Warbler Rescue Operation

A thud on the living room window interrupted my lunch yesterday. A little yellow bird was twitching on the front deck, lying in a puddle in near-freezing weather. It looked stunned, but was still breathing, so I picked it up and put it on some straw in a bucket and kept it in the warm garage until this morning. He flew off into the bushes this morning, despite my concerns that the blow to the head might have caused blindness.

Little yellow bird, seems to look most like a orange crowned warbler:

Resident-lawnmower-man thought my concerns were ridiculous, and added sarcastically "Yeah, and maybe it has epilepsy too." "Or blind AND epileptic." Not that he didn't care for the bird. He was the one who suggested that I need to give it a water bowl in addition to the bird seed. His family has rehabilitated several birds on their farm and RLM himself was a childhood chicken-raising entrepreneur who used the profits to buy a cow! I recall my urban child self being more interested in clothes at the mall...

Self-Watering Garden

My vision for a self-watering indoor garden with capillary mats has been realized. I am going to wait a while longer to declare it a complete success. I have two shelves that are watering my plants from the bottom, rather than me needing to water the pots individually with a watering can. This is a benefit to the plants, which usually appreciate bottom-watering.

Self-watering indoor garden: arrows indicate flow of water.
There is a reservoir on each shelf, with a capillary mat "wick" from the reservoir (the green boxes) to the adjacent tray, and another wick between each tray. Each tray has a capillary mat lining its bottom, which conducts the water through the holes in the pots, where the potting mix sucks up water and delivers it to the plant roots. I had to wet all the fabric mats to start the capillary action, and the trays have stayed moist for the past week. I add several litres of water to each reservoir per day, so the water must be going somewhere!

Capillary mat between reservoir and tray:

My edible indoor garden. There are spicy purple greens, cilantro, basil, and watercress as well as romaine, butterhead, green leaf and red oakleaf lettuces. My "Micro Tom" and "Red Robin" miniature tomatoes were just sown today. I can't wait to see my tiny, genetically-freakish tomatoes.

Lastly, I sowed a large number of Primula denticulata (Drumstick primula) seeds and got only three plants. I have tried these seeds before and only produced one plant from my efforts. They take an exceptionally long time to germinate and seem to grow very slowly. I am hoping to have nice robust plants by spring. Primula denticulata and Primula auricula are hardy to zone 2, thus are good selections for our climate. Has anybody else had experience growing drumstick primulas from seed?

Fungus and Flowers

There has been a nice amount of rain recently, leading to a few more mushrooms in the lawn, and no need to turn on the sprinklers. To sum up our watering needs, I hand water in June only to linger longer with the blooming bulbs, use the sprinkler generously during the baking heat of July, and only water the potted plants in August.
Annual salvia, still looking nice.

The large raised bed full of perennials. I made a spot for a new peony and have marked all the potential bulb locations with purple stakes. Hello bulbs, I am ready!

Smaller raised bed with perennials thinned, ready for new perennials and bulbs.

A fungus in the lawn -- looks like a cluster of dinner buns!

September month is bulb-planting month in the north! I am waiting from orders from Lilies in the Valley, Veseys, and a garden center in Campbell River, BC. Hopefully, all orders come before the ground freezes, which has been problem in the past with some mail-order companies.

Sedum "Brilliant", but no blooms yet!

"Blue Bird" Delphinium elatum -- reblooming.