

So I asked my hard working hubby to build me a bird house. We had 2 wooden pallets left over from the concrete stepping stones that had been off loaded onto the front drive. There was lots of wood in those pallets, & making a bird house would be better use of it than dumping them for fire wood.

The sawing and hammering started in the garage. Designs were drawn on shingles, and cardboard. The sound of drilling drowned out the crows in the back yard. Then, requests for picking paint colours came across my desk.

The final product was nailed into its place of honour on the large stump 2 weeks ago.
No, we will not be hanging out a "$2.50 a night" sign. This is a better neighbourhood than that!

Progress!

Been a long time since I was here, but there's a good reason:
we've been working!
But we have got a lot finished in the Back 40:
* The patio area is finished, planted and best of
all - we have a water feature!
* The gravel path along the back of the house now has
stepping stones all the way to the corner by the Veggie
Planter!
It was a joy to sit out on the patio in those warm
evenings at the end of August, with just the light from the
candles in the lanterns, listening the the snaps and
crunches in the bush behind the yard.
(Is that a footstep? No, just the wind).

This work has finally produced the result that I'd hoped
for - to make our back yard ("The Back Forty")
pleasant enough to really use. At long last.

Who Needs Water?

It's been two weeks since my last blog, and by gosh, things are moving along!
The hedge is planted. The dry creek now flows from the stone wall Falls through to the steps, and is pushing toward the Green Belt. My Japanese ferns have found a shady space to tuck in (finally), but the poor Hostas have had another visit from the local deer. They're looking rather ratty. They'll recover, but I really must find something to deter those nibblers. Perhaps some hot red pepper flakes, sprayed onto the leaves of those poor Hostas.
Deer are not the only visitors to my garden, but they are the most destructive. Two days ago, just as we were sitting down to supper, we hard a loud crunching in the back yard. Thinking something had fallen, I rushed out and found a juvenile (about 1-2 years) black bear tearing up a fallen log at the back of the yard. Guess he was looking for his dinner-he had that log apart in minutes, and then silently walked back in the bush. Bob got a quick, but blurry picture (it was getting dark in that corner). Our first bear this year!

My How Time Flies!

Dog and I gave been busy in the Back Forty, starting that garden reno.
I hadn't realized how long it's been since I posted, but checking back, it's been 6 weeks.
Goodness!
Six weeks of very good weather has allowed us to make major changes to the North Garden.
First, the patio got built. This was the easy part-hired a neat contractor-got it done in
one afternoon. Very glad we did, too.
After much measuring, pricing, and research, we realized that we didn't have the tools,
or the backs to move and install that stone.
Next, the hedge. After poking around along the property line, the numerous stones and
Alder roots convinced us that we wouldn't be able to dig down to plant cedars, so we decided
to dig "up". Those bright green hedging cedars got planted in chimney flue tiles, lined up along the edge of the garden. The neighbours kept peeking around the corner ("what are those crazy people up to now?").
It was heavy work-hauling each tile (~ 30 pounds) and each cedar (5-6 feet tall) around from the front drive to the back of the yard, balanced on a dolly. There were 16 of each in all, but they all made it.
The best part- this narrow strip of land, 8 feet wide and 40 feet long, suddenly had real space.
Now- time to order the rocks.

Who's Been Walking in My Yard?

Advantage of all that snow-I have a record of who has been walking in my Back Forty. Throughout this last winter there were squirrel & deer tracks, many sizes of bird "shoes" and one morning a solitary track from a coyote traipsing across the front drive! (You can just make out the tracks coming up the slope from the Green Belt and through to the drive).
Since this last winter was colder than any during the last three or four decades, and the snow fall (4 feet by mid-March) three times what we usually get, I was surprised to see that many animals out and about.
Our bird feeder was busy with tiny chickadees, finches and other birds that we hadn't seen in previous winters. Snow shoveling was a twice daily chore, so it was easy to sympathize with all those visitors. Watching them reinforced the need to design this back garden to welcome the resident animals, not attempt fence them out. Tiny chickadees are easy to welcome, but black squirrels and deer not so easy. Fences will not slow them down either.
The bears- a mother and her three cubs- that we enjoyed watching as they strolled along the back of our lot, and climbed over the neighbours fence will not be a feature this year. That is a sad tale for another post, but bears must be part of this plan.
I can see that I will need to plan for winter food for these creatures, along with plants that will provide snacks through all the seasons.
A challenge!

My Goodness! What The Snow Reveals.

Welcome to my tale about the wilderness in my back yard.

We had been ignoring this space (No ones goes there/ You can't see it from the front street/ The squirrels and bears do like it), but a long winter of snow - 4 feet! - showed the emptiness back there, just trees, sad bushes and bark mulch. Time to make a right turn and create a space the everyone, including me, will want to enjoy.

First step: learn about garden design and native plants.
My yard lives in zone 7/8, half-way up a mountain in a West Coast rain forest. It slopes down into a greenbelt with a small creek at the bottom. Lots of tall cedars and hemlocks live in the greenbelt, but my yard has mostly Salal, Red Alders, some small skinny cedars and lots of 6 foot tall Salmonberry bushes. And 7 stumps.
This is going to be trickier than I thought!