Seed time!

January 31st.  Wow.  My greenhouse is still sitting outside... unheated.  I'm trying to be frugal and hold off heating it, so I think I'll get the seed mat out this weekend and start some seedlings downstairs in the basement. 

     I have a pile of seed packets from the local farm supply store.  Some annuals, some perennials, some vegies.  I also have an awesome order of native plant seeds that I recently ordered from Prairie Moon Nursery out of Minnesota.

     I ordered some anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) which is a great plant for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.  I've grown it before and it makes a great perennial for mid to back of the border.  I like it paired up with daisies and the butterflies definitely don't mind!  It's also commonly referenced as an herb as the leaves can be used for teas and have a licorice like scent when crushed.


     For our wet, marshy area at the cottage, I'm going to try Alisma triviale (water plantain) and Calla palustris (water arum).  According to Prairie Moon, the water plantain has oval basal leaves about 12" tall and form a rosette.  A whorled panicle of small white flowers blooms during summer. It prefers full or partial sun and mucky soil or shallow, slow-moving, even stagnant water. It withstands drought better than most aquatic plants.  I'm thinking this will be perfect for the area I have in mind.  The seed does require cold moist stratification, so they are in the fridge!  The water arum also requires cold stratification and has dark green leaves with a white spathe style bloom.  I'll get back to you on the germination and growth for both of these.  I think my biggest concern will be if they dry out too much in the greenhouse once the bright spring sun start warming the greenhouse. 

    I'm also trying out some native shrubs.  Buttonbush, or cephalanthus occidentalis will be a great woodland shrub for some of the moist areas.  It will grow in full sun to partial shade and has interesting white flowers, again attractive to bees and butterflies.  It will even tolerate some flooding, which is a must for the edges of our wet area.  It gets 5-12 foot tall and 4-8 foot wide, so I have some ideas where to use it for a great screening plant.  The seed doesn't require any special pretreatment, so I'm hoping for quite a bit of success.  Who knows.... If I have too many (too many?  is there such a thing?)... I can always donate some to the neighboring boy scout camp for some of their wetland areas.
     The other shrub I'm going to try is Ilex verticillata or winterberry.  It is a deciduous holly that has lot of great red berries up and down the stems in the winter.  It's probably the hardest one to get germinated.  Per Prairie Moon it requires two periods of cold moist stratification.  I'll be pulling out my old college textbook on propagation on this one.  Anyway, the berries are great for the birds.  I'm hoping to be able to make a few naturalized groupings to create a little more natural screen between our property and some distant neighbors.  The other big hurdle I will be facing though is the deer.   I have read this is a preferred browse species, and we definitely have deer at the cottage!

Get ready... plant!

Red Bellies at the feeder....

 

Yes this is a red bellied woodpecker.  One might want to say a red headed woodpecker, but that's a different little guy.  The log suet feeder is a favorite with my woodpecker crowd.  I usually buy plain suet, already processed in plain blocks.  I melt/soften about 3 of the blocks, throw in a scoop or two of peanut butter and a cup or so of corn meal.  Then for the goodies.  Rural King was selling shelled peanuts by the pound for birds earlier this fall, so my first batch had a cup or two of that.  Then I usually throw in a a few scoops of high quality -- you know, the expensive kind -- of wild bird seed.  I go more for sunflower and peanuts than millet and milo.  Sometimes I throw in some raisins or other dried fruit as well.  Buying the plain suet is cheaper than other suet blocks and when you throw in your own ingredients you get a great mix the birds love.  Beware of the bargain buys on suet blocks.  Usually it's just suet loaded with millet and some cracked corn.  They'll eat it, but not if my suet is available!

Some great  information on red bellied woodpeckers and more pictures.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-bellied_woodpecker/id/ac

The birdhouse project.....cont....

As I speak, the husband has a 6" log he split open and is working on hollowing out.  Another bird house!

This is probably because in the blowing wind with little hard snow flurries blowing this AM, he hung the sapsucker house high in a tree.  Within about 20 minutes, a little nuthatch came and poke his head in the opening as if he was doing a little real estate shopping.  Not up to his and the Mrs. standards, he shortly flew off.  However, I think this helped inspire the husband to build more.  As we haven't bought more cedar yet, the woodpile was the next source of materials.

And wow!  I'm scared!  My son just came to get me for an inspection in the building process.  My husband is using some sort of "blade" on a grinder that has chain saw teeth at the way around it.  It's doing an awesome job but it looks like some sort of wicked medieval throwback!  Hmm... maybe the husband can't take up chainsaw carving....

The birdhouse project.....

I recently have been doing some research.  More specifically, I've been researching owls in Indiana. 

I have been told there is a great horned owl in the woods out by the lake cottage.  I saw him swoop from the forest edge and across the front of the car one evening, but I only saw this huge bird that I assume was The great horned owl.  I have also heard the owl, but as I'm not an expert, I can't vouch it's a great horned. 

Anyway, Indiana Woodland Steward had a nice article about owls in Indiana.
http://www.inwoodlands.org/our-hoosier-owls/

I am kind of bummed that the great horned will kill other owls.  I have the husband on board about encouraging more owls, so we've done some research on owl houses.  A site filled with bird house plans for a variety of birds is: http://www.50birds.com/D50BH.htm  We have plans to build an owl house or two and I have told my husband we will have to get busy if we are going to have them up before nesting season, but we're going to have to get some more boards!

The following picture is a nest box for a sapsucker as designed on the site above.  We had to make a few modifications as the plans call for 3/4" wood and rough sawn cypress is about 7/8" thick.

It is 12" floor to ceiling with 5x5" floor and an 1 1/2" hole 10 inches above the floor.  Now we just need to get it hung either here in our back yard along the wood line or out at the lake cottage.  My husband also had some used cedar on hand and made a bird house to the specifications for a downy woodpecker.  Again, we can use it here at home or at the lake cottage.






One of the next projects, besides the owl boxes, my husband wants to make a next box for a pileated woodpecker.  We have one that has been visiting our suet feeders regularly.  Actually, it may be two, as I saw what looked like one flying through the neighbors yard while the one below was perched around our feeder.