For the Birds!

Above is our neighbour's (Richard and Marlene) boulevard. I talked about them quite on last years blog. Marlene and Richard are very supportive of the Boulevarden (in spirit and - offering labour and plants to the Boulevarden, and explaining to people who pass by what the garden is. Richard has dug up two large 'gardens' and is planting them in with tomatoes. Richard's brother-in-law grew an abundance of tomato plants and have them 20 or so.

The first time I grew tomatoes from seed I ended up with literally hundreds of plants. Because I had grown them from seed I was attached to every plant and couldn't bring myself to send any to their death in the compost. I walked up and down our block offering tomato plants (I didn't have have any guerrilla gardens then).

Okay and now to 'For the Birds', part one. It all started this morning...(cue foggy, rippling screen)

...the morning started out innocent enough, I had some breakfast, did a bit of reading and was getting ready to go out to the garden. Then all of a sudden my cat Fury came running in the bedroom with a bird in her mouth...zoikes with a capital zee...unfortunately I behaved completely irrationally. I like to think of myself as independent person who can tackle anything - but the first thing I did was run out of the house screaming and call my partner Paul who thankfully wasn't in a meeting and came home to remove the bird (in fairness we only live a couple blocks away, but still)...I feel like a lame louse that I couldn't do it myself...

After Paul left I started to wonder where the heck Fury could have caught a bird as she is an indoor cat...it turns out from the fireplace! This is the second time a bird has come down the chimney so we are going to put wire mesh on the roof opening...whew

After all the excitement I went out to the garden for a few hours - I planted some corn in a space which I am pretty sure does not even remotely have enough room to grow...I know, I know, so why did I plant it there, right? Well for two reasons, first the garden is pretty full at the moment. I need divide and remove some of the plants and also to get rid of some plants that were fast growing 'fillers' that we planted last year before we got things going. For example, we have seven Catmint plants...which were great last year to give texture and colour to the garden, but this year I am going to take out four plants, divide and pot them up, and then put them in the Boulevarden for the tak'n. (side note all of the seedlings and volunteers I put out last night were gone this morning).

Ummm...okay now where was I? Oh right..the corn. So, the second reason I planted it where I did was in the hopes it would be a bit of a wind barrier for the tomatoes. See the picture below...and...I know...shake your head at my poor, poor planting choices - more than likely later in the season I will post a picture documenting their move.
'For the Birds' part two - sparrows have been taking insulation from our neighbours house. As i sit at my kitchen table I can watch them go up under the siding of their house and come out with a piece of insulation so large they can barely fly away. The other day Marlene was out with some foam insulation in attempts to keep the birds out. Later when I was outside she and I chatted about the scampy nest building birds. Our chat reminded me of something I had read a while ago in one of my gardening books or magazines...it suggested putting out dryer lint for the birds to use for their nest building. So I grabbed a bundle as well as a bundle of thin willow branches I had cut from a small bush on the Boulevarden and tied them to a branch of our birch tree with some jute. Below is a picture - Paul thinks it looks nasty - I think it looks lovely...we will have to wait and see what the birds think.