Eye Spy

There is no better place to play a game of hide and seek than in the garden.  However, mostly with a garden it is just a game of seek.  If Waldo were a vegetable, chances are we would never find him until he was 10 times his normal size and way past ripe.  Such is the nature of gardens.  They keep their secrets hidden.

Take today's gardening venture.  It is late April and everything is just taking off in growth.  It is lush and green.  Looking at the larger view, the grand vista if you would, does not reveal all the hidden treasure that lies just beyond sight.  Here are some examples:

Here we have the bush bean bed.  These plants are really loving this location and also quite happy with the little cylindrical cages I have made for them.  These cages started out as just a way to thwart the roving Border Collie, but have become one of those 'great ideas' I will later claim to have done on purpose.  The bushy plants are kept upright which makes the beans easier to harvest.  But wait what beans am I talking about?  There aren't any beans in this photo?

It is not until you dive into the center of the planty mass that you will find these wonderful green beans.  And you need to find them because they are really producing right now.  Each day  I harvest between a half pound to a pound of them.  

Here is the wildly growing cucumber bed.  The vines are still at the stage where they would rather sprawl than climb so I have to keep wresting them onto the trellis.  Plenty of leaves, but it must be too early to harvest any cucumbers right?  After all, none are visible in this picture.

The thing about cucumbers is that they start out very small...

...and in a couple of days they become rather large.  This one is ready to go and if I leave it another day it will almost double in size.  Even though I am doing my best to find each of these wonderful cuces as they ripen they are doing their best to elude me.  I am sure that at some point this season I will discover a vegetable baseball bat.

Here is another plant that likes to grow.  This is butternut squash and the vines will probably reach outwards about 25 feet from this bed by the end of their growing season.  They are already close to ten feet in length and are menacing the beds around them.  From this view you can see that although there are vines there are not any squash- right?

Aha!  There is an actual squash hidden in the center of the bed.  There are lots and lots of female blooms right now with the potential to make little squash babies, but many don't actually get fertilized.  I was quite surprised to find this one at such a large size because I have been scouring this plant every few days to see if any fruit had set.  By the looks of it this squash is probably a couple of weeks old - and crafty, very sneaky...

Now tomatoes are definitely a case of hidden treasure.  Just look at this jumble of tomato vine branches obscuring any clear view.

However, tomato fruits can be rather large and sometimes very obvious...

...But even with them it pays to look more closely because what you thought was just a few tomatoes turns into a whole heaping gob of tomatoes...

...some of which are downright huge!  This is one of the Creole tomatoes and I am just anxious with anticipation of this whopper ripening.  Anxious to get a taste of this incredible jewel, but also worried.  Will some form of garden pest snatch it away from me or will they just put a big old hole in it.  The suspense is killing me.

Today though, there was something else besides luscious fruit hanging out on the tomato plants.  Eye spy with my little eye...

...an adorable baby cardinal.  This little chick was peeping and hopping around in this tomato plant and was very unafraid of me.  She was able to fly, but not very well and was trying to attract the attention of her mom.  Momma bird would fly close, but never seemed to hone in on where baby was located.

However, another female was quite honed in on the baby.  Lucky for baby bird she was in the dog proof fence area and I was very careful not to do anything to bring her closer to the 'dog zone'. 

This little drama played itself out for several hours this afternoon.  Baby would peep and hop about.  Mama bird would inexplicably fail to locate the baby and then leave for many minutes.  The Border Collie would focus intently and try to think of some way to sneak into the no dog area.  Hours passed like this and I was concerned because it was hot and humid and the baby bird was panting.  I could not think of any way to get it water without startling it or putting it in greater risk.

Finally the Mama bird found the baby and began to lure it out of our yard.  We put the dogs up to make sure this enchanting act of nature did not take on any 'circle of life' kind of drama.  Baby bird fluttered and hopped her way to our back fence where she disappeared with her mom.

On the one hand I am happy because the mom and baby are together.  On the other hand I am worried because baby birds at this stage are like a mobile buffet.  But mostly I am very happy that whatever happens, it is no longer happening in my yard.  God speed little birdie.