Wrens are very interesting. First the male declares his territory by singing loudly from the trees in his area. According to the National Geographic book on song birds the Native American name for the wren is O-du-na-mis-sug-ud-da-we'-shi: "a big noise for its size". It is hard to miss its song as it is indeed very loud. It also has a scolding song which is described as "full of dark threats". In between its bursts of song the male is busy filling nesting sites with twigs and other material. At last a female arrives on the scene and he shows her around his nesting sites. She apparently thinks she can build a better nest, because once she agrees to live with him and raise a family she may tear apart the nest he has built and build her own. My, doesn't this sound like some humans? At any rate, we bought a cute little bird house to decorate the top of a 4"x4" post, and our resident male has filled it with many twigs. We never dreamed that this would be considered a potential nesting site. Now we are waiting to see if he can attract a mate.

Spring is rushing on and many of the early flowers have finished blooming, but there are always new ones to take their place. My wonderful Dicentra 'King of Hearts' is in full bloom and will bloom until frost. I have had other Dicentras such as 'Eximia' and 'Formosa', but 'King of Hearts' is my favorite. It has a nice compact mound of lovely foliage and is topped by many flowers in bright rosy red. I think I may divide it next spring. I planned to do that this spring, but didn't want to do anything to harm it. Still, I do want some additional plants, so I will have to take a deep breath and do it. I suppose I could do it in early fall, but it is hard to dig up something that is still blooming (it continues blooming until frost) so spectacularly. Perhaps I will buy a new one and divide that.

Does anyone have suggestions on killing off gout weed? I must have brought some in with plants I got from a friend and now it is taking over a large section of the garden. I know it will be difficult to eradicate, but I really need to do something or I won't have any garden left. HELP!!!