Big Changes Coming to the Orchid Conservatory... OR... Fantasy and Reality Rarely Mesh

I guess the best place to start is all the way back at the beginning.

Once upon a time there were grand plans in place for an Orchid Conservatory at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. The garden staff anxiously awaited architect's and garden designer's plans for a luxuriant tropical oasis. When these plans arrived they ooohed and aaahed and there was much rejoicing in the land. Part of this glorious vision was that of lush vines covered in blooms cascading and rambling over the structure of the building, creating a true jungle vision and camouflaging the ugliness of man's creation.
"How perfect!" they exclaimed. "There are no steel beams in the tropical rain forest. It'll be beautiful!"
And it was. Careful research and plant selection began to find THE PERFECT vines and lianas for the space.
"They must be beautiful." the staff said. "They must be strong and healthy" others added.
Come October the most excellent vines were selected and planted lovingly at the column bases of the Orchid Conservatory. By the grand opening in January they were all they had wanted them to be. With lots of sun, water, and a little TLC the vines thrived rambling, scrambling, and climbing towards the sky. The staff was delighted, they had done well.
Through the first year the vines grew, and grew, and grew, and the nervousness began.
"Ok, you can STOP growing now." The staff said. But the vines had grown so tall they could not hear them from the tippy top of the conservatory, fifty feet from the ground. And if they had, they would have only replied
"We can't stop. We have indeterminate mature sizes you see. You've fed us, watered us, and loved us, so we GROW."
"Indeterminate?" said the staff. "What on earth do you mean you can't stop? This label right here says thirty feet is your maximum size! And this book says twenty five!"
"Ahhhhh, said the vines. Books and tags tell lies. In a normal environment of harsh sun, drought, leaf eating animals and insects, and an occasional hurricane our growth is limited. But here we are in paradise and nothing harms us, we can reach our full potential and cover all that is here to cover."
"Oh." Said the staff.

The moral of this story is be very careful with what you plant, and be sure to temper your desire for instant gratification with knowledge that down the road you will have to maintain, yes maintain, the plants you select. Vines especially can quickly get out of hand, as any of us who just had to have a purple wisteria on the arbor now know. The garden's solution to this increasingly vigorous problem is removal of the vines, once so small and cute and now raging thugs from the conservatory all together. Considering said vines are now fifty to sixty feet from the ground this will include some extreme acrobatics and equipment provided by a local tree service. So next time you step into the Orchid Conservatory and grimace at the exposed steel beams of the roof supports, remember our tale, and don't let this happen to YOU.

The End

All Predators Great and Small (with apologies to James Herriot)

Baby birds certainly have a hard time growing up in this big, wonderful world. They have quite a battle on their wings before they even take their very first flight.

I think we all are aware of the common predators to birds. There are snakes, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, cats and even other birds vying for the eggs or for the chicks. But, there are a couple of predators we didn’t even have on our radar screen this year. Our observations this year are that size really does not matter when it comes to predators.

We have had a bit of a problem this year with ant infestations. I am guessing they are fire ants but I can’t say this with a total degree of certainty. All I know is that these little devils do bite. And, I also know I’m a lot more alert about where I step when I step out of that golf cart!

We are treating the areas around some of the boxes where we observed the ants and we’re hoping that this doesn’t continue to be a major problem going forward. It is a mystery why we have had several boxes infested with ants this year when it didn’t seem to be a problem at all last year. We did have a great deal more rain this spring than we did last year and perhaps that is one factor that might account for the increase in ant infestations. Susan Holland’s photograph above shows the sad sight of what these tiny predators can do to a nest box full of chicks.

So, now you’re wondering aren’t you, what the “Great” predator is since I’ve already told you about the “Small” one. Well, it certainly was a surprise to me, but after reading up on the American Crow, I found out that they eat just about anything. Susan’s grandson Peter joined us on our rounds this morning and he happened to see an American Crow with something quite large in its beak. From a distance it looked like it could have been a mouse so we decided to drive over and take a closer look. Our crow had dropped his little snack and it looked to us like it was a bluebird chick. Who knew?

Well, enough of the bad news about predators. Let’s talk about the good news!! The good news is that we are still seeing a great deal of activity in many of the nest boxes. We have 27 bluebird eggs and 10 chicks in the boxes right now. We are confident that we’ll count several new chicks in the boxes in the coming weeks. There is still a lot of summer left for the birds and a lot of summer left for us to enjoy them.

Family Gardening: Garden Maintenance

I hope you’re having fun in the garden with your family! Now that the planting is done, the focus shifts more to maintenance. This is sometimes regarded as a chore, but I have to admit that I really enjoy it. It’s one of the few excuses to just putter around in your garden observing the fruits of your labor. It never ceases to amaze me how much plants can grow and change in a short time—it’s a miracle in every plant!
While there is a lot to do in the garden, endless weeding doesn’t come across as appealing to anyone—least of all your kids. In order to prevent garden maintenance from seeming onerous, try the following tips to keep it fun and engaging for the whole family:

• Mulch magic. Mulch is one of your best friends in the garden—it cuts way down on weeds, and helps conserve water in the soil as well. There is no single best material for mulch—I recommend an organic material that will break down over time and improve the soil, as well as a material that is locally available. This could be pine straw here in the southeast, or bark mulch, or even a thick layer of newspaper covered with leaves or straw. At my own home I have a lot of trees, so we create our own mulch by shredding the autumn leaves with the lawnmower. The result is a great mulch, and I feel good that I am not adding bags of leaves to the local landfill. I add a thick layer of leaves 2-4 inches deep to all my garden beds in the fall. As the leaves break down they enhance the soil by adding wonderful organic matter. When I plant new flowers and veggies in the spring I dig through the leafy mulch, turning some of it into the soil in the process, and then add more after planting to prevent weeds from taking hold.
• Weeding wizards. Yes, weeding is a part of gardening, but it doesn’t have to be a burdensome chore. Keep it light and fun. First off, don’t let the weeds get to be taller than your children before you pull them; instead, make a tour of the garden once or twice a week to scout for new little encroaching weeds and pull them while they’re small. If your child has a difficult time distinguishing between weeds and sprouts of plants that you want, then focus in on just one type of weed at a time. Proclaim a ‘weed of the day’ and show them a sample, then have a contest to see who can find the greatest number of that specific weed. (It goes without saying that you should choose whatever weed is most prolific in the garden for your weed of the day.) The winner becomes the Weeding Wizard for the day. It can become a kind of a scavenger hunt, providing a lot of fun and some great quality time in the garden for you and your kids.
• Dig in! Kids simply love to dig. They can expend endless energy and will generate great enthusiasm digging around and playing in the soil. There are a lot of discoveries to make in digging: small leaves, twigs, and rocks that make up the soil… different types and textures of soil… the joys of mud pies when water is added… engineering feats to be achieved in creating holes, tunnels, and caves for small imaginary villages… insects that make their home in the soil… and best of all, earthworms! If you have young kids—toddlers to middle elementary—leave a little patch of your garden open as a digging zone. They will want to continue their digging adventures long after the planting is done!
• Wonders of water. Kids like watering even more than they like digging. Try to make it as easy as you can for them to water their plants. It’s a wonderful natural lesson in taking responsibility, and helps them learn to think beyond themselves in caring for living things. Plus, it’s just fun! I worked with a daycare center a few years back to create a small garden for their kids, and watering was their absolute favorite activity. To make it easy for them to be independent in their watering, we placed a large storage bin under the faucet and used it as a sort of watering trough. When it was garden maintenance time, we simply turned on the faucet and let the bin fill with water. We kept a bunch of small child-sized watering cans by the bin, so that the kids could help themselves to water. Several of them at a time could fill their watering cans in the watering trough. They could handle the diminutive watering cans with ease, and the small volume that the containers held ensured that they would not overwater and ‘drown’ the plants. They were wonderful caretakers, and loved that they could be independent and do it themselves.

What tips and tricks do you have up your sleeves to help keep garden maintenance fun for kids and the entire family? I’d love to hear them!

Happy Gardening!
Dr. Cindy