Gardening by Walking Around

you find things out by walking around and observing what is going on

Managing by Walking Around. 

I first encountered this concept through work. Here is the definition from Wikipedia:

• a style of business management which involves managers wandering around, in an unstructured manner, through the workplace(s), at random, to check with employees, equipment, or on the status of ongoing work. The emphasis is on the word wandering as an unplanned movement within a workplace     . . .     The expected benefit is that a manager, by random sampling of events or employee discussions, is more likely to facilitate improvements to the morale, sense of organizational purpose, productivity and total quality management of the organization, as compared to remaining in a specific office area and waiting for employees, or the delivery of status reports, to arrive there, as events warrant in the workplace.

I hadn't associated this concept with gardening until I came across the YouTube channel Bealtaine Cottage whose author posts daily half hour videos of her walks through her three acre property. I was amazed by the beauty and complexity of life unfolding in these daily journeys and began a similar activity on my own property. Gardening by walking around.

At Riel House, sometimes we get very focused on accomplishing our gardening tasks and lose sight of how industrious nature can be. How bountiful. How beautiful. 

Yes, it is time to walk around .  .  .  and stop and smell the roses .  .  .  

Rose in the Theatre

Wild irises in the boggy end of the Parking Lot Garden

Cranesbill geraniums flooding the Right Entrance Bed

... stop and smell the roses ...

ps the spider in the first image is a female thin-legged wolf spider with an egg sac attached to her abdomen

Waiting for Raspberries

This dragon fly is sitting on one of the posts in the raspberry patch. I have blown up this picture to maximum size in order to show the detail in the wings.

What is This?

What is This?

Okay look for the eyes. Is that enough of a hint?

This is a wood frog that hopped through while we were weeding our corn beds. I actually had a problem in the first picture locating him in the screen of my camera. We look upon this frog as an indication that we are creating an hospitable environment at Riel House. No chemicals, lots of habitat (leaf litter in this case) and sufficient food - probably worms and insects. And yes, from our weeding, we are seeing lots of worms in the soils at Riel House.

You can read more about our visitor in this Wikipedia link regarding wood frogs.

From the Summer - Crickets in the Parking Lot Garden

This video was also shot on August 4 with my iPhone. 

You may have to turn up the volume to hear the crickets and general insect population. Everyone sounds happy in this video. 

From the Summer - Monarchs in the Parking Lot Garden

This video was taken on August 4 with my iPhone. 

Purple flowers are Meadow Blazing Star Liatris ligulistylis
Yellow flowers are False Sunflower Heliopsis helianthides scabra
White flowers are Pearly Everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea 

The Parking Lot Garden is Buzzing

The Parking Lot Garden is absolutely humming with insects. Today, there were morning cloaks, monarchs and other butterflies along with dozens of little flies, beetles, etc. It's amazing how much our native plants have attracted insects. 

Here are a couple of videos that are stored in Google Photos. If you turn up your sound on both the video and your computer, you can hear the buzzing, humming and "cricketing". Once you click on the link, then please click on the video itself so that it plays with sound. Thanks.

Parking Lot Garden and Crickets 

             I am walking from near the Centre to the East side of the Parking Lot Garden. You can see what is planted in this area by going to our pdf Native Plants for Parking Lot Garden.

Parking Lot Garden and Monarchs 

             The Monarchs are attracted to the pink Dotted Blazing Star Liatris punctata. The yellow flowers on the left are Coneflower Ratibida columnifera. The white flowers at the end of the video are Pearly Everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea.

Eggplants, we have a problem.

and there it was . . . gone

As I mentioned in my post of June 4 titled Planting Bee #1 Successful, 

Eggplant is somewhat of an anomaly in this group as it is not quite "historically accurate" regarding Riel House. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, grew and consumed this vegetable from his Monticello garden in the late 1700's. However, it was not popularized in North America as a vegetable to be consumed until the turn of the twentieth century. Also, in temperate climates such as Riel House, eggplant is typically started indoors eight to ten weeks prior to last frost and requires at least 80 days to mature before first frost. We have set ourselves a challenge.

On June 4, we had planted 16 eggplants that we had purchased once we realized how long seeds took to sprout and mature. On Monday, June 6, we planted Beds 3 and 4 with eggplant seeds that we had previously purchased.On Wednesday, we noted that several of the poorer quality eggplants had been eaten by rabbits. Friday, all the plants have been eaten.

the challenge is over. For this location, eggplants are not historical, require too much care to get started, take too long to mature  and are a delicacy to the local pest. We give up! 

Friday afternoon, we purchased more Red Pontiac potatoes.

Rabbits and Traps

Hewwo! Acme Pest Contwol? Weww I have a pest I want contwolled. - Elmer Fudd - Looney Tunes

 

As above, we have tried the large trap for raccoons and skunks (one of our volunteers has had great success trapping  rabbits with this trap). Previously, we had tried the medium trap that is designed for rabbits and squirrels - however, we sense a rabbit reluctance to enter because of its smaller size.

Take a close look at the above picture and you will see the rabbit directly above the highest corner of the cage. I took the picture after I had almost stepped on the rabbit when I was removing the unsuccessful cage from the Produce Garden. The majority of the food we had placed inside and around the cage had been eaten - but - it appears the rabbit was too light weight to trip the metal plate that causes the doors to drop.  

I dumped the remaining bait back in the Produce Garden. Ten minutes later, I took the following picture:

He is very tame . . .

  . . . but not tame in enough to grab by the ears and drive him off the property!

Why, you wascally wabbit!

In gardening, there is always next year.

Shelob's Lair

You can see the aforementioned Shelob at the centre of the photograph. Taken in the Parking Lot Garden after last night's rain. There were many other examples this morning, but this one best shows the spider owner of her nest.

Bear!

Well, actually, a wooly bear - I think. Does anyone know exactly what this is?

Dragonflies, Hawks, Rabbits

We're starting to see more wildlife around the Produce Garden; several dragonflies including this one right next to the compost bin.

There was a hawk/kestrel chasing birds on Monday. Now if only he would also chase the rabbits. Our fox has not returned. We set a live trap Tuesday evening, but no rabbits by Wednesday morning even though the carrot that was just inside the trap had been carefully removed. The plan is to set the trap on the evening just before we volunteer the next morning. 

The rabbits definitely know how to jump an 18-inch wire fence to get into and out of the garden. Cabbage, cauliflowers and sunflowers have definitely been sampled. Also beans in the Kitchen Garden. If we set the trap in the gardens, then we only trap the smart ones - am I just being naive?

More Fox

These footprints cut across the West section of the Parking Lot Garden heading towards where we saw the fox disappear last week. Perhaps he is still there.

Fox!

from http://wvtf.org/post/fox-pens-phase-out

Our wish has been granted. Perhaps now we will have less rabbits.

Deer

Not what we would have expected, and definitely not what would be an asset at Riel House - a deer. We have noticed some "trimming" of foliage. The photo was taken by one of the Riel House interpreters. Must have come up from the river and cut through the neighbourhood.