Gardening, Cooking, Birds and more!: The Promise of Spring

male goldfinch

Spring arrived early in our area after a mild winter so the weeds and the insects have had a head start. The leaf lettuce my husband planted last fall is growing strong, and is enough to feed my daughter's guinea pigs daily!

A few weeks before planting our vegetable garden, I added most of the stuff from our compost bin into the soil. Not all of the eggshells or clementine peels had completely de-composed, but it is still valuable. We also put in shredded paper to aerate the soil.

We also have quite a few strawberries. They seem to get sweeter every year. I try and pick them before they are completely ripe, otherwise the birds nibble them.

Parsley, cilantro and basil

Tomato plants

I planted zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I also put some sugar snap pea seeds in. We have a lot of mysterious seedlings sprouting from all the compost leavings...not sure what they are, but I am yanking them out.

I have been birding with a bit more intensity this year. My brother-in-law and sister came for a visit, and they are both avid birders. I bought some good quality binoculars and am trying to encourage a variety of birds to our yard. Above is a bluebird house which is currently vacant. I bought live mealworms to try and entice a bluebird mama to set up housekeeping, but so far, no blues. I was thrilled to see that the tufted titmice and wrens have been gorging on the worms, so maybe the bluebirds will catch on?

fruit feeder

tufted titmouse eating mealworms

I bought this fruit feeder in the hopes of attracting orioles, bluebirds, tanagers, waxwings etc. So far, I have seen cardinals, titmice and wrens visiting the feeder. There is hummingbird food, a dollop of grape jelly and live mealworms. I read that for the fruit eating birds, grapes jelly is their favorite. You can also put orange slices on the feeder.