I think of us as having a lot of birds, but we rarely if ever get that many at once We see hawks and vultures much more often than other big birds, so big birds eating seeds are rarely an issue.
I can’t seem to broadcast small grains without special treatment. I’ve tried many times. If a recent sowing is representative, I also can’t seem to broadcast turnip seeds. I can broadcast mustard though - - nothing seems to like it enough to snap it up before it gets started. I’ve experimented only a little with broadcasting larger seeds like squash and legumes. Last season I threw probably close to a pound of grocery adzuki all over the property, got one solitary plant, and never found the other beans. Those experiments are ongoing but so far this year seem to have done better than the grains. Nothing seems fond of the legumes or squash yet. Maybe it’ll stay that way?
Hmm, I wonder if broadcast sowing very large beans, like favas, limas, and runners, would work for you? I can easily see a bird having a hard time choking down a large seed from one of those species.
I have some collard plants that survived 0F. I covered most with thin frost blanket and they bounced back to full size. I left three completely uncovered, just to see what would happen, and they are slowly coming back.
Disadvantage of the migration route: thousands upon thousands of birds (there’s one week every spring where the fields look like they’re re-snowed with trumpeter swans!). Advantage of the migration route: wait a week, those particular birds will be gone.
Though there’s a corvid around for every situation, and they’re more-or-less resident, and probably smarter and stronger than I am in every instance. Nature exists to keep us humble though.
That’s an interesting challenge! And I’m sure it’s compounded a bit by the fact that you want to help those birds out, because they’re an important part of our biosphere. Unfortunately, there’s no way to talk to them and say, “Here, I’ve planted this field just for you. That one over there is mine.” If there were, it would make it so easy to share with wildlife and still have enough for ourselves!
The middle spiny prickly plant I posted previously is teasel! I didn’t know it was so cold hardy. It’s getting bigger now.
The other two I’m pretty sure you guys identified right. Hairy bittercress and wintercress.
Dad and I just got in an argument aboit the hairy bittercress. I did have it IDed but I didn’t realize that it’s the same plant that later will shoot up a stem and has seed pods like mustard or radish and when touched, or even in the wind, the seed pods shoot open and shoot seeds everywhere.
Cool! Very cold hardy! The next question is: Does it taste good?
I’m particularly wondering if the hairy bittercress seed pods may taste good while they’re green. Radish seed pods certainly are. If the seed pods are tasty, you could easily harvest them while they’re green, long before they’re mature enough to shatter and spray seeds everywhere, and eat them. Food aquired and weed problem solved, all in one!
Not so much winter garden surprises, but definitely exciting things going on
This is my first spring on this property. Even though it has been fully mowed grass monoculture for at least 30 years, I am finding lots of spring ephemerals and yesterday I identified yarrow.
I expect as I continue to let the seed bank express itself I’ll get more surprises.
That’s very neat! It’s exciting to discover native plants (a.k.a. “weeds”) that are tasty edibles and so good at surviving that they’ve hung on despite decades in a monoculture.
At my old house, I found a couple real surprises as I buried everything in wood chips and the chips broke down.
One was Moonflower, or datura. I pulled that one because the bees were getting drunk.
The area had been a streambed before the stream was forced underground at least 50 years before, but somehow morels survived! That was the big surprise.
The last of the snow left this bed just yesterday, so there’s no way this is spring growth. I had no idea it would just relax under 2-3 feet of snow for five months.
In our area, 8b, we can plant mache under the leaves of squash before they start to die back and the mache will come up before winter sets in. We get snow in most winters and it doesn’t faze the mache at all.
We had a warm winter – it only got down to -28F, but with over two feet of snow on the ground, I think it was insulated well. We also have alliums being revealed under the snow, but that’s something I see every year. I don’t think we’ve ever left mache unharvested in the fall.
not a surprise, but the first few sprouts, mixes of radishes, mustard greens, kale, turnips. I just scraped the grass off the top, stirred up a bit with a hoe, and then direct seeded. planted end of march in zone 5b.
I planted some rhubarb plants a year ago (maybe 2?) and thought they died out in the heat of summer and big infestations. But I discovered this plant is looking pretty good! I am glad it seems to be hanging in there and growing some!
this sprout grew in a tulip bed i planted in the fall. I did not and have never grown any produce here, so the only thing I can think happened is the horse manure I brought in must have somehow had some seeds in it. It is quite large when compared to the early spring plants I have planted (see above), and so this has inspired me to test plant some summer squash and watermelon and sunflower seeds, which i normally would have assumed I couldn’t plant until mid may at least. This sprout has definitely gone through some mid-30F weather, but I also did not notice it until recently, but I don’t think it has gone through a frost. I may underestimate when I can plant things in zone 5b, since my mom grows in zone 3b, but we may be getting lucky in that we may not have a late frost this year. Guess I will learn more over the years.
We see hawks and vultures much more often than other big birds, so big birds eating seeds are rarely an issue.
