A crow, kinda squat and fat with uneven feathers has taken roost on my hammock. This puts him about five feet (as the crow flies) from my compost pile. He thinks it’s his compost pile and guards it from the squirrel, the occasional opossum, and of course the other crows he accidentally calls when he complains about me working in the garden or having a quiet moment on the porch.
I put a bunch of Brazilian nuts in the pile a while back and the crow has been one by one taking them out and burying them in my garden beds. This is probably the weirdest thing I’ve seen this gardening season. I wonder what drives his behavior and if he really thinks he can find them again. I’ll keep watch and maybe find out.
This is my first Pacific Northwest garden and after years of Colorado gardens I’ve had to reevaluate all my assumptions and develop different strategies. First it was strange soil composition; water beaded up and ran off in sheets. Then it was sun/shade issues. Our lawn was actually moss. The next issue was soil temperature and crazy rain/sun cycles. And then came the slugs. Waves of them – day after day, sized from nearly too small to see to so big I actually gagged, more than once.
Finally the weather has smoothed itself out a bit and what is going to grow is in fact growing. I was thinking it would be about maintenance and observation from here on, but that crow has me certain that issues unknown to me are waiting just out of sight for their moment to arrive.
What’s going on in your garden this month?
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