A Very Feliz Cinco de Mayo

It's been a cold, damp, muddy week in the garden.  Lots of planting, transplanting, weeding, potting up plants for sale...  Apologies that I did not put my trowel down long enough to take pictures this week.  I will try to take some during the week and add them in.  Thankfully Paul and I did take the time to sit down to enjoy a 5 de mayo tecate together...

For years Paul has kept a record of first sightings in Spring.  First hummingbird, oriole, frog etc... We don't keep records of the first frog sighting since we built the big pond 4 years ago.  Before that we had a repurposed bathtub in the ground for goldfish and several frogs would eventually show up.  Paul would record the date.  When we emptied the bathtub each Fall, Paul would gather up the frogs, already nestled into the mud for Winter Sleep, and bring them across the street to the lake. Once there, they would immediately dive for the bottom to burrow into the mud, back to sleep.  Now it seems they can overwinter in the big pond, so we see them early in Spring, any warm sunny day sitting on a rock or clinging to a plant, basking in the sun.  The goldfish record the first heron sighting for us.  Even if we're not around when one of these giant fisherbirds come by, we have no doubt about the happening.  The fish simply disappear...for weeks!  The first time we were devastated, thinking we had lost all of our fish, but it has happened the same way every Spring.  They will come out of hiding in a week or two.

The case of hummingbirds and orioles is quite different.  One must be prepared!  Paul checked his records and went to the grocery store on May 1 for sugar and oranges (you know, the past their prime bags of oranges you can get cheap...that's what orioles prefer.)  On Thursday, May 3,  Paul sliced an orange in half and stuck the pieces on nails on the compost pile posts.  Orioles like to hang out there...looking for more past their prime fruits I guess.  The orioles will suck out all the orange juice, then you can put some grape jelly (another oriole favorite) in the empty rinds and hang up more oranges.

On Friday evening May 4, Paul thought he heard a buzz...was it a hummingbird?  He went into the kitchen to boil water for hummingbird nectar.  It's so easy...just bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add 1 cup of white sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves completely.  Take off the stove and allow to cool.  Store in a labeled bottle in the fridge.  You need a hummingbird feeder and you are ready.  No red dyes please...most feeders have some red on them, and once the hummers find the feeder and are satisfied in general with your yard, they will remember where the feeders are.  Sometimes they show up earlier than expected, they will buzz our kitchen window, (the feeder is not there, they remember it is supposed to be), and continue to buzz while Paul frantically prepares the nectar.  In addition to the feeders, you just need lots of flowers, mature trees for resting and nesting, and some kind of water source.  Your hummingbirds should be able to raise their young in your yard, which we have read is the certification of hummingbird satisfaction.  Almost a guarantee that they will return year after year.

So we were ready.  Working outside on Saturday, 5 de mayo, Paul yells, "First hummingbird sighting confirmed!"  He pauses in his work, making me a structure to hang birdhouses, long enough to fill and hang 2 feeders. Back to work, about an hour later, he shouts gleefully, "Just saw an oriole!"  This went on for some time, meanwhile I was busy dividing and replanting lamb's ears here and there for their soft gray accent among the bluey purples and pinks of my other perennial flowers; I hadn't seen much but the ground beneath my feet and my trowel.  Time to sit down and enjoy that 5 de mayo tecate (can't say I was impressed with that, but Paul thinks corona people are snooty with their must have a lime, I think I prefer dos xx's).  But it was warmer, we had accomplished much, and with the prospect of seeing the sun tomorrow, we were content in our Adirondack chairs with a view of the backyard.  We saw the hummingbird perching on the new clematis trellis (the prior one was torn down by Irene).  Then he found the feeder on the back of the shed.  We watched him go back and forth from the new trellis (I'm so glad he approved) to the feeder for some time, when our attention turned to the birdbath in what I call the Bird Garden.  So-called because of the bath, a continuously used-by-sparrows birdhouse, and 6 berry producing shrubs.  The oriole was taking a long bath, when he finished he perched in the winterberry, preening and fluffing, then back into the birdbath..must have been a dusty trip.

All in all, a very happy cinco de mayo.

Happy Gardening!  

PS:  Don't forget the URI East Farm Spring Festival next Saturday.  While there, visit the RIWPS plant sale and pick up a native plant for mom or for yourself.  Hope to see you there!