A Maryland Country Garden

Fountain Frog

I bought this big fountain from Costco last year.  Put it on the deck and planted a honeysuckle in a pot next to it.  I've been cleaning it out periodically all summer but I slacked off for a while the end of August.  I was finally going to clean it when I noticed something sitting in the corner.  Do you see it?
 

Here's a closer look:

So I had a really good excuse not to clean the fountain (the pump had finally died anyway). It's been living there for at least 3 weeks and I assume is eating the mosquito larvae that most be living in those murky, green depths. I've seen it dive into the water many times. Now I'm off to look-up what kind of frog (or toad?) it is. 

Strange catbird behavior

I know this is supposed to be a gardening blog but I've gotten interested in the birds around me, and it's gardening that caused that.   This year I've been particularly noticing the catbirds.  When we first moved here, about 15 years ago, the catbird was rarely seen unless I walked to the far back of my 6 acres.  They seemed very shy compared to many of the the other bird species.  It took many years before I started to occasionally see them near the house and a few years after that before I saw them regularly.  Now, they seem almost semi-tame as they forage for insects only 5 or 6 feet away from me as I do some weeding.

Today for the first time, I noticed some rather bizarre behavior.  A catbird hopped up onto the deck railing and then onto one of our cushioned outdoor chairs and assumed this position:

It just froze this way for several minutes and then hopped away.  It has done this at least 5 times in the past few hours that I've been watching from my kitchen window.  What could possibly be the cause?  At first I thought it was injured and was about to die, but as I opened the door to get a closer look, it hopped away.  And then 15 minutes later, there is was again, in the same pathetic pose.  I've Googled in vain.

Tall Lilies

I think these are Orienpet lilies, which are a hybrid of Oriental and Trumpet lilies.  This one is a very soft yellow with ivory.  I think it came in a "collection" from White Flower Farm, so I don't have a name for it.   The scent isn't as sweet as an Oriental lily but is still rather heavy and, honestly, I'm not crazy about it.  In my experience, the tall lilies (this one is about five feet) are pretty easy to grow and don't need staking.

Mystery Seedling

Can anyone help me identify this seedling?  At first, I thought is was poison ivy but now I don't think so.  It's all over my back yard in the grassy area near the house.  I've googled but no luck.  Anyone?

Long time, no blog

I was sick for the whole month of April, just the time when I would normally be starting seeds and weeding.  And so I will have no sweet peas this summer, although it has been a perfect "English Spring" here this year: cool, rainy but also plenty of sun.  I finally got some significant weeding done in the kitchen garden and got the front garden looking decent, but there's still much to be done.  At least now I have my normal amount of energy (never terribly much) back. 

Time for Some Bird Pictures

Spring is here and pretty soon the birds will have plenty to eat even without my feeders.  So here's a look back at some of the birds I was able to photograph this past winter.

The cardinal and the white-throated sparrow:

The red-bellied woodpecker:       

The sharp-shinned hawk perched on ice-covered branches:                        

                                                                              

 

 

And a robin enjoying a bath during a mild spell:                         

And here's a close-up of the hawk:

                              

Winter's Really Here

I went out to the kitchen garden last week to have a look around and took a few photos.  The one of the dead zinnia 'profusion' plants was an interesting monochromatic study, I thought. It's a color photo but looks to be a black & white one.  Then I walked around outside of the kitchen garden and found a bunch of bittersweet berries in among the wildlife thickets that I've kept uncultivated.  I don't know if this is the native bittersweet (good) or the non-native, probably invasive Japanese type (bad).  Well, which ever one they are, they are a bit of welcome color in the winter-dead landscape.