Woolybuns

Rabbits, Ducks, And Strawberry Gardens

The summer I had a pet duck, I also had a strawberry garden. It may have been Daddy's garden but I remember it as mine (and siblings, let's allow me that, m'k?). My duck loved strawberries. She'd stick her head and that long neck through the fence and gobble up strawberries as often as she could get away with it. It was kinda funny gross to watch because she swallowed the berries whole and I could see their progress down that long neck. I'm quite fond of the memories of my duck, and also my strawberry garden.

I haven't grown strawberries since then, until this year. Daughter and granddaughter gifted me a strawberry pot so I added strawberry plants. But I failed to read up on growing strawberries in containers so I only got a few berries, lost the 1st couple to a squirrel, I think.  Only thing I had quickly available to protect the berries was an unused rabbit cage, so that's what the plants sit inside.  It worked on squirrels, but I think a bird was able to munch a bit.  Now at the end of the growing season, there are a few more berries developing, but I'm more interested in how to properly winter the plants. My big mistake this summer was not cutting off the runner plants. There are a ton of them. I hate tossing thriving plants. instead, I'm going to try to root a bunch before it's too late (anybody local want a few?).

 

This assumes, of course, that next year, I'll have a better set up for raising strawberries. I have to work on critter proofing. That's one of the 2 big reasons I didn't plant in the ground. The other is not having a raised bed. I've often pictured a strawberry garden in my back yard set up like a 3 tiered wedding cake.  I think I'd be better served with a strawberrry tower on my deck.  My mouser cat Fiona is now at the older edge of middle aged and not quite the hunter she used to be.  She likes lounging on the deck though, and generally the only rodents, other than squirrels, that show up on my deck are there because of Fiona.  They are not at all interested, let along capable, of eating my berries.  My rabbits, however, would love to get into a strawberry garden. And they are not afraid of Fiona, which could be a mistake, but in Fi's 8 years living here, she's never once gone after one of my bunnies (wild ones are a different story).  If I set up a strawberry tower on the deck, I'll have to factor in squirrels, my rabbits, and birds in the design.  Figuring it all out sounds like a good winter project to me.

Garden Friends

That would be the plants themselves.  Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved visiting with plants.  In March coming home from school, I'd stop at Mum's garden to search for 1st signs of crocuses.  Those little tips peeking out from receding snow promised months of glorious gardens ahead.  I could count on that.  I still can  in my ... ahem... maturity (not that anyone accuses me of maturity). Forsythia, too, is reliable, it's signs of imminent bloom my reminder to attack crabgrass before it germinates.   But only in the front yard.  The back yard sprouts all kinds of good bunny snacks and I don't interfere with that.  

This year, I'm continuing the Very Big Project I started a couple years ago: reclaiming my yard from the several years of neglect.  I moved a Nikko Blue Hydrangea as probably my 1st reclaiming project a couple years ago.  It had merely survived about 15 years in a spot it clearly didn't like, didn't bloom for years, and the few times it did, never gave my that lovely blue in spite of the pine needles I fed it.  Now a couple years into it's new spot it's about twice the size it was, and it not only bloomed, it bloomed blue.  It's a type of hydrangea that blooms on old wood.  We had a killing frost as buds were forming this spring so I didn't expect blooms but there they were.  And as an extra reward, this plant friend decided to gift me at summer's end with a couple extra blooms on new growth that apparently has to go back to old nodes somewhere.  And they are that lovely blue of it's name, even if my camera won't share that.  It's finally a happy plant.  

This is another hydrangea I made very happy by moving it.  I fetched it out of someone else's woods where it had been tossed because it refused to grow without water.  Sad little thing had no leaves left, but the wood was still pliable, so I figured the roots were still alive.  I took it home and tended it carefully, quite tickled when it did indeed sprout new growth and leaves.  I intended to return it as a surprise to it's rightful owners.  But ... well... life, and the plant really wasn't welcome back.  I cleared out some weeds and planted it.  And now for the 1st itme in it's life, it's blooming.  I don't know exactly which variety of hydrangea it is so I don't know it's size range nor even it's light requirements, but it's got plenty of room to grow if it wants to be big, and it gets both sun and shade, so I think it will be ok.

Another of my favorite garden friends, the Morning Glories got a slow start this year of near  drought.  They usually cover my lamp post and spill over the top.  They're more like anklets this year, though.  But they are spreading out away from the post and I can't bring myself to mow down the errant plants.  I'm thinking I might put in some lattice as a low fence to define that corner of the yard, and let the Morning Glories wander to their heart's content.  

And of course, every meander through my plants includes a visit with my Dahlias.  They've mostly come back from their traumatic experience with bugs and spray. My 2 favorites, a red spikey type and another spikey one in lovely dark lavender, both celebrated with several blooms at once.  The red currently only has one flower, but the lavender still has several, and more to come.  Two of the Dahlias have yet to bloom, though there are buds.  I failed to label the tubers last fall when I put them to bed, so I don'tk now what they will be like, but one is hinting it could be a split off the lavender Dahlia.  That would make me very happy.