Who are your garden helpers?

Ginger,
This is a head up for you. I was told that Trillium are a protected species and are not suppose to be dug or transplanted. I could be way off base but just thought I would pass that on. Please if I am wrong someone let me know so I can do the same. I have seen some really nice ones on some of my walks but hesitated due to that warning.
LMK
Jan

Well.. then I'm not telling you my bosses name.....

Ginger

I do believe I've heard that. I think it's specific native trilliums in specific areas.

But I'm not sure that it applies to personal property. How could they prevent you from picking them on your own property?

Then again, they can fine you if your ivy is out of control on your own property, so maybe the rules do extend that far . . .

Ginger, your boss might want to know that so he can make sure the plants on his property aren't getting picked by anybody else . . .

Really, I wasn't being mean, it is just something I heard and thought I would pass it on. Of course though, if its on your property that is a different story, isn't it. Heheh
It's not like I have never snipped or pinched a cutting here or there before when no one was looking. Whoops.
You are probably right katie, the native trilliums are probably the ones that who ever they are, were speaking of.
Jan

LOL... I was teasing you Gourd....I'll let him know about the Trillium.

Today I should list him (boss) as my favorite garden help as I got a big fat bonus.

PLanning some shopping tomorrow and hubby has his new garden tractor in the bed of the truck so tomorrow he can start working the new garden areas...

Ginger

I didn't think you were being mean - I've always wondered that. If you have property that has the endangered plant, do rules about it apply to you? I, too, had heard about Trilliums being protected.

How would you know what are natives and what was planted?

Good point!! It must be that if it's in a wild area and it's something that you can't buy . . .

Well, we have seen furred and feathered garden helpers, but my favorite one in my yard this weekend was the slippery variety. The spring peeper tadpoles are already hatching, but the majority of my larger frogs have been very quiet this spring due to the cold yucky weather. This changed as the sun came out this weekend however! My frog chorus was in full gear all weekend.

I grew up next to a wet vacant lot, so the frogs were always a part of the coming of spring. I loved to fall asleep to their songs, and you knew that you were always safe if the frogs were singing as they would become silent if anything was slinking around outside. For this reason, I love to go to sleep to their noise. My husband on the other hand, finds it very annoying and spends a lot of time yelling out the window for them to shut the heck up!

Those of you who live in areas with water features are probably familiar with their wonderful chorus, but if you have an interest, I recorded the symphony from my bedroom window last night. Could only do it with my camera, so you can look at a lovely black video when you listen..sorry for that feature!

http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa284/proflow/yard%20and%20garden/?action=view¤t=MVI_8218.flv

Neat!

Lucky you, that is totally cool. I absolutely love to listen to the sounds of the night in the summer time.
thanks for sharing.
Jan

Ahhh yes. The sounds of summer....cows munching...irrigation sprinklers sprinkling and blood sucking mosquitos slurping.

Ginger

Ginger, Was planting a few things up by the big pond tonight, and got my first skeeter bite of the season. Welcome to spring! I am trying to lure enough bats that I don't have mosquito problems, but have so far been only able to convince two that this is a good home. :(

rarejem. Wish I had a way to patch your frog songs out to my pond on loud speakers. Maybe it would attract more to my yard. It has been a quiet spring out there. I do have frogs..but they are not making much music.

Here is my big mama! She thinks she is hiding, but I find her everyday
in the same spot. It gets the sun first in the morning.

I got my first one of the season last night too...grrrrr


Ginger

Rarejem....how clever, using the camera. I tried to let my sis listen to mine over the phone, but the filters blocked it out. Yours sound bigger than mine, I've got the little ones with a high pitched sound. Love to hear them, but when they really get going it's difficult to hear anything else outside. LOL

Bea....what a beautiful frog!! Or is it a toad. Anyway, it's gorgeous!

Beahive, I commented on your cutie on the hellebore thread, but will tell you again that I just love her! My spring has been way too quiet as well..that's why I have been so thrilled over the last couple of days to hear the full chorus at last. They kind of started singing a couple of weeks ago, and then it went right back to silence when the weather got cold again. We have a lot of underground springs here as well (I think it was you who posted that you did??) and so have a tremendous amount of surface water this time of the year, so the frogs love it. The down side is that when we have a hot spring, I spend hours finding all of the little warm puddles that are almost dried up and rescuing the tiny tadpoles before they get cooked. Funny thing...I can squish a slug in a heartbeat but will get tears in my eyes when I find a low spot full of taddies that I was too late to save! If you ever find your way to this neck of the woods in mid May, I would be more than happy to share as many tadpoles as you want! It almost looks like you could walk across them in my big pond when it has been a good year!

We spent a lot of time a few years ago trying to find out what the majority of our frogs and toads in the yard were, and determined that we most likely have the red legged frog as the majority of the population. Tadpoles are almost as big as those of bullfrogs, but when they morph, they don't get any bigger.

There are two in this pic pretending that they aren't there!

Beahive, I have one question, how do you know its a mama and not a papa? Just curious. Are there distictive markings on the males or females. I truely don't know.
Jan

Sally, I never use the video function on my camera, but a few mornings ago wanted to share with my mom the noise of a very obnoxious bird (robin) that was trilling it's lungs out at 5:00 on a morning I was supposed to be sleeping in. As I laid in bed with a pillow over my head trying to drown out the sound and go back to sleep, the idea came to me. Her video was a little better though, as at least it was starting to get light and I got the moon over the mountain! Sometimes good ideas come to the sleep deprived! :)

Need I say it? Photo contest picture . . .

The things we do to get our pics........and sounds. LOL

rarejem.. I am only assuming my big frog is a girl as she hangs out where all the eggs are being laid .
I did find this web site on how to determine the sex of the bull frog. It is interesting, but confusing.
http://nielsbjornson.tripod.com/frog_hist.html

I think I will just ask her next time I see her. Hopefully she will give me an answer! LOL!
I was in my pond over the weeked cleaning and looking for tadpoles.
I know a lot have hatched..but where they go is beyond me. Hopefully they are hiding and are not in the belly of my Koi!

BeaHive, You think that frogs genders are confusing, you should look into toads! Even the toads can't tell the difference...there is a known call that a male makes when he is mounted by another male...go figure! I have heard that the down side of bullfrogs is that they eat the tadpoles of the other frogs....may be not the koi that are the guilty party! Still wouldn't trade your beautiful bullfrog for the tadpoles! What a mug shot!

My..My. that is interesting! Well I hope some of the tadpoles make it!
I liked your frog shot by the way. They look so happy in all the muck!
This is a little one (2") that was sunning !

hubby says that girl bullfrogs look like cow frogs................

What does a cow frog look like? Oh, I get it. Bull frog, cow frog. Whew.....
I guess I asked for that one. Hheheh

Cow frog...snicker....

Worked around the big pond last night. Mom walked down to keep me company (it is between our houses).

She took a pic of Ginger helping me plant my daylilies... she was supervising....

Another odd thing I have guessed from observation, is that frogs don't have a scent. I guess this because the shorthair twins go crazy trying to find them. They have noses on them that you wouldn't believe, and they hear the frogs talk so try to find them. I have seen their noses within an inch of a frog (who is sitting very VERY still) and they can't find them.

Bea, hope some of your taddies make it too. Besides, looks like you feed the koi well, and how many tadpoles can one bullfrog possibly eat? :)

Ginger and Mocha intently hunting frogs..with no success..

mom cooked frog legs when I was a kid. my brother had me convinced they would jump out of the frying pan.

"She took a pic of Ginger helping me plant my daylilies... she was supervising..."

I can do this. When do you want me over? I do not photograph as well as your Ginger because I am old and fluffy.

WILL WORK FOR DAYLILIES

Ginger

I love all this information about and pictures of frogs. Frogs are very auspicious to the Chinese, I think. And that makes sense, because they are an early indicator of environmental problems.

When I was a little girl, I loved frogs and my brother would bring them home from his work for me in his lunch box. One Sunday morning the frog jumped out of his container into a jar of honey sitting on the dining room table. My mother felt so sorry for him that she rinsed him off and put him outside (which is what we generally did after a day or so of observing, anyway).

And this was Alaska - the frogs survived -60 degree winters. How amazing is that?

katie..hope your mom threw out the honey too! LOL
rarejem..i hope some make it too! Your Ginger looks like she is lots of help
planting those DL's.
mortswife...my Mom prepared frog legs once when we were kids. I guess my Dad requested them. All 7 kids played with them making the leg bend back & forth! It was gross! She never made them again!

You know, Bea, I never asked. My mom's a depression-child and so did waste much, but I'm guessing a frog in her honey was probably a little much. LOL.

Usually I hear the frog chorus from the back end of my property. Last night, though, that group was silent and I heard it from the front end. Maybe they're switching off. I don't ever get to see them, though. Someday I'll have a pond (though I'm not sure how I'm going to do that with dogs . . .).

kathy..I would think so..frog in the honey eeehhh!

Since you have property, you could always put up deer fencing/with a gate and have a secret garden with a pond. That would be nice for you to relax in and the dog's could only come in on a leash or when invited!
Then when time permits...you can grow things up and around the deer fencing to make it more attractive. It is nice to dream!

Exactly! There's no cost to dreaming. I was actually thinking of just putting a hot wire around the base of the pond - it wouldn't take long for them to learn it was off limits and then I could probably remove it (and only put it back if I got a new dog). Of course, I'd have to remember not to touch it myself.

I put a shock mat on my kitchen counter to keep the cats off and used to accidentally lean on it all the time (apparently I'm not smart enough). Eventually, the cats ignored it enough that they broke it. I think the dogs will be easier than the cats.

I am going to build an enclosure for a garden this year - as soon as I can find some nice young men to dig my postholes for me. And then I'll put vines or shrubs at each of the four corners. I'm really loving dreaming about that! May not get vegetables planted, but I'll be ready for next year.

A hot wire would work and also keep out racoons. Good Idea!
Hope you find those nice young men to help you. If ya do..give them my number..I have a few projects that are pending waiting for me to get more muscles! LOL!
I am such a weakling. I am getting to the point that I can't even lift a large bag of garden soil. Used to be able to throw it over my shoulder and carry it. Now I barely am able to slide it out of the back of the car into a wagon.
Glad I saved the girls wagon and not donate it. It has come in handy!

I'm thinking my neighbor kid would be a good start. He goes off to college in the fall and off to Europe for awhile this summer, but he might want to make some spending money before he goes. I guess I should start mapping that out.

I'm going through the same thing with aches and pains. I keep pushing myself (my theory: you use it or lose it), but right now I have an injured knuckle at the base of my pinky from tripping and falling a month ago (dork), a strained wrist from [all I can think of is] lifting bags of sand two weeks ago, and and a joint in my finger with shooting pain from [what I think is] an arthritis flare up. They're all on my left hand. I've had to totally rethink my method for pulling up roots from the soil and lifting things. .

Could we, perhaps, have a new thread? It's getting hard to open.

Ginger, LOL...old and fluffy is cute too! We'll have to talk daylilies this fall..seriously..some of mine are actually getting big enough that I might be able to share :).

Kathy, I really laughed at the frog in the honey visual! How sweet your brother was to bring them home for you! I washed a toad once when I accidentally hit him with rose spray..he wasn't too keen on the whole washing thing! It does amaze me that the little critters can survive in the climates that they do!

Kathy and Bea, it is nice to dream, and it is crummy to have to admit that you can't do it all yourself. I've got my own nice young man (or maybe not so young, but at least still willing to work for some $$ and a good dinner) coming out to help me try to tame my unruly terrace (overrunn by blackberries and alders) this spring. Have done it myself four times, but it is just too much for me to feel like I can take on alone this year. Fortunately DH has a friend who is between jobs and is as hard up for $$ as I am for help.

The good thing about garden dreaming is that it can turn into reality one tiny slice at a time!

By the way, what's the problem with dogs and ponds??? BG

That's a great picture!