Those rascally rabbits!

Tags

bunnies, postaday2015, snacking

  
I decided to trim back the bleeding heart, which to my constant surprise just keeps getting bigger and mulitplying, year after year, to give some breathing room to my second lily plant in the background. That’s when I discovered what those rascally rabbits have been up to, munching on their leaves, filling their bellies. These rabbits are so lucky that I don’t unleash Jack on their butts, but we live to close to Rte 23 and Jack might get hit by a car. 

Now this is what its sister lily looks like, the one that is out in the open, safe from becoming a chew toy and snack.

  
The difference is mindblowing isn’t it? 

I finally got around to attaching some screen material around the base of my clematis, but I wasn’t in time to prevent two of the shoots from being chomped on, but I did get it in time to protect the other two, so theoreticallly they should be safe for the rest of the summer and I should get some pretty blossoms this year. I really missed my pretty clematis last year and actually I think that it has been two years since I have had a clemtais bloom.

So let’s see what other hijinks these rascally rabbits can come up with next time.  

Clematis has survived! Amongst a few others

Tags

bunnies, clematis, postaday2015

    

Of all the things that I did today,  water the back yard and all of the little garden areas, prepare and cook a bunch of asparagus, made the dill sour cream sauce for the salmon which my husband will cook later on, sauteed the brocoli with garlic, what made me so very happy was the new shoot that I discovered proving that my clematis had survived. I had thought it lost to me because last year, bunnies or something that loves greenery, kept eating it before it could grow full size and then with the horrible winter, I was convinced that my clematis was lost to me. Seeing it all young and new was very exciting, I am going to see if I can find a small piece of chicken wire to shield it from future ravagers, keep it safe so that I can have some beautiful blossoms this year.

Another plant that came back despite all odds is my sage plant.

  
Another plant that I thought was lost, but instead came back reigniting my awe in power of life, is my balloon plant.

  
I suppose the reason I am flabbergasted by these small miracles of survival is due to the fact that many of my hostas aren’t doing very well and I was always under the assumption that hostas were as hardy as they come. This changing weather pattern is changing my garden dynamic which is fine, I simply need to be flexible with the changes. 

Ode to the Yucca

Tags

bunnies, environment, postaday2014, winter, Yucca

My Yucca plants always amaze me. I had never seen a Yucca before I moved into my house; I had heard of them, but I had always thought that they were native to the desert. I googled Yucca and according to Wikipedia they are native to the Southwest and are primarily ornamental plants. So how my Yuccas survive the harsh Western Massachusetts where I live is beyond me.

There was a year where I thought that the big Yucca bush had bitten the dust; something had devoured it from the roots upward and I figured that it would never recover. Au contraire, it came back bigger and stronger than ever. Moreover just a month ago, I took the rake and the clippers to the Yucca to divest it of the oldest leaves and cut away all of the dead weight and as you can see the new crop of blossoms came from the new shoots that erupted shortly after I pruned it.

The little one that is featured by the stone wall; last week I had left for a goner, as you can see I was mistaken. I am amazed at the yucca’s tenacity especially in its non-native environment, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get watered enough, if bunnies make their nests at its bases or if it doesn’t get much sun; it won’t surrender.

After I took the picture of the tiny Yucca, I turned and saw the prettiest sky behind me off by the white Lilac bush right at my bedroom window and I had to capture it as a picture.

Jack’s antics and pathways in the garden

Tags

bunnies, garden, Jack, pets, postaday2014

Whenever we get home, my husband and I are so happy to see our children, but as I said last week, we both seriously miss our Jack as well. Saturday morning when I let him outside, I saw the bunny outsmart him a few times running around in the garden. It made me think of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd with Jack being Elmer Fudd.

As I was working outside in the back; I couldn’t help but stop quite often to watch Jack gallop, prance and jump trying to find his elusive prey. I had to take pictures of his pathways and craziness; he takes his job seriously as chief hunter and predator. His backyard is his and woe to those who trespass, at least that is how he feels about it. The resident bunny isn’t on the same page, he brazenly goes about his business or her business. Do bunnies stay together after mating? Maybe we have a couple cohabiting and their children have gone off to make their lives elsewhere. I found two empty burrows or nests; so there were definitely babies just this past spring, same as last year. I had thought that the nests last year were a fluke and that the mother hadn’t quite been aware that Jack was ever present, but apparently the bunny doesn’t fear jack’s perpetual presence. Our bunny has nerves of steel because Jack really wants to get it.

You might not see Jack in all of the pictures, but he was in there at some point. He has his routes well mapped out and he goes in between the plants, ducking beneath Hostas leaves, trying to be stealthy while he searches for his bunny. He is very diligent with his perimeter patrols. He is quite the hoot, our little Jack.

The best picture

Tags

bunnies, pictures, piglets, postaday2013

I saw the picture of the bunny on Facebook and the caption read as follows “Rob the giant bunny with his miniature piglet friends” It doesn’t get any better than this, my hubby’s name is Rob and he is as cuddly as a giant bunny and one of his best friends resembles a little piglet, our little Jack!
We have called Jack our little piglet since he first came to us with his adorable markings, not to mention, the adorable way he asks for food and the fact that he will eat anything that is offered, vegetable, fruit, cookie, ice cream, anything.

I love these two pictures!