Backyard Visitor

This was our in-town-Saratoga back yard in late March, when our new rear neighbor cut down all the towering mature trees on his lot that once shaded our house and yard.  He also severely pruned back the evergreen vines that had covered our fence to a height of nearly seven feet, shielding our view of our neighbors and providing us with a lush green enclosure. (He claimed our fence intruded on his property.) Now our house and our yard would be blasted with full sun all day and all summer long,  creating a habitat my shade-loving plantings would hardly find to their liking.  In despair, I abandoned my yard.  I no longer have the desire nor the energy for gardening, preferring to wander the woods and waterways, enjoying the plants that grow wild.

Left to her own devices, Mother Nature took over my yard. Here's what it looks like now. My own red Oswego Tea and yellow native Thin-leaved Sunflowers did not mind at all the additional sun, and Moonseed and Virginia Creeper took over the fence. New shoots of Black Locust sprang up from the stump and roots of the felled trees, and a giant pumpkin vine (Where did THAT come from?) now charges across the lawn. Our neighbor had sown Giant Sunflower seeds in his still-vacant lot, and these non-native plants now tower to nearly ten feet tall.  Now that I no longer keep after the invasive Bishop's Weed, that plant now fills in any and all bare ground not otherwise occupied. Overgrown, for sure, but who cares? At least it's green and flowering.

With all the sun now blasting our lot all day long, the paved area to the side of our house has come alive with a fascinating collection of "weeds" that includes Amaranth and Lamb's Quarters and Black Nightshade, as well as various grasses -- even cornstalks! -- that have sprouted from the seed we spread on the cement for the birds and squirrels.  And suddenly, this new visitor, a young groundhog, has arrived. We've long had other wildlife visitors --  skunks, raccoons, opossums, and feral cats -- but never in all the 50 years we've lived in this house have we ever had a groundhog come to dine. 

I'd been meaning to pull out some of the weedy growth, but I kept being dissuaded by days too sweltering for even an hour of yard work.  And now I'm so glad I never got to it. The groundhog has been feeding on birdseed for several days, but today it discovered the tasty young seeds that were forming on the Amaranth.

Ooh yes, this tender young seed tastes much better than that old dry stuff! Maybe the leaves are kind of yummy, too.

Just look at all that tempting growth atop this long stalk!  But just as the groundhog was about to pull it down for a nibble, something spooked it and it tore off as fast as its short little legs would carry it.  But I know this chubby critter will soon be back.  There's lots more Amaranth than these. 

Another name for Amaranth is Pigweed. How appropriate that we have lots of PIGweed for this groundHOG!

UPDATE, September 1:  I am sad to report that the very next day after I celebrated our groundhog visitor, Little Bear (as we named him/her) did not show up and has since disappeared. I am trying to put a happy possibility on Little Bear's disappearance: perhaps some neighborhood gardeners feared for their tomatoes and had Little Bear trapped and relocated to the wild, where she/he will be happy forever. But I am sad.  I loved our daily visitor.