These pictures are actually pre-rain, but I was so disgusted at watching my poor garden die, taking with it insect habitat and sustenance, that I didn’t give a damn about pictures.
Crappy shot, but the light was bad when it occurred to me to take a photo. This looks less like a baseball backstop now that the cardinal climber and runner beans are filling it in. Next year, I’ll get them planted earlier, since I won’t have to make Sarah-Flah’s garden next year, and I’ll already have a place to plant them.
I forget which one of the bee balms this one is. The other is shorter and red…maybe this one is Raspberry Wine? The only other option is Fire Marshall, and this is too pink to reasonably call Fire Marshall. Anyway, another crap photo because the light sucked.
Salvia greggii ‘Radio Red”. That’s for when this doesn’t survive our sure-to-be shit-tacular winter, and I have to buy it all over again next spring because it’s pretty, and my Mean Little Birds like it, but I forget which Salvia greggii it is and there are too many red ones to decide. How’s that for a run-on sentence?
Charlotte and the Ungulate Hoodlum Gang have done quite a number on my morning glories this year, but I did get one bloom, and it’s pretty, so I’ll take it!
P emailed me at work, saying he’d found a baby frog when he was outside, smoking, but worried it wouldn’t be safe. He put it in a jar with some grass and some water, and told me he’d bring it home. Then, he found another, and collected that one as well. I named the first one Pickles (green, and in a jar), and the second one Dill (because what goes better with Pickles?) I don’t have the pond done yet–just ordered the liner on Tuesday–but I topped up my water garden with dechlorinated water for them. If they decide to stay until I finish the pond, they’ll be welcome to live in it.
At last. It rained lightly for much of the day yesterday, and steadily all night. It may be too late, but maybe not. Anyway, this is a picture of…rain. Wet leaves, wet grass, wet concrete. Wet because we got…rain.
Garden is suffering, and it rains everywhere else. Mother Nature just says, “Fuck that town in particular.”
I didn’t do anything except a little watering, and I picked two more Sarah-Flah tomatoes, and the first three Mexico Midget. That’s it. It’s a start, though!
It still doesn’t really look like anything, and I ended up filling the top part because otherwise, I’d need another ton of rock that I can’t afford at the moment, but the actual pond part is 2′ deep, and has a little divot at one end for debris to collect (in theory, at least).
Osage-orange trees suck. Oh my GAWD the roots.
I filled in the stair-step area because if I’d done it the way I wanted–so that the rocks were visible slightly below the surface of the water–I’d have needed a lot more rock than I have already. It cost me $370 to get the rock and four little bags of trapp, and the trapp was only a few bucks a bag.
After my spoon and I had finished with half a Sugar Baby watermelon, I put it out for the Banditos. I left a fair bit of pink on it, but they certainly didn’t!
No thanks to the baking heat and lack of rain, and big thanks to me and a soaker hose, I think at least one of the lobelia may bloom for me this year. There are others that are starting to “lift” above the rosette, but this one actually looks like it may bloom.
We need rain. This is in a shady spot…that’s sad.
The next ones are from a few days ago, but there wasn’t enough to inspire me to post.
The burgundy gaillardia bloomed this year, and if my track record with potted gaillardia is anything by which to judge, this might be the only photo I ever have of it.
“Tall” garden phlox bloomed, or at least one did. They probably would actually be tall if Charlotte hadn’t neatly cropped both of them nearly to the ground this spring.
Just a pretty sunflower the birds planted in the little bed with the columbine over by Sarah-Flah’s garden.
Temperature: 5000F. Heat index: 15000F. Dumbass me: out shovelling, accompanied by the boldest, least-nocturnal raccoons known to mankind.
A little progress.
A lot of rock.
A very bad raccoon named Grace.
A Miff in a box (not on a skid).
Text to P.
I’m going to cancel my Arbor Day Foundation membership because I hate trees. Okay, I don’t hate trees, but I hate the osage-orange roots that crisscross the only spot in my yard that works for a bird pond.
It doesn’t look like I did much, but I dug from 1630h until about 1845h. I’m making progress, but if those goddamned roots weren’t there, I’d be nearly done already.
In one spot, I’ve got just a few inches to go. I had P stand there for scale.
Stupid huge roots. IDGAF if the tree croaks, either…just fewer giant green brains dropping on my car and all over the yard. I might use some to make a trellis for honeyvine, though.
Fool that I am, I decided to do a little digging on the bird pond today.
Just starting to do the edges, and P reminded me to take a before shot.
I made good progress, considering the rock-hard dry ground, and approximately five million roots, some of which required a hatchet because no way was a shovel cutting those big bitches.
I’m building up the north side a little so it’ll be level.
Started the stair-stepping that’ll eventually be the waterfall. Not a big waterfall; the birds want to drink and bathe, not go whitewater rafting.
I may have run into a few roots. I hate osage-orange trees.
Grace was surprised (and most hilariously so) to find the spot where the feeder had been was now a hole in the ground. He found the new location easily enough, though. Only two of them today.
The vervain has not only forgiven me for leaving it so long in a too-small pot, but has started producing some lovely flowers that MLBs like.
That’s it. My hands hurt and all I want to do is feed the fish, shower and SLEEP!
We went to look at rock today, and I found Arkansas fieldstone that was perfect for my little bird pond. For the record, if you live somewhere that there’s not a lot of rock, rock is expensive! Granted, this is semi-fancy fieldstone, but $250/ton for someone who grew up where you can’t stick a shovel in the ground twice without hitting a rock, it’s insane. I bought it, though, along with four bags of trap (not sure what that means, but its rough edges worked with the fieldstone), which I’ll use for filling gaps between the stones. I had a choice for delivery; $45 if they could just dump it, or $75 if I wanted them to bring a forklift and unload it on the skid. I went for the forklift; I don’t need to have two tons of rock to move in addition to digging a huge hole. They’ll deliver on Wednesday; I don’t think anyone will mind if I leave work for a few minutes. Anyway, rock is expensive!
I didn’t know until I saw the lady at the counter, but the rock place is run by Mennonites. P grabbed this before we left. I like Mennonites and Amish; I don’t believe what they believe, but I like their principles, and I like the way that no one is Amish or Mennonite by force; if you don’t want the Plain People, they don’t want you.
In the Bistro…
I’m not positive, but I think I might see a Lobelia bloom this year. One of the plants I bought has grown up from its rosette, so maybe!
P may call it a baseball backstop, but it’s good enough to make cardinal climber flowers, so it’s good enough for me!
I love the Autumn Colors rudbeckia. I hope it survives.
These are along the fence, but I don’t remember planting them; I thought the only cosmos put there were dwarf orange/yellow/gold. This is not orange/yellow/gold.
Spined micrathena with a fly. I love these spiders with their weird, spiky butts.
I picked the first volunteer tomato from Sarah-Flah’s garden today. Yellow pear, I guess.
Of course there are photos and video of the hummingbird banding that we attended this morning, but I had to change feeders tonight, so I haven’t had time to sort them, and will post later. In the meantime…
Immature male Eastern Pondhawk. I didn’t see a single one of these last year, but I’ve seen a few this year without even really looking. I’m not heartbroken–they’re a favourite!
I thought these looked like honeyvine milkweed, but wasn’t 100% sure they weren’t wild buckwheat.
I lifted a leaf to look for the sheaths on the petioles that would be present on wild buckwheat, but not on honeyvine, and I got my answer because these are Aphis nerii, which feed on milkweeds, but not on wild buckwheat!
I probably should get rid of this…
The vervain that had been dying in the hanging pot is doing much better in the bigger pot. Apparently, having soil instead of just a pot full of roots is healthy for a plant. Who knew?
These are the pink Wave ‘toonyas that I planted just a couple of weeks ago. I’ve seen MLBs and bees at them, and they really do well in hanging pots, even in full sun, so I think I’ll get some next year, too.
The pink annual salvia I got early in the spring is another one I think I’ll plant again next year. I’ve seen hummingbirds and bees at that as well, and it’s survived being drowned with all the rain we had in June, and then being cooked with little rain. Tough stuff, and it’s kept blooming like crazy all along.
It’s a little blurry because I was losing light, but when I was checking out the Grey Stick’s blooms, I found a little crab spider. I didn’t even see the green stinker until I looked at the photo. I’ll take a twofer even if it’s a bit blurry.
