Tips From the Garden-Drought-Tolerant-Gardening

Tips from the Garden-

Drought-Tolerant-Gardening

For today's tips from the Garden, I thought I would give some good tips for the oncoming summer, which I have heard that it might be a hot and dry one due to the climate change and because of all the intense weather we all have heard all over the world+the US. Also, I haven't done one of my Tips-from-the-Garden in quite a while. So in this post I will conquer the challenges of blooming a beautiful garden in either a backyard or porch in the Southwest or other dry regions. And it might even be here in the Northwest too, because of the climate changes too. 

First-you must choose the right plants when it comes to maintaining a Drought Tolerant Garden. These would be the type that live in an environment, that's a very dry region or is having a drought due a very hot summer. I did come with a few different drought tolerant plants that you could use in your gardens that I will write down for you all...
So here are a few of the plants you might think about:
Cactus -  'The Santa Rita Prickly Pear & The Tough Succulents like Agave.
Now -   For a little color in your Garden, you could try the 'Red Yucca' or the 
'Firecracker Penstemon (which is a hummingbird favorite).
Not only can these plants survive and thrive in the full desert sun, they can also withstand those freezing night temperatures that can get down to the teens. You should also check your local nursery on which is the best plants that will grow in your area.
Here is a list that works well in drought areas for Gardens;
*Yellow Columbine
*Bunny Ears Cactus
*Indian Paintbrush
*Green-flowered hedgehog cactus
*Russian Sage
*Tevas Blue Sage
*Wine Cup
*Agastache 
Troubleshooting with the Dry Soil- 
First of all, you need to figure out what the soil is like in your yard or what you can find to put  in your pots. Why?because usually  in Drought Tolerant Gardens, the soil tends to have high PH & low organic matter in your soil. What you'll need to do in helping the high PH levels & low organic matter in the soil is... Adapting the soil to these dry regions, which is so very important for your Garden to produce blooms or vegetables. One the best ways to help these

Challenges of the arid soil are by adding compost in small portions. [I have done a post all about composting and will put the link to it after this for you all to make your own compost bins. It is very easy to do. I myself have been doing it for years and just yesterday empty in out half way and got lots of great organic dirt and saved all my red worms for all the rest of the food scraps that will put in there]http://wendyjargonncom.blogspot.com/search/label/Tips%20From%20the%20Garden%7EComposting.
How you don't want to overdue on the compost because adding too much can lead to root rot. The dry soil is not used to the organic matter and you have to do this slowly. It can also lead to floppy growth, whereas mulching conserves moisture and suppresses weeds. Another idea would be putting rocks and gravel around the plants. In doing this It will also help prevent soil erosion. Note: I have been using compost soil for many years, so once you get the hand of how to use the moist dirt, then you can use it more often in most of all your potted  plants like I have done for the last 19years. 
Dealing with the Drought Type Garden-

As for watering in a Drought area, it's easy to take a wrong turn when watering your drought garden. You could either water too much or too little. To make sure your plants get the optimal amount of water, set up a drip irrigation, which allows moisture to seep slowly into the soil down deep into the roots. A drip irrigation system can be as simple as a punctured garden hose or milk jug. How to make your own; 

Here is a good link  birdandblooms.com/diymilkjug

Desert Gardens can be tricky, but not impossible.

I hope that you find some good tips for Gardening for

The upcoming spring and summer. 

Love you all 

Your Friend Always

WENDY

THE MYSTIC HOUNDS OF THE ANCIENT CELTIC

THE MYSTIC HOUNDS~

In this post I will bring you into the sacred world of the Celts my dearest friends,followers, supports and 
 reader's too! I'm going to cover the world of the mystic Hounds that are mostly connected to the Celtic other world. It is said in the Ancient world of the Celtic, 'of all the hounds he had seen in the world, had seen no dogs the colour as these were. Their colour was an brilliant shining white & their ears as red as some say as blood.' King Pwyll of Dyfed was right to wonder about these strange dogs, for their master as Arawn(note I have done a post on Arawn & it is at the bottom of this in the purple color link)
http://wendyjargonncom.blogspot.com/search/label/Arawn%20Celtic%20God%20of%20the%20Underworld
Arawn was the ruler of Annwn, the magical other world of the

Celtic Dogs were among the most often type of animal that was connected with the Celtic at the time of the ancient Celtic. These Mystic hounds may be the harbingers of death, as the red-eared hounds of Annwn. Some have said the colour Red is associated with death too. However these legends and traditions were many centuries ago in the Celtic counties of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In the Celtic tale of Da Derga is said to possess a pack of nine white hounds. They have said that white is another colour that indicates the supernatural in the world of the Celtic.

The Celtic dogs were also believed to have magical healing qualities. It has been suggested that this is because they heal their own wounds by licking them, but for whatever reasons they are commonly found at Celtic healing sanctuaries too. It would seem that at one sanctuary,at Lydney in Gloucestershine. No fewer than nine canine images have been discover as offerings to the British Gods Nodens.

They have also found many dog skeletons at sites in areas to Wales,
 Ireland and Scotland which suggests that they were involved in the
 virtual of these sacrifices, that were possibly associated with the afterlife and the otherworldly. So there are many things that are truly quite amazing that have happened all around this beautiful Earth of ours in all different cultures around the would. And I have only partly touch it in the 3years I have been blogging and writing in the Ning.com sites too. I hope that you all enjoy my stories,
 legends, research on true stories and ancient legends and factual stories too. Of course the scary Urban legends are fun too, with a bit of my life. I love you all and I will see you soon.

Your Friend Always
WENDY 

Evidence of first Hummingbird fossil found-

Evidence of the first Hummingbird fossil-

Hello, my dear friends, followers, supporters & readers too for today's post I am going to bring you all to one of my favorite subjects but in a different way. I have found two different area's of the world that has found very old fossils of hummingbirds. One being in Germany and the other in France. First I will bring you to Germany(near Darmstadt Germany) where the scientists at Senckenberg Research Institute discover a 47-million old fossil of a hummingbird with still traces of pollen in its stomach. So basically Germany was the first to find evidence that birds HUMMINGBIRDS pollinated flowers 50 millions years ago. It was found in the Messel Pit which I will leave in this post a image so that you all can see where the German scientists found the hummingbird fossil. The Messel Pit is said to have poisonous gases where it killed any animals that enter it. It's quite amazing that they were able to find a fossil of the tiniest bird know to the world. It is also remarkably that the almost 50million old hummingbird still contained traces of pollen from various plants that flowered

Germany the Messel Pit

47million years ago. To me it is quite amazing that we now have real evidence of an hummingbird so far back in our past. It would be so interesting to know what kinda hummingbird it actually be? or what the flowers look like that the hummingbird was feeding upon! Apparently the discovery is quite well known and the hummingbird fossil is called the Treasure Trove called the Messel Pit near Darmstadt in Germany.The Messel Pit, about 22 miles (35 kilometres) southeast of Frankfurt. It was a vast lake 47 million years ago that formed from a volcanic eruption. More recently it was a quarry until the late 20th century when it was declared a Unesco World Heritage site owing to the significant scientific discoveries that continue to be made there. It would seem that

The hummingbird fossil 47million old

Dr.Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany feels that there has been occasional hints, such as characteristic bill shapes, that pollinating birds occurred in the past. Fossil evidence for the existence of pollinating insects dates back 100-million year ago to the Cretaceous period. However, there had been no information at what time pollination through vertebrates, and birds in particular came into existence. The earliest indication of an avian pollinator came form the early Oligocene - 30 million years ago.

Dr.Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute

 Contents of 47million hummingbird

continues in saying that because of the excellent state of the preservation of the Messel Bird, we were able to identify two different types of pollen which is the first conclusive proof of pollination. Large numbers of differently sized pollen grains were found in the stomach contents of the completely preserved prehistoric Hummingbird known as the 

Pumilijornis Tessellatus. The another conclusion that suggests that we had pollinating birds Millions of years ago, it must be assumed that some representatives of the flora at that time had already adapted to this mode of pollination. It would seem that this lead to even greater importance to find such as this to understand the interactions between birds and flowers through geological time. 

Another interesting fact I found out is;

'What was the Messel Pit?

Its called the Treasure Trove too, near Darmstadt in Germany.The Messel Pit is about 22 miles (35 kilometres) southeast of Frankfurt. It was a vast lake, 47 million years ago that formed from a volcanic eruption and then left a deep, steep sided crater. Now and then it would let forth a giant belch of poisonous volcanic gases that would kill off its inhabitants. Once the corpses had drifted down into the soft sediment at the bottom of the lake they were not picked over by scavengers 47 million years ago. Their corpses would be gradually devoured by bacteria. Mineral wastes excreted by devoured by bacteria. Mineral wastes excreted by the bacteria became fossilised, leaving behind a detailed shadow in the shape of the soft parts of the animals

Then there's the discovery of the 30 million old hummingbird fossil, that was found in the southern part of France. This discovery has deepened the mystery of why these beautiful & fragile creatures disappeared from Europe. And now only exist on the American continent.The fossil was originally found by an amateur palaeontologist at the end of the 1980's in the Lubron National Park in Provence. It stayed in his private collection for a number of years unknown to anyone. After a number of years the fossil was finally discovered or re-discovered. It would seem that it was found in the most unually way. The hummingbird fossil was discovered by way of  amateur palaeontolgists purchasing the hummingbird fossil over and over again. Until finally a expert on bird fossils purchase the fossil and the 30 million year old hummingbird fossil finally was safe and in the hands people who knew what the importance of the find...It happens to be also by far the most complete too!

The fossil is extraordinary in several way; it has been exceptionally well preserved; its tiny vertebrae, delicate feet, the bones of its wings, its skull and the beak are all intact. Even its feathers have left a fine layer of black powder around it. Also astonishing part about this tiny fossil is the apart from a few very small differences, this ancient hummingbird is very similar to its modern relatives. Various characteristic features can be easily identified on the fossil, such as a v-shaped bone in the lower part of the beak which permits the bird to retract the long tongue it uses for sucking nectar from flowers is one very key feature! Which I would love to see... There is another feature which is visible on the fossil and that is the specialist structure on the wings that permit the hummingbird to flap their wings in any direction. This also allows them to hover in mid-air while sucking on the nectar, with some species wings flapping up to 70 times per second. They are also the only bird group that are able to fly backwards. I hope your all enjoyed this interesting post on hummingbirds and how millions of years ago they been here on earth.

your friend always

 

WENDY