Flora and Fauna Flora and Fauna
In spring the dogwoods are beautiful; they are excellent
understory trees. And if their spring show was not enough,
they turn a brilliant red in the fall.
Another common plant in our area is the blueberry. The
fruit is tiny compared to the commercial sort, but the flavor is
great.
One excellent wild evergreen for our sandy soil is holly, which
seems to grow where nothing else can survive.
Pink lady slipper orchids are a special treat which seem to do
best under pine trees.
Mountain laurels are huge evergreen shrubs, reaching 15 feet in
our yard. Their flowers are only truly appreciated close
up.
Bright blue is rare in flowers, even a weed like this. The dog
tooth violet is nice for its foliage as well as its tiny white
flowers.
As this view over the roof shows, the maples turn a bright red in the fall
Not all of our plants are native to the area. Edgar is standing in front of our small grove of hardy bananas (musa basjoo, Japanese fiber banana) in early July. They will be much larger by the time frost cuts them back. The windmill palm has spent six winters with us, and although it is a slow-grower, it looks better each year.
Although it looks something like a palm, the large yucca is completely hardy in our climate.
Birds of all kinds visit the feeders, along with the squirrels.
Frogs have moved in on our little waterfall and pond, and we
encourage them to eat as many bugs as possible.
One day we were walking with the Staff out in the front
yard. A huge pickup roared up the highway and came to a
screeching halt. Out stepped a man who obviously spent most
of his time dismantling large commercial buildings with his bare
hands. He moved to the front of his truck, and picked up
something which he then carried carefully to the side of the
road. He looked up sheepishly and said, "turtle",
and then then roared off.
We carried the rescued box tortoise back to the woods. This
bright-colored example is not the same tortoise, but typical of
those who occasionally turn up around the house.
Here are a couple of garter snakes who we hope are going to help
us keep down the pests (although they are hardly large enough to
make much of a dent.) What we need is something that is big
enough and hungry enough to eat voles.
We also have deer, raccoons, skunks, wild turkeys, and vultures, but no pictures of them as yet.
