I got nervous around the end of July when I had not yet heard any crickets yet. I read an article in The Conversation about how insects are declining—some reasons being loss of habitat, increased wildfires, and farming. I asked my team at work one day about why there weren’t any crickets yet. My manager had heard them in her yard, but nobody else had heard any. A couple days later we went on a walk to get our mail, and we heard crickets down the street. That night we could faintly hear them in our front yard. By the weekend, the familiar sing-song was going at it 100%, and I was thrilled. But by now it was already August.
We’ve had a dryer summer than normal, with higher temperatures, but my garden loves it. When there’s no rain, I run the drip hose for an hour in the late afternoon. It’s been a peaceful but busy summer, and we’ve had lots of projects: building and erecting a hoop fence over the strawberry patch, building a new fire pit, filling in holes in the meadow with dirt, watering trees when we’ve had no rain, replanting three gargantuan mint plants into the yard, and redoing two of our raised gardens to bring them together. We also put landscape fabric and new soil in two raised beds, and put landscape fabric and gravel around the whole fenced in garden area. We’re just trying to prevent weeds in that one small area, and this summer, with the landscape fabric and new organic soil (plus peat moss and fertilizer), the plants went a little crazy. I did nine bean rows like in Yeats’ “Lake Isle of Innisfree” and am still picking them.
If you follow my blog, you’ll know how much I miss eastern Kentucky’s Appalachian area. I grow beans and tomatoes every year so that I can make things like fried green tomatoes, turnips, turnip greens, beets, and shucky beans—foods that I grew up on. I also grow a number of herbs, most particularly to save for stuffing at Thanksgiving (sage) and other foods (thyme, rosemary). And I grew a lot of mint this year, which is partially for repelling mosquitoes but also for Kentucky Mules, which are like Moscow Mules but with bourbon instead of vodka. You also add a drop of lime juice and a fresh mint sprig. Chef’s kiss!
This series is about backyard wildlife, but I honestly don’t think the garden would be as great as it is without all the pollination, thanks to the many honeybees around the yard. I’ll add a list of some of the species we know about in the yard, but there’s so much more. Also, enjoy some photos of the two bucks coming into the meadow this year.
Ongoing list of stuff!
Flora
- Forsythia
- Wild grapes
- Daffodils
- Poppies
- Roses (several varieties, including a German one)
- Spruce
- Red maple
- Sugar maple
- Norway maple
- Oak
- Pine
- Boxwood
- Dogwood (edging all away around the back 1/3rd acre)
- Apple tree
- Pear trees
- Cranberry bush
- Burning bush
- Butterfly weed
- Cherry trees
- Viburnum snowball bush
- Dandelions
- Grasses (various)
- Rose of Sharon (hibiscus)
- Himalayan balsam
- Poppies
- Bamboo
- Cedar bush
- Wild strawberries
- Rhododendron
- Wild mustard
- Solomon’s Seal
- Hosta
- Thistle
- Purple clover
- Mushrooms
- Geranium (including Dusky crane’s bill)
- Columbine
- Johnny Jump Ups (violet)
- Dames Rocket
- Maule’s Quince
- Moss phlox
- Forget-me-not
- Spurge (not sure whether swamp or cushion)
- Buttercups
- Tulips
- Peonies
- Black elderberry
- European dewberry
- Trumpet honeysuckle
- Fragrant Plantain lily
- Daylily
- Sunflowers (branching Sonja)
- Queen Anne’s Lace
- Purple faerie foxglove
- Wild lupin
- Black-eyed Susan
Fauna
- Pheasant
- Squirrel
- Shrew
- Field mice
- Groundhog
- White-tailed deer
- Wren
- Goldfinch
- Robin
- Blue jay
- Cardinal
- Crow
- Raven
- Song sparrow
- Seagull
- Hummingbird
- Garter snake
- Beetles
- Crickets
- Ants
- Black flies
- June bugs
- Moths
- Butterflies (cabbage, etc.)
- Frogs
- Spiders
- Slugs
- Snails
- Earth worms
- Inch worms
- Midges
- Beetles
- Grasshoppers
- Wasps
- Hornets
- Honey bees
- Bumblebees
Trees and bushes we’ve planted in 2020
- 3 sugar maples
- 2 butternut
- 3 black walnut
- 3 hackberry
- 2 sour cherry
- 3 plum
- 4 burr oak
- 4 swamp white oak
- 4 Russian white oak
Newly planted trees in 2021
- Pawpaws
- Blueberries
- Mulberries
- Gooseberries
- Haskaps
- Mountain ash (Rowan)
- Lilacs
- Honeysuckle
- Jasmine
Garden veggies and fruits
- Strawberries
- Corn
- Green beans
- Squash
- Onions
- Green onions
- Turnips
- Beets
- Leaf lettuce
- Mountain mint
- Russian taragon
- Lemon mint bergamot
- Strawberries
- Rhubarb
- Sage
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Cilantro
- Parsley
