I’ve been busy and got woefully behind, so I’ll catch up. Wednesday was fence posts day.

Concrete bucket.

They cut a cable (guess whose!) because a marking was off, but got it fixed within an hour or two because J.’s wife’s father works for Charter. Whew. Ironically, where they hand-dug because they were close to the line, they didn’t even see a cable.

Cable cutter.

Fence line, AKA 100′ of giant trellis. 😀

Dirt neatly placed on our side of the fence line.

Not that it mattered because C. insisted that J. go back and rip up the grass in front of the fence so I can plant honeysuckle and flowers (no charge). Just zinnia and phlox this year, though. Need lots of dirt!

J. even spread out the sod over the bare areas, so no need to seed, just flatten. After work, I was cutting back some honeysuckle (evil kind) to give the coralberry on the north side more sun, and found…hostas.

That’s where I dumped the stuff I cleared out of the rectangular bed. Hostas are tough. I moved them over to the “bed” beside the patio.

I also pruned honeysuckle (the good kind), and found this: a Carolina mantis ootheca. I think the little dudes are still inside. This probably came from the gravid female that was hanging around late last summer, and I believe she was the tiny baby I found on my arm when I was sitting by the honeysuckle last spring.

Do not fuck with zinnia. Zinnia will open up a can of green whup-ass on you and come back for seconds. These were planted on Saturday afternoon. It is Tuesday.

Not just a few; the raised lines are zinnia. Nothing yet from Tithonia, but hey–it’s been three days!

Finally remembered the buds on the trumpet honeysuckle.

Things I would never see at 544: Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetles! Saw one yesterday, too. Crap picture, but they’re small and wary, and fast, and I was too tired to go get my Canon and dick around with the lens (only to have him fly away).

Now, I must go and make some MLB food, and wash their feeders. Don’t want to piss off the mean little bastards!

EDIT: MLB feeders all washed and refilled, and tentative good news! First, though, parsley you can look at with both eyes.

Tentative good news is half a dozen tiny seedlings from my Dixie cups of hardy fuchsia! Lots of opportunity for them to crap out on me yet, but they are green! (Look with one eye.)

Tentative yaaayyy! I actually came home at lunch today to unplug their heat mat, and it was hot in there. Thought I’d killed them before they even had a chance.

Not that I felt like planting anything, but my two hardy hibiscus arrived and had to go in the ground.

This one is “Fireball”

This is “Crimson Crush”

The seller sent a note that they’d die back until June. Good to know, though I probably wouldn’t have given up that quickly.

The celosia I planted yesterday.

The little (quart) fuchsia.

Both yellow honeysuckle (Lonicera flava) are alive and have new leaves. Itty bitty ones, but alive!

I mulched around them after work. Took me from the time I got home until nearly seven to plant the hibiscus and water everything that needed it (hot and sunny today, will be tomorrow). I’ll be glad when everything isn’t new transplants and seedlings anymore…whew!

Fence posts may go in tomorrow, maybe Wednesday. We’ll see!

Edit: Dammit, I forgot to take a picture yesterday and today, but the trumpet honeysuckle looks like it’s going to bloom this year after all! It had tiny dots that will grow and elongate, eventually becoming…Mean Little Bird food! Damn, that is one tough plant.

Hehe. I got some jewelweed. Left at twenty past seven this morning, armed with an insulated cooler bag and my new composite trowel. I put it back by the creek in the shade of one crabapple tree. It wilted, but only one was still wilted a few hours later, so hopefully it survives.
In the ground:

“Mulched” with dead leaves and debris.

Black-eyed susan vine coming along.

Found a caterpillar in the ground when I was digging. No ID yet.

Planted castor beans.

Red:

Green:

Hedging bets; these are by the patio:

Mystery plants are spiderwort.

Watered stuff.

Food! For caterpillars, at least.

Parsley! Four, to be exact. Look with one eye. Nothing yet from rosemary.

Also bought 12 celosia and a small pink/ivory fuchsia. Also a Philodendron ‘Brazil’ for the house. No pictures; I planted them when I’d just awakened from a nap. The philo is with my other plants, of course. I’ll take some tomorrow. Time for shower and BED!

Not so much accomplished, but I ran out of dirt and wanted to feel like I’d had a weekend, so I’m satisfied. I got the Mexican sunflower and zinnia done, which was the big one.

Ready to plant.

Planted, watered in and ready to grow!

Mexican sunflower
Zinnia Cut and Come Again (36-48″)
Mixed garden zinnia (24-36″)
Zinnia Orange King
Zinnia Canary Yellow
Zinnia Pompon
Zinnia Lilliput

In the morning, I’d gone on jewelweed recce patrol. Found some, but had nothing to dig it with. I may go back this morning…dunno. I did, however, grab some new growth ends of wild cherry and wild grape. I have no idea whether they’ll root, but I put some rooting hormone on them and stuck them in Dixie cups. Put them in freezer bags and set them on my heat mat. No harm done if they don’t root; they were free, and I can re-use the seed starting soil if they don’t!

Cherry:

Grape:

In Bistro-in-the-making news, deer are a pain in the arse.

Onje found a cool moth. Literally…it was too chilled to fly. I took it from him, then put it in a container until I could ID it. Once it warmed, it wanted OUT, so I did so right away.

Crap picture, but it was in a container, fluttering like crazy. I only needed this shot to see the light markings on its sides. Anyway, it’s almost certainly an Osage-orange Sphinx. Not unexpected; there’s nothing but bush honeysuckle and Osage-orange on the north side of our property!

Finished my coffee. Might go get dressed and walk over to “liberate” some jewelweed. Hmmm…supposed to be ironing. Hmmm…

Quick edit. A somewhat better shot of the bush honeysuckle menace killing field. I’ve already got ninebark to go here and may add some Eastern Snowberry.

When I got home on Friday (too tired to post yesterday), I thought, “Jesus Christ…did he start an hour ago?” Nope. There was just that much fucking honeysuckle. This is when they were close to done!

Honeysuckle Guy was not fucking around. I told him, “Go nuclear,” and he did just that! He and the two helpers he brought (and K. from next door) filled a trailer twice with that shit, and raked up the leaves and sticks afterwards. Wow.

The honeysuckle menace had been there a long time; this is the biggest one. (Hand for scale.)

I went out after they were done and painted the stumps with Bonide 24 (triclopyr). I bought an extra bottle, too; I have a feeling I’m going to need it.

We also got the weed barrier for the fence.

It’s laying out on the patio to flatten out. J. marked the fence and I submitted the JULIE on Thursday.  We’re on the schedule for next week, weather permitting.

Now, to finish the zinnia/Mexican sunflower bed!

I was too tired Thursday night to post it, but I got my baby Virginia snakeroot. “Baby” it is!

I put it in the ground where I’d dug up that honeysuckle and found such rich dirt. I supplemented with a little potting soil and a little manure compost. It looks kind of lost there, but the roots seemed healthy.

Covered it with a scrap of frost blanket to protect it from cats,  etc.

Tiny sprouts from…I’d guess brown-eyed susan? It’s in the rectangular bed, so probably.

I dont know what this is…greenbrier? I’m leaving it just in case.

Clematis on its ghetto trellis, in actual daylight this time. Location is bad, but I’ll move it in fall or next spring, now that I know it exists!

I like this pretty green-gold stuff. Not hard to see where the most sunlight falls!

Variegated isn’t bad, either.

Well, just the Asian bush honeysuckle. Here’s the pile I made for Honeysuckle Guy to take away on Friday.  It will be burned. Yaaayyy! This isn’t all I cut; I left some in one corner for the birds to hide/nest/whatever in.

Cut butterfly bushes back to the ground, but they’ll be okay in a couple of years.

Something is sprouting in the joe-pye and friends bed. Not joe-pye…dunno. It’s alive, though, and not a weed!

Portulaca still itty bitty, but growing!

Marigolds doing well, considering how little sun they get.

Water garden stuff all survived the move and the winter. Water looks like shit, but Tubifex are busy!

Lily:

Lotus:

Arrow…I forget. Too tired to think. EDIT: Pickerel weed.

Butterfly vegetable garden stuff coming along. I have carrots now, and my Sugar Baby is growing.

Cabbage and dill:

Tired. Didn’t sleep for shit last night. Need to find clothes for tomorrow. Zzzzz.

No picture, and I saw him for just a few seconds, but he was here! He was at the feeder by the carport, and as soon as Honeysuckle Removal Guy left (honeysuckle DIES on Friday!) I came inside and made fresh nectar. I hope the stale nectar (should have changed it Sunday) didn’t discourage the little dude from coming back.

Just one picture today because…Mr. Turtle arrived! Yeah, he’s supposed to be a Galapagos tortoise, but I didn’t know that when I got him years ago, so I just called him Mr. Turtle. This isn’t the original, of course, but Dale doesn’t mind, and neither do I. He looks the same, and that’s good enough.

When you have a clematis that wants to grow, but has nothing to climb save itself, but you have two shepherds hooks too short for bird feeders, some landscape netting, a bunch of zip ties and some jute twine, you get ghetto. You also hurry up because it’s getting very dark. My 20-minute Ghetto Trellis (five of that spent untangling the damned vines from themselves)!

P.S.
Cabbage:

Dill:

Sugar Baby: