Garden News

  Written by SGG Volunteer John A. Dolan, Ph.D Recently this Smith Gilbert Botanical Gardens volunteer was investigating some plants near the Hiram Butler house, and some of the surrounding flowers were covered with what looked like 2 species or “types” of honey bees – both were foraging for pollen that the bees bring back to their respective hives to … Read More

July 26, 2017 Empty nest. Yes, the house wrens have fledged. We’ve had two nestings of house wrens in our Smith-Gilbert Gardens bluebird box. No bluebirds this year. Because of the hot temperatures, there will probably not be any more nestings this year. It’s hot outside and hotter in that box. I will still check for the next couple of … Read More

July 19, 2017 Our house wrens are growing quickly. I can see 4 nestlings. We started with six eggs, so if you can spot more nestlings in the photo let us know. The parents were nearby and did not like me checking in on their home and they were not shy in letting me know. By next week they will … Read More

July 5 Nest two of the summer of 2017 nesting season brings us six more house wren eggs. (One egg in this photo is hard to see.)

June 17, 2017 The house wrens must really love our bird box and its location because they are building again. We don’t know if it’s the same pair or not. One article suggested that usually the wrens will nest in a different site for their second brood. Once the young have fledged, they are fully independent in about 2 weeks … Read More

  Let’s Make Weeds Fashionable Again! By: Lisa Bartlett – Garden Manager That is going to be my new motto. Why? National Pollinator Week got me thinking. Every year Americans spend countless hours, at least $30 billion dollars, and millions of gallons of gasoline just to maintain the dream of a well-kept lawn. In addition, an estimated 70 million pounds … Read More

  Our House Wrens have fledged. Their nest has been removed and the nest box cleaned. I scrapped as much debris and dust as I could from the nest box and sprayed the interior with a bleach-water mix to kill any lingering insects (bird mites mostly). I also rubbed the inside of the house with Ivory soap, especially the top … Read More

May 29 Bluebird box update My how baby birds grow fast! Here they are only a week later and look at all those feathers and how much larger they are! With the exception of shorter tail feathers, they look just like the adult wrens now. This will probably be the last we see of these guys. By next week they … Read More

Introducing the Smith-Gilbert Gardens house wrens. These youngsters are less than a week old and look at those pin feathers already. It’s hard to tell where one nestling ends and where another begins. You can clearly see 3 yellow beaks, but there should be 7 of them. The nestlings will stay put for about 2 or 2 1/2 weeks before … Read More

May 1, 2017 Written by Cheri Collins The wrens have won the next box, but there is still another surprise. It’s not the more common Carolina Wren, it looks like it’s House Wrens. We are on the very southern edge of their territory. The color of the eggs, the location of the eggs—at the back, and the feathers all lead … Read More