I’d better hurry, too, because it’s almost stopped raining!

Lucifer crocosmia

Bee balm in Sarah’s garden. Looks like the ordinary “Oswego tea”, but shorter, and smaller blooms. Still pretty! Raspberry something, or Fire Marshall. Dunno which.

Buds on 544’sBright Lights. Go, crazy orange/gold/yellow flowers, go!

Montbretia crocosmia

Since I took yesterday and today as vacation days, Wednesday was my Friday. I was too tired to do much, but did install soaker hoses in the swamp part of Sarah-Flah’s garden. We may be getting a lot of rain now, but it’s not July yet, either, and lobelia likes wet feet.

My big accomplishment yesterday was planting my last dogwood. I put it over on the south side, hoping to block the view of the ugly utility pole.

That would have left me with only the Sonic Bloom pink-that-is-red that I got for 40% off left to plant, but I went to Buchheit after I stopped in to work for a little while, and their green stuff was all 50% off, so I got two Java Red weigela, and two Minuet weigela. No idea where to put them, but I’ll think of something!

It was getting dark by the time I’d finished binding up my poor skilsaw to cut 45s on two of the landscape timbers that were really too thick to cut with it, but I wanted to at least get them started. I don’t think I’ll be able to finish today because they’re wet, but I will tomorrow, assuming it doesn’t rain again before then.

Rain has stopped, and I think the sun is coming out. Time to get dressed and get some work done!

I’ve been slack about keeping up lately, but I took a couple of vacation days, and it’s raining right now, so I can’t dig the post holes for the trumpet creeper yet anyway, so…

I finally got my little butterfly bush in the ground.

Bee balm. The taller “Oswego tea” kind. Everything loves this stuff.

I had a few little viny (it’s a word) things in Sarah’s garden, and although I thought one was honeyvine milkweed, and the others bindweed or wild buckwheat, I checked with the botanists just to make sure. I was right, so this little dude is going to get a spot of its own where it can’t choke anything out, and I’ll clip its pods so it won’t spread everywhere. I know it’s a weed, and I know it can be aggressive, but so can common milkweed, and I grow that.

I’d never bothered with single-colour zinnias before except for a few last year that I just mixed in with Cut and Come Again, but I will definitely grow Cherry Queen again; they’re such a deep, beautiful red.

Scarlet pumpernickel is starting to bloom. Not as tall as I’d like, but I’ll take red hummingbird flowers however I can get them!

Light purple butterfly bush is starting to bloom.

Cindeh-flowers. Sturdy, reliable, and pretty, and once they start to go to seed, very popular with the goldfinches.

Liatris that I’m surprised hasn’t drowned. The stuff in the concrete bed hasn’t bloomed yet, and it’s taller. Bees don’t care how tall it is; they love it however it grows.

Virginia stock is cute, but I don’t think I’ll grow it again; it’s a bit too delicate-looking for that long flowerbed along the fence line.

Annual catchfly. Might grow this again; it’s pretty.

It’s taken me so long to post this that I have a couple of open blooms on the Goldfinger Mexican sunflower. Blooms have to start somewhere, though.

Red and orange crocosmia coming along. Actually some blooms now; again, because it’s taken me so long to post.

I forget which penstemon this is, but it’s the one that isn’t Husker Red, Red Rocks, or Prairie Twilight. Purple something?

I’ll put the rest in another post…this is getting looooong!

It stopped raining on Saturday so I hauled up the last load of gravel, and decided to put the paver base into the cee-ment pond. I actually won’t need the last 6 bags, but I’m keeping them anyway because I’m going to put pavers over the messy spot where the trash can sits. Anyway, the gravel is finally gone from behind Sarah-Flah’s garden, and I cleaned up the roots/trash that was unsuitable for leaving in the flowerbed. I also did a test fit for the pavers, both to make sure they fit, and to keep weight on the ground as it dries.

The patio concrete has shifted over the years, so I might have to trim a couple of the pavers.

P got me a butterfly bush to replace the one PL killed.

The one little larkspur I had last year in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe came back.

A struggling hollyhock.

Found this guy Saturday night. No ID yet. EDIT: Mayfly in genus Maccaffertium, unknown species, adult male.

Milkweed is exceptionally popular with pretty much anything that flies and likes nectar, but I especially love my little Snowberry Clearwing moths. <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lof9G7YttU

I don’t have new patio pavers installed, but I do have a lovely in-ground pool. Buchheit dude texted to ask if he could deliver next week, and since it was pouring rain when I got the text, I could hardly argue.

I bought 6 more bags of paver base , 10 bags of sand, and 3) 8′ landscape timbers yesterday. I decided everything was so wet that I didn’t want to make 2-3 soggy trips with HK, and still not have a way to get 8′ timbers home, so I’m coughing up $40 for delivery. All I can say is that we’d better spend a lot of time on that patio because this project ain’t cheap! Delivery dude called me yesterday evening; he’s bringing the stuff today (I’m writing this at 05:15 on Friday).

In stock potted plants were 40% off, so I got the last Sonic Bloom pink-that-is-red weigela. I might put it out front…dunno. the ditch lilies are blooming, but the iris and spiderwort are done.

Something is making a big mess of my evening primrose. If it would stop raining  (!!!), I’d try to figure out what. Brown spots on the leaves, lower leaves dying off, and a rolled up leaf full of…I dunno. Frass? Eggs? Probably the former.

544’s Bright Lights are doing well…if they don’t drown.

Crocosmia Lucifer is getting there, and now, I have Montbretia getting ready to bloom, too!

Actually, these are flowers because I forgot to take a picture and now it’s too dark. I’ll take one in the morning. I went at lunch and got 10 bags of paver base, which won’t be enough, but was quite enough for HK to carry. Again, it started raining just as I got home. I waited until it was just light rain, then started hauling gravel/clay from Sarah-Flah’s garden leftovers. I got most of it, put it in the patio reclamation spot, then stomped it down a bit to get as much air out as I could. Like walking in quicksand, but the time to compact soil is when it’s wet, and that gravel wasn’t going to shovel itself, rain or no rain.

I’ll put a picture here in the morning. There…big, ugly hole with wet, footprinted clay/gravel.

In the meantime, here’s crocosmia, getting closer.

Spotted bee balm. I love this stuff!

I’d thought all the red dogwood trees at Buchheit had found homes, but this little guy didn’t. It looked sad that nobody had picked it, and they were 40% off, so even though I’ve spent way too much already, I gave it a home. If the ground ever reaches a point where it isn’t sodden, I’ll get this poor little dude’s roots in the dirt.

I pulled the weeds out on Sunday, discovering a million carpenter ants. P pulled up the old wood edging, discovering a billion more. It was raining a bit when I got home yesterday, but I shovelled out the soft dirt anyway; I put it down by the brush pile. Now I just have to rake it flat (already cleaned the edges with a garden hose), haul up the gravel I dug out of Sarah-Flah’s garden, and dump it in. I’ll need more gravel, then a layer of sand, and then the patio stones. It’s going to rain all week, so I guess we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, there’s a really ugly 32 square foot hole in the patio.

Not ugly. My Cherry Queen zinnia.

Mystery floor-sweepings flower by the morning glory.

One little pheasant’s eye. Blurry picture. My phone is water-resistant, but I don’t push my luck.

First butterfly bush bloom.

Elegant stinkhorn. Looks more phallic than elegant to me. Can you tell it’s been very damp lately?

I got wibbly concrete to put around my little dogwood. I wanted the least digging possible, so I literally set it on the ground and painted the ground on the inside, then followed outside the line to allow for concrete. Had a hell of a time fitting it, but finally got it done without much more digging. Good thing, too, because it was hot and humid; sweat literally running into my eyes.

That was really all I accomplished; fortunately the flowers were more productive.

Route 66

Verbena wasn’t on my list, but apparently, I did plant some because it’s in the concrete bed, and on two sides, which is how I’d have put in the seeds.

My seeded rue looks pretty good.

The rue I bought.

My “Chipman’s Golden Glow” (ha!) butterfly bush is starting to bloom.

I actually feel like I had one! It’s Sunday, and I was very lazy today, but I did get some stuff done, and for once, I have nothing waiting to be planted!

Friday after work, I stopped at Buchheit, bought some plant stakes, two terra cotta trays for butterfly puddles, and two very expensive spotlights.

Butterfly puddles, filled with compost and a little sand.

Planted the dogwood out front. Not quite where I wanted because there was a huge root from the old tree in my way, but I’m okay with the location.

Saturday morning, I started early, before it got unbearably hot. My goal was to get the posts set to rope up my flowers before they get tall and we get a hard rain.

Yaaayyy! Crocosmia is getting there!

Stoke’s? Wood’s? I forget. I ordered one, they sent the other. Pretty, though, and they close at night.

Botanists identified this as evergreen bugloss.  I think it’s a stray floor-sweepings seed because there’s only one.

Planted my second dogwood in late morning, and it was hotter than the hinges on the gates of hell. Exactly enough pine bark mulch left from the snakeroot to use for my little tree.

The day’s kill. Japanese beetles and those goddamned longhorn milkweed beetles, drowned in soapy water. Die, you bastards, die!

Hibiscus blooms soon, if I can keep the sawflies at bay.

I also changed the MLB feeders, and one had been discovered by ants. I made a baffle, and some confused ants found out the party was over.

I put my very expensive solar LED floodlights in front of the Tornado Honeysuckle. They’re just what I wanted–a glow, not bright illumination. Thankfully it was sunny on Saturday and they could charge. I didn’t take off the tags or set them properly in case they had to go back. I can now!

I didn’t quite finish roping up the flowers on Saturday because I needed some short stakes I’d actually thought I got, but set down in the store and left there. P got them for me on Saturday afternoon, so I went out early this morning and finished. Three posts across the back that I had to dig because they were close to a gas line, two on the sides for tall flowers, and P drove those for me. I’m finally finished with the post smasher I borrowed from work! Anyway, the rest is done with plant stakes of varying heights, and I tried to anticipate which flowers would fall if it rained hard, and crisscrossed as much as I could. I don’t love the way it looks, but stakes are better than flat flowers!

Gaillardia is starting to sprout.

The new snakeroot is showing a few signs of recovery. Yaaayyy–that shit was expensive! I doubt all of it will live, but some is better than none.

My snakeroot is faring a bit better, since it’s established.

Robinette up over the patio has at least one bebe! She’s been flying back and forth, getting food, and the sounds she makes are a little like a brood hen. Bless her little birdy heart.

Of the 15 I wrangled, only one died trying to pupate  (that I know of), but I haven’t found any more, so this guy is it. He was the last of the four that I moved onto pipevine after all of my snakeroot was gone, and all of the new snakeroot as well. I found him…Thursday, I think, but forgot to post him. He still looks the same today, but I think they go 6-10 days, so not much longer. Better get out there with my Canon tomorrow because this little dude cost me roughly $250!

Sarcasm definitely intended. I got six more bags of mulch. That’s practically it. I even had help unloading it.

I did manage to dump a bag of it on the bare spot in Sarah-Flah’s garden. That’s all, though; I need more in the centre, but have to weed it first. Too goddamned hot today after work.

Still nothing from FOUR THOUSAND gaillardia seeds, but the dwarf bachelor’s button I saved from last year have sprouted.

No matter how many times I see them, I will always be struck by how pretty Ladybird Lemon is.

Cindeh-flowers are sturdy. Also so enthusiastic that one small, round centre just isn’t enough.

P.S. Only one faterpillar left; I assume the rest went off to become flutter-guys.