I have mentioned before that I have a pond on the property. I dug it by hand back in 1997. This is how it looked shortly after I finished terracing the gardens behind it and laying in the paving in front of it.
The picture below is about how it looked a couple of weeks ago.
Today I went out to address the situation. Mainly what I was trying to do was beat back the forsythia and the bush honeysuckle so that you could actually see that there is a pond in there. I have succeeded to some extent. So far, this is what I have whacked out of the thicket.
The pond is to the left in that picture. In the next picture, which features Jesse as the human figure for scale, you are seeing the pond margin and plantings looking at it from the east. In the picture of the brand new pond, the east side of the pond is on the left.
On the far left edge of this photo, there is a clump of prairie cone flower. They are covered in buds and will be bursting into bloom in about two weeks. The next clump in the row is goldenrod, which will be spectacular in August. There is another clump of goldenrod in front of the cone flower. Directly over Jesse’s head you can just make out the spiky leaves of the cat tails that are actually growing in the pond. Just behind Ruby are the spikes of the yellow flag which escaped from the pond and is colonizing that corner.
I took Jesse on a tour of the pond/bird sanctuary garden. As we were walking along, he noticed something clinging to my shorts. It turned out to be the shell of a dragonfly nymph that had emerged from the pond to adulthood. I guess I picked it up while I was wading around in the cat tails, thinning them and whacking back the shrubbery. I like the evidence that the pond habitat has inhabitants. A couple of amphibians jumped into the pond when I walked up to start working. More evidence.
Behind the forsythia, there is a volunteer sassafrass tree (courtesy of the birds) which I have been encouraging. It is about twelve feet tall now, and already there is a bitterroot vine that has decided it needs climbing. I planted bitterroot on the fence back there, and it has become splendidly happy. At first I was reluctant to pull up any volunteers, this being reputed to be a difficult plant to establish in a domestic situation. I believe I may pull the one climbing the sassafrass right out of the ground before I unwind it from the sassafrass..
My vision of this corner of the yard was that it would be a beautiful little haven for the birds with a place they could drink and bathe. You should be careful what you ask for. I would say I have definitely achieved a bird haven, and they drink and bathe in the little waterfall all day long. The trouble is, when birds drink and bathe they also shit, and that process will leave behind them the seeds of everything that they find excellent to eat.
As I was beating back the shrubs that I plantedoh-so-enthusiastically 10 years ago, I found several dozen young cherries that the birds had planted for me. There was also a young mulberry tree that was 12 feet tall. The frost killed it back to the roots, but it was gamely sprouting down there below the forsythia bush. I cut it off at ground level with my huge lopping shears, unrepentant.
I was so happy about 7 years ago when a bush honeysuckle volunteered next to the waterfall. Now it has a trunk that is 5 inches in diameter, and I realize that what I should have done is pull it right out of the ground the second I noticed it and identified it. Hindsight is so perfect! Of course, the birds would completely disagree with my idea of eradicating it. They love it.
In addition to the trees and shrubs, there are numerous pokeweed plants growing back there. And if I don’t get right on it, the whole area will turn into a blackberry patch that is totally intertwined with grape vines. Oh yes. There are wild grapes back there: possom and fox grapes. And they are exceedingly pleased by the environment we have provided for them, so pleased that they are about ten feet tall and rampantly owning the fence.
As I was working, I suddenly flashed on a line from “The Hunt for Red October,” spoken on the bridge of the aircraft carrier after a Tomcat has crashed: “This thing will get out of control.”
I mentioned that to Jesse, and he smiled a little smile, and said, “This whole yard is in danger of that.”