Tree Dude came yesterday to take out the dead pin oak and the branch supporting it. He had some free time, so he was able to get here before a week from Friday, when he’d said he could. I’ll take it!

Why I’m not a Tree Dude. Yikes!

Lots more sun down there. Tree Dude is skilled enough that he avoided all of my American mountain-ash, and both tiny persimmons, even though they were in the way.

When he cut the dead oak, the branches just fell like bricks, landing in a flattened pile. A few more storms and it might have ended up on someone’s head…like mine! With the weight of the top gone, the root ball shifted back. Maybe there’ll be more water in the creek now.

C gave me another Mexico Midget that wanted out of its pot in a desperate way, so I didn’t make it wait. Had to use pine bark mulch because I still haven’t got more cypress.

I was able to get the last four faterpillars to eat pipevine after the snakeroot was completely gone. The instinct to eat-eat-eat was so strong that they were tasting my hand as I carried them over. They ate a lot in roughly 12h, but I think they’re close enough that most of my pipevine will be uneaten.

I treated the stump of the crabapple, hopefully soon enough after it was cut. Tree Dude said it had carpenter ants, which is never a sign of a healthy tree!

Since I accomplished very little, mostly pictures of flowers and my faterpillars, AKA very expensive eating machines.

Cosmos Dwarf Ladybird Lemon

Red bee balm, not named

First Virginia Stock. Others are pink, but not yet open. White is kind of boring.

Mexican hat, first one

Expensive faterpillars. Eating expensive leaves of Virginia snakeroot.

Evening primrose.

When I got home, I had two surprises. One, the long-awaited snakeroot was here. Postmarked June 1st, and clearly marked USPS 3-day Priority Mail. Apparently, USPS can neither read a calendar nor count to three. Anyway the plants were quite wilted, but he’d packaged them well, and the roots looked healthy. Second surprise was less desirable. Not a single leaf of snakeroot remained, and I had four of my twenty-four caterpillars! I grid-searched the yard and found eleven, then found four more as I was changing out the MLB feeders. I tried taking one that was actively feeding, and putting him on pipevine, but he refused it, so I ended up putting them on the new snakeroot. It’s a good thing I’ve spent so many years looking for bugs because those little shits were *everywhere*! As of this morning, some have wandered off, but that’s fine because I know they weren’t gone to look for food.

Plants didn’t look well last night, but still edible.

A bit less wilted this morning.

First Route 66!

The other clump of Mammoth Russian sunflowers didn’t sprout–probably not enough sun–but these are coming along.

Doesn’t look like I did much, but it was so hot that I’m lucky I did anything! I did most of the laundry on Saturday night so I’d have Sunday free to plant the last part of Sarah-Flah’s garden.

Sarah’s garden is finished except I’m short a few bags of mulch. I got the trellis finished and painted the front side on Saturday morning. Still needs the wires on the sides, but that won’t take long. Painting it green made it blend in well; the silver wire fencing really stuck out.

I put down the cardboard and a layer of topsoil on Saturday, then yesterday morning, I added compost and a little Miracle-Gro.

My assistant. American Snout butterfly. He was very interested in the compost.

I ran out of mulch, so the front isn’t quite finished, but I planted a packet of harebells, a few dwarf bachelor’s button, and 4000 gaillardia seeds. Kind of late for seeds, but if they don’t get to bloom this year, I’ll live.

I also roped off the cosmos. Doesn’t need it yet, but it will eventually. I went around the perimeter twice, then crisscrossed at various points. Hard to see because the twine is green (and so were my hands).

Sunflower seeds were definitely viable.

Evening primrose is blooming.

First oregano flower. Happy bees.

Bee balm soon. More happy bees…and butterflies, and hummingbirds.

In less awesome news, my pipevine bebes are getting big, and might run out of snakeroot, thanks to the guy who claimed he shipped on Monday and now doesn’t respond to my messages. I still have no new snakeroot, and I’m not happy about it.

On Saturday night, P noticed a bird had made a nest in the sweetgum tree over the patio. The nest is only about 12′ up, but the bird seemed pretty chill. It was too dark then to see what kind of bird, but on Sunday, I saw her sitting there and got a camera. I thought it was too late for robins, but apparently not for this one!

Doesn’t look like I did much, but I did!

Barely, but a start. I got the clips on one post, but it was hot, a mosquito wouldn’t leave me alone, and I need to figure out how to pull it tighter by myself. I did paint just a little to see how it’s going to look. I think it’ll work. The green practically disappears against the foliage, unlike the galvanized.

Dude better have actually shipped those goddamned plants because my little bebe pipevines are…HUNGRY. They’re getting bigger, and I think I have 16 or 18.

They’ll eat their way through that snakeroot in no time! Still no sign of my bebe Monarchs. 🙁

I didn’t do anything big, just planted the rest of the dwarf cosmos  (the ones with the abysmal germination rate) here and there, and pulled out a few weeds. I can’t find any of my bebe Monarchs, but I’ve still got somewhere between 13 and 16 pipevine ‘pillars. Hope my Monarch bebes are just hiding, but I fear not; they were very small.

I did get the posts placed for the trellis, and P smashed them down for me. No rush to get the fencing up, really, since the cardinal climber and runner beans are roughly 2″ tall. I painted the tops, though.

Planted the last of the scarlet pumpernickel in a big pot. I wanted a couple of pots that we could move closer if we wanted to watch MLBs (or photograph them!)

First zinnia of 2015 won by a petal’s width; there’s also a red one just about open.

I made a prototype finch feeder while I was watching L&O: SVU. The top isn’t finished because I don’t have paracord yet, and I want to be sure of the size before investing too much effort, so it’s just stuck up there with a big binder clip. Hopefully it won’t fall, and hopefully, they’ll use it.

I have bebe Pipevine Swallowtails, and I also have…tiny bebe Monarchs! I thought they were gone because I never saw any hatchlings, but they’re alive. I found six, but didn’t look all that hard.

My bebe pipevines are doing well so far. I counted sixteen this morning; I’d be thrilled if half of them make it to adulthood.

Didn’t do much else except the MLB feeders, but I did plant a few handfuls of mammoth Russian sunflowers. They’re from 2013, so I don’t think I’ll get many, if any, and that assumes whatever digs up my flowerbeds in search of food doesn’t eat them tonight.

Why do I have so many finch feeders? Hmmm…

I picked up 12 of the 18 patio pavers today; I hope they’ll have the remaining 6 when I go back tomorrow, but those bitches weigh about 30 pounds each, and HK might get used like a truck, but that doesn’t give it heavy duty suspension. Anyway, the guy was kind of a dick; I would’ve thought he’d at least find out if they had more, but he didn’t seem too interested in putting forth the effort. Fuck it–if I have to, I’ll use some red and make a pattern.

The only flowers I got was a six pack of Wave Purple ‘toonyaz. They were on sale, and I wanted a hanging basket on the hook by the cosmos. I put 4 in that pot, and the remaining 2 in a quart-ish pot, down by the Honeysuckle Horseshoe.

Tinctoria before it falls and gets all tangled and makes me wonder why I grow it.

I deadheaded those big yellow (sand?) coreopsis, and tied them up, and by the time I’d finished, it was nearly dark. Anise hyssop is almost ready to bloom, though!

Virginia snakeroot shipped today, and it’s a good thing. I counted 15 little dudes…Hungry little dudes. I hope even one will live–they’re so cute (by funny-looking caterpillar standards).

Well, I still have the two dogwood trees, but I finally have all of the perennials in the ground! I still have Virginia snakeroot coming, but its bed is nearly ready (and I have CATERPILLARS–the eggs weren’t all eaten!!!), and I still might get some NE aster, but not much. Anyway, today, I planted five Goldsturm black-eyed susan (for the record, they’re Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’, not R. hirta), six little purple coneflower seedlings I found in the patio bed full of oxalis, and five butterfly weed. That finishes the south extension of Sarah-Flah’s garden. Still half of the north extension to go, but I’ll take progress where I can get it!

It’s a good thing we put posts around it because I couldn’t bring myself to thin these. 544’s Bright Lights are going strong (so far)!

First “yellow flower”!

Grape-something agastache. Last try for fancy agastache. These and Tango…if they die, I won’t buy more.

Red Rocks. Doesn’t look terrific, but it’s got blooms. Better than nothing.

It was nearly dark, and I did take some macros earlier with my camera, but here are my pipevine ‘pillars. The eggs were gone in a few days, so I assumed they’d been eaten, but apparently, Pipevine Swallowtail hatches in just that little time. The little dudes hang out and eat together when they’re small, then they feed separately, and finally, wander off to pupate.

Hungry little buggers. Snakeroot looking decidedly ragged.

These guys were tucked in for the night on the underside of a leaf. I so hope I can get one to adulthood! So many predators, though, so I dunno.

It rained from the time I  got home on Friday, all through Saturday  (off and on), so I couldn’t plant anything, but I didn’t waste my time!

Friday after work, I was tired, but I finally repotted my poor, suffering dieffenbachia Camille. Pot isn’t much larger, but hopefully enough that it will make those big, pretty leaves again.

It rained all day Saturday, and it was too wet to plant, but I didn’t waste the day; every time the rain stopped, I grabbed my weeding stool, put on a disposable glove, and headed out to the fence line. The sun came out for about an hour, and it was soooo hot, and my fingers hurt from pinching weeds to pull the deep roots out, so I took a break and helped P mow the yard. The sun was out just long enough to dry the grass, then it got cloudy, and just as we finished, it started to rain again. We took naps, and when I got up, I decided to try to finish the weeding, and…I did it! I weeded that whole goddamned fence line!

Pretty coreopsis. Tequila Sunrise.