Spring Cleaning

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day so I decided to get a bit of work done outdoors.  It took several attempts to start the lawn mower after its winter hiatus but finally it started.  After cutting the lawns I hauled out the pressure washer to clean some of the winter grim from the windows and doors.  The maple trees are dropping seeds so I pulled a few of the tiny maple seedlings from a couple

The Mallard Family Visits

I am certainly going to miss the visiting wildlife here when we move. Oh sure we will still have visiting jackrabbits, skunks, raccoons, the occasional opossum and many song birds, we won't have the visiting waterfowl. Over the past several years while living on the water we have come to think of the visiting waterfowl almost as pets. We ensure their habitats are kept to their liking to

The Importance of Snow

Snow Covered Garden BedsJanuary 8, 2010Friday we received our first snow storm of the winter considerably later than normal. Usually we have snow flurries as early as October with some accumulation in November and even heavy accumulation in December. This year we received no accumulation until January. Why is that a concern? Snowfall is part of the annual precipitation for the area. Those in

Another Garden Visitor

Well Hello!July 25, 2009Last week we had a unique visitor to the garden. Now we are used to having a lot of visitors to the garden but this is a first. Pictured is the albino toad that visited. He particularly liked hanging out with the gnomes near the side entrance. Albino toads do not survive well in nature simply because they lack the natural pigmentation that provides camouflage thus

Ontario Lawn Pesticide Ban

Female Mallard(Anas platyrhynchos)This adult female Mallard has been frequenting our backyard likely in search of a suitable nesting site. While she seems be enjoying her stroll through the lawn and I love her visits, I cannot say the same thing about grass. Sorry folks but I am a grass hater in the form of a pristine, green, outdoor growing, carpet. I can say that even though we laid sod last