A Sad Spring Day

So this morning the city came and chopped down the very large, very old and very rotten oak tree across the street. I am pretty sure there were Downy Woodpecker and Northern Flicker families that just lost their homes. I am hoping that they hadn't already laid their eggs.
Tuesday morning a giant limb came crashing down at about 8am and went clear across the street, across the top of a parked car and right up to the front stairs of the house across the street. Thankfully no one was hurt. That is the time of day that all the kids are walking to school and commuters are heading to catch the bus so everyone truly was lucky. The city posted signs on Thursday about its removal and they were here by 7:30 today so I never got a chance to call City Hall to ask if they could wait till the breeding season was over. Not that they would have listened to me but it would have made me feel better that I at least tried. Human safety trumps non-endangered birds any day, but still it doesn't seem fair. I kind of feel that it is now like a game of musical chairs. All the good trees/homes have been taken and these birds now have nowhere to go and probably won't produce a brood this year.
I think I will add more suet cakes to the yard to make up for the lost homes. Again, the birds won't get the gesture but I will know that I am doing what I can for them.

More blooms and a bin!

I finally got around to getting a compost bin (I know, I know, as an organic gardener I should have had one years ago but just never got around to it). Thanks to New England Plastics and a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection the city of Medford is offering discounted bins to residents. So who am I to turn down a deal?!? The bin isn't exactly what I expected but it does hold/produce 24 cubic feet of compost so I guess all works out in the end. It was a DIY situation to get it together and the directions were pretty clear but they really should have stated right at the beginning that you need four hands or two people to assemble the sucker. Tom (you know my neighbor) helped me out putting it together and now I just need to stake it into the ground and load 'er up! And now since the city is cracking down on only taking yard waste on designated yard waste days (they used to take leaves and such in open barrels all the time) I have tons of brown matter to add and the way I go through fruits and veggies I produce enough green matter to make the perfect mix. And of course a picture will soon follow : )


As for the bloomers going on now in the yard this is a picture of my mini iris - Katherine Hodgkins. They are only 2" high but boy does the leftover greens grow high! These too have multiplied but only by two or three at each planting site. I am not a huge iris fan but I really like these ones. Unfortunately the blooms only last a week or so and then - poof - gone. But the early spring bloomers a quick to follow so all is not lost.