Home Gardening In Moncton, New Brunswick

After our long cold winters I sure look forward to spring each year and the tulips that pop out of our yard at this time of year.

This little tulip was the first to open in the front of our house and a day or two later a second one popped up to join it.

The petals have a pastel red border than follows along the inside of each petal make it very nice on the eyes.

What’s really cool about our tulips is that they open during the day and close back up at night so I can watch them open again the next day.

Yellow And White Tulips

That cool little tulip is on the north side of our front steps but the beautiful tulips showing on the right were opening on the south side of the front steps.

As these yellow and white tulips were showing off a red tulip was growing up behind them. I think it took about a week before it opened and tried to grab my attention.

I looked at the white and yellow tulips today and they are on their last legs. The wind and rains expected over the next three days will take all their petals I’m afraid but I will see them again next spring.

Bright Red Tulips And Even Tiger Tulips

Here is the red tulip that was creeping up behind the yellow/white tulips above. When he did get big enough to open he was spectacular. Love the brightly coloured tulips and some of my favourite tulips.

Still didn’t out shine the yellow and white group. A close second though.

It would be great to have them keep coming back all summer long but then we might not appreciate them as much as we do at our house.

On the north side of the steps we get this one tiger tulip, if that’s what its called but on the south side we a group of six or seven.

Love the way it goes from a redish orange to yellow edged petals. Beautiful and another of my favourite tulips.

Looking close up it looks like it has been beaten and wrinkled but that’s the way they grow. A close up shows they have a very raggedy edge to the petals that I think is very cool.

Love Bright Yellow Tulips

When the bright yellow tulips open they add another level of coolness to our front yard. As much as I like the tulips that have gradient coloured petals or the two tone petals I have to say the pure colours make me the happiest.

I have been enjoying our tulips and a few others around Moncton. They started near the end of April and have been going ever since. It’s now the end of May.

Sadly this may be their lasts weekend as we are about to get a lot of heavy rain and strong winds. The tulips don’t do well with the wind. I am already looking forward to seeing them all again next spring.

Some Of The Tulips in Our Front Yard

We have lots of tulips in our spring home garden but there are no tulips in our backyard. That will be remedied come next fall when I will plant a couple of dozen more in the back yard.

During the winter I do a whole lot more reading than I do any other time of the year. As a gardener and fishing nut I do my fun stuff during the spring, summer and fall and then learn new things in the winter.

This past winter I saw a picture on Pinterest with a short caption saying to soak your garden seeds for 24 hours before planting them to help them germinate faster. For some of the seeds I have they take a long time to germinate in soil.

Soaking Sweet Pea Seeds

I kind of forgot that tip only to think about it after I was almost done. Fortunately I still had a few seeds to start some sweet peas and lupins. They went in water for 24 hours. I kept checking them from time to time and after about 6 hours I could see that some seeds had already split open. Very cool.

Almost a week ago I planted some lupin seeds but nothing had happened yet. The seeds I soaked in water for a day sprouted at the same time, just two days later.

This morning between the rain I went out and planted the soaked seeds along the two fences in the north east corner of our yard. They should make a nice privacy fence for the summer. I also planted a few in the raised bed on the left and right of our three clematis.

That should fill up that empty space on the trellis until the clematis catch up.

I also filled two pots with soil and then added some of the soaked sweet pea seeds to one half of the pot. The other half is where I plan to stick a plastic pop bottle I can fill and use as a drip irrigation system so they don’t dry out as quickly as they usually do in the summer.

I have started an article on using containers for drip irrigation I will publish it shortly, I hope.

At least once a year I think about testing our garden soil to see what the pH balance is then I get onto something else and it slips my mind for another year.

I can dig in one spot of our yard and the soil is pretty good but move ten feet to the left or right and the soil can turn into such dense clay it’s hard to get the shovel into it. So it can vary from place to place in our own yard.

My previous understanding was that I would have to collect sample of the soil in our yard, mark down where I got them, and then send the sample away to be tested.

I put in a lot of work amending our gardens so the dense clay would drain faster than a couple of days. I did this by adding peat moss and compost each year since I started home gardening.

Bought A Garden Soil PH Balance Tester

Soil pH

The soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity in soils. pH is defined as the negative logarithm (base 10) of the activity of hydronium ions (H⁺ or, more precisely, H₃O+
aq) in a solution. It ranges from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. A pH below 7 is acidic and above 7 is basic. Soil pH is considered a master variable in soils as it controls many chemical processes that take place. It specifically affects plant nutrient availability by controlling the chemical forms of the nutrient. The optimum pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.0,^[1] however many plants have adapted to thrive at pH values outside this range. Wiki – Soil pH

Get Down To Where The Roots Live

After reading and watching a few videos I know that it’s important to remove the top few inches of soil and debris to get to where the roots live as that’s where they will get their nutrition.

What a gorgeous weekend for getting more of our yard clean up done. It was sunny, warm and no breeze or wind to blow our hard work around the yard again. Up until this past week everything looked brown and drab but through the week the lawn started turning green again. What a difference in just a week.

All the trees and shrubs have tiny leaves started which is giving everything a light green hue, looks pretty cool. Especially the lilac bushes when the sun was setting last night.

Raking Under Rose Bushes And Sprawling Pines

Last weekend we cleaned up the open areas in the yard and left the rose bushes and sprawling pines until we gained some energy back again. So this past weekend was time to get in and under everything to get the garbage from the winter winds out of them. That’s a dangerous job around our rose bushes as they are thorny and dangerous.

That took most of the weekend and was quite exhausting. I don’t mind the work as the end results are so worth it. Jenny was quite stiff getting ready for work this morning but I wasn’t in any pain at all. I guess I didn’t work as hard as I thought I did.

Before Jenny was up and about I was out checking the job I did at cutting back the rose bushes on our north property fence. Those roses were already growing. Some were just an inch or two long but a few must have started last fall and were already 4 and 5 feet long and crawling across the ground. Probably hoping I wouldn’t find them.

Last Year’s North Property Fence

Here is a picture of part of our north property fence, about a third of it’s length. It was a very busy summer for me cutting the rose bushes back and why it’s so important to me to keep it under control now.

You can see a section that I started getting under control. I was cut back completely and was more than 5 feet tall again within a couple of months. From the lowest point in the picture the rose bushes just keep getting taller and tall. On the left of the image is our house, you can just see the rain spout in the bottom left.

That section of rose bush went right up the side of the house and behind the house. It grew to more than 15 feet tall and grew out over the top of the fence behind the house for about 10 feet. It was beautiful when in blossom but it goes all the way around our entire property. It’s about 6 feet out from the fence. The amount of property we can’t use is bigger than most people’s entire property.

Here is what it looks like this spring, after a long hard summer of cutting back last year.

This past weekend it was pretty easy going along the fence and just cutting back what I don’t want and leaving the rest. We can now see the fence again and Geoff was able to finish the siding on his new garage.

We have some trees and vines on the fence that will be able to grow so now we should have some variety along the north fence. I have already started cutting back the rose bushes on the east property fence. Our neighbours will be so happy I’m sure.

So first thing Saturday morning I was out cutting away anything I don’t want growing on the north fence and trimmed a bit of what we do want to keep.

I love the rose bushes when they blossom. It’s the rest of the year they are such a pain. So I am only keep a few that I can actually control and see how they look.

I’ve never seen or tasted ground cherries but they look pretty cool in the picture so I decided to start a few ground cherry seeds and see for myself. I planted a tray with 9 sections and put a couple of seeds in each section.

They have started sprouting now and I see that pretty much all of the seeds germinated. Now I’m excited to see how they do for our first year.

It did take twice as long to germinate as my tomatoes which were right next to them in my mini-greenhouse. I was thinking that nothing was going to come up at all. Just being impatient on my part.

Be Aware That Ground Cherries Can Re-Seed

I am not going to plant my ground cherries in our main garden as I’ve learned they can reseed themselves, so I will grown them in containers the first year and see what happens next year.

I thought these little guys were going to be growing on a short stubby plant but while I was looking for a good image to see what the ground cherry plant looks like I saw some that were 4 feet tall and 6 feet wide.

Well I guess I am just going to have to plant them and see how big or little they get, then I’ll know won’t I.

While finding more info about the ground cherries I learned they are also called "cape gooseberry" or "husk tomato” and are related to tomatillos and Chinese lanterns. Like those plants, ground cherries (Physalis peruviana) grow in a protective paper husk.

I have a little time before I’ll know more as they are only a half inch or so tall at the moment.

We have lived here for nearly eight years and still have flowers blooming that we have no idea their name. They are just beautiful and that was good enough for me.

However if I want to have more of them I guess I need to know their names so I can order some. Like these little blue and white stars growing in the front of our house.

Glory of The Snow

After searching for a while and looking at pictures I finally found them. They are commonly called Glory Of The Snow and then there is their scientific name which I can’t really pronounce, Chionodoxa Forbesii.

We have a few around the yard but the first to come up were those right up against the house where the soil warmed up first. As soon as the snow melted a bit up came the crocus and right behind them our Glory of the Snow.

These little guys are only four inches high with blue and white flowers that look like tiny stars. I love how the white starts in the center and changes to a dark blue as it reaches the ends of the petals. One of our best spring home garden flowers.

The Glory of the Snow is started from blubs but I wasn’t able to get any this year as everywhere I checked they were already sold out for this year. I will keep checking and order some as soon as I find them.

I moved to Moncton, New Brunswick back in 1980 but it wasn’t until about 25 years later that we finally had a place we were allowed to dig up the yard, because we bought our own property.

In the time that we have been living and home gardening here in Moncton I have only every seed just a few butterflies. I think they were pure white and pure yellow. Nothing else but I want that to change.

I grew up in the 60s seeing lots of butterflies but when I started gardening I expected to see a lot more butterflies than I am seeing so I have to do something to draw them to our backyard and vegetable garden.

Monarch butterflies are my favourite but I know there are other butterflies that would match their beauty, just haven’t seen them here. I’ve had to start learning more about butterflies and how they live in order to change our yard to plants and flowers that specific butterflies, like the monarch, likes.

We Are Planting A Butterfly Garden This Spring

Went out looking for some seeds to start a butterfly and hummingbird garden. I will be planting them in the backyard where I can watch them from my office window.

I found a few packs of seeds that should do the trick, now I just have to create a couple of new flower beds for those seeds.

Of course I won’t get as much work done in my office if I do this but hey I’m retired and can move as slow as I want.

Resources For Butterfly Gardening

Youtube is always a great resource for learning more about any subject butterfly gardening  included. I found The Ten Commandments of Butterfly Gardening to be quite informative and worth watching.

Another useful video is from Bird Man Mel’s Youtube video channel.

Maybe you would like to learn how to raise butterflies, then check out the article at Butterfly Gardening website.

Just watched a video that showed me how to attract butterflies with mud pies with P. Allen Smith as well as a second one called attracting butterflies.

Host Plants For Butterflies

I have been thinking about the plants that butterflies like to get nectar from but I didn’t put any thought at all into the plants these butterflies use to lay their eggs on which are called host plants. So glad I have been watching videos to help me learn what I need to get and keep butterflies in our yard.

Example: We have black swallowtail butterflies in New Brunswick so I need host plants for their eggs and for the caterpillars to feed on before they eventually become the adult butterfly. Just this morning I learned they love the carrot family so carrot tops, fennel and Queen Anne’s Lace.

However, to host Monarch butterflies which have been my favourite since childhood I will need members of the milkweed family as a host.

I’ve Learned Which Butterflies Live Here

I couldn’t tell you how many varieties of butterflies there are in North America or my own province of New Brunswick so I’ve very happy we have Internet to do some research to see how many we have here and which ones frequent the Moncton area.

Learning which butterflies we have will help me pick the right nectar and host plants for our yard and garden.

Butterflies In New Brunswick Canada

I used the Maritimes Butterfly Atlas to find the butterflies in New Brunswick and then those that frequent Moncton where we live.

I’m excited about this year’s gardening and hope to see many more butterflies than I’ve ever seen and if I can find their host plants locally I’ll be seeing more and more butterflies every year from now on.

Just watched another video that I found very informative and had to share it here.

It’s the middle of April and I’ve been itching to plant something but that’s going to be at least another month so I decided to plant some tomato seeds today.

I’m looking out my office window and thinking it would be a great day to go fishing but fishing season doesn’t start here in New Brunswick until tomorrow the 15th. Once I start fishing my mind stays there for a few weeks so it’s now or I’ll be waiting another week or two to get seeds started.

Six Kinds of Tomato Seeds Started

I went out to the garden shed/garage to get some seed trays then realized I had brought them in last fall. They were in the mess I call my work bench. Gotta get that cleaned up but for now I’ll just use the kitchen table. I’ll try to get it all done while Jenny’s at church today so it’s not a mess she’s going to see. Hopefully.

Lots of Tomatoes This Year

I really enjoyed having tomato preserves this past winter and want even more for next winter so I’m planting lots of tomatoes, 6 different varieties and at least 6 of each.

Last year I stewed tomatoes and made yellow pear chutney so we could enjoy it through the winter. They lasted pretty good but not enough for the entire winter and spring. I’ll be making so much more this year and maybe even enough to share a few jars with friends.

Making Plant Markers

I have been using popsicle sticks as seed markers but they tend to rot quickly and ink bleeds as soon as they get wet. They are okay for indoors but I am using a mini blind to make a bunch of plastic markers.

The mini blinds were old and broken and headed for the yard waste pickup next month. And I would have chucked if I hadn’t read that article that mentioned the idea. I love repurposing and this is great.

They were easy to cut with kitchen scissors. I cut them into about 6 inch pieces so I will be able to make hundreds of them from this one bling. We have a couple of other we were going to toss so we have years worth.

I will have to pickup a smaller tipped permanent marker so that I can write a bit smaller so they don’t look goofy.

I live and home garden in New Brunswick, Canada, not New Jersey USA. Just thought I’d clear that up as I get as many questions about garden south of the border as I do from Canadians.

Whoever I’m talking to about starting a vegetable garden I still ask the same three question when asked when I start my vegetable garden come spring.

1. Are you planning to plant seeds directly in your vegetable garden?
2. Or is your goal to start your veggie garden from seed indoors?
3. Or will you be purchasing plants that have already been started for you?

I ask these three questions because the starting times will be different. If you are planting the seeds in the ground you have to wait until the threat of frost has passed or be willing to protect your garden from frosty nights.

If you are buying plants already started you can wait until you are ready to plant your vegetable garden. And if you are starting seeds indoors you will need to be prepared a month to a month and a half before you will plant them in your vegetable garden.

I kind of do all three because some vegetables, like beans, peas and root vegetables will be planted directly in the garden while others can be started earlier from seeds indoors and then there are those veggies I just forgot about and have to go out last minute and buy a couple of starter plants.

Know Your Plant Hardiness Zone

Like I said, I live in Moncton, New Brunswick Canada were our grow zone 4. Knowing this I can check to see when I should be planting based on our last frost of the year, approximately of course.

Plant Hardiness Zone For New Brunswick Canada
Click Image To Go to Online Map

When Should You Buy Your Starter Plants

My first couple of years buying starter plants I got excited that spring had arrived and bought them way too early. The result was long lanky starter plants. And some I had to actually transplant into bigger pots before it was time to plant them in the garden.

So now I don’t like buying any starter plants before the middle of May or even a bit later. I only buy them that early because I don’t want to find NONE left when I go to get them. So anywhere from May 15 to June 10.

When Should I Plant Seeds Indoors

It’s still a little early for me to be starting my seeds indoors as it’s just the 11th of April but I will be starting them by the middle of May.

Right now it’s almost halfway through May and I’m starting my garden seeds. Last year I started later than this and when harvest time arrived I was a week or two behind everyone else. By starting a couple of weeks earlier this year I should avoid that problem.

So glad the frost held off for so long last fall as I ended up with the best year I’ve had since starting vegetable gardening.

When Do I Start Seeds In My Vegetable Garden

If I am planting seeds directly in my vegetable garden I will wait until the threat of frost has past which again is June 10th here in Moncton. I will plant seeds and starter plants in the garden at the same time and just cover them with old bed sheets if the weather channels warns us about frost.

A couple of years ago I bought a mini greenhouse that allows me to put my seed starting station outdoors during the day and in the garden shed during the nights. My plants grow so much better and sturdier compared to the amount of direct sunlight our south facing kitchen window gets.

We bought the 3 foot by 6 foot mini greenhouse so it would fit in our south kitchen window and is easy to transfer outdoors without taking it apart. Love it.

I’m sure you know by now how much I like to reuse, recycle and repurpose things rather than putting them in that garbage bag to be taken to our local landfill.

This little experiment involves a 2 litre plastic bottle and I just happen to have a few I’ve been keeping to repurpose for something and now I’ll use a couple in our backyard and home garden to control mosquito populations.

Even though I try not to leave anything that can collect rain water where mosquitos can breed we still have certain things that are out of our hands, like our neighbours, and is why I want to try this method of free mosquito control.

I know plenty of people who wouldn’t bother trying something like this as they feel homemade stuff just doesn’t work so for these people there is always the easy way, just buy premade mosquito traps.

However too many times we ignore a simple solution because it’s too cheap and easy to actually work so we look for something more costly to control mosquito populations. Many people still turn to harsh chemicals. Well this morning I was checking my Facebook account and saw that my sister had posted this homemade mosquito trap solution that’s more in my price range and thought I would share it with you.

Homemade Mosquito Trap Requirements

• 200 ml water
• 50 grams of brown sugar
• 1 gram of yeast
• 2-liter plastic bottle

How To Make Your Mosquito Trap

1. Cut your plastic bottle in half making sure the bottom half is a little bigger than the top half so the top fits into the bottom with some extra room to spare.
2. Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area away from your normal gathering area. (Mosquitoes are also drawn to the color black.)

The Magic Mixture

Mix brown sugar with hot water, then allow it to cool completely. Once it’s cool you can pour it into the bottom half of the plastic bottle. Next, add the yeast which will create carbon dioxide. This is what will attract those pesky mosquitoes. Put the top half, which is like a funnel, into the bottom half, neck pointing down.

You can use tape to keep it together and to seal the joint so mosquitos don’t escape out any gaps where they join together.

I’ve read that some homemade mosquito traps can turn into a breeding ground so it’s important to clean your mosquito trap even week and change the solution.

The two raised garden beds that were in the backyard when we bought our home were already old and rotting a little. Well last year was the last year for one of them as the raised bed with our strawberries broke up when the snow melted away.

I decided it would be a good project for me which it was but once I was done building the raised bed I made sure I went out and bought a power drill for the next one. It took me so long to screw in all those screws with a screwdriver.

Looking at the picture top left you can see the new bed is almost double the width of the old one. I just filled it with soil and spread the strawberries out across the new section. They will grow in to fill the spaces and we will have more strawberries. Well worth the time it took to finish the project.

Not sure how many more years we can get out of our second raised bed but eventually it will need replacing. That one has a big trellis attached to it with three big Clematis vines growing all over it. I will have to be careful not to damage the roots when I do replace the frame. Hopefully not for a few more years.

Building A 2 x 10 Raised Garden Bed

I like to repurpose things for use in the garden so when Jenny and I saw a 2×10 wooden bed frame sticking out of a garbage bin I immediately saw another raised bed in our yard but this would be a raised garden bed. It took a couple of trips but we carried it home and put it in the garage until spring when I can build it.

I may make two smaller raised beds but either way they or it will become a vertical garden for growing squash and cucumbers. I may also plant some pole beans on the ends as we really enjoyed our pole beans last year. They blossomed all summer and attracted lots of bees and even saw a hummingbird enjoying them.

ON THE CHEAP: Using What You Can Find

Building raised bed gardens doesn’t have to break the bank. I haven’t been able to work for almost 10 years due to heart problems and not having that second income is such a pain in the finances but that’s when people get creative, isn’t it.

We not only found that bed frame in the trash bin there were also 6 or 8 dresser draws that will make some cool looking raised beds and they didn’t cost us a thing.

We have a spring garbage pickup each year which I see as an opportunity to look for things I can repurpose for use in the garden rather than see them dragged away to our local landfill. This year I am looking for more scarp wood I can use. It’s great when I can find a wooden pallet lying next to the street.

If I can find at least three of those pallets this year I plan to build another compost bin behind the garage/garden shed. Our little plastic one doesn’t hold all the yard and kitchen waste so another bin would give us so much more compost.

Creating seed starter pots using things you might have just thrown in the garbage is a good way to get your kids involved in gardening and at the same time teach them about reusing, recycling and repurposing things.

As you can see in the image on the left I am using cardboard milk cartons but most cartons can be used, even plastic coffee containers. The goal is to turn them into something useful instead of trashing them.

I like using the milk and juice cartons as indoor seed starting pots and for my herb garden. I just cut out one side, put holes in the opposite side, add stones and dirt, water and put on the window sill.

Making A Seed Starter Container From A Cardboard Milk Carton

1. Wash each container thoroughly and allow it to dry. I add just a little bleach to the water to kill any bacteria left in the container and then rinse it really well.

2. I like to use a ruler and pen to make a line a quarter inch in from the edge. That’s where I will cut out the opening where the pebbles and dirt go. I cut much straighter lines if I mark it first. Leaving the lip makes the container stronger.

3. Before I cut out the rectangle I like to put a series of drainage holes in the opposite side. Once you cut the rectangle out it is a little wabbly putting the holes in.

4. Then I cut the rectangle I marked and keep the piece I cut out to use as a separator to make my container into three sections. So try and cut it out in one piece and then just cut that piece in half. I add those pieces when I’m filling it with soil.

Making sections allows me to easily remove the sections later without roots tangling. It also allows me to plant different seeds and easily mark them. Nothing goes to waste.

5. The drainage holes I put in the bottom can plug with soil so I like to cover the bottom with small stones or pebbles. It doesn’t need many, just enough to cover the holes.

6. Put your soil mix in and plant your seeds according to the directions on the seed pack.

Living in New Brunswick Canada I never really thought much about growing orange or lemon trees as we are more famous for our Atlantic salmon than oranges. I think our long cold winters full of ice and snow is just a little cold for most citrus plants.

One evening while Jenny and I were watching TV I was eating an orange. When I was done instead of tossing the seeds I planted a couple. I planted one in the pot I have my prayer plant growing and the other I put in an pot with an ivy growing in it.

Nothing happened for so long, months actually, that I even forgot I planted those seeds. Then one day, after about 2 months, maybe even 3 months, I noticed a sprout. At first I thought it was a shot from the ivy but it wasn’t the same colour as the rest of the ivy. After a minute I remembered I had stuck that orange seed in there.

Not long after that the one I planted in with my prayer plant started growing.

I carefully extracted the sprouted orange trees and put them in a couple of milk cartons I cut in have and reused as starter pots. They are now about 4 inches tall and look like they might just make it long enough for me to move them outside. Just a couple more months to go.

Once I transplanted the tiny trees to my repurposed milk container I set them in our south facing kitchen window along with our indoor herb garden.

Once I had successfully started some citrus seeds I started looking online to see how I could make them germinate faster. It didn’t take me long to find information but before I blog about it I want to give this new-to-me method to make sure it works and that it’s faster than the months it took me to start these ones.

It’s only been about 5 years that we have been gardening here in Moncton, New Brunswick but we never saw any hummingbirds. Then last year I got to see one up close for just a couple of seconds.

It was enough to make me want to see more of them so now I’m learning how to attract hummingbirds to our backyard garden.

Hummingbird have always been one of my favourite birds, just never saw one until now. That’s more than 50 years loving them without actually seeing one in person.

I was checking out some of our tomato plants when I thought I saw something fly past me. I turned and saw a hummingbird enjoying the blossoms on our pole beans. I had just enough time for my brain to recognize it and then it took off like a rocket into the next yard.

What Varieties Live in New Brunswick

The ruby-throated hummingbird is the only hummingbird I learned about way back in grade school but I was curious to know if there are other varieties here in New Brunswick and I found we have at least four varieties: Ruby-throated, Rufous Black-Chinned, Broad-Billed.

Here is a video that has helped me.

Recycling To Make Hummingbird Feeders

I bought a little hummingbird feeder a year ago to see if I could attract hummingbirds but never saw a single one using the feeder. I think the location was a poor choice and this year I will put them in a less sunny spot.

Items Required For My Hummingbird Feeder Project

For the hummingbird feeders I will make this year I am choosing to recycle products that would normally end up in the trash. Maybe a couple of water bottles and yogurt containers. Use a little bright red lipstick to draw some flower petals around the drinking holes and they should be good to go. Come on hummingbirds.

I won’t need many items to make my birdfeeders.

• Plastic water, soda or pop bottle with cap
• Small Shallow Tub, 3 to 5 inches across
• String or thin wire for hanging the feeder
• Drill and small drill bits or nail and hammer
• Bright red lipstick or permanent marker

I couldn’t find any bright red containers to use but I did find a couple of bright red plastic coffee containers that I will cut up. If I do it right I should be able to roll a strip up and put it inside the bottle. Then hopefully the rolled up plastic will unroll and cover the sides making the contents appear red.

Note: As I was reading things online I remember one article mentioning problems with ants. If you have problems with ants finding your feeders you can just put petroleum jelly on the string or wire you use to connect your feeder to whatever is holding it off the ground.

I also read that it’s not good to use food colouring as it can cause sores on the hummingbird’s mouth. It’s better to use simple syrup made from 3 or 4 parts water to one part sugar. This is why I will try to have a red container or red plastic I can put inside to make it appear red to attract them.

Related Hummingbird Info Sites

I found a site that shows a Google map with locations of hummingbirds in North America. It says it’s a global map but really it’s pretty much U.S. only.

It wouldn’t be a complete page on hummingbirds without including The World of Hummingbirds and Hummingbirds Around The World.

I love images of hummingbirds and found this hummingbird Flickr page. I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of the hummingbird I saw last summer but hopefully I will this summer and I’ll add it to that Flickr page.

Well now it’s off to see how well I do at building my own hummingbird feeder.

I saw someone trying to grow celery from the stalk ends of store bought celery. They didn’t do so well but it got me thinking that it was a good experiment so I gave it a try for myself. It helped me get through a long cold winter actually.

Here is a link to the first growing celery in water experiment which I admit didn’t do so good. You can check out the growing celery in water part two to see those results.

Because I was a bit sceptical that this would work I started a second celery stalk end in water on March 4th. After a week in the water I placed it in a container of well watered dirt to see if it would root.

Yesterday was the 14th and it still looked healthy so I pulled it gently from soil to check for roots and to my amazement there were roots around the base that were just over an inch long. I was so happy I did my little happy dance and then replanted it into a bigger container.

I am going to try growing roots on celery in water again but this time I will keep the water changed and do a better job of cleaning the base before putting it in water. This may be why the second experiment worked when I put it in dirt. So I’m excited to see the new results.

Because I didn’t make my own video I thought I would look on Youtube and found a re-growing celery experiment that worked to show you what I did.

For my next experiment growing celery in water I will document it better, take pictures and create a video of my own to share with my friends, family and new visitors.

Let me know if you’ve done this and share.