Unfortunately my backyard is still covered in several inches of snow, so traipsing about in it is somewhat difficult, but I can still see things from the warmth of my home and I decided to summarize on what is out there and then I will be able to examine it very closely throughout the rest of the semester.
First off to go back to the title. My backyard is an ecosystem. Here is the definition:
ec·o·sys·tem
/ˈekōˌsistəm/
Noun
A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
My backyard is a community full of plants, animals, bacteria, fungus and protists. Here is a picture from a few months ago (actually from the real estate listing).
So from this picture I can see a few trees and they appear to be of different varieties. I am not a botanist and have no idea what these are but I looked up common trees in New England and found this link. I will use this to identify these during the spring.
I can see grass, which is a plant, I also can see some kind of bush in the back of the yard as well. I also have a couple planters off to the side which appear to be filled with death from last year's vegetable garden. We will take a closer look at that in a few weeks as well.
Also I know that there is a plethora of bugs and insects living in there as well, even though we can't see them either. I will make sure when I start planting I snap some pics and identify these little guys. I found this site that will help me in identifying them.
I also know of at least one animal living in my back yard, a squirrel. The previous owner told me about him and his "work" routine. He runs across the the fence on the left of this picture around 8 in the morning then runs back around 6, he may go back and forth many other times but she saw him on this pretty regular schedule.
His a pic of him before I left for work one morning.
So I hope you will continue with me and my journey through my backyard. I will hopefully be able to find something interesting, as they say even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
Im jealous you can view some of your site from the comfort of your house, and in convenient times but it looks like your back yard is much more interesting than mine. Be careful with squirrels they can be vicious seriously! :)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see the pics of your gardens. My first time having a veggi garden was last year. The only out door space I had was a small deck, but I made it work. I put some herbs in gutters and attached them to the fence, I put cucumbers, peppers and squash in fish totes and tomatoes in buckets. It looks like you have tons of space for gardens, but if you need any space saving ideas let me know! Can't wait to see pics of all your veggies!!
ReplyDeleteIf you ask me we see too many sqirrels. When I went to North Carolina I saw Alot of brown squirrels looking completely different then there new england counterparts. It was something different something new something you could even call squirrel special. Impressive site man keep it up my dood.
ReplyDeleteSquirrel what an amazing creature, that is a harmless creature that helps clean up the acorns that are all over the ground. It is a symbiotic relationship between the trees and squirrels. It is comparable to the way that the coffee beans are shown in the slides.
ReplyDeletegood luck with that squirrel... wait until he starts using your law to bury his nuts...
ReplyDeleteRick! Go OUTSIDE! For God's sake man. Also, beware the non-native trees and other plants; the link you have in here speaks specifically of native trees that are good for this region. A lot of the plants you see in yards and parks and such are non-native, exotic, and invasive (sort of like the Asian Shore Crab). So you may need several resources to identify some of the plants out there.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I say, GO OUTSIDE! Any punk can sit inside. You miss most of biology that way. Punk.