Red eyed vireo

I was minding my own business, working on the computer when a series of bangs on the window made me jump.  A greenish bird with its mouth open perched on a nearby perennial poppy and then hit the window again.  

This behaviour is common with male birds during breeding season.  They see their own reflection and figure it's a competing male, so they fly at it to scare it away.  Imagine their puzzlement when they hit a solid invisible wall of glass!  

To prevent this behaviour, you can take a bar of soap and scribble on the outside of the window.  That will break up the reflection and stop the bird's confusion.

I just ran at the window with my arms flopping and yelled at it.  That worked too.

baby mourning doves

I was walking past the raspberry patch when I saw two little grey heads poking out from between the leaves.  Two half-grown mourning doves sitting very still.

They were almost full size, but obviously not ready to take off into the sky.  It is a very vulnerable time for the birds after they outgrow the nest and learn how to forage for themselves.  I'm sure the parents were around somewhere, gathering food for their brood.

Meanwhile, the chicks' best protection is their grey camophlage and their very slow movements.  

Mourning doves eat seeds, and like to eat from the ground or a platform, not from a feeder.  They like millet, but will eat black oil sunflower seeds too.  They are very gentle and unagressive, and are always welcome at my feeder.

bad weed: violet

25 years ago, a friendly neighbour shared with me some of her best-growing perennials.  I was delighted to recieve a clump of sweet purple violets - what's not to love?

Well, that single clump has spread throughout the garden, shading out other less thuggy plants, and now they are invading the lawn.  The secret to their success is their 2-pronged procreation.  Underneath the ground, violets produce thick clumps of underground stems called rhizomes which store water and make the plant drought resistant.  Even if all the leaves are pulled, the rhizomes grow new ones in no time.  They also produce a lot of seeds that germinate quickly.  

On top of everything, the waxy leaves have a shiny coating that make them resistant to most herbicides.   

The violets have taken over my back yard.  It is no longer possible to get ahead of them.

A clump of violets has regular-looking roots plus long horizontal corms that are very hard to pull out.

The internet says the best defence is a healthy well maintained lawn, as dense grass helps keep the roots of violets from spreading.  

Obviously, that advice is not working for me.  All I can do is attack and destroy them in the flower beds, but I will never get rid of them completely.

bad weed: lily of the valley

Lily of the valley has tremenously beautiful and fragrant flowers that bloom in early June on PEI.  

This perennial is not considered a weed because people plant it on purpose, but it sure is invasive.  

A small patch will soon produce a dense network of roots that spreads throughout the flowerbed and into the lawn, choking out any other plants in its way.  

The roots are deep in the ground and it is very hard to get rid of all of them.  Any bits left behind will re-sprout and carry on as if nothing has happened.  I have been pulling and digging the roots, but there will always be some left behind.

My advice is not to plant them in your garden.  The pretty flowers are not worth the effort of keeping them contained.

bad weed: creeping jenny

 

Many years ago, I purchased creeping jenny to add to my outdoor flower containers.  Creeping jenny is labelled as an annual, and who would not believe a plant tag?  At the end of the season, I dumped the containers into my vegetable beds.  The next spring, I was surprised to find that the creeping jenny that had spent all winter with its roots in the air was still alive.  

Foolishly, I thought this would be a great plant for my garden, so I dug up and planted bits all over.  The plants flourished so well, that they took over the flower beds, filled up every bit of open space, and got into the lawn as well.  They root from every node, which means every inch or so.  They break when you pull them, and every bit of root that stays in the soil will start a new plant.  

It is important to put the pulled plants in a plastic bag and in the garbage, not the compost, where they will happily re-root and continue their thuggish ways.

They are lovely in early summer, with bright yellow-green leaves that contrast with everything else.  But by mid summer they become crispy and ugly, but are still almost impossible to remove completely.  Herbicides don't really work - you need to be careful not to apply so much that you kill the top growth before the chemical reaches the roots.  Nothing but repeated digging gets them.  They can even survive weeks covered with a tarp, getting no light.

I still try to get them out, but they have overtaken a few of my beds, winding around perennials and covering the ground with their leaves.  In one area beside the vegetable beds, I pulled out as many as I could find, and then covered the area with plastic and then pine needles for a year.  The fight continues!