Critters welcome sight in garden

A Brighton Garden by Fran Blank

Company in the garden is a good thing and I don't mean the two-legged kind.

A healthy garden is full to overflowing with creatures great and small. Be still, listen, and pay attention with your eyes and ears, and a whole other world becomes obvious. As we work to make our gardens a healthy place for plants we unwittingly build homes for a long list of other beings. In a sense we create our own miniature ecosystem.

Dogs and cats start my list. I know they are "domestic" but they help keep the vegetable garden safe and control the inevitable fall invasion of mice that always show up looking for warm winter quarters. Baxter and Duncan, (the carnivore dogs), patrol the raised beds for invading rabbits, woodchucks and tomatoes. Woodchucks seem to be special treats and are always secretly devoured. We have to be aware of unexpected absences and run to find where they carry their prizes for munching or we'll be shampooing rugs the next morning.

ZuZu, our rescued barn cat turned couch cat, is aware of tiny movements that signal field mice or moles. She is quick, ruthless, and has a tummy to prove it. Baxter, Duncan, and ZuZu are the most obvious creatures in the garden.

Deer seem to be a big problem in gardens and yards. For some reason we see deer at the edge of the woods and strolling through the tree line but never have damage in the gardens. I'm guessing that the acreage of the bean field between the woods and garden and the garden fence deter them. Knock on wood!

I know that possum live in this area but personally I have only seen a handful of them during our 25 years of living on this country property. I imagine they are out and about while I sleep but I never see signs of them, except when they don't make it to the other side of the road.

Raccoons, on the other hand, are much more obvious. Screeching nighttime battles and scratching claw sounds on tree trunks during birdfeeder raids wake us on hot summer nights. If we shine a flashlight from our bedroom window into the trees by the house we catch glimpses of sparkling eyes and bandit masks. Gone by daylight, they leave behind their "piles" that for some reason the dogs love to roll in. This usually means baths and a laundry load that includes old towels and dog collars.

Summer nights also bring out the bats from the barn. We sit on our porch swing and watch them flip flop silently through the air, between the same two trees, over and over. They are fun to watch until the light is too low to see them against the sky. Nighttime in the summer vibrates with the sounds of crickets, tree frogs, mosquitoes and the cries of killdeer. We leave the windows open, there is no air conditioning in our old farm house, and fall asleep to the music of summer and hopefully a breeze blowing through the windows.

We have a garden snake that lives in the low stone walls that front the herb and flower gardens. I often see him sunning on the rocks while I weed. My first reaction to spotting one of these harmless snakes is a gut level YOW! Then I settle my flutters and enjoy his company. His black, blinking eyes watch me as I move about the garden. I like that he has chosen this garden as home. I like that our making this garden has given him a home.

Chipmunks have also moved into the front garden. We placed a handmade bowl over their main entrance to keep the dogs from digging a hole. The bowl, handmade by my sister Stephanie, has a doorway cut into it. The chipmunks have tunnels throughout the yard but their main home is in the front garden. I have seen this prolific family volcano out of their doorway, play like kittens, and disappear in an instant down their hole. Big Daddy chipmunk likes to climb through a trough of sedum and plop his plump self on the head of a large frog planter. He sits upright between the eyes of the frog and whistles all afternoon. He is our own Yertle the Turtle proclaiming "I am master of all I see!" He makes us smile and we miss him when winter settles him into hibernation.

Birds have always been a subject of great interest. We keep binoculars hanging by the window and ID books handy. New sightings are always fun and are added to a permanent list in our ID book. A small house wren always spends the summer in the same house in the corner of the front garden. Its burbling song is a sure sign of spring for us and is a source of more smiles all summer long as we watch the pair raise their young.

Lately we have been trying to identify a beautiful song coming from the woods north of the house. Greg guessed it was a Carolina Wren. Thanks to our Audubon CD of bird songs we know he is right. This beautiful wren sits on the southern tip of the barn roof and sings and sings.

Hummingbird moths, dragon flies, hornworms, and butterflies all show themselves if we slow down and watch. These creatures, and more, live in your garden, too. Try sitting still and just "be" in your garden. Pick one small spot, for example a group of sunflowers, and watch it quietly. You'll discover your garden is filled with creatures great and small -- mostly small and the small just might be the best part.