I see all sorts of neat birds down at the community garden, but most of the time I am not fast enough to catch a picture of them...one week I saw my first Baltimore Oriole, the next week a Rose Breasted Grosbeak...some woodpeckers and some wrens. There is the one little tree that has these dead twigs sticking out. I looked up and there was the tiniest little bird sitting on top...could it be a hummingbird? I think so... I actually got a photo of one of the fastest moving birds...how ironic!

This was the hollow from out came the wrens that were too fast for me.

Someone else at the garden is making boxes!

...and can someone identify this ugly thing??

Better late than never!

I was probably the last person this year to get their garden started, but I did it! Planted on June 12.

It's sparse this year only a few plants: 2x tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper and an orange pepper, an eggplant, beans and lettuce. Except for the beans and lettuce all were plants bought from Home Depot. Liliana gave me an orphan zucchini plant, which I planted outside the box.

I checked my plants today the little green pepper plants have 2 little peppers on them already. I wonder if I should remove the flowers and force the plant to grow some more...I hate to get rid of my first fruit!

The beans have sprouted and the lettuce has too... I was sure I planted the lettuce in rows, but all that rain may have made them scatter a little. I received a spaghetti squash plant from another gardener who had too many, so I planted it also outside the box. It's the biggest plant in my garden! Yikes!

The whole community garden is a little wild this year. The stakes were still there from last year but no boundaries were strung...the paths are hard to find and full of weeds. I was under the impression that the garden would be tilled each spring, but this appears not to be the case. I was also under the impression someone would fill the water barrels up on a regular basis, but it appears we have to do it ourselves using the hose which is a bit of a pain in the butt.

Common Merganser

I have 15x zoom and this was the best I could get. I seem to spot the mergansers at around 9 AM at the forks of the Thames. They stand out with their white bodies and they like to dive a lot, but they are never close by. If I go closer to the banks the geese get louder and closer to me and the merganser swims away. The geese and the mallards seem to locate people on the shore and swim closer hoping you are going to feed them. There are few things funnier than a Canadian goose's butt in the air :P

Hooded Mergansers

I was really excited to see these 3 Hooded Mergansers in the Thames River! One male and 2 females.

I am going to try and post more winter wildlife photos of the forks of the Thames on this blog.

Butterflies and flowers

wow! I am so happy with the photos my new camera takes! I was so worried these would end up blurry.

I don't spend enough time in the garden to smell the flowers and observe the wildlife! The Monarchs just love these flowers! To whomever planted these..what a joy!

I think these are Cleomes:

They are as tall as me!

It's a jungle out there!

OMG! my garden has grown out of control! I am so embarassed by this mess! Definitely will rethink my design! The tomato plants are so huge they were falling over with the weight! I removed one of the 5 plants that had fallen completely over; cut back the other ones severely so that the fruit can get some light. I tried restaking them but they fell over too...only one of the 5 plants has given me red tomatoes. The beefmasters were huge and cracked on the bottoms...I have no hope for them! It is so depressing and defeating!!

I tore out one of my rows of peas that also collapsed the pods were huge but the peas were not filling them out.

My cucumbers are taking over the free space on the ground and creeping into the boxes! however I have plucked quite a few cukes! have been eating a lot of cucumber and zucchini salads!

Of my four zucchini plants, one has given me lots of zucchini the others flowers but no fruit until this week, so there is hope.

My beans were giving me lots of giant beans, but I had to rip out a couple of the plants because they were choking out the eggplants.

Speaking of eggplants..voila!

Is this not a thing of beauty?!

Roasted sliced eggplant on the bbq with melted cheese with stir fried veggies and garlic! yummy!

My 4 boxes

Broccoli, beans, and eggplant

cucmbers

One box just of tomatoes

one box just zucchini, I planted one plant and 5 seeds, the more mature plant has 4 zucchini on it already!

peas, early on, they're 4 x the size already!

Sunflowers curtesy of Alexis (Thanks :)

What I like about the boxes, is that it cuts down on the weeding and the watering and walk around the plants fairly easily. Everything is within reach.

I've just planted another row of peas, beans and carrots seeds today. I think the boxes may discourage a few animals. I keep finding holes, that looks like a dog (judging by the paw prints) may be trying to dig up my sunflowers, which are in the middle of the garden and not in a box.