Whooo's talking about containers?
May 25, 2010
Our owl box is home to this little screech owl, who popped out this morning to survey his domain. I have to say, this is one of my best containers yet!
The cardinal is not so sure.
All kidding aside, containers is the theme of the day at Garden Designers Roundtable, where 10 of the designers on the panel (I’m sitting out this month) have posted about gorgeous and creative container plantings. I just read through all the posts and mentally saved several ideas for use in my own garden. I hope they inspire you too.
All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Oh, that little owl is too precious, Pam. Lucky you (and smart!) to arrange to make him/her welcome! Enjoy!
I can tell you I don’t have a screech owl in my garden, darn it. I do have some containers. I am pleased with a coupleof them but I am going to redo some others. I will have to pop around the Round Table to see what is being touted as this summers biggest hits. Maybe I will be inspired to get the remodeling done.
Your own resident screech owl – how delightful! He does take the cake for cuteness in a container.
Sorry, you lost me at Screech Owl container LOL. 😛 I need to plant more of those!
That Screech Owl is the cutest ever. The only one I’ve ever seen (I’ve always ended up living in places with Barred Owls) was a red phase Screech Owl inhabiting a nest box at Lake Mattamuskeet. I walked up to the nest box, the owl curiously poked its head out, we stared at each other nose to beak for a second and then the owl withdrew and refused to make another appearance. I think I gave him or her a bit of a shock. lol I was surprised too.
I bet it was surprised! What a funny story. —Pam
I’d rather have your “container”… but I’ll head over to view the other posts anyway! *grin*
Hi Pam,
Thanks for stopping by at EdenMakers and leaving a comment. You are very thoughtful. I’m looking forward to your next entry at GDRT. Where did you find that owl? Wow, what a face!
shirley bovshow
GardenWorldReport.com
He found us, Shirley. Adorable, isn’t he? —Pam
Oh I am so glad that you found me through Dee ’cause now I’ve found you. What a treat to read this and see the photos, especially the screech owl, one of my all time favorites.
Let’s stay in touch!
Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island
I found your blog before Dee’s post, Sharon, and I know your books too. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello. And thank you so much for your kind comment on your blog about Digging! That was very nice of you. —Pam
Cool photos, I’ll pop over and get some ideas myself, thanks for the reminder!
Pam, I’ve been enjoying your wonderful gardens and photos for a while now. I find a lot of inspiration for my own garden. I also have an eastern screech owl living in an owl box in our yard, and this past week we finally saw the baby owl. I hope you enjoy the photos.
I love your photos, Jeremy! The baby screech owl is just too cute. What a ball of fluff! I have been wondering how the fledglings get out of the box and onto a tree branch and wondered if ours was ill-placed because there are no easy limbs to jump onto from the box. But yours looks about the same, and clearly the owlet managed it. —Pam
Pam – I’ve been told to put an owl box in a place that has a wide-open space out in front of it (so the box is a launch pad for them to catch prey from). Is this necessary? True in your case?
It’s pretty open in front of our box, Kelly. They do like to hunt under the tree canopy, so it doesn’t need to be up on a pole by itself, like a purple martin house. We mainly positioned ours so that we could see it from our kitchen window and deck. It’s a little close to the lower patio, but the owl seems used to us. —Pam
Oh how captivating! Your own resident screech owl. We have one in the neighborhood that I haven’t heard for a while. I am hopeful it hasn’t moved on but is rather hunting closer to other houses for the time being. Off to run some extremely boring errands but as a reward I’ll come back to container heaven. Thanks for pointing the way!
The owl face is adorable, Pam -and you’ve caught the texture of the feathers so beautifully. Seeing this makes me think of the pet owl Archimedes in “The Once and Future King’. Screech owls are around here once in awhile – when one is lurking in a nearby tree the whirling, squawking blue jay alarm system announces its presence to the neighborhood!
I do love looking at the round table container posts but can’t help noticing it’s easier to be adventurous in moderate-winter climates where you don’t have to empty & drag them under cover each autumn. In Illinois the seams on metal would split, wood fall apart, terra cotta and ceramic would crack – only Fiberglass and certain strong plastics could stay outside up there. Even in Austin I’ve lost hundreds of $$$ when pots crumbled in cold weather so still love my outdated Martha Stewart faux terracotta pots, which won’t make anyone swoon in delight, but they survive.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Blue jays do seem to have it in for these little owls. We watched a jay chase our owl right back into its box one evening, right after he’d flown the coop to hunt. The jay hounded the owl for several days afterward, all but going into the box after it. I was prepared to take action to defend our owl, but the jay seems to have moved on. —Pam