Unidentified Frog

Unidentified FrogSeptember 23, 2011
For the most part I love garden visitors.  Ok, I'm not overly happy about having some pests visit but you have to take the bad with the good.  Frogs are always a welcomed visitor in my gardens both at our permanent home and vacation home.  I'm getting to know some of the garden visitors at our vacation home.  This cute little guy was enjoying our carport.  

Finally the First Photogenic Robin of 2011

Robin in Maple TreeMarch 23, 2011

I posted earlier about spotting the first robin of the season.  For those who don't know, here in beautiful Ontario, Canada where we experience winter complete with cold temperatures, ice and snow the robins migrate to warmer locations for the winter.  I can't say as I blame them which is one reason we have joined the snowbird crowd with our vacation home in

Gator Pond at Busch Gardens

Gator Pond at Busch GardensDecember 16, 2010
When we first visited the resort where we ended up buying a vacation home I thought the cutesy warning signs about not feeding or antagonizing the alligators were meant to add a bit of humour.  By the end of that first trip in 2009 I realized the alligators were very much real.  We bought in March of 2010 but didn't see our new vacation home until May

Ringneck Snake

If you have been following this blog you will know we bought a vacation home last year giving me the opportunity to garden in two very different hardiness zones.  It has meant learning about various critters that visit our southern garden.  There are venomous snakes and spiders there so it is important to identify these types of visitors to avoid possible bites.

We had one of our friends and his

A Leopard Frog Visits the Garden

Leopard Frog(Rana pipiens)October 16, 2010
Oldest and youngest grandchildren visited yesterday.  On their way to the car after our visit we stopped to check out the garden.  Imagine oldest grandchild's squeals of delight at spotting this beautiful leopard frog.  This is the first time I've seen a frog in the garden.  It sure was a pleasant surprise.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

The Spider

The SpiderOctober 1, 2010
If you have been following this blog you will know that I now garden in two very different hardiness zones.  My home hardiness zone is Canadian Hardiness Zone 6A but our vacation home is in US Hardiness Zone 9B.  I am learning so much about gardening in a warmer climate!  We were out doing a little yard work and discovered this huge and I do mean huge spider.  We have

The Salamander

SalamanderSeptember 15, 2010
A couple of weeks ago we went down to the clubhouse for dinner.  Surrounding the clubhouse are lovely raised garden beds as well as traditional style.  What is really nice is they have placards with the names of many of the plants to help other residents in the community identify the plants they may want to use in their own gardens.  A cute little salamander darted

At Risk Garden Visitors

As I work in the garden I am always on the look-out for garden visitors both friend and foe.  I find it amazing the diversity of critters that visit the gardens and yards.  For the most part all of the visitors are wild with the exception of a couple of neighbourhood cats that visit occasionally.  Currently the most noticeable difference in my garden visitors is the glaring absence of the wild

An Early Evening Garden Visitor

We are very fortunate to live in a rural area with an abundance of wildlife.  Our house backs onto the water so there is an amazing variety of waterfowl throughout the year.  There are two pairs of Mallard ducks nesting on our property this year and Mute Swans visit daily.  Although some of the wildlife we encounter such as mice are not quite welcomed for the most part the wildlife tends to be

Found in the Garden

Rabbit BonesApril 1, 2010There are many visitors to my gardens but sometimes I only see the tell tale signs they were there not the animal or bird itself. We have a fair number of hawks as well as a couple of neighbourhood cats that are of course predators. Every once in awhile we find the carcass of a small animal or bird. This morning when I was out checking the garden I spotted the remains

Garden Visitor

Garden VisitorNovember 7, 2009This little guy visited us earlier in the month. He was a bit sluggish so I moved him off the path. Autumn has been rather mild and for the most part drier than the spring and summer. There isn't much left to do in the garden and yard other than the last minute tidying. We've cleaned the beds from debris and most of the leaves have been raked up from the yard.

Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura)

Mourning Dove(Zenaida macroura)March 26, 2009Mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) visited the kids' garden providing on ground clean-up below the bird feeder. Now I have a love/hate relationship with these birds. In reality they are rather beneficial birds in the garden as they eat almost exclusively seeds but in a pinch will eat insects and snails. They provide the clean-up crew under bird

Eastern Chipmunk - Genus Tamias

Eastern ChipmunkMarch 25, 2009The Eastern chipmunk is a member of the rodentia family and like all members have long front teeth for gnawing. They mate in the spring and again in the summer. One pair can produce 8 to 10 offspring per year. Our family is well acquainted with the Eastern chipmunk with most of that experienced gained though a couple of decades of camping. These cute little

Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

Red-winged Blackbird(Agelaius phoeniceus) March 22, 2009I recently spent a couple of weeks at the home of oldest grandbaby so managed to get a few pictures of their garden visitors. Everyday a few Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) would visit the feeders. Red-winged blackbirds are members of the passerine family. Males display the bright red wing band while the females are a rather

Garden Visitor

BuggsMarch 10, 2008Mr Buggs is a rather persistent visitor to my new gardens and visited often last year. He tucks up under the bushes and the lilac tree to watch what is going on in the house. I can tell he is already smacking his lips in anticipation while watching me pour through the seed catalogues. Last year's visits were not so much of a problem as we moved too late for a vegetable