Turkey Surprise.

3-25-08 SHORT HILLS: We’re back in NJ. Yesterday I started spring clean up here, taking all the fallen sticks and branches off the shrubs. The windstorms of the past few weeks shook all those branches loose. I also spread 70 pounds of HollyTone on the acidophilic shrubs and trees and 80 pounds of standard 10-10-10 on the non-acidophiles and the spring bulbs. That took most of the day.

In the morning Judy spotted three wild turkeys in our yard. They were here for about 15 minutes, but stayed in the shrubs and don’t let us get close. The Canada geese are much less wary.

Some trees and shrubs put leaves out before flowers and others do the reverse. Hydrangeas and viburnums are opening leaf buds, while forsythia, spicebush and andromeda are showing flowers.

New blooms: crocus, forsythia, vinca minor.


Turkey hiding in opening forsythia. You can see the tail and markings on the back.