Life on the Outer Coast

Saturday was a day to spend in the garden. It was sunny enough to send me back inside for sunscreen and a big straw hat, only found the latter, but after some sun exposure on vacation, I'm not as susceptible to burning.
Started off the day hearing orange crowned warblers, but they soon gave it up and mostly what I heard were hummingbirds and bald eagles.
Did hear Townsend's Warbler, Song sparrows, Robins, Varied, Hermit and Swainson's Thrushes in the evening.

Back to the garden, it is a little pathetic to admit it, but I just planted the potatoes and finished getting the other beds ready so I could transplant the insane number of brocoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussel sprouts that I started in late April. There is also a couple of artichokes and more carrots to plant. The garlic that was planted last August is growing as it should, so I've done somethings right. Did finally remove the old growth kale (4.5ft and just as wide) that was left over from last year.

Before planting the potatoes, the edge boards had to be realigned, dug in and staked in place . Under the boards were about 20 rough skinned newts. I was happy to see so many of the little creatures, despite the fact that they are an exotic to the island. Most of them were about 3 to 4 inches long. I did see a 6 inch newt the other day on the boardwalk, but no large ones in the garden yet. I'm not sure where they overwinter or how much of the population does. More research to do.

There are a plethora of flowers in full bloom like Primula japonica and the Sweet Woodruff. The Primula are on their second tier of flowers right now, they usually make it to at least 5 tiers. They self-seed all over the garden, but som far there is only one plant with an off color of coral pink, the rest are deep fuchsia. Not sure about their tendency to outcross.
Others are just starting including alot a columbines that I let survive, the Meconopisis, Geranium erianthum, Polygonum viviparum and the Clematis montana.
The Malus fusca and the domestic apples are blooming right now. From the greenhouse porch I have a good view in the M. fusca flowers. Yesterday I looked in one flower and found three different insects, all rather small without a hand lens. Two of them had transparent wings with dark veins, a red thorax and black head. The other looked more beetle like. I'm going to have to get a system to identify these creatures, don't have a camera that is adequate for photographing them. Maybe I'll pass the good ones along to someone who does.
The other interesting insect from the garden was a dragon fly. It was basking on a blade of grass, wings held out in the upper flower garden. It had a single spot on each wing, green eyes, copper/brown head, green on the upper thorax and the odd yellow spot. Managed to take an inadequate photo of that one, but the photo was good enough to verify some features. From what I could tell, it looks like one of the Emeralds, probably in the genus Somatochlora. I'll have to find the dragonflies of Alaska book to help me identify it.

Was inspired to look at every Claytonia sibirica in the garden for color. All but two had darker pink petals with darker lines, one had white flowers and one was intermediate. It took awhile to find the two odd colored ones, both were growing more in the shade than the darker forms. Might be something to look at more carefully.

Two unexpected finds in the garden were the Marchantia polymorpha and a Polystichum munitum. The Marchantia had female gametophores (with umbrella-like arms) and gemmae. I carefully weeded the vascular plants away from this little beauty. The Polystichum was growing under a dwarf weeping japanese maple. I was trying to remove some of the Maianthemum dilatatum from around the maple when I found the fern. I'm sure that its spores came along with the maple from Washington or Oregon. There were four fronds, so it had probably been growing for a couple of seasons.

Today, is most likely one for chasing the boys up Gavan Hill.