Birds at the Garden Centre

We have a large variety of birds here at the garden centre, everything from Canada geese to tiny Wrens.  They all return each year with a joyful song and some very entertaining antics as they settle into their various domestic routines.  Some such as the chickadees and finches have spent the winter enjoying the bountiful bird feeders we provide.  This past winter I was delighted by a Downy woodpecker that hung upside down on the suet feeder to eat while the chickadees swooped in and out of the feeders around him.

This place is an ideal environment for them to inhabit.  We have water, lots of trees & shrubs for them to find cover in and we feed them.  They reward us by keeping a lot of insects off the plants, and singing for their supper.
This spring I watched a pair of Wrens take up residence in one of the birdhouses outside my office door.  What wonderful singers, every morning and evening.  We could not sell the birdhouse till the babies flew away.  I was very sad when I realized they were gone one morning.  We sold their house and I worried they were looking for it but one day there they were singing the morning song and now there are five not two.

Sometimes it is a little worrisome because the Canada geese and their babies live on the path to the office, the blackbirds nest in the spruce in the tree lot and the Robin’s live by the perennials.  Mum and dad goose hiss and flap their wings as we make our way to the office to turn in paper work.  The blackbirds swoop on us and customers if we get to close to their nests in the spruce – we warn people not to linger but it can be very hard to sell the spruces while they do the swooping thing.  The Robins are not too bad except when the babies are learning to fly so I don’t worry very much.
Right now the chickadees are a little frenzied in their flights to and from the feeders but so much fun to watch – I must remember to duck in the morning as I walk in the door.

Weeding is a full time project in my garden.  It seems that little else is ever done.  In my weekly weeding marathon my mind started to wander a little (as it often does). 
I have a dandelion in my yard that has been coming back so often that I named it.  When I first named him, I called him George.  The thing grows in a crack in the pavement.  He got so big that year I thought I would have to take a chainsaw to him.  I do not use weed killers because of the dog.  She has to sniff everything that is in her domain and George lives in the main part of it.

The long and the short of it is that now I am on George the 6th so now I call him King George.  This would not really be so bad but now the family has moved in and believe me they are a large and varied group.  One of the more persistent relatives is the Duchess.  A quite stubborn old thistle that seems to have a charmed life.  I have weed whacked her, yanked her out by the roots and yet she persists and has shown up in the adjacent sidewalk crack for 2 years.  I have tried spring seedling weeding, summer weed whacking and in the fall I try to be very thorough in my pulling.  Each fall I think there you all go this time.  Yet every spring with the daffodils comes King George and the relatives.

Is it true that one person’s weeds are another’s flowers I ask myself?

Now is the best time.....how would  you finish that sentence?  Is it the best time of your life?  I was going to finish the sentence with the best time to plant – and if you are like me this is a good time.
The late blooming perennials are bursting into flower and calling out to me.  The sunflowers grouped at the front door give me a smile every morning as I open the door.  I study the vista of early morning in the shrub lot.  The rich tapestry of blooms and green catches me every morning with the thought; I could plant one of each in my garden.  Of course I cannot – there is no room and some are not suitable, etc.....Such are the ambitions of a gardener.
The hardy Mums came in this week.  The deep red, rich yellow and peach flowers entice me into yet more planting.  Sometimes I put them in containers with ornamental kale, pansies, and ivies.  Sometimes I just put them all by themselves in a pot on the porch.  They flower into October and are a highlight of the Fall on my front porch. 
There are so many things still to do in the garden at this point in the year but I always find one or two more plants to plant.....  How about you......

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” - Anais Nin

8:15 – Dewinton

I am just passing the 40kmh marker into the hamlet. The light is that lovely golden tone and the sky is true Alberta blue with a small wisp of white cloud disappearing on the western horizon. The cows are parading across the hill on the way to the daytime place they like to graze. The guard donkey is in the middle of the parade and the calves are kicking up their heels and trotting circles around their elders.

I arrive at the garden center and spend a few minutes watching Trevor (one of the crew supervisors) loading for his day. He is full of energy (and a terrific jokester). Watching him planning for what the day will bring is interesting. Much consulting of drawings and lists goes on in the early morning. Trevor creates the waterfalls and ponds in most of our landscape projects. It is always interesting to watch as his crew load the trucks with the rocks and pieces necessary to complete these projects. Then they load the machinery and tools, gather their lunches, and drinks and they head out.

The irrigation is on the shrubs and Arturo is watering the perennials. Hobbes (the cat) greets me in the parking lot and tells me about his night on guard duty. Sometimes there is a dead mouse at my office door or by the cash desk and he really shows off. He nags for a treat and then he is off to sun himself and sleep the day away. Another promising day begins.