My son, Austin, is home from his adventures in Jamaica, serving the Peace Corps. He graduated from USD with a degree in Environmental Sciences last year. He is living with us and working here in the desert until his next adventure in Costa Rica. He will leave for that part of the world near the end of January. In the meantime he is working on us and making us more sustainable at home. He has us storing things in glass jars instead of plastic containers. He has us using plates instead of paper plates. We are using PCB free water bottles instead of buying bottled water. We use a Brita filter, or a filter on our tap water to drink instead of brand named bottled waters. The water is just as good,the containers are sustainable, and easy to clean. We are composting. Our kids make us better.

We have had a planter next to one end of our patio for years. We planted two yucca plants on either side of the 9'x5' slump block planter. Over the years, we have planted various flowers, including tulips, and others in between the yucca's. Over the past five or six years we planted Hummingbird vine, that virtually took over the planter and grew onto our roof and over to the patio cover of our Mother-in-Law's room at the one end of our house. During the winter this vine dies off and I would trim it down to the ground level, thinking it would die. It didn't. Each summer, it came back with a vengeance. You could almost see it growing. It did produce big orange-red flowers the hummingbirds did like, but it took over and covered everything in that corner.

While we did have Mourning Doves nest in this thicket, and of course the Costa's and Anna's hummingbirds spent a lot of time there, it also became home or at least a hiding place for the large rats that are common in the desert. This was not a favorite of my wife.

So, my son came up with the idea to tear out the yuccas and hummingbird vine, and plant a vegetable garden. I suspect some of the impetus for this was that he had a machete he bought in Jamaica that he wanted to use. Mom gave the ok, and he went to work. He used the machete to chop up the vines and a good portion of the yuccas.



I had some old tools, a shovel and an axe, and entered the fray. Soon the axe was sacrificed to the battle, and we had to run to WalMart for new tools. We picked up another shovel, and a new axe. We also bought a file for sharpening the machete and axe. I got the kind of axe that was flat like a sledge hammer on one side, and sharpened on the other side. It was heavier than a normal axe but a kind of multi-purpose tool, a concept I lean toward.



Back at work, we began work on the roots. This was a tough job as the root balls for the yuccas were very large. We used the heavy axe to chop up the root systems and pulled out the roots and dirt down about two to two and one half feet. Then we made a trip to Lowe's and picked up a cloth barrier and some rocks, as well as planting soil. We smoothed out the dirt, put the barrier down, put rock on top, then filled the planter with planting soil.




We made another trip and picked out various vegetable plants, electing to start with plants and work from seeds later should
this experiment work out. We ended up with a couple different kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, cilantro, onions, lettuce, spinach and a couple different colors of bell peppers. So far, so good.




It was a good project because we opened up that area of the patio, got rid of some unruly vines, and have some (hopefully) delicious vegetables on the way. We also made it a family project in that two of my boys were involved in the process and are interested in the outcome, (they will certainly eat the results).

Why am I writing a gardening blog in a Bird Nerd spot? Well, during the couple days it took us to work through the process, I kept hearing a chip-chip in the back yard. For a while I couldn't locate the source, until we took a break and went inside the house for lunch. I stood inside and watched as a small yellow bird landed on our debris pile and made the chip-chip noise I kept hearing. Look at that! It was a Common Yellowthroat, (Geothlypis trichas). It flitted around the debris pile, then over to the planter and thoroughly inspected both. He stuck around for two or three days and inspected each step. Chip-chipping all day as he flitted into and around the debris pile and planter.


Which brings me to my You might be a Birdnerd if... I know in my head that the little bird was probably searching for bugs we unearthed, or for possible nesting materials, or other very practical reasons. However, I couldn't shake the feeling the beautiful little bird was inspecting our handiwork, and making judgement. He has since left, so I am concerned he disapproved. I hope he comes back to see the results.

So, you might be a birdnerd if...you are concerned with the opinions of the local bird life on your gardening handiwork.