"Certified" Wildlife Habitat

I had felt sheepish about putting this sign up until this week - but with the rain, and Gabe's Garden starting to fill in, there has been a sudden burst of animal activity right in the front yard.



The wet weather brought many frogs up front. Every time I mow I spot one now. They like to take shelter under the creeping thyme.


The obligitory bunny, damp from all the rain. I suspect the bunnies in a number of nibbled flowers, but overall, they are good neighbors. Gabe's Garden offers them more sheltered areas to graze.


I had stacked my leftover rocks beneath the shrubs in the hopes that some snakes would move in. And it worked! I think this is the same garter snake that we saw basking on top of the yew. No, I know that's a garden hose, thank you. Look behind the hose. At, you know, the think that looks like a smaller hose.


Chris' cousin's adorable daughter chasing a goldfinch. See it, there on Chris' home-made trellis? Not the yellow things on the left - those are mustard flowers. The bird is the yellow dot on the right.

The goldfinch and his lady friend have been regulars in the yard lately, perching on Chris' pea towers, and rummaging among my sloppy un-deadheaded flowers for seeds.


This is where I posted the sign, right in front of Gabe's Garden. Check out those black-eyed Susans under the tree! I had gathered those seeds from an easement two years ago, and then combed them into the earth roughly around the base of the Norway maple. At the time, I didn't know there was landscape cloth beneath the soil there. I decided to leave the stupid cloth in when I planted the irises, because I was tired, and I was grumpy for being blessed with more irises than places to put them. I'm glad I did. The Susans are covered in flowers now.

Don't they go nicely with the toy truck?

Here is the view from the front walk. If you look closely you can see some wildlife out there on the circle, riding in a wagon. . .