Weed of The Week – Oxalis (Wood-Sorrell)

Posted on May 9, 2013 by crittersbybritty

As you all know I am a bit of a skinflint so when it comes to plants I do so love to take advantage of the free ones that Mother Nature gifts me with. In the next couple of months I will be recommending those “weeds” (or native plants as I prefer to call them) that I enjoy and that I find do very well in my Eastern North Carolina garden.

When I first moved to this house I found a lovely patch of pink Oxalis growing in the woods at the bottom of the garden and all of the plants that now grace my landscape originated from this one plant.

This photograph was taken after a heavy rain and the flower stalks have fallen over due to the weight of the rain drops.

The plant forms bulbs underground and these can easily be divided and transplanted pretty much any time of the year. I now have plants all over the landscape, some in full shade, some in full sun and they reliably form tidy mounds of four-leaf clover like leaves with jaunty pink flower heads on delicate stalks that sit above the leaf mound.

This one is in my front flower bed underneath the living room window sharing the bed with some daylilies.

They are a very hardy perennial and remain green over the winter even under a heavy blanket of snow. Another of its delightful attributes is it does not have a narrow bloom time and will reliably bloom from Spring and all through the Summer and into the Autumn. To say that it is a carefree plant is an understatement. I have never had a problem with it doing anything other than being a little treasure and I cannot think of a single pest that pays attention to it. You can buy a version of the plant (generally white ones) and there are hybrid types with purple leaves and flowers, but I have found that these are nowhere near as vigorous as their wild cousins.

So there you go, if you happen to live in the woods and come across some pink Oxalis on your property divide it and use it all over your landscape. You will be glad you did I promise.

Well I Never!

Posted on May 5, 2013 by crittersbybritty

This weekend while I was doing some dishes I looked out of the kitchen window and saw this (warning photo taken through a very murky outside window).

A Goldfinch in full breeding plumage! I was pleasantly surprised to see him because normally the little ingrates live in my garden all winter, getting fat and happy off my birdseed, and then when it time for them to put on their Sunday clothes and get their pictures took they naff off inland to the Greenville area to breed. Obviously this little guy didn’t get the memo because he appeared to be quite happy to stick around. I am thinking that perhaps with the steady supply of food that he knows will be around he decided that there was no need to go to Summer School at ECU. I look forward to seeing more of him and the missus.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Posted on May 1, 2013 by crittersbybritty

This weekend while I was busy planting all of my recent flower purchases I lifted down one of my hanging baskets to add an additional plant. I was merrily digging down with my fingers when I noticed that something didn’t look quite right with one of the leaves in the basket. Once I put on my glasses I saw this

Cute little guy was just snuggled up in the basket minding his own business and didn’t seem to be at all bothered by my poking around in his bed sit.

As I wandered around checking out all my solar light ornaments, making sure the batteries were still working, and straightening the stakes, that sort of thing I came across another critter.

He was taking advantage of the solar panel to grab some rays and warm up his body before no doubt going on the hunt for some tasty insects.

Speaking of insects, last weekend as I was working on my containers in the driveway I noticed the cats chasing some flies which appeared out of nowhere. I turned around and looked at the stump of a long gone tree to see winged creatures just boiling out of it. As usual I did not have my camera so I ran into the house to fetch it. On my return I discovered that something else had noticed the all you can eat buffet and was taking advantage of it.

I decided to let her be and enjoy her meal so by the time I got back to the stump with my camera most of the termites had either been eaten or had flown away.

It was fascinating to watch though, especially watching the wingless worker termites patrolling the top of the stump to make sure that all of the winged new queens left the stump and didn’t attempt to return to the nest. At least the Mocking Bird got a good meal out of it, have to look on the bright side after all.

Making the Most of It

Posted on March 21, 2013 by crittersbybritty

When I walked out of the back door of the office this afternoon to go to lunch I noticed this little fella making the most of the rays of sun warming the concrete sidewalk.

He totally ignored me, probably because he was sluggish, it really wasn’t all that warm outside and I am sure that he was just enjoying what warmth he could find in the concrete. He let me take his picture with my phone and then scuttled under the trash can as I began to walk away. It is supposed to get down to 28 degrees tonight so I hope he has a good spot picked out to hunker down and keep warm.

Happy Vernal Equinox

Posted on March 20, 2013 by crittersbybritty

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is? The bird is on the wing, how absurd, the bird’s not on the wing, the wing is on the bird.

As many people are realizing Spring can be a fickle beast, while many of us here in Eastern NC seemed to think that it was already upon us as usual it taught us a lesson. It was 70 degrees one day and the following day it snowed, heavily. As it is this week, today it has been balmy and in the 60s, tomorrow night the overnight temperatures are going to get down to 28 which means I have to go out and close the door of my greenhouse lest my overwintering plants freeze. Never mind, my peas have sprouted (although it would appear that some critter has been nibbling off the tops of some of the seedlings) my carrots have sprouted (and provided that I can keep Flossie from trampling them down should do well).

In the greenhouse my lettuce seedlings are doing wonderful.

The hyacinths are still blooming although they are past their best and will soon be replaced by other spring flowers.

The Forcythia and Carolina Jessamine are right now flooding the yard with yellow and filling the air with fragrance. The birds are checking out nesting spots, the neighborhood lawn mowers are coughing into life and the Mocking Birds are finding the highest spot in the trees and screaming out a song to stake out their territory.

I have been invaded by flocks of Grackles and Cowbirds on my feeders as they stop by for a reststop on their way up North, thank goodness that they will be gone soon leaving the food for my regulars.

It is ever thus and yet come Spring every year I am filled with hope and anticipation, scanning flower beds for signs of life as I hope that my perennials are returning to me, looking puzzled as something sprouts that I truly do not remember planting, and smiling with delight as I greet each morning with a new anticipation of Mother Nature lifting herself from her winter slumber, shaking the fallen leaves from her hair, stretching her arms, and dressing herself in the gold that is Spring.

Why did the chicken cross the forest?

Posted on September 24, 2012 by crittersbybritty

Following on from my posts about the weird and wonderful things that my animals have brought home I will tell you a story about Dweebe, my long departed Chow/German Shepard Cross.

One Saturday morning, many moons ago, I was sleeping in while my husband was working his weekend job while putting himself through college. I woke and rubbed my eyes and heard, strangely enough, a gentle clucking sound coming from the corner of the bedroom. It occurred to me that a gentle clucking sound is not what I should be hearing in my bedroom on a Saturday morning. I looked over and saw Dweebe, sat in the corner of the bedroom with a live chicken in her mouth. The chicken appeared to be in no distress whatsoever and was apparently quite content to be in Dweebe’s mouth as if being in her mouth were a normal part of the chickens day, she just looked at me and clucked. “Put it down sweetpea” I said to Dweebe and she dutifully laid the chicken on the ground and I picked it up and checked it for any injuries. There were none. Apart from a little Dweebe slobber the chicken was in perfect shape and she clucked as I held her under my arm.

At this point I realized that there was a huge and gaping hole in my plan to rescue the chicken. I was naked. I knew I would have to return the chicken to the forest from whence it came but I had now put myself in the situation where I was cradling a live chicken under my arm naked. As I said, my husband was at his weekend job so I could not say to him “here sweetie hold this” while I got dressed, although to think about it can you imagine that scenario? You are happily sleeping and your spouse wakes you up, hands you a live chicken and says “hold this while I get dressed”.

I stroked the chicken’s head and pondered my predicament. I had six cats and four dogs. The idea of gently laying the chicken down and getting dressed was not really an option, the cats had already become curious and were looking at me warily from the bedroom door, the possibility of the chicken suddenly attempting to escape and flapping around the bedroom would result in a four dog, six cat, one chicken horror movie which would result in me hiding under the bed in an attempt to save myself from all of the claws and teeth and fur and feathers and heaven knows what else.

With the chicken tucked firmly under my arm I picked out my clothes, jeans, long socks, a sweatshirt, boots for I knew where I would be going to return the chicken. My subdivision was built on the edge of a large swamp. Several years prior someone (I am assuming a marine as they are the most transient in this area) thought it would be a good idea to keep chickens and turkeys in their back yard. They moved on and they left the chickens and turkeys to fend for themselves in the swamp. I would be woken on regular mornings by the Cockerel crowing and it was obvious that the chickens had formed quite the colony in the swamp.

It took me almost thirty minutes to get dressed as I swapped the chicken from one arm to the other while I pushed my legs into jeans and my arms into a sweatshirt. She clucked occasionally, but seemed content and she perked up as I left the house. I wandered out to the garden and closed the gate behind me so Dweebe could not follow me. The cats however were not so constrained by silly things like gates and I walked down into the swamp Pied Piper like followed by a procession of cats wondering what I was about to do.The further I got into the swamp the less cats followed me, it of course involved wet feet, and as we all know the one thing cats hate is wet feet.

I pushed through the swamp and eventually came to the clearing where the chickens were living. There were some in the low branches of the trees, some scratching about on the swamp floor, and they looked at me warily as I entered their domain. I gently set the chicken down and she quickly fluttered her wings and landed on a low branch next to another chicken. She began clucking and no doubt telling her fellow chicken what had happened to her. As I turned and walked back to the house followed by the last of the cats I could hear the conversation. “Well you would not believe what happened to me this morning” Other chicken “what was that dear?” “well I was just minding my own business then suddenly I was in this dogs mouth” “ooooooooh do tell”.

So that happened

Posted on September 23, 2012 by crittersbybritty

This morning I couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to get up and watch the Dr. Who episode from last night. As I sat there with my tea, scrolling through the DVR menu to find it, a tree frog hopped left to right, in front of me across the living room floor heading for the love seat. Sensing a moment of “eek” in my future when I would no doubt find said frog, dead and dessicated, the next time I vacuumed under the love seat I set out after it and managed to cup it in my hands and release it onto the Canna by the pond outside.

This afternoon, as I was taking a tea break by the computer, Pootle (one of my cats) shot in through the cat door with “something” in his mouth, which he promptly lost under the piano. He poked away at various parts of the piano and the bookcase by which it sits for about five minutes, until he gave up finding his prize and zipped back through the cat door to no doubt go and find another “something” to play with. I took a flash light and decided to look for the “something” (hoping it was something harmless such as a lizard or perhaps another frog) but despite my best effort could find no trace of Pootle’s “something”.

My Mother arrives for a visit in three days. I sense an “eek” moment in her future, although considering that in the past my various and sundry animals have brought so many weird and wonderful things into the house she should be used to it by now. Still I must remember to warn her.

You have to look with better eyes than that

Posted on September 16, 2012 by crittersbybritty

I have not blogged recently, simply because I have had nothing to blog about. I have not felt like going outside other than for the task of hanging out laundry. This is unusual for me, normally I would hurry through my household chores so I could spend time outside with my camera and catch up on what nature was up to in my yard. Recently though my heart was just not in it, I could not see the point in it. I busied myself with work indoors and left my camera on the computer center neglected. It was almost as if, with his few last breaths, Cueball had hungrily eaten up all of the beauty in the world and taken it all with him. He had not of course, life was going on as always without him.

No, beauty never went anywhere. What Cueball had taken with him as he lolloped across the Rainbow Bridge, on the way to his undoubtedly joyous reunion with Judy, was my ability to see it. Raw, swollen, tear-stained eyes are not the vehicles fit to transport images of beauty to the centers of the brain that can fully appreciate them. But, as the tears subsided and the swelling went down, tiny flickers of beauty occasionally filtered through, but my brain, still burdened with its grief, blocked them like so many invading hordes. It felt somehow unseemly, as if taking any joy in the smallest of things would be an insult to his memory.

Today though, as I was hanging out my laundry, I glanced at the bird bath and smiled when I remembered the day that Cueball zigged when he should have zagged while chasing Judy around the garden and hit the birdbath head on. While the concrete bowl went one way and the concrete base went the other, Cueball was no worse for wear and simply looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face “what?” he appeared to ask “did I hit something?” . The smile turned into a laugh and slowly, like an early morning fog lifting as the sun rises, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a baby lizard, no doubt this year’s clutch, learning the fine art of hunting on the Sweet Autumn Clematis.

I finished hanging out my laundry and went into the house to retrieve my camera, wondering what else I might have missed while my vision was impaired. The first thing I noticed was the Dahlias that I planted this spring are now blooming, and yet I had completely failed to notice.

The Beauty Berry bush, a gift from the birds years ago, had flowered and was now covered in a glorious show of purple berries.

The Caladium, again that had been planted in the Spring, were putting on an incredible show in the shady area between the rose arbor and the vegetable garden.

Most important though, there were butterflies everywhere.

I felt as though I had awakened from a deep and unending sleep, eyes closed tight shut, unable to rouse from the darkness of misery. As I stood there, in the middle of the patio, watching all the life go on around me, I realized that no matter how deep and dark some moments seem, they are never so deep that you cannot crawl out the other side, where there had been tears, there would once again be smiles, and where there had once been gloom, there would again one day be sunshine, and lizards, and butterflies, and laughter.

Did I ever tell you about the time Cueball ate the bathroom?

You just might be a wildlife nut if…

Posted on July 22, 2012 by crittersbybritty

You plant things or allow them to grow based upon their usefulness to wildlife whether or not they are pretty (see Poke Weed).
You actually go out and buy things, (see Fennel and Dill) knowing that they are going to be eaten by caterpillars, and should you find yourself running out of the said food source you actually go out and buy more and happily tell the sales clerk “it is for the caterpillars”.
You don’t mind the odd aphid knowing that it is food for the Lady Bugs and their offspring.
You get really agitated when you see a dead squirrel, possum, raccoon, deer on the side of the road cursing under your breath “I would have BRAKED for that”.
You stop your car and move turtles and tortoises out of the road no matter how ticked off they (and other drivers) are about it.
You believe “first do no harm” is the best way to deal with critters and weeds in your yard.
You find joy in the smallest of insects and marvel at why Mother Nature decided to create them.

Finally, you wake up every morning wondering what marvels you will find in your yard that day, what joyous new discovery, what baby this or baby that, what new seedling, what new bird, what new bloom, what new bug. When you are a Wildlife Nut, a yard is a Safari, and every day is a new day.

Host Plants

Posted on July 9, 2012 by crittersbybritty

While many people think of planting flowers that will provide food for butterflies and other pollinators they tend to forget about the most important plants, those that provide food for the caterpillars of the species.

I love my Wisteria, not only because it is beautiful and fragrant in the Spring when it blooms but also because it is the host plant of the Silver Spotted Skipper butterfly. Yes, it means that it gets tatty and chewed this time of year but if it means the next generation of Silver Spotted Skippers is guaranteed then I am happy to have the chewed look. Today I wandered out there and noticed the tell-tale signs of the small tents that the caterpillars create to shelter in during the time that they are not feeding.

The Caterpillars weave two leaves together and then use it to hide from predators while they are not actively feeding. While I was taking this shot, I noticed a female laying eggs on the leaves of the trumpet vine and Japanese privet right next to the Wisteria. Apparently Mom like her kids to find their food and does not actually lay her eggs on the Wisteria but lays them close by.

The other common host plant is any member of the parsley family. These include parsley, cilantro, dill, fennel, carrots, and the common weed Queen Anne’s Lace. The Black Swallowtail butterfly uses these plants to raise her young. For me these have been the most reliable of host plants, and ones that have provided the most opportunities to follow the cycle from the egg to the chrysalis to the birth of the butterfly. Right now I have caterpillars on my fennel and after having chomped down most of the plants in the pot I was able to move another pot of Bronze Fennel from the garden area to the patio to make sure that my boys do not run out of food.

For an example of that please go here

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v641/MsNick40/Butterfly%20Birth/?start=40

For some reason photobucket would not allow me to post the pictures in the right order so you have to start from the end and go backwards. It is worth it.

I have several Tulip Poplars on my property and they are known for being the host plant of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I have only ever seen one caterpillar on my trees, but that is mainly due to the fact that the canopy of these trees tend to be up to twenty feet above ground, and as such I have no hope of taking any shots of the caterpillars. When my husband was clearing out the brush at the back of our property he gave me a can of spray paint and told me to mark all of the seedlings that I wanted kept. I can guarantee you I sprayed all of the Tulip Poplar seedlings.

Canna, as well as being tough, tolerant of abuse, and completely impossible to kill, are also the host plant for the Brazilian Skipper. During my 20 years here in NC I have only once been able to photograph a newly hatched Brazilian Skipper and it was quite simply a joy. Unfortunately it was a long time ago and before the time that I could save the shot on line.

Another plant that is easy to grow and utterly beautiful is Passion Flower. Not only is the flower absolutely gorgeous, but it’s fruits can be used for jams and jellies, its most important use though is that it is the host plant for the Varigated Fritilliary butterfly.

Milkweed is well known for being the host plant of the Monarch Butterfly, and anyone who can get a hold of the plants should put some in their landscape. I attempted to raise some from saved seed this winter but unfortunately, for whatever reason, my collected seeds did not germinate. Recent losses of migrating flocks of Monarchs in Mexico makes it all the more critical that we raise the next generation here in the US. Unfortunately Milkweed (or Butterfly Weed) plants are not readily available in garden centers or the big box stores. However, like everything, if we bug them often enough, garden centers and big box stores WILL stock something that people want to buy. So go out and lobby your local garden centers, tell them you WANT Butterfly Weed plants for your garden. Together we can do our bit to repopulate the Monarchs.

crittersbybritty

That dotty old English Woman down the street that talks to her plants and cats

Category Archives: Wildlife