Surprising little treasures
Posted on May 28th, 2009 – 9:00 AMBy Robyn Dochterman
If I’d known it was only going to rain a half-inch in the last three weeks, I might not have begun an epic plant-a-thon. I might have just sat still and enjoyed a seasonable, albeit dry, Spring. Instead, I’ve been planting nearly 200 tree and shrub seedlings spread over my four acres that should someday provide food and shelter for wildlife.
This seemed like it would a lot more fun when I placed this order during winter. In fact, there’s almost nothing fun about lugging buckets of water over hill and dale, trying to keep plants alive until real rain can refresh them.
But while I was lugging, I was also looking around me. I was surprised to find a shriveled up morel mushroom. And an old cicada skeleton. There was take-your-breath-away blazing bright scarlet tanager out in the yard, and it really does sound like a robin with a sore throat when it sings. On the topic of robins, I also noticed that the four babies in the Alberta Spruce are growing incredibly fast.
Maybe the most fabulous of my finds during my days of watering work, though, was the huge moth that looked like an super-sized bee. Could it have been a Snowberry Clearwing Moth? It looked like it, but there don’t seem to be any reports of this moth this far north.
Have you discovered anything surprising in your yard or garden?
20 Responses to "Surprising little treasures"
My first vegetable garden was in a yard where four kids had grown up. I was always digging up marbles and army men. I didn’t have any kids of my own yet and it was like being an archeologist of their childhoods. Loved it.
Wow, that moth is really cool!
Today, while standing with the last of the morning coffee taking in the garden, a blue heron flew right over me, skimming the roof of the house.
Last year, a large green and yellow spider resided on a tall Verbena boniarensis for weeks, right by my back door.
Robin, I’m glad that you’re making the best of hard work–you could have written a whiny post about this, but turned it into something lovely.
The only thing that ever surprised me was when I was planting flowers for my mother. I had a trowel in one hand and was vigorously churning up the soil in a pot, when all of a sudden a clump of dirt I was about to stab opened it’s eyes. It was a frog! I shrieked and made my brother fish the frog out of the pot.
Isn’t nature great? I’ve enjoyed choral ensembles by all different kinds of birds in the trees though my favorite sound has been the buzzing of wings indicating a hummingbird is present. They love the purple pholx and monarda.
Unfortunately living on an old farmstead, other discoveries have not been as pleasant. Each spring a new crop of old rusty nails, hinges, horseshoes, and broken pieces of glass and old crockery usually pops to the surface of my gardens. Last year the bounty filled an entire peanut can!
This year in moving some dirt around with the bobcat, my husband found an entire pile of old limestone, which we have now decided to turn into a limestone patio on the north side of the house. Anyone have extra sand or an extra hand??
Judybusy, I’m vexed by weather, but since I expect it, no whining is necessary. Thanks for your sweet comment.
Brooke, I love your frog story. I bet it took 10 minutes for your heart to beat normally again! Anyone else find something suddenly alive?
Kiwi, what do you do with your rusty discoveries? Can you do anything “artful” with them like you’re doing with the limestone (very cool idea, btw). Nails grow better than weeds here too.
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I’ve seen this guy in Minnesota as well.
Robyn,
I have a lovely milkweed plant that’s about 5 years old and fairly large now with bright orange flowers. The butterflies are supposed to love it. I don’t think I’ve every actually seen a butterfly on the plant, but other things, like bees like it. Last year I noticed the foliage was getting pretty munched and so I looked closely for the offender and I found a bunch of striped caterpillars eating away. I kept an eye on it and a few days later counted 13 caterpillars on the one plant. I google’d ‘em and confirmed my suspicion that they were monarchs. I was happy my garden was able to supply the food to so many baby butterflies (as I like to think of them) and the plant was serving its intended purpose. Maybe this year I’ll get to have the actual butterflies back in my yard.
Wow. 13 caterpillars! You are a monarch epicenter, Rebecca.
I saw a wild turkey in the garden the other morning. For several weeks we had wood ducks coming into the front garden in the evenings. Perhaps not a big deal for more suburban/ rural minnesotans, but I live between the airport & downtown, so am frequently amazed at some of the near-urban wildlife we get in our yard.
Saw a rabbit. Shot it and had it for dinner. Yum!
Robyn. I’m with you on the epic plant-a-thon. Yikes. I invested in some soaker hoses and run them for a bit every day.
Two surprising things so far this year:
–One. A hawk at the birdbath in my front garden — splashing around like a sparrow!
–Two. A male mallard in the front yard sitting in a circle of bunnies!
We saw the first fawn of the season this morning. Deer are real pests in our area (south of Battle Creek in St Paul), but the fawns are sooo cute…
Robyn:
Can you say “trash”? The nails are brittle and rusty. Wish they could be “recycled” that way though. 
My heart stopped while watering my butterfly garden last year and 3 baby bunnies shot out of a little hole after getting soak-n-wet! The mother must’ve moved them there the night before.
I was watering my Cone Flowers this morning and I noticed a little bird sitting in the middle of one of the plants. Soaking wet and not moving, I picked ‘her’ (found this out when I took her to the Rehab place on Dale St. in St. Paul) up and she perched on my finger but that was it. It was identified as a juvenal Pine Siskin. Hope she is able to fly soon!
A hawk in a birdbath? I guess they get dusty too. Who knew?
There are definitely Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moths this far north. They love Bee Balm. Don’t know that I’ve seen them this early but do have pictures of a pair mating on our porch screen and one hovering over the Bee Balm.
I used to call those moths Humming Bees when I was a kid growing up North of Bemidji. My dad set me straight and we looked them up in an insect book, evidently there are a couple varieties of them. We mostly saw the striped Sphinx Moths in the Northwoods, they are pretty cool creatures.
i used to be a lot more skittish about all the bugs in my garden, and was occasionally prone to a shriek or two. i’m learning to identify all these strange creepy crawlies, and in doing so am getting a better handle on my reactions to them. theres definitely been less shrieking and flapping since i first started.
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
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