Posted on in Birding Trips, Conservation, Hotspots, Nature

Exploring Corral Bluffs

corralbluffsco_lah_0442-1Vast open spaces, blooming yucca, and constant wind were our companions on a recent hike to Corral Bluffs, an area under consideration as a new El Paso county park.

Most recently a stop for cowboys and their herds on the drive from Texas to Denver, the proposed park has a long history, dating back 65 million years. It’s hard to believe that the high plains grassland was once a sea-level swamp! Numerous fossils are being uncovered by paleontologists surveying the eroded bluffs—including a crocodilian head, as well as numerous small mammals and petrified wood.

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Posted on in Gardening, Landscaping, Seed Starting, Veggies

Upside-Down Tomatoes?

tomatoes-greenhouse-2008sept08-lah-296We’ve probably all seen the ads for growing upside-down tomatoes, with the plants protruding from the bottom of a hanging plastic bag full of potting mix. They’re the Big New Idea in gardening. The question everyone’s asking is, does this work here in Colorado? After all, this isn’t exactly prime tomato-growing country.

Carol O’Meara is the horticultural extension agent for Boulder county. She has decided to find out for herself if growing tomatoes upside-down works in our climate, and is sharing the ongoing results of her experiment on her blog, Gardening After Five. Carol brings up a number of important issues; if you want to try this too, reading her article is a good place to start.

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Posted on in Gardening, Plant Profiles, Xeriscape

Boulder Raspberry (Oreobatus deliciosus)

Appearance
rubus-deliciosus-boulder-raspberry-emeraldvalley-2008jun23-lah-004rWith its ostentatious white flowers clamoring for your attention, Boulder Raspberry impresses like a hybridized cultivar, rather than a native shrub. Growing three to five feet tall and six feet wide, arching, sprawling stems carry bright green, lobed leaves that turn yellow in fall before dropping for the winter. Spring’s blooms develop into small reddish purple fruit resembling cultivated raspberries. While edible, the berries are generally considered unpalatable. However, they will attract birds and other wildlife to your garden. Unlike other raspberries, the stems are thornless.

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Posted on in Birds

Multitudes of Moths

miller-moth_home_lah_8293As I unlocked my  mailbox to retrieve my mail, a cloud of wings billowed out of the opening. My bedside lamp is surrounded by a throng of fluttering insects leaving dark smudges on the lampshade. Every windowsill is littered with gray bodies. The final straw came a few moments ago when I opened the lid on the toilet and discovered a moth convention assembled on the seat. Yup, it’s Miller time.

Actually, the term “miller moth” encompasses more than one species; it simply applies to any moth commonly found around the house. Here in the Pikes Peak area, our most common moth is the adult form of the army cutworm, Euxoa auxiliaris.

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Posted on in Gardening, Landscaping, Plant Profiles, Veggies

Landscaping with… Zucchini?

Squash blossom @home 2008sept23 LAH 253Roses, petunias, and … zucchini? Why not? While traditionally grown in a vegetable garden, summer squash’s striking appearance can provide a focal point for an ornamental border as well.

Zucchini and its relatives have large lobed leaves, blotched with white, supported by thick prickly stems. Big yellow flowers produce squash in an amazing variety of colors and shapes. Of course they’re edible—but they’re eye-catching as well. Just make sure you leave plenty of room. “Bush” squash plants grow four feet wide and two feet high.

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Posted on in Gardening, Humor, Landscaping

Get your Goat

goat-eidahostatefair-2007sept08-lah-585While taking a break and perusing an assortment of gardening websites, I stumbled across this story at “Dave Hobson’s Garden Humor: To boldly grow where no one has groan before.” Yes, you can tell from the tagline that this site is a lot of fun.

I have David’s permission to re-post his story, as long as I include the fact that he wrote it, he owns the copyright, you can see it on his website, and you can email him at dhobson@golden.net. (I was a bit concerned about posting his email address right out there in the open where all sorts of nasty software programs can find it and send him emails about missing fortunes, prescription drugs, and the fact that there are giant star-nosed moles in the storm drains under Boise—but he insisted.) After I went to all this trouble, the least you can do is read it and laugh. Oh, and the goat photo is all mine.
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Posted on in Birding Tips, Birds

Another Reason Birders Wear Hats

tent-caterpillar_sanpedro-sierravistaaz_20100510_lah_1212Plop, plop, plip plop… it sounded as if it was raining, but the sky was blue and the sun was shining. I was happily prowling a row of tall cottonwoods growing thickly along a creek, searching for flycatchers, migrating warblers, and anything else of interest. Now, something was falling out of the tree tops, but it couldn’t possibly be rain.

Blop. Something landed on my hat brim. Something else hit my shoulder, and another falling object landed on my arm. What in the world? I put down the binoculars and focused more closely.

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Posted on in Birds

Falling Off a Log

cattle_egrets_noxubeenwr-ms_20090618_lah_3955-1Have you ever watched a bird leave its perch? I mean, really looked? Lately I’ve been paying close attention to various species as they fall, tumble, leap, or launch themselves from the branch or fence post on which they’ve been standing. I’ve been amazed by the many different ways birds take to the air.

northern-shoveler_ridgefieldnwr-wa_20100207_lah_8648Loons require a long runway, and it has to be water. If they get stranded on land, they’re stuck, unable to fly. Other waterfowl seem to do a lot of flapping before becoming airborne, but then they’re starting from ground (or water) level. I’m actually pretty impressed that ducks manage to gain altitude at all. From my perspective, they just don’t look like they’re engineered for flight.

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Posted on in Birds, Gardening, Humor, Nature

Outfoxing Fox Squirrels

fox-squirrel_blkforest_20100424_lah_3624If you feed them, they will come. Anyone who puts sunflower seeds into a birdfeeder sooner or later has to contend with squirrels. And if you grow a garden—well, squirrels like many of the same foods we do, plus flowers, tulip bulbs, and numerous other plants. The question isn’t whether or not you’ll have squirrels in your yard. You will. The question is, what are you going to do about them?

I used to really like squirrels. After all, they’re cute, with bright black eyes and fluffy tails. And they’re fun to watch as they chase one another up one tree and down the next. That was before I started feeding the birds. Within hours of hanging my first feeder, the squirrels had discovered it. (It took the birds two weeks.)

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Posted on in Books, Gardening, Landscaping, Media Reviews, Veggies

Weed—Identify Yourself!

weedsofthewestAre those weed seedlings or flowers?

That’s a significant question early in the season. While mature weeds are obviously not zinnias or parsley, it’s much harder to distinguish garden plants from unwanted pests when they’re still seedlings. Yet, weed control is much, much easier when done at the seedling stage.

The first year we lived in Colorado, I made what turned out to be one of my worst gardening blunders ever. We moved into our house in November. I surveyed the empty beds around the patio and assumed nothing was planted there. Silly me. Like so many transplants here, I’d come from (northern) California, where the growing season lasted all year. I hadn’t yet learned that many plants spend the winter hiding underground.

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