Garden Tuesday on Wednesday -- Heeere, Birdie, Birdie!

The Purple Martin Scout Report shows the Omaha area covered with sightings.  I awoke the day before Easter to the song of the martin, and assumed they were a block away at my neighbor's colony. I quickly put up the pole and house, thrilled that this might be The Year!

The pole is telescoping, with four sections held in place with tension clips.  They've worked so well in past years that it's been difficult to slide them down as needed.  Wouldn't you know it, the third pole keeps sliding down.  I've fixed it four times, and each time it's down within a day.  I know I wouldn't like it if my house kept dropping three feet.  Sometimes it takes a while to get out there to fix it.  Once this nasty cold rain stops and things dry out a little, I'll go out there and try a few tricks to get it to stay up.

Speaking of weather, I hope you all survived the unexpected golf ball sized hail yesterday evening.  Wasn't that scary?  I talked with someone this morning who drove through it.  All the rain kept our sump pump running all. night. long.  (We need a new check valve.)

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Anyway, the birds have not taken up residence in my yard yet.  The good news is that the sparrows haven't, either.  Since we're still going to have the crabtree extensively pruned, maybe this year it will bear less fruit and the sparrows will go elsewhere.  We have many more robins this year than I remember seeing in the time we've lived here.

The forsythia are just starting to show tips of their yellow blooms.  The bright yellow daffodils got pelted with the hail, so I hope they come back.  No grape hyacinth budding yet.  I suppose I should go out there and clean up what I didn't get to in the iris bed last fall (they hang on forever and it snows over them).  I'm hoping to see healthy and lovely hosta this year.

And, of course, there is Peter Rabbit.  There are two distinct rabbit paths across our backyard.  One hits an area of the fence where I cannot find an opening through or under it.  The other goes to a definite under-fence escape route, and I will enlist the help of my boys in carrying some old concrete (from fixing the fence posts) back there to bury and block the opening.  I haven't seen Pete yet this year, but I know he's out there.  Heeeeere, Hawkie, Hawkie, Hawkie!

That's what's happening in our yard.  Share your garden pics and enjoy the others at  Garden Tuesday.