Saving Ducks and Felling Trees
May 25-29 at A.M. Cuddy Gardens
To say this week has been eventful would be an
understatement. The gardens are lively with blooms, ducklings are being hatched
and we are working hard to prepare for the open gardens. Sue, a professor in
the program has been out this week organizing, inventorying, and pricing all
the plants that are in the sale next weekend.
We couldn’t do it without her!
Since there shouldn’t be any more frost warnings we have
moved all the tropical plants and cacti outdoors from inside the
residence. We have quite a collection of
cacti and succulents including very large and old jade and agave plants. The
collection of rare and unusual cacti have arrived from the campus greenhouse
along with tropical plants including
hanging baskets and many more plants for
the upcoming sale. The patio is becoming a jungle! It’s a good thing Lucas finished the
renovation on the pond early this week.
There has been a momma mallard duck nesting in the compost
pile for nearly 3 weeks. We have done our best to protect and not disturb her,
even made sure she had plenty of water within an easy reach. What a lovely day to see ducklings just
hatched and ready to make their way to the pond. To ensure safe travels we helped them along
the way. The pond is quite far from the nesting area.
Amongst the joys of this week there has been some sadness as
some trees had to be taken down. One
river birch beside the dry garden just wasn’t flushing any growth this year.
Jen from OMAFRA says it’s quite typical of river birches with multi stems to
girdle themselves. This causes stress from lack of water and nutrients and the
trees become more susceptible to pests and diseases. The old plum tree out by the Magnolia garden
has been noticeably suffering for many years. When Mike saw what little growth
was coming this year he called it. It’s time he said, the tree just wasn’t
doing any good in the gardens. Sad to
lose such a old huge tree, the structure added interest in the garden and the
tree will surely be missed.
