Water Garden Visitors: The Mallards are Back

Katie (L) and Toughie (R) monitoring the ducks.

Earlier this month I awoke to raucous barking.  Steve had gotten up earlier than me and let the dogs out and now they were clearly unhappy.  I did a double take when I saw the reason why:  a male and female mallard were swimming in the water garden!

Last spring, they swam in our swimming pool, which kept the dogs running laps around it as they followed them from one end to the other.  The swimming pool is still covered, however, so they chose the next best thing.

Katie and Toughie watched the ducks intently, barking when they swam too close to the fish.  They did not understand that the ducks pose no threat to the fish.

Welcome back, ducks!  But I hope they don't spend a lot of time on our property.  Unfortunately, ducks defecating in the water have been known to be a source of high concentrations of e.coli that has shut down swimming areas in local ponds.  We don't want any bacterial issues in our pond or pool.

The ducks swim contentedly, ignoring the dogs.

I got too close with the camera and they took off.... 

... gracefully flying away.

We don't know for certain that these are the same ducks that visited last year but they are not at all shy around the dogs, barking or not.  They've been back twice to briefly swim laps in the pond.  Mostly we see them flying over the meadow and we can hear them honking.  We think they built their nest and reared their brood in the meadow last year, and suspect they are doing the same this spring as well.

Extreme Weather: Neither Rain nor Hail....

December, 2011

Spring arrived early after a mild winter and while I don't want to appear ungrateful for this marvelously mild and pleasant weather, the impact of this climatological aberrance is not insignificant.

We picked fresh herbs all winter - unheard of in New England, where our herbs (even perennials like mint) are usually dormant and buried under snow from November through February and often well into March and beyond.

In December, the lavender was still green and roses still had buds. This same week the previous year, we had a three day snowstorm that dumped over two feet of new snow on already over-sized snowbanks.

Ordinarily, March brings snow melt that nurtures the spring gardens and fills the ponds, rivers and streams.  But minimal snow and a cumulative rainfall that is a full 8 inches shy of the average amount we would ordinarily have received since January 1 is definitely a cause for concern. For the first time in recent memory, we had public advisories for an elevated fire risk of brush fires in March!

February 4, 2011

The average annual snowfall in our area is about 3.5 feet.

Last year we were snowed in under a total of nearly 9 feet while this year our total accumulation was a fraction of that at under a foot.

It's hard to believe that a year ago, we were digging out from mountains of snow that were higher than our car. 

This year, during that same week in February, the Peggy Martin rose was sprouting leaves and sending forth fresh green shoots and Sweet Autumn clematis wound its way among her canes.

We were harvesting fresh herbs, and rock cress was spreading along the fence near the woodland garden.

When does that happen in Massachusetts in February?

The lack of snow melt and precipitation has been of particular concern.  For weeks there have been warnings of an increased risk of brush fires.  We've watched the water levels of local rivers and creeks drop to unusually low levels.

But in a world where you need to be careful what you wish for, we were stunned when a prediction of rain showers turned into a major hail storm!  Barely an hour after the lettuce, pansies, and ranunculus were firmly tucked into the raised beds on the deck, the heavens opened up and hail pelted down.  The icy covering melted the same day, small comfort to the lettuce that curled up under the barrage.  This hail storm happened on April 12, 2012.

April 12, 2012:  The sky was overcast and showers were predicted.  Suddenly, hail was pelting the driveway, pavement, and flower beds.

We had just finished cleaning out the raised beds on the deck and setting in the ranunculus, pansies, and lettuce.

Before the hailstorm subsided, we had a half inch to an inch of ice covering everything.  Fortunately, it melted within a few hours. But most of the lettuce was a total loss and we had to purchase fresh flats and replant.

The camera captured the force of the ice pellets as they bounced on the deck.

As we are known to say in New England, "If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes."   Finally, after a wait of nearly two months, our most substantial precipitation yet this winter - just over 4.5 inches of rain - fell over the course of the last two days.  

Two days of rain raised the level of the pond considerably.

The rain was most welcome, but I would have preferred to have had it spread out over a week or two. That much rain all at once brings its own set of concerns.   Torrential rains raised the water level in the koi pond to a problematic high... problematic because it opened up the possibility that our koi could actually jump out of the pond, something that happened once before on the heels of torrential rains.

But with the water over the lowest edging rocks, the koi were able to swim up onto the rocks on the south side of the pond especially, and I was very concerned they would either land on the patio if they jumped, or injure themselves on the rough surface of stones.

Katie (L) and Emily (R) watch the koi.

I need not have worried.  Two of our erstwhile Cavalier King Charles Spaniels appointed themselves Guardians of the Fish and stood watch along the edge of the pond, barking when the koi seemed too close to the edge or jumped up and broke the surface of the water as they explored the new landscape.

Watching them over the course of an hour as I set up the sump to drain away a couple of inches and lower the water to a safer level for the koi, I couldn't help but chuckle at Emily, our 8 year old ruby Cavalier.  She would bravely walk to the edge and lean over to bark at the fish as they swam around.

When one of the koi got too close, Em jumped away and yelped.

But if one swam too close to her rock or - heaven forbid -  jumped up and out of the water in front of her, she'd jump back in fright!

Eventually, Katie, our 2 year old Blenheim, came to her assistance and both dogs spent over two hours patrolling the pond.

Emily is usually able to run around the pond, chasing after the koi as they swim back and forth.  But with the water over the top of some of the rocks, she almost ended up going in for a swim herself.

The koi seemed intrigued by their ability to get within a hair's breadth of the dogs.

Katie, at her sentry post.

Can you see them?  They're right there?

Where are  you....

There you are!

Pearly (L) and Streak (R) were jumping up and flopping back into the water and swimming as close to the rocks in front of the dogs as possible.

One of the butterfly koi, Sherbert, teasing the dogs....

Comet and Goldie, hovering in front of them.... ignoring the barking.  Goldie managed to escape the pond last summer after a similar downpour dramatically raised the water level, scaring Katie half to death.   In fact, it was Katie's barking and howling that alerted me to the situation and I was able to get Goldie safely back in the pond without injury.

  

The way the fish seemed to congregate and show off in front of the dogs, it almost seemed as if they were deliberately teasing them.  Are koi that intelligent, I wonder?

Sour Grapes

 

Mommy, I feel sick.

For the past month, two-year-old Katie, one of our Cavalier King Charles Spaniels,  has had sporadic bouts of unexplained vomiting.  

Although her activity level and appetite and even her bowel pattern remained completely normal, in between eating and playing, Katie has had several episodes where she brought up large amounts of basically nothing… clear liquid and little flecks of nothing recognizable, but nothing that looked suspicious or problematic either. 

Typically, she will come in from playing outside, be very quiet for a while, and then without any warning, vomit once or several times.  

We hadn’t been able to identify a cause or a pattern, and once she vomits, she is generally back to her normal self, appetite and all.   In fact, more than once, she raced right back outside to play, rolling around in the grass or playing "chase" with the other dogs.

She was scheduled for her annual routine physical examination with our family veterinarian three weeks ago.

Although she had not vomited in the two days preceding the appointment, I mentioned it to the vet as it had happened often enough to be concerning.

He checked her over pretty carefully and found her to be in excellent health with no sign of a problem.  He was as mystified as we were and told me to call if she had any further problems, but he found nothing at all abnormal or unusual in her examination or lab work.

 

The answer came unexpectedly when I was out photographing the briar patch last week.   The golden raspberries are ripening and I wanted to get some photographs.   The dogs went out with me and were running and playing under foot, all except for Katie, that is.

When I noticed she wasn’t with the others, I went to check and found her under the grape arbor, standing on tippy toes, snagging clusters of grapes off the vines.   Suddenly, everything made sense.

I scooted her out of the arbor and into the house.  Just inside the door, she vomited up clear fluid and essentially whole grapes.   That was followed by another round of vomiting a half hour later,  with nothing showing in her gastric contents at that point. Clearly, I had my answer.

Grapes and raisins have long been known to be poisonous to dogs.   The earliest sign of a toxic effect from eating grapes is vomiting, and if the dog continues to eat grapes or ingests a large number of grapes, symptoms can progress rapidly and dramatically as kidney failure develops.

The toxicity caused by grapes and raisins can be serious - even lethal.  While one grape is probably not going to be an issue for any dog,  you certainly don't want your dog to develop a fondness for them.   And if they do have a penchant for them, it's one habit you want to nip in the bud.

Katie is a gulper and I think the fact that she didn't really chew them much if at all was her saving grace.   The miracle is that her tummy rejected the grapes almost as soon as she would eat them.   She was probably vomiting the grapes outside before she ever made it indoors, since we never saw any grapes or grape fragments at all in what she brought up before that instance.

It's  exceedingly fortunate that given the number of grapes she was eating, she never developed any other acute gastrointestinal symptoms or signs of kidney involvement.

Steve and I clipped all of the grapes that were within her reach and carefully raked up and picked up the stragglers that had been knocked to the ground by birds and squirrels.   

Prior to this year, none of our dogs ever gave the grape arbor much thought.   They love other fruits and will nibble on strawberries and blueberries and figs, but none of them have ever shown any interest at all in the grapes or any of the other wild berries that the birds like to eat.

Until recently, the grapes that have been produced have been high enough on the lattice to be completely out of their reach.   This year, we added some new vines that produced some low growing sweet green grapes. 

We’ve resolved the problem for the time being, but we will be alert to this in the future.   We are planning on putting a short fence around the arbor in the spring.  At the very least, we will be sure the vines are tied up and that grapes are out of reach,  but a short fence is an inexpensive extra pound of prevention.

When we were shopping earlier in the season, we saw some pretty metal fence sections that have stakes that push into the ground.  That would be an effective, decorative solution.  These dogs are very short and  even a 12-18 inch fence is an adequate barrier.  It's something we can easily step over, but it will keep them safely away from any grapes that might fall on the ground.

Determined not to miss out on her current favorite treat, she snuck over to the arbor and headed straight for where she hoped to find some grapes.   We had been watching where she headed and gave her a stern warning to stay away.

We've had to monitor her carefully, but after three days of being sent up to the deck or brought into the house every time she went near the arbor, she finally has decided that it is probably a good idea to stay away from that corner of the yard.   We don't dare let our guard down though; grape toxicity is nothing to fool with in dogs.

My mom is such a meanie!

She’s not happy that we’ve come between her and the mother-lode of sweet, and her facial expression says it all.

There is no question that the phytonutrients in brightly colored fruits and vegetables are beneficial antioxidants that serve a protective function in both humans and dogs.  But like chocolate, grapes and raisins are definitely off the menu for our furkids, much to Miss Katie’s dismay.

This experience brought us up short.  We are generally pretty  careful pet parents but she was so stealthy, she escaped detection for quite a while.  

But that reminded me that not everything in the garden is either appetizing or safe to eat.   While the birds might be enjoying the berries of the bittersweet, that is another berry that would not be healthy for Katie to snack on.   Before she even got the idea to sample the colorful berries, I went  around the yard, pulling up the bittersweet and relegating it to the compost pile. The birds who enjoy the fruit can get it there, but I don't want Katie to decide to try that as well!

If I were only just a little bit taller.... I can dream, can't I?

But Mom, I was only looking at them. I wasn't going to try to eat any more, honest! It's not fair to make me sit on the deck!

Repose: Word for Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Donna at Garden Walk Garden Talk has chosen the word Repose for this week's "Word for Wednesday" word inspiration. 

Every other week, Donna posts a word that needs to be expressed in some way using photographs of things in our garden.    

This week, I interpreted the challenge in a very literal way, for lying in my garden is a sweet little girl who spends sunny afternoons reposing under the sand cherry tree and indulging in her favorite pastime - reading.

Shortly after our marriage, Steve and I were reminiscing about how we spent our summers when we were children.  I told him that one of  my favorite things to do was to lie on the grass under a tree and read.  Not long after that, he spotted a cement cast of this figurine at the garden shop and he surprised me with it.  

I was incredibly touched by his thoughtfulness.  The little girl was about a foot long, petite but detailed, and I loved it.  At the time, we were building our very first cottage bed together and I set her in the bed where she nestled among the wood violets.

The following year, we hired a landscaper to begin work on the hardscape in our garden.  I came home from work one day to discover that one of the workmen had driven over the little girl with a piece of heavy equipment and shattered her.   I was distraught.   I'm very sentimental and the little figurine meant a lot to me.  Steve promised to get another one and over the summer, we hunted for a replacement in vain. 

Fast forward two years.  We were strolling through the garden department at Home Depot one evening when Steve spotted the very same figure lying on a shelf next to some pots of plants,  out of easy reach.  The figurine was a much larger version of the original cement one and much heavier, as it was cast in bronze.  

I thought the price tag of this larger and most impressive version of the original would be a deal breaker so I was more than a little surprised when one of the customer service clerks climbed up on a ladder and took the figure down from her perch and carried her to our car.  Steve said he couldn't pass her up, no matter the cost. What a sweetheart!  I love the figurine and she reposes in a place of honor in the front of our main cottage garden.

Today she reposes among the ivy, under the sand cherry tree, between two favorite roses, Lady Elsie May and Macy's Pride. 

On a slightly different note, I couldn't help but note the other day that when it comes to actually reposing, our four Cavalier King Charles Spaniels have elevated it to an art form. 

From L to R, Emily Rose (ruby, age 7 years), Elizabeth Rebecca (black and tan, age 13-1/2 years), Katherine Hepburn AKA Katie Cuddles (Blenheim, age 2 years), and Spencer Tracy AKA Toughie (tricolor, age 5 years)

Please drop by Donna's blog, Garden Walk, Garden Talk, to join in her Word for Wednesday meme!

Our End-of-the-Summer Garden

It's officially autumn and even if the leaves on the trees have not yet begun to change color in earnest, there is no question that summer in the garden is rapidly coming to a close.
 
"So what speaks to you in your garden? What are the colors and textures you want to remember?” That is the question posed by Gardening Gone Wild's newest "Picture This" contest judge, Christa Neu.

If you aren't familiar with the web site, GGW has a core group of gardening experts and photographers who bring us interesting and informative articles about all aspects of gardening and once a month, in addition to some pointers about photographing the garden, they feature a monthly photography contest.

Ms. Neu photographs for Organic Gardening Magazine, one of a very few magazines that Steve and I actually subscribe to in print and what's more, actually read from cover to over each month. Needless to say, I've long admired her work!

Ms. Neu challenges us to capture some of the last remaining images of the summer garden as it becomes the fall garden. Many things speak to me in the garden this time of year, and I set out with camera in hand to listen: to capture the beauty of the remaining summer blooms, even as the autumn flowers are peaking and preening. As a card artist who has had to take a brief hiatus from artwork, I am hoping to use some of these images in my artwork over the winter, keeping summer alive and sharing it in my vocation as well.

The violas have renewed vigor since the evening temperatures are cooler.

A blossom on the Meyer Lemon tree. It blooms in flushes throughout the year.

This yellow calibrachoa sent rivers of yellow blossoms cascading over the side of one of the potted lilacs all summer.

A bloom cluster from one of the trailing ivy geraniums. The throat of each blossom is swiped with burgundy.

This is not the most artistic photograph but it reminds me that we had one of our most successful kitchen and vegetable gardens ever this year.

Pee Gee Hydrangea, newly open white buds and older coppery ones.

Katie eating dogwood tree fruit.

Uh oh, Mom caught me eating her berries. Maybe if I smile she won't see the stem sticking out of my mouth.

Julia Child

Moondance

Steve's favorite rose, Mister Lincoln.

Choosing one image to enter into a contest is always hard for me, and I find that I never choose the one that everyone else thinks is best; so this time I am bowing to the consensus of  comments made about one of the photographs I posted for Donna's "Word for Wednesday" meme at Garden Walk Garden Talk and submitting this photograph of our anemones.

There is still time to submit photographs. Join in the fun and check out the other entries at the Gardening Gone Wild  blog page.