This has nothing to do with the title, but it is Parview’s first wheel bug!

I got some edging blocks and made a non-plastic flags border for the Virginia snakeroot. I’d rather natural stone, but these aren’t bad, and they weren’t expensive, but they do allow me to mulch my little green guys.

I also broke out the pine bark nuggets (god, what a name) and did the flowerbed by the patio. Next year, it’ll be different–it’s too small and looks weird–but for this year, it looks like this and contains the very first outdoor plants I bought for Parview; my toad lilies. Looks nasty without mulch and invites weeds.

Now for not too dead to tango! I was horrified when I got the shipment notice on Wednesday because it’s been in the 90s and they were scheduled to arrive on Monday. They’d have been dead. When I got up from my nap, though, there they were on the table in the shade. Stressed, but not dead.

The last fucking thing I wanted to do was put plants in the ground when it was so hot I’d literally water them with sweat, but plants don’t give a shit what I want, so in they went. I surgically implanted three of them right beside the ones that were recovering.

The fourth I put by itself. I bought four because these are the last reasonably priced ‘Tango’ agastache in the western world and they had four left. I needed three to replace the recovering ones that won’t bloom this year, but I didn’t want the last one to be lonely. I had to make a little tape splint for a stem on the fourth one, but even if it loses that stem, it’ll look okay. I’ll deadhead the blooms once they’ve had a little time in-ground.

I’m off for four days and I have no dirt to dig, haul or mix. No seeds to plant, no plants to get in the ground. Weeds to pull, and we’re going to try to get the trellis done, but I feel like a lady of leisure!

In the meantime…

Rosemallow leafing out nicely.

544’s ‘Bright Lights’ are starting to bloom.

Purple haze on the light butterfly bushes. Dark one a little behind but getting there!

EDIT: Forgot I put the pitiful bee balm in. Six plants? No. Two plants, four skinny strings and one too small to call a plant at all. I put them all together because they were so small I thought they’d get lonely. It’s in, though!

My second pawpaw is alive! Just a few leaves,  but alive. That’s all four of the trees I practically killed.

This isn’t the “Oh god, no,” but it is kind of cool. P left it on the Bistro table for me; he found it somewhere. I think it’s amusing. I’d been aware on some level that Osage Orange fruit were hairy when they were small, but never really thought much about it.

I’m underwhelmed by the birds-eye, but at least they did bloom. I had planted some seeds in 544’s Bistro, but they never amounted to anything. Actually, now that I think of it, those were pheasants eye. Whatever…they’re birds, and I never got a bloom.

Here’s the, “Oh god, no.” Top three things you don’t want to find on your front porch when you get home from work and it’s 90+ with a heat index over 100:

1. Box of ice
2. Box of dead fish
3. Box of expensive perennials that have already spent two days in the mail and temperatures have been 90+ both days

Number three is what was on my porch when I got home from work. Quart pots of creeping phlox (3), gaillardia (2) and Blue Fortune agastache (1), plus gallon pots of coreopsis (Crème Brulee and Crème Caramel), and a gallon pot of a pink butterfly weed whose name escapes me ATM (seems like it’s Star-something? EDIT: It’s ‘Soulmate’.) They’d been in the mail since Monday and a couple of them looked like they were getting pissed off, so they had to go straight in the ground. About the last fucking thing I wanted to do; however, plants don’t really give a rat’s arse what I want, so I planted them. I was nearly done when I remembered the goddamned Monarda I’d bought. I ended up leaving a spot for it and mulching the rest. Still need to anchor the branch that the pipevine is climbing, but at least I’ve got their roots in the ground and some mulch to help keep them cooler and damp in the heat.

I was going to put the butterfly weed in that bed, but looked at the tag and saw it grows to 42″ (what the fuck kind of butterfly weed grows to 42″? That’s good old milkweed, not butterfly weed! EDIT: milkweed, indeed; specifically, swamp milkweed because it is Asclepias incarnata ‘Soulmate’.) It ended up in the big flowerbed after I’d put in the Blue Fortune agastache for which I’d left a spot, and moved a purple coneflower that was kind of in the way (I put it right beside one I’m not sure is going to survive).

P came outside in the morning as I was having coffee on the patio, and he had my binoculars. He told me where to look, and at first, I thought I was seeing a dead groundhog. Dunno why I thought “dead”, but I did. Nope, not a groundhog, and very much alive!

Every time I’d walk by the Thunbergia (sp.?) I’d tell it, “Quit making so many goddamned leaves and BLOOM, willya!” Finally, it did.

Rosemallow seems to really like its little swamp. Actual leaves, and activity from one of the small ones; I think I inadvertently buried its leaf nodules (or whatever the hell those bumps that will sprout leaves might be called).

Just coreopsis because it’s very pretty.

I thought I’d bought all blue bachelors button because that’s what P likes, but some of them did not get that memo. This is a lovely shade of purple, though!

Bishop’s flower. Blooms do look like Queen Anne’s lace.

Giant ragweed, attempting to hide amongst the sunflowers. I’d already pulled up two or three, but missed this one until it was pretty big. Fuck ragweed.

Well, even if the eBay seller doesn’t get more ‘Tango’ agastache, these ones aren’t dead. They’ve got a long way to go to catch up, though; this one has the most and largest leaves of the three!

I put some more coneflower seedlings in the perennial bed, and added a few more bags of mulch (went to Walmart after work and got 8 bags). Only one more plant to go in there, but since it still looks pretty much the same, I didn’t take a picture. I did, however, take a picture as I was lounging in the shade on the patio in my folding recliner that I got when we went on the mulch run. Comfortable as hell!

As much as I didn’t want the extra work, I installed edging around the big perennials bed. P bought it for me; he’s not much of a gardening kind of guy, but very supportive of my projects in other ways.

Planted some coneflowers from C.’s seeds in the bed around the pipevine. I’ll add a few creeping phlox, a couple of gaillardia and the fancy coreopsis (Creme Brulee and Creme Caramel) that I just had to have.

P. also got me a tree ring. I used a little over half around the lilac and put the rest under the Cliffie Bush. I used some of my pine bark nuggets; hope I’ll have enough for the Honeysuckle Horseshoe!

Finally! I’ve been waiting for the Portulaca to get off its lazy arse. Worth the wait–they’re pretty!

I’m way too lazy to make a pano (and they never look right anyway), but here’s the yard so far.

I made a White Trash Trellis for my Sugar Baby to climb. I was going to get a cattle panel and do a decent one, but I don’t have a truck, and they need something to climb RFN.

We went to Walmart on a mulch run, and suddenly, cypress mulch became my favourite…since that’s all they had except for the coloured stuff. I still need more–14 bags here–but I need to put in a couple more plants, so I’ll leave it for now.

Finally! I’ve been waiting forever for the Monarda to bloom, and not only did I get a bloom, I got a teeny-tiny little manti-dude friend! Given the dark manti-knees, I’ll hazard a guess it’s a Carolina, and given the fact that there was a Carolina ootheca on the Tornado Honeysuckle when we brought it from 544, that’s probably a safe bet.

I keep forgetting to figure out what these blue flowers are, but I just love them! Photo doesn’t do them justice at all; they’re lovely!

Rosemallow is tough, indeed, and apparently likes its swamp very much.

I ripped out the grass and made a flowerbed around the ridiculously expensive pipevine. It was not fun, but one HELL of a lot easier than ripping up the really big flowerbed full of goddamned crap-grass. Anyway, I installed edging so grass can’t creep in (theoretically, at least). These plants shipped with the second blazing star; two red lupines and two light purple speedwell.

Tickseed is a pain in the arse to keep deadheaded, but it sure is pretty!

I just love these dwarf cosmos; they’re the colour of lemon pie filling.

I had plants waiting for me when I got home, but the only ones I was ready for were the three blazing star I’d got to go with the two I already had. I thought I’d ordered the same kind as the first time, but I didn’t; these are a slightly different cultivar. Will butterflies really give a damn? Nope…blazing star is blazing star to them.

I also moved some of the Rudbeckia that I planted from C.’s seeds out into the perennials bed.

Yay! A bloom on my sugar baby watermelon!

Crappy picture, but all I had on me was my phone, and I was too tired to go get my camera and set up a tripod, and attach the telescope mount, and…
There will be lots of pictures of this moon because the next full moon that falls on a Friday the 13th will occur in 2049, and even then, it’ll be in January. Brr. So, since this is probably the last one I’ll ever see–I’d expect I’ll be dead by the time the next one gets here, or at least too old to give a shit–I’m putting my crappy picture up here to prove I did, in fact, see this moon. So there!

I’m really getting behind! I’d had Hypoestes before, but theyd always drop their leaves and die from lack of light even before they got a chance to get leggy or wilt; the reasons lots of people dont care for them. This one has done both (wilted many times), but it’s also…bloomed. Yay for my big south window with supplemental east windows!

Summer savoury!

I was digging holes for Echinacea, after work, so trying to hurry, and in an area famous for its flat, fertile, rock-free soil, I hit what I thought was a brick. Onje was assisting.

It was not a brick. Nope, it was a rock big enough to be worthy of Nov’ Scosh’s North Mountain. Goddamn! It’s going to serve some landscaping purpose; I just don’t know what.

The Echinacea doesnt look great, but the roots seem healthy, so fingers crossed!

Signs of life from the rosemallow! I guess it wasn’t too dried out after all.

This must be the tropical milkweed I (think I) planted. Looks almost ready to bloom.

I like these…forget the name ATM…better than the ones I bought as plants. They look healthier, too.