Garden Siren Call

Use a rain gauge to track rainwater in the garden  In a 10 day period of late August through early September, we received more than 14 inches of rain on our gardens at home. Fourteen inches! Yikes! Luckily, the plants are mainly in well-drained areas, crafted for the past 25 years. I carted away the heavy clay soil left during the (1992-93) home construction process and started with fresh, black dirt. I also add a number of soil amendments every year. But this year, garden work has been a little different: I'm home full-time and work outdoors in nice weather almost every day. On rainy days, I track the amount of rain we receive. Scott County got a lot of rain early in September but it's toned down a bit since. For example, we received 2 inches last week. Experts say Autumn is a really good time to sustain gardens. Some hardy perennials can be planted (think Autumn sedum, or mums); the nights are fairly cool and the days are still nicely warm. We also get rain ...

Blog for Garden; 9/5/18 A hummingbird eating nectar off our deck; Steve Baker took this terrific photo with his cellphone. For the last few weeks husband Steve and I have especially enjoyed the antics of local ruby-throated hummingbirds. I keep a hummingbird feeder on the back deck, and there is an evergreen tree as well as a weeping mulberry tree near the feeder. Luckily, we get hummingbirds in May and they usually leave us around the last week of September. This year, they stayed until Oct. 4, or so; I kept telling them: "Fly South, little hammers!" On advice from the folks at Wild Birds Unlimited (Davenport.wbu.com), we keep up the feeders for two more weeks in case any stragglers fly by. On Oct. 16, this year, I went out to remove the feeder and was stunned when a female hummer flew up and looked at me in great surprise -- she was feeding on the nectar and I couldn't see her. I quickly cleaned and refilled it. Don't give up on these little birds! T...