Masked bandits and other faces
Okay, it final. No more dilly dallying, no more putting it off. The bird feeder has to go somewhere else. Last night I was trying to get to sleep but the bird feeder was banging against the deck post. It does that when it's windy, but I thought, "Wait a minute, it's not windy!"
I reluctantly dragged my sleepy self out of bed and into the living room from where my windows look down upon the front deck. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light on the deck, I thought the corner post where the bird feeder hung was looking odd. Then the post moved.
I did a double take and focused. It looked like a cat was balanced on the deck railing, leaning up against the post, reaching into the bird feeder. That did not make sense, and it was one big cat. My neighbour Jim has a really big, fat cat, but there is no way that cat could hoist himself up on a chair, let alone do a balancing act on a deck railing.
As I stood there watching, I remembered one of the neighbours mentioning that there was a raccoon in the neighborhood and it suddenly dawned on me that I had the little masked marauder at the bird feeder. Being the evil person I am, I quietly raised my window and let out one ferocious growl. I've never seen anything jump higher or faster than that raccoon. It took off like a shot. I had a good chuckle and went back to bed.
Today I shopped around town and found a fine shepherd's hook at a good price down at the Co-op garden centre, said hello to Sally and went happily home and firmly seated it in the ground and then hung the bird feeder on it. My sweet neighbour Gladys can still watch the birds, maybe not so conveniently, but at least the flower gardens won't suffocate under all the sunflower husks and Rodney the raccoon won't have as easy a time pilfering free food.
Whew... what a day. And if that weren't enough, I let Ray Butler freeze my left index finger and poke around it with a very sharp object probably a knife, but I didn't look. As long as I can't see it, it's not happening. Can you imagine... I have an infected wart. For crying out loud.
Now I really have to break out the debit card and buy those cool, rubber tipped gardening gloves that Joan has at her garden centre. I went to visit Joan last week and got so homesick for working with her in the garden centre that I just couldn't bring myself to buy anything else that whole day. Sheesh. I did buy my first pansies from Joan though.
She and Sally are the smartest garden centre managers in town. They both had pansies in by the end of April. Sussex is famous for pansy lovers, and no wonder! Pansies are the earliest, prettiest, hardiest flowers around these parts, and they smell divine. No matter how much they get hybridized, we here in Sussex still prefer the ones with the faces.
So, here's the scoop on pansies. Commonly known as viola or pansy, it is a member of the Violaceae family which is part of the family of herbs. Pansies need high levels of light, so they obviously enjoy full sun.
A light, well drained soil is preferred and should be somewhat acidic (pH of 5.5 to 5.8). Dry them out between watering but don't allow them to wilt. Do not over water your pansies, which will cause roots to rot and encourages nutrient deficiencies.
Pansies do well in cool weather, so when the hot season hits, your pansies will become more stressed and susceptible to root rot disease and pests such as spider mites, aphids and thrips. To keep them healthy, pinch them back to prevent long leggy stems and apply a general-purpose fertilizer containing trace elements of magnesium, and just keep them cool. I don't normally plant pansies in my flower beds. I like them in hanging baskets and containers that I can move around. But really, it doesn't matter where you plant them just plant them.
Oh yes, in case you didn't know, pansies are edible. So if you see them as a garnish on something at Tys and Tails, try them, and let me know how they taste.
Callie Canrinus is the author of "The Lazy Gardener" blog at http://thelazygardener.blogharbor.com/blog and "Callies Gardens" at http://www.calliesgardens.com/
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