pshaw_raven | Garden Guests (Reply)

Early this morning I spotted this narrow fellow in the garden. This is a Peninsula Ribbon Snake, a Florida subspecies, and they're non-venomous. We have these hanging around fairly often in the warm months. Yesterday afternoon we saw some Great Crested Flycatchers dirt bathing in the back where we've been starting to clear for solar panels. They're fast moving birds, but I'm relatively sure there were two of them. At first it seemed like there were four.

One of my yard/garden goals is to make things wildlife-friendly. While I take steps to protect my food plants (though something ate my habanero plant ... WTF) I try to select native plants and provide cover areas. We're also not the types who dote on manicured lawns, so there's very little mowing, chemicals, or artificial landscaping going on. We do mow and weed-whack in summer because the ticks can be a nightmare if you don't. But we're not looking to be on the cover of House Beautiful or anything, and it's far more satisfying to me to see the local does bringing their newborn fawns around because they feel safe.

I'm kinda giving up on tomatoes. I can't grow enough to make it worth my time to can and make sauces and pastes, and I'm allergic to raw tomatoes anyway. Yes, I still eat salsa by the chip-load when we go out and yes, I suffer for it, and yet I continue to do it because salsa is yummy. But anyway, I am very good at growing peppers, herbs, and flowers so I'm going to shift my focus more in that direction for the summer. Come winter I'll be growing leafy greens and possibly trying my hand at potatoes. I could probably stop needing to buy herbs at the store altogether.