canna lily – Ahuva’s Blog

Growing in the Garden

potted flowers both known and unknown. 🙂 plus a weed. or maybe 2.

After weeks of no rain we now have a week of rain and thunderstorms. Of course we are lucky here in my little sliver of NJ – we are NOT getting tornadoes nor power failures nor hail. This week is proving the old adage of “when it rains, it pours”. And I don’t mean Morton Salt. 🙂

look at those green peppers!!!! they are REAL!

The green peppers are doing wonderfully. I’m not sure when I should harvest them. Will they get wider or just longer or start to rot on the branch?

cherry tomatoes – at least according to the label in the pot

I have 3 types of tomatoes growing but apparently the labels I thought I placed in each pot have vanished. I have cherry tomatoes (those I can identify) and Rutgers and Big Boys growing.

the tomato on the right is being guarded vigorously by a mint plant. 🙂

The mandevilla is doing well. I’m not thrilled with the 2 hibiscus bushes however. They get sun, I water them, they are not being eaten, so I have to hope that it’s been a matter of temperature. They are ‘okay’ but not spectacular.

mandevilla – it’s in a very large pot on the ground, in the midst of the goldenrod

I’m also not thrilled with 2 of my canna lilies. I bought 4 of them at the same nursery. They were all supposed to grow to 4′. Only 2 of them have flowered but they are NOT 4′. The other 2 are not only not growing but have shown no sign of flowering or growing taller. I LOVE cannas so I’m unhappy that I switched from my usual (expensive) source of cannas to this much less expensive source. I guess you get what you pay for. (The 5th was from an expensive nursery, was much larger, and is doing wonderfully.) As I typed this I was reminded of a cartoon my mother kept pinned in her kitchen: A woman berating a plant in a pot “Grow darn you or I’ll replace you with a a plastic one!!” 🙂

the bronze leave cannas (4th one is to the left of this photo) are showing no signs of any growth. 😦

You’ll notice a lot of weeds in my photos this year. There are 4 reasons for that. The first is the deer netting. While it works beautifully to keep my garden safe, it also means I need to un-clip the netting to weed and then rehang it afterwards. I’m a bit lazy by this point in season. 🙂

I love my daisies. I used to have so many I’d give them away. Now I’m down to this handful and 2 others. Apparently they are a big deer favorite. Now that I’ve screened them in I seem to have daisies again. Tons of mint and catnip on the ground below.

I read 2 articles that have also changed my mind about weeding. One of them talked about how the weeds that grow tell you what nutrients are lacking in your soil. I suspect I’ll never care enough to do all that analysis but what I took from that was that the weeds are not necessarily a horrible thing.The other article talked about bare ground and rain runoff. The barer the ground, the more runoff, the less water that gets to the plants. As long as the weeds are not interfering with the growth and display of the flowers, and they are not hideously ugly weeds (think thistles), they can stay.

Zinnias, some gladiolas, volunteer common mallow, butterfly weed, a weed with no flower, lysimachia ciliata (brown leaves), canna lily, rudbeckia laciniata hortensia

The 4th reason has to do with my not being able to tell for sure what’s a weed and what’s something I have planted in the past. For instance the larkspur and the pink mallow – did I plant them? Maybe, maybe they are volunteers. Whichever, they are pretty and they can stay. In the past I’d have pulled them because they are NOT my beloved rudbeckia nor the hyssop.

so what IS this??? It’s in with one of my herbs. The plant finders guess that it’s a tomato plant. I don’t think so. If it’s not a marigold or rosemary, I didn’t plant it

I mentioned before that of my 4 lettuce experiments only one is thriving. The celery seems to be doing quite well also. 🙂 Maybe in a few weeks I’ll have grown a salad? Lettuce, celery, tomatoes and peppers? I know – that’s extremely optimistic.

One of my other ‘enhancements’ this year has been to confine the grasses that grow between the sidewalk and the street. My husband parks his car there and hates both the grass and the metal fencing. In the past I’ve cut all leaves that break the curb line but this year I’ve also confined them on the other side as well. I wanted to make sure the rudbeckia had room to thrive. When I did that, I had a big bare spot between the grass and the rudbeckia, crying out for some tall colorful plant.

L to R: rudbeckia, cosmos, rocket larkspur (volunteer) tithonia, weeds, rudbeckia with grasses in thebackground

I took some of the tithonia and cosmos I’d grown from seed and put them in that spot. Because the grasses are restrained, the seedlings DO seem to be getting enough sunlight to thrive.

L to R: goldenrod, thithonia, sun flowers, cosmos, gladiola (?), hibiscus rose mallow

Speaking of the tithonia, they are doing well in their “traditional” location in the front garden. In addition the sunflowers seem to have recovered from their groundhog attack and they are growing as well. 🙂 I can’t wait to see if they make it all the way to flower. August maybe? I’d have thought July but getting munched is a severe setback.

My neighbor Stephanie and I appear to be winning the “munch wars”. Every morning I see the bunnies breakfasting on the clover in my lawn. But the deer appear to be thwarted, even as they show no fear of humans. I came out the other day and couldn’t tell if the deer were IN Stephanie’s front garden or next to it. While I positioned myself to get a better view a woman came walking down the sidewalk. Walked right past the deer only a few feet from the sidewalk. They looked at her but never moved. *shaking my head* It’s still pretty amazing to me that the deer just saunter down the sidewalk themselves, hardly breaking stride unless something is coming right at them. I’m sorry they are so hungry, but I’m very glad that they are not eating my garden!

Bunny Bath Day

Bunnies in the rain – they heard me at the door – good thing i washed the door glass the other day, right? 🙂

FINALLY we are getting some rain. Although it’s been forecast several times the rain clouds seem to miss our town deliberately. North, South, East – never ON us. Today it’s raining and it’s not just me and my plants rejoicing – the bunnies were out this morning, bathing on the front walk. 🙂

I think those white flowers in the lawn are clover and I think that might be what the bunnies like.

Or maybe they just come to admire this gorgeous canna lily.

A Day in the Life of a New Retiree

hedge trimmed, flowers growing, It’s a lovely day in the neighborhood

THEY all assured me I’d be amazed at how full my day would be. THEY said I’d be too busy to be bored. I was skeptical but retired anyway. 🙂 What do you know? THEY were correct. What THEY did not make clear, however, was WHAT would be keeping me busy.

the great lettuce experiment – only one of the 4 I’ve planted is thriving

I do not consider myself to be overly concerned with clean & neat. I don’t like messes, dirt and trash bother me and I clean that up fairly quickly. But I’ve never been one to worry that much about dusting, or washing walls or cleaning windows. I used to KNOW myself very well. I LOVED wearing high heels, kinky shoes, exercising in the “no pain, no gain” fashion. The last few years have had me facing a redefinition of self. 🙂 I can walk into DSW and NOT find shoes that I neeeeeeed. I think the last time I wore heels was for New Year’s Eve. I have a wedding to attend in November – I’ll wear them again then. I have long since stopped pretending I’m going to sign up for boot camp. I started doing yoga before covid and I just went back to an in-person class last night (Yay! I LOVED it). Just stretching and holding in yoga was more than enough pain/gain for me. I’m not even all that interested in walking around town taking photos each day.

What AM I doing? Maintenance. *laughing* I’m doing all these actions that in the good-old-get-to-work days would never have pinged on my radar. Now when I notice something, I deal with it. I went to put an exhaust fan in the window the other day. Put it in, plugged it in, turned it on. Noticed it was filthy. Normally I’d have thought “ugh” and gone on my way. No, the new retired Ahuva looked at that and thought ” I wonder if I could clean that.” (Who IS this person???) I turned it off, took it outside, started trying to brush the accumulated dust and grit off. That didn’t work so I got a screw driver and took it apart. Ended up hosing down part of it, hand washing the rest. Nice clean fan into the window. One hour of my day accounted for.

All of my days are like that now. They start with me walking my garden, checking to see if anything served as a midnight snack for critters, seeing if anything looks like it needs help, if any new flowers have opened. Feed the cat (sometimes she gets fed first). Do my 2 online crossword puzzles. Then I notice things. Maybe I noticed something a day or so ago and attend to that. Maybe I see it then.

dill, savory, thai basil, basil, flat parsley, curley parsley – and is that zinnia that snuck in back there??

Today as I went to walk out the door to check the garden I noticed how dirty the storm door was (too cold for me today – I closed the screens and saw the glass). I went and got the Windex, paper towels and a small stool (so I could reach the top) and cleaned the inside and the outside of the door. Did you know that storm doors have little ledges on them where dirt accumulates? I cleaned those too. 30 minutes accounted for.

i”m getting very impatient waiting for the summer flowers to bloom. I started so early in April, it feels like July to me now

The window cleaning was impromptu. Today’s planned activities were to try to figure out why/where the cat’s water fountain was leaking. It flooded the floor the other day. Took it apart, dried everything, put it in the sink, dried the drain stopper and put it in the sink, filled the fountain and waited to see if water appeared. If so, then the fountain has a leak. If not, it means we had it unbalanced where it was. It leaked. Aha! Now to do it again, but remove the reservoir and see if it’s the bottom part that has some leak or if it’s the reservoir. Water on the drain stopper. Somewhere there must be a hairline crack or flaw invisible to the naked eye. I was hoping to save the $55 to buy a new one but oh well, $55 is worth not flooding the kitchen. 🙂

yep, definitely water on the stopper. do you think the bottom of that blue cylinder unscrews to put a new filter in there?

Today’s schedule also included figuring out the whole-house water filter. I know how to divert the water away from the filter so I can remove it and change the filter. I forgot yesterday that I needed a bucket underneath when I remove the filter because there is going to be water anyway. Oops. Got a little wet. I took a picture of what I thought was the water filter but then couldn’t find anything online that looked like the picture. I think *maybe* there is a filter nested inside the tube that was in the outer tube. But the cap is soooo tight and I’m not sure so I called and left a message for my plumber. “Dumb User Question time”. I didn’t replace the unit so if I don’t hear from him I’m going to take it to a big box store and ask there.

I still have no idea what the green thing is in the center of the photo. dahlias to its right and front. if it hasn’t flowered by the time the dahlias flower it’s a goner 🙂

Today’s schedule also has “reorganize the garage”. Yesterday my husband and I began tackling the hoarders’ haven that is our basement (all the “stuff” from the attic and 2nd floor). There are 4 destinations for “stuff”: keep, give away, shred, throw out. We have reluctantly (realistically?) decided to get rid of the vast majority of our books, many of which have been on bookshelves in the attic for years. If we’ve not read them in decades, it’s unlikely we’ll read/need them in the future. Books are heavy. We need to box them in smaller containers to lift them. I’ll need some place to put them until we’re all done. That means back to the garage to rearrange everything left there, and set up tables, the way I did last year. We’ll move the boxes of books and “give away” out there until we are ready to go. Thank goodness today is cold (okay, *I* think it’s cold, I’m sure there are others who feel 70 is a fine temperature) so working in the garage will not be unbearable.

I love tropicals. The mandevilla seems very happy too. and look at the yellow curry plant!

Other days have seen me changing the light on the stove. Thank goodness I blogged about that ages ago so that I could remember how it’s done! I shredded a lot of paper yesterday (uncovered during the foray into hoarders’ haven). I’ve been IRONING. 🙂 Since we still haven’t bought furniture, and I’m still using our bedroom as my office (and my office as our bedroom), I brought the ironing board upstairs. Somehow ironing is much more pleasant when I’m on the 2nd floor surrounded by open windows and fresh air than it is in the basement next to the dryer. 🙂

weed-free driveway!! but it’s still obvious that I need to do some repairs. only on the edges – i want it permeable. the insurance company and i disagree about that. 🙂 the “new people” who buy our house can deal with replacing the driveway

I spent 3 mornings weeding the driveway. I trimmed the hedge. I found a handyman to finish my deck and do my other carpentry. If it works out, I have a lot more for him as well. 🙂 I find broken things and fix them when I find them. The curious thing about all of this is that it does not feel burdensome. No, it’s a source of great satisfaction. My “spirit animal” is a border collie, I believe I’ve mentioned that in the past. I’m not going to the office, but I’m still “doing” most of the day. I do take time to read, cuddle BC, enjoy iced coffee. I’m not going to the office but I am being creative and thinking: many of the things I’m doing require me to plan the best approach, to contemplate options. And don’t forget my crossword puzzles. 🙂

view from the porch, early morning, a great place to enjoy my morning coffee

I didn’t envision my days in retirement to be like this. To be honest, I had no idea what my days would be like – I couldn’t envision it at all. 🙂 Probably why it took me so darn long to retire. But this life is working out for me. I still have long-range plans for doing volunteer work, training a therapy dog. Cleaning the basement and getting the carpentry done is necessary in order for us to get a kitten for BC. (I wonder if she will consider a kitten ‘necessary”).

When I describe a day in the life of this retiree the word that comes to mind is “savor” (okay, Honour – savour). I have time to savor life. Breathe the air. Smell the roses. Love the cat. Be in the moment. I like it.

I thought the cannas were going to be 3-4 feet tall. I’m hoping the bronze-leaved ones will grow that tall

What Month/Season is This???

Folks – it’s November 6. In Central NJ. This is NOT the tropics. Yet my tropical flowers – canna lilies and hibiscus – are in bloom. Gorgeous blooms.

I discovered that I have a volunteer tomato plant. There are TWO huge tomatoes on the plant, and 2 smaller ones near the bottom. Either these came from my mulch that I put on the plants in the garden back in May or they came from seeds dropped by birds.

I mentioned previously that the dahlias and cosmos are in glorious bloom, and the Mexican Sunflower is doing its part as well (orange flowers on the left).

The snap dragons figured if everyone else was blooming, they wanted to join the party.

And of course the grape tomatoes needed to prove that they were as capable as everyone else of flowering and fruiting even though we have had several nights down in the 40s.

Yep, I am enjoying it all immensely. But I’m a little afraid that we’re going to pay for this weather in January/February.

This May Be The Right Path

I started trying to build a path along my deck last year. I wanted something that was “green” in the sense of allowing water to flow through, but stop weeds from coming up. My first attempt with burlap as the foundation was a failure. The next iteration was a bit better, but not really great. I used screen material and stepping stones. It did slow the weeds tremendously, but there were still weeds and it wasn’t all that comfortable for walking. I kept adding more and more stepping stones. No photos of all those interations because they just didn’t thrill me.

Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) and a cosmos

I saw mats made of recycled plastic on Gardener’s Supply. They are semi-permeable and very tidy. They also cost much more than the screening and stepping stones. I bought a set to give them a try. Around the same time a friend of mine told me he’d used old roofing shingles as a path. It so happens I HAVE old roofing shingles from when they blew off during Hurricane Ida last year.

canna lily, butterfly weed, Bolton’s aster, cosmos

I made a patchwork path of stepping stones, rubber mats and roofing shingles. I decided to see which worked better for me. I made the mistake of asking my husband which he preferred. *grin* I was leaning towards the roofing shingles approach because that was much cheaper than the rubber mats, I liked the look, and they were flat. The stepping stones were the cheapest but they are not that comfortable for walking, leaves and other debris get trapped and I wasn’t loving the look. My husband preferred the rubber mats. Of course. Champagne & caviar taste for that one. 🙂 If you look carefully at the photos you can see that I did still use some of the roofing shingles in the narrow area by the lilac bush.

I waited for the mats to go on sale and for me to have some disposable income. That all came together recently and I rebuilt the path. There are still some stepping stones nearby, and 3 slate panels but the majority of it is now recycled rubber. It really is much more comfortable for walking and there won’t be weeds. I used landscaping fabric staples to anchor the pads as well. The catalog/website show the mats as going down sooooo easily and smoothly. My path area is at a slant, full of roots and uneven in its width. I’m also a bit slow at unpacking things so the mats were curled for quite awhile. 🙂 Curling edges not only are tripping hazards but ruin the smooth look.

Great Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) new for me this year – it seems to be thriving despite the drought

I am still not happy with the path as it moves past the lilac bush. There are a LOT of large roots, with not much space between the roots. I have the slate panels there. I really love the slate panels – I have 2 others elsewhere. They’re not really meant for the way I’m using them – on uneven ground. So some of the slates have broken and some have become detached from the backing. I love how they look so I’m trying to figure out a way to level that area a bit without harming the roots. At the moment that area is probably the least safe part of the walk. Even if I put rubber mats there they will be uneven because of the roots.

In any case I’m done with the path for this year. Water gets through, weeds are blocked, no tripping on most of it, and I’ve lost interest. *grin* Now I need to take a look at the rest of the back area and see what needs attention there.

October Garden

There is a rule that I have learned to follow: Never Blog When You Are Angry. I’ve actually passed through Frustration, Anger, Resignation and I think perhaps I’ve reached Indifference. All in only 3 days! 🙂 I know I don’t quite have the right frame of mind to write about hiking in Sedona. My choices were food or flowers. I decided to share the last flower photos from October.

Some of the flowers simply knock my socks off with their beauty. That pink & white closeup is of one of the Cosmos. Then there is the splendor of a stand of goldenrod.

The bugs seem to agree with me that Butterfly Weed is wonderful, but they prefer eating it to viewing it. I’m told those bugs are something like “leaf stripper” or “spine stripper” or something. I couldn’t bring myself to do a bug search. I started but was creeped out totally by the pictures. 🙂

I had a Fall Surprise! There was something growing in one of my big pots. It had wintered over. No sign of flowers but looking at the leaves, and the pot it was in, I was sure it was a flower. I waited all spring, then all summer, took off for Arizona – still no flower. At one point I’d even cut back some of the stalks since there were no flowers. I came back from vacation and there were FLOWERS! Purple with a yellow center. I think they must be some sort of mum. They are a welcome surprise and oh so pretty!

I hope you enjoy these pictures. Today is rainy and cold. Tomorrow is more rain all day and temperatures dropping into the 30s at night. That means if I’m going to bring in any plants, I need to do it now, in the rain. Sigh. Only the succulents. I’m giving up on all the others. And I’m NOT bringing in the succulent with those long, dark, HURTFUL spikes!!!

My Senses Say It’s September

For about 2 weeks now, however, my ears have been telling me it is mid- to late September. The cicadas are extremely loud and out there every evening. My nose is smelling that cooler slightly moist air that means fall. The air is heavy and still. At night the temperatures are dropping into the low 70s, and once or twice into the high 60s. That is NOT August weather. The sun feels warm on my skin, not searingly hot.

According to the calendar, it is only mid-August. That means it is summer. I’m sure mid-August used to FEEL like summer. Hazy, hot, humid. Time for our week’s vacation down the shore. By now the water will be warm which means more likelihood of jellyfish. (Except THIS year, in keeping with everything else 2020, the water has sea lice. I would rather have jellyfish.)

It sounds and feels like mid-September. It is only the dratted no-see-ums that remind me it is still summer.

La La La La La

tall canna lily front garden

Isn’t that what you say when you cover your ears so you can’t hear what someone is saying to you? La la la la la la la. I do NOT have the energy today to deal with macro issues: return to school? presidential election? senatorial elections? college football? eating out? La la la la la la.

1st mushroom sighting — The first sighting of the mushrooms. They look harmless, don’t they?

Unfortunately for me, my little micro concerns were also difficult this week. Sigh. So no cat pictures today – still a little bit too sad about GC for that. Which leaves me only the garden and yard for an escape. Oh – and food. There is always food, right?

crustless quiche — crustless vegetable quiche

Let’s do food first. My husband has been cooking. His new obsession is making pot stickers from scratch. I can assure that yes, you CAN get bored with eating pot stickers. The last two times he suggested it I vetoed the idea. That got me homemade pasta with sauce (oh yum yum yum) and a delicious flatbread pizza. I also got a crustless quiche. You can tell from the photo that he LOVES cooking tomatoes. I’m not as fond of cooked tomatoes as he is but at the moment they are still preferred over yet more pot stickers. The night he made the pasta he made a tandori sauce to go on it. Out of this world delicious. Remember Snuffles, the treat loving dog from Quick Draw McGraw? That describes the 4 of us having dinner. My brother-in-law is usually the bread baker, as I’ve told you. His breads are beyond compare. He was busy all day, however, so baking the challah fell to me. It was good, but it convinced me to get myself a bread thermometer. I worried about it being under-baked so I gave it more time than I thought it probably needed. I’d rather have it that way, even though over-baking means leftovers dry out faster.

Ahuva's challah — That is a 5-strand braided challah. Haven’t done one in years and so my strands were not as evenly thick at the end of the braiding.

The local news reported today that July was the hottest month on record for New Jersey. As everyone commented – tell us something we DIDN’T know. When I was a young lass, maybe all the way up to my 30s, NJ summers were my favorite weather. Hazy hot & humid did not faze me. Now that I am older, I have more empathy for those who complain about NJ summers. The humidity wipes me out. I learned in Arizona that temperatures above 100 are probably more heat than I enjoy, but I can go up into the 90s and have no problem if it is dry. I finally understand the phrase “it’s not the heat it’s the humidity”. Yes, it’s the humidity. And the dratted no-see-ums that are eating me alive every time I water the plants. My legs are covered with scratched bites and scabs. My legs look like the legs of a grade schooler (if there were still such a thing as grade school – oh wait – do NOT go there). My wonderful husband heard me moaning every night after watering the plants and bought me mosquito netting pants!!!! They do work! The problem, I think, for me is that I sweat so heavily from the humidity, that it is still attracting them through the pants. The number of bites is greatly reduced but I still got bitten the other night. I think I’ll try spraying the pants with insect repellent and see if that makes any difference. I could try to get up early when there are fewer bugs about but mostly I get up that early to make sandwiches.

You may laugh but everyone who has seen them or heard me talk about them has asked where they can get them (search on mosquito netting pants)

I came home from making sandwiches yesterday and went to pull into my driveway. And I stopped. There was a man from the utility company walking out of my driveway and 5 orange cones IN my driveway. I rolled down my window and looked at him, and asked “What are you doing?” He explained that he had cleared it with the man in the house (*grin* I said – my husband, he said – I didn’t want to presume, I said – wise approach these days). The apron of the driveway was damaged when we got the new gas and electric to the house back in February or whenever it was. They are finally getting around to repairing it. He said we couldn’t drive on it for 3 or 4 days. That means no convertible – it is in the garage. Too bad, because the temperatures are only supposed to be in the 80s for the rest of this week. Of course, the humidity is also supposed to be in the 80s. It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.
driveway before and after

Last year I mentioned that I should plant lots and lots of canna lilies because the butterflies seemed to really enjoy them. I have only seen 2 butterflies this year so far. I showed you the monarch butterfly on the butterfly weed. There has also been a black swallowtail I’ve seen periodically. The swallowtail seems to check out everything but the things I planted specifically to make butterflies happy. It seems to really like the echinacea. I saw it today checking out the herbs, tomatoes and superbells, but it flitted away before landing anywhere. Camera-shy I guess.

black swallowtail butterfly on echinacea — Black swallowtail butterfly

I planted 2 gardenias this year – one in a hanging pot and one in a pot along the front walk. I believe that the one in the hanging pot was burned out by the hot weather, after managing to produce 2 flowers in the late spring. The one along the walk has produced one full bloom. It does smell heavenly.

Not only has it been humid, we’ve gotten a lot of rain. The fun part is when it rains in the evening so I don’t have to brave the no-see-ums and can skip watering the plants. Apparently it has been even wetter than I realized. This week my neighbor’s lawn has sprouted mushrooms. Every day they have gotten larger and larger. There must be a good story to write there but at the moment I only have the illustrations. 🙂 If they get much larger they are going to cross the line from impressive to creepy.

mushrooms day 2 — okay, a little wider, but still not too creepy

Then of course there are the canna lilies. The “rescued” cannas have been thriving in the pots along the walk. FINALLY one of the ones I planted has begun to bloom. I get very impatient in the spring. Even knowing things will grow, I don’t want a lot of empty space that needs weeding and looks neglected. I cram way too many plants into one area. I have this gorgeous stupendously tall canna right smack in the middle of the lawn garden. Beautiful. BUT – crammed in that spot are 2 Rose Mallows, perennials that are in the hibiscus family. One of them was doing quite well before the canna began shooting up. The other is nestled under a canna leaf. When I can brave the biting-bug-filled lawn to go there, I rearrange it to be in front of the leaf. But somehow it always resets to under and behind. I hope it is sufficiently rooted to survive.

Mushrooms day 3 — There are actually 5 of these things in the yard. These 2 are about 6 inches across at a minimum.

I like so many flowers, and I’ve now got so many perennials. I want MORE rudbeckia laciniata hortensia, but I’m not sure where I can put them. I will have to pull out the firecrackers or chop down the variegated grass. Or pull out the rudbeckia laciniata (single bloom rudbeckia). That might work, except I also have the goose neck flowers there and I added the swamp milkweed as well. Sigh. Maybe I should put a border garden along the walk? That gets lots of sun.

rudbeckia after the rain — Rudbeckia laciniata hortensia after the rain. do you see the HUGE mushrooms?

Whatever it is that snuck into my planters now has flowers. I can’t wait to see what I’m growing. I thought that purple-edged leaf vine was a sweet pea vine – that’s what I was calling it in my head. But it’s not, according to my search. According to my search I have no idea what it is, other than beautiful. I also have no idea what to tell the lad who cuts my grass. I’m tired of moving pots and putting them back. I think I’ll tell him to just ignore the grass under the vines. *laughing* There isn’t really any grass, is there? My lawn is really nothing but weeds. 🙂
vines in the grass

tall canna lily and rose mallow — Rose mallow, canna lilies and dahlias

On Vacation

rudbeckia — Beautiful golden Rudbeckia Laciniata Hortensia

I started my one week vacation at 5:36 pm Friday night. *grin* That’s when I posted my last document to the team and signed out of all my applications and shut down my computer. Ahhhhh. We headed over to my sister’s where my brother-in-law had made the PERFECT Shabbat dinner: chicken, broccoli, potatoes, challah and SALT STICKS!!!! Oh my, his bread is absolutely amazingly delicious. As was the entire dinner. I drank too much white wine but I kept toasting “To Vacation!”.

We came home, STILL running the air conditioners. Maybe that doesn’t sound odd to you folk who live in modern houses with central air. I live in a house that is nearly 100 years old. MY air conditioners are all window units. I hate the sensation of being locked into the house. I love open windows, fresh air, fans moving the air. We’ve had the a/c going for 8 days straight. That may be a record.

incipient canna lily — Looks like this canna lily will be the first to bloom. surrounded by Bolton’s Aster (False Starwort)

It was Friday, I was on vacation, I was a little tipsy, and I was not in the mood to watch TV or read. What to do? Second Life. 🙂 I logged in. An “old” friend was inworld – I’d not chatted with her in at least 8 years. I pinged her and we had a lovely, lovely chat. We caught up on life, life under the pandemic, and then had a WONDERFUL time chatting about our cats and cats in general. 🙂 I also chatted with another “old” friend – one with whom I’ve maintained contact over the years. I know that some people do not feel as if this kind of connection is ‘real’. I’m sorry for those folks, because in times like this pandemic, for those of us who believe in social distancing, the ability to be together virtually does wonders for my emotional health. I’m looking at scenes that tell my brain I am out and about and interacting with friends. It really works for me. I only wish I could reconnect with some of my friends who are no longer in SL – Dale, Zha, Chestnut, Honour, Jessica, Oura, Svea, Alem, Fricker Fraker, Winston and all the rest. We had such fun back in the day.

is this a squash — I seem to be growing a squash of some sort. It snuck in with the flowers

Now here I am, the first morning of vacation. I treated myself by staying in bed an extra 90 minutes. BC was obliging. She did jump onto the bed after the first 60 minutes, but settled in when I began rubbing behind her ear. 🙂 She often prefers love to food. When I finally went downstairs and outside to bring in the newspapers, I discovered that the temperature and humidity were at a reasonable summer level. I opened ALL the windows. Yet another pleasure on this first day of vacation!

look at this bug — Just LOOK at this bug. It was huge. I have no idea what it is

Major Cleanup on the Side Garden

I’m very proud of myself. I finally tamed (mostly) the side garden. I had to hunt for a photo to show how bad it was because I have very carefully NOT been taking pictures of that disaster. 🙂 All I have is a cropped piece of a photo from April. Trust me – it was a lot worse by the time June came around. About a week ago I couldn’t stand the sight of it anymore and began tying back the forsythia and yanking weeds. There were flowers in there once, I know. The problem is that the weeds look exactly like the flowers I plant. I never know if what I’m looking at is weed or flower. And of course there was the incident of the weed that was pretending to be rhubarb.

overgrown side yard — Before (April) – Peonies just beginning, forsythia just ending, lots of dead brush

I took a few hours one morning and began the cleanup, so I could transfer some flowers to the side (mostly peppermint and my borage). That involved cutting back a good part of the rhododendron, and hacking out some very deep-seated weeds. The white azaleas need to be hacked back as well, but I couldn’t do it all in one day. Once the azaleas are cut back we might be able to see the hydrangea that is there. I need to find either a good ladder or a brave soul so the top of the rhododendron can be cut back. I don’t really need it reaching the roof, and that’s where it seems to be heading.

pruned side garden — After (June) – Borage transplanted nicely – will have blue flowers, you can see the ferns and the variegated whatever.

There are some plants that are well behaved and still contained, playing nicely with each other. The lilies look great next to the gaillardia. I’m hoping the mandevilla that is just sneaking in at the side of the gaillardia (you can see 2 partial leaves) will make it this year. Either I bought an unhealthy plant or I’ve been over-watering it (my guess) or it got sick, but its leaves keep turning yellow. 😦 There are flowers and new shoots on it, so I’ve decided to leave it alone for a bit and see how it does. Benign negligence. Those 2 are in the front garden. The shot below is part of the bed between the street and the sidewalk. It’s almost rudbeckia time!! I finally looked up the yellow flowered brown leaved perennial: lysimachia ciliata ‘Firecracker’. What the description doesn’t say is that it is nearly indestructible!

lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker' — Yellow flowered lysimachia ciliata ‘Firecracker’, mandevilla’s white flowers, variegated grass, rudbeckia laciniata hortensia (not yet blooming)

The best part of the side garden is that one of my canna lilies from last summer wintered over, and is coming up! This is incredibly exciting for 2 reasons. First, just the fact that something that wonderful wintered over thrills me. 🙂 Second, they cost SO MUCH per plant. This one is saving me at least $25. 🙂 That is ALWAYS appreciated.

canna lily wintered over — Grow, canna lily, Grow!!!