Little sweet tomatoes, getting ready to pop them in my mouth! Yum!
"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." ~ Lewis Grizzard
Storms broke out dead tree tops and littered the yard with limbs and leaves. Pinecones pelted the metal sunroom roof, sounding more like giant hailstones and the wind caught up anything that was not tied down. The grow box with these tiny tomatoes bowed to the power of the wind and rolled to the edge of the deck, then toppled over and down the steps losing a bit of dirt, several large branches and scattering tiny green tomatoes all over the stone patio. I repaired the damage as best possible: replacing the dirt and the soil cover, tying up the vines and relocating the box to be sheltered from future winds.
These are the survivors -- of the storm and the marauding squirrel bandits -- and they are beginning to ripen. At first, it was slow... one a day for a week.. but now I get a handful a day. Some are red and others orange... but all are tasty and juicy and squirt yummy goodness all in your mouth. I get to eat these at least... Mom has become enamored with the cucumbers and we really need ten vines to keep up with her passion. So far, the birds have left them alone and the squirrels are not brave enough to come directly up to the boxes as they are so close to the door. Now we will simply have to see how long they will produce.
No matter how you say it... tomatoes are one of summer's great joys. (end of post)
Salvia x microphylla 'Hot Lips'... a changeable diva!
"If one consults enough herbals...every sickness known to humanity will be listed as being cured by sage." ~ Varro Taylor, Ph.D. (herb expert)
We already had a large pot with a bush sage planted and growing and showing off the bright red blooms that are so irresistible to hummingbirds; but this little gem was too gorgeous to pass up. I nestled it between the milkweed and the coneflowers and it loves the area. When first planted, the little flowers were totally red; but as the days grew hot, the flowers changed color....
From a deep crimson red all over......
.....to a fabulous stripe of red against a background of pure white... very 'Hot Lips' indeed. According to several sources, the flowers may also be all white -- pure as the winter snow-- if you want to believe such a saucy flower can do so. I am going to try and collect some of the tiny seed and see what I can do with it. For now, the flowers are going strong and the hummingbirds have been dining, as have the bees and a few butterflies.
This is a variety of sage, though not the typical herb used in cooking. Still, when you crush a couple of leaves together or break off a spent flower stem, the aroma of pungent sage is left on your fingers and in the air. Heavenly.
"On the face of it, the easiest of all activities should be seeing what we see. In reality, it's the hardest." ~ Charles Movalli
Have you every played "I Spy" or maybe "Where's Waldo?" I thought we would enjoy a little game today; but first I must digress to another story that has nothing to do with either "I Spy" or "Where's Waldo?" (or maybe it does).
Most of you know I have cats and some of you probably believe I have an excessive number of cats for a "normal" person. However, I have never claimed to be "normal" and my number of cats is dwindling from the unavoidable attrition that comes with increasing age. (I am now only living with four cats.) Once upon a time (every good story begins with this) I lived with another group of cats, all Siamese. Shamroc was the eldest and a seal point, Cassiopeia (Cassi for short), another seal point, and Rami, a blue point. They traveled with us everywhere for many years and it was on one of those excursions to Wichita Falls, that this story takes place.
My ex-mother-in-law (she wasn't and "ex" at that time; but you figured that out didn't you) had just re-done her bedroom with paint and curtains and a new king sized bed and bed linens. She longed for a picture of her new room to show her friends. Some of you, perhaps most of you, no longer remember the days of the Polaroid instant cameras (except for those tiny funky shot things my daughter had as a teenager that made weird instant picture stickers), but this was what I had. This was a time before I could afford a film 35mm camera, so you must be able to imagine what the style was back then... in the late '70's and early 80's. OK, please try not to gag too loud.
Anyway, as a dutiful daughter-in-law I obliged and stood in the dormer window facing the bed and snapped away. As the pictures lay on the bed and the foggy images slowly started to take shape, there was a curious blob centered at the botom of the picture. Milky and murky at first, it began to take shape; something dark and mysterious and at the same time stately and royal. Finally, the bedspread came into focus, as did the headboard and curtains and night stand and the rug... and the blob. IT WAS SHAMROC! I didn't see him through the viewfinder; but he positioned himself at the foot of the bed right in the dead center bottom of the picture, almost as if he were sitting on the edge of the white picture margin frame. AND he was turned just slightly sidways to show off the sloping curve of his back; his paws were placed together and his tail curled around and tucked in just in front of his paws. His head was trained directly on the camera with blue eyes front and center. HE POSED! Shamroc posed for the camera and gave a perfect shot, though no one knew he was there. Then, he WAS a special cat.
So, what does the previous story have to do with a lovely garden scene and gorgeous daylilies and a birdbath that is definitely leaking? Can you not guess? I took this picture from our living room window. It has been sooooo hot and humid that stepping outside into the wet sauna is more than I can take. So I take pictures from my little bench next to the window; pictures of the birds, hummers, and the occasional pastoral scene that invites the feeling of coolness at least. My brother gave me a long lens and I use it for this purpose. So I am at least fifteen to 20 feet away from these shots. As I worked with the pictures on my computer, something caught my eye... similar to the way that black blob showed up in my picture. Now, can you guess... is there anything showing up to you?
Scroll on down and get a closer shot.
I've patched cracks in this birdbath but it still leaks, just not as fast.
"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." ~ Thoreau
Do you see it now? After the first batch appeared and vanished at the end of April, just as they did last year, I have been looking and watching for more...to no avail. But here, it appears in my picture and I wasn't even looking.... have you figured it out yet? OK... a real cropped out close up is below.
A bit fuzzy but a monarch none the less.
"You can observe a lot by just watching." ~ Yogi Berra
Yes. A Monarch caterpillar of full size and it looks as if it has already entered into the wandering phase; as they rarely leave the milkweed until it is time. Of course I looked for him this morning, but alas, he has meandered away and hopefully has found a safe place to rest and form his chrysalis. I checked the milkweed again and still don't seen any eggs or small caterpillars. I guess it is time to break out the incubators and get them set up for the Monarchs and the Black Swallowtails.
So how did you do? Did you find him without my help? Did the story give some hints? Or did you have to scroll to the last picture.. come on.. tell the truth now!
Columbine... double white....the flower of the spring.
"What a desolate place would be a world without flowers. It would be a face without a smile; a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth? Are not our stars the flowers of heaven?" ~ Clara L. Balfour
It has been a real struggle to write these last few weeks and for several months now. Life gets in the way and with doctor's appointments for two parents and emergencies that seem never ending and balancing diabetic diets and gout diets and even soft diets for the same person and cooking and grocery shopping and a little planting thrown in... well, by night time the thoughts in my head are mostly non-existent. So I take my pictures... those that I have been able to take... and play. There are so many beautiful flowers opening up on a daily basis and many a surprise... (since I didn't map out the flower beds that well last year and have forgotten exactly what was where)... with such beauty you would think I would be inspired. But my muse is buried under mountains of pills for people and pets and organizing trips to the doctor with as little duplication and extra driving as possible.
This was a new addition to my shade garden last summer... a white double columbine. It prefers shade or partial sun but not too much. It will wilt in the heat in Virginia. But the columbine is hardy too... last year I planted a bunch out behind the fence, right next to the large tree that snapped off during a summer storm. After the people came to remove the tree, I noticed they had trampled most of the growing columbine plants and I grieved. But this spring, little sprouts of green began to grow in the most familiar leaf shape...little scalloped leaves... and before you knew it there were columbine.... purple and white, solid purple, burgundy, pink and white and pale yellow. Most often they die back to the ground in late fall, but emerge again in spring... ours have bloomed through April and into May. Now most are topped with the growing seed pods, but this white double is still blooming strong. I plan to collect more seed to add to our population behind the fence.
"Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its vigor." ~ Henry Ward Beecher
Well, Stephen has seen the "garden" and has been busy helping with additional plantings in large pots around the patio and on the deck stairs. The space is really coming together and looking more like a nursery every day. He likes my "ordered chaos" method of landscaping and with most areas planted... I think it looks pretty good. Of course there is the constant task of weeding that would be so much easier if the temperature and humidity were not at the same 99% level all the time. And that pesky drainage problem that will be better but will not likely go completely away... so now to find a small shrub that loves swampy soil. Oh, and that mint that keeps getting out of hand and the black swallowtail butterfly that simply will not leave the fennel alone. I really should say the "former" fennel... as it is now but a skeleton (literally) of its former self after one night with 35 large caterpillars on it. That story is for another post.
These are my calming, mellow yellow flowers for this week. Coreopsis... tickseed... the common name given because the seeds resemble ticks. Hmm.. that isn't very comforting here with all the real ticks in the preserve. The leaves are fine and delicate in texture, almost like an asparagus fern and this contrast is wonderful next to the coneflowers and the butterfly weed. We have four varieties... Creme Brulee (above), Sienna Sunset (an apricot - peachy color), Autumn Blush (pale yellow with burgundy centers) and Moonbeam (pale yellow and slightly smaller bloom). They bloom from April through to frost, but to keep them going strong requires the deadheading of spent blossoms. This is tedious... so I simply shear them back.. wait a few days and they spring back into action. I did try the little snip, snip, snip but lost interest in that pursuit really quickly when the burning sun came over the roofline and the temperature soared. Yes, shear and get in the house to some of that peach ice tea and air conditioning. Yes, they are perennials.. I like to garden and plant, but do not care to do it every year.. so for me the perennials are the way to go. Butterflies love them as do the dragonflies and bees. They add so much to the space... texture, color and a little fun.
And a lot of work went in even before October... (Click picture to enlarge)
"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration." ~ Lou Erickson
This is only a fraction of the garden flower beds I have put in around the new sunroom, down the side of the deck and around the arch of the patio. Over 100 bags of top soil (40 lbs each), 40 bags of amended top soil (2 cu ft each), 35 bags of Nutri-Green compost (40 pounds each) and 30 bags of pea pebbles (40 lbs each). This doesn't include the soil and compost that went into the rose garden. It would have probably been easier to have the topsoil and compost delivered in bulk... but then I would have had to have tarps and covers and such and we had quite a bit of rain in the early spring as well as Nor'Ida last fall and it would have been a mess.
See my little tiller... I love my tiller... but after six hours of tilling in clay, you tend to vibrate for several hours even while sitting quietly. It is like a little humming buzz inside your muscles that just won't quit. I tilled down ten to twelve inches, tilled in the soil and compost, dug out the rocks and brick and sticks.. even a huge batch of construction concrete from the original building of the house. It was buried 12 inches deep and the edge extended under the ground beneath the new patio. I could hardly move it.. it weighed more than 50 pounds and I had to break it up to toss it out.
I built the beds up about 5 inches and put an edging down, but will probably take the edging out after getting all the plants in. It is a bit wavy and difficult to use the weed eater along the beds and the plants can hold the soil together. I thought the landscaping material was a brilliant idea and if you are planting shrubs and only a few flowers you can do well with it. But if you want lots of flowers it just gets in the way... not to mention the fact that the weeds simply grow under the fabric and do so quite vigorously. I ended up cutting out a lot of the fabric. I have placed a soaker hose around the plants and down the entire length of the beds and generously mulched.
So far we have only a few drainage problems.. hopefully to be fixed by Friday... and more plants needed. I have only lost a few, most are growing well, exceeding expectations. We have a butterfly, bird and bee garden.. which isn't the best plan if you think about it. The birds eat the butterflies and caterpillars... but seem to leave the Japanese beetles alone. It is definitely NOT formal... Stephen says it reminds him of an English garden.... but, I think it is best described as "organized chaos".
"Growth is a greater mystery than death. All of us can understand failure, we all contain failure and death within us, but not even the successful man can begin to describe the impalpable elations and apprehensions of growth." ~ Norman Mailer
The idea of me trying to do a Wordless Wednesday is ridiculous... impossible... not likely. There are just too many thoughts that pop into my head and have to get out. Take this shade garden. Since the house is so new, the trees that are actually IN our yard are still small, though growing and now around 10' tall. So the only real "shade" area is a recess by the front porch and between the porch and the outside wall of the master bathroom. It gets morning sun but by noon is in shade and even a little sooner, now that the calla have grown up again. Last year I planted two fern able to withstand cold weather, several hosta and columbine starter plants from my friend Marcia, two astilbe and then in the fall a puny looking hydrangea (Cityline Rio). The plants did OK but nothing really special and then they died back. I had to cut the remaining yellow leaves and stems back to the ground and I put bamboo sticks into the ground to mark the plants for mulching. All winter the area was a sea of brown mulch with stupid little white sticks protruding. I only wish I had taken a picture of the space back in early March... now, these pictures would be even more dramatic.
In late March the little sprouts started coming up. First the fern in the foreground and then the hosta and astilbe. For a long while, I thought the fern in the far back left of the space was dead... then tiny little curly cue brown worms started sticking heads through the mulch. I have added a white bleeding heart and a heleobore and two more different varieties of columbine this year.
Onward and upward
Everything has done well this year... the hosta have already bloomed once and have doubled in size. One of the astilbe (white) has doubled in size and the other exploded, mounding up to five times its size last year. Both ferns are great and the hydrangea is blooming. The only thing is that I was confused about the hydrangea. I thought it would be purple with green in the center if I made the soil more alkaline so a bit of lime and egg shells... and then a bit more. But I now find out that I should have tried to keep the soil more acidic; thus the pink. I have dosed it with the first of many coffee grounds... and we will see what happens.
