UrsulaV (ursulav) wrote,
UrsulaV
ursulav

What a difference a week makes…

Been away from the garden for days and days, traveling to a friend’s wedding on the coast and then doing an anime convention in Dallas.  Texas has some great plants, but unfortunately I didn’t see any of them, because cons are pretty much “airport, hotel, convention center, hotel, airport.” I think there may have been a small park with some carefully caged grass. The vast array of wildflowers for which Texas is justly famed–including some spectacular species that I grow in my own garden–stayed off the radar. Ah, well.

It’s good to be back home, though, in my own garden, where things have done ’sploded in my absence. A week wreaks a lot of changes in early summer. The grape tomato is covered in green spheres, the Roma tomatoes are growing huge and starting to ripen, the jalapenos are already putting out peppers. The zinnias and nasturniums all bloomed (and man, I gotta grow these every year, they’re wonderful. Generally not an annual person, but these rock.) The Culver’s root bloomed, and I forgive it for being annoying and needing staking. It’s awesome. I saw the first honeybee, finally, and it was wallowing in the Culver’s root.

Less impressed with the blue vervain, which got extremely tall (six feet!) but has small, not-very-impressive flowerheads. Supposedly the pollinators like it, but I haven’t seen any on it. Unless I come out and find them covered with bees in a few days, I won’t be planting more–it’s a heckuva lot of plant for very little pay-off, and I don’t think it hosts anything much on the leaves. The giant Joe Pye Weed, by contrast, has cracked seven feet (and can get up to twelve!) and is showing signs that it could maybe put out a flowerhead at some point, although I might only be able to see it from the upstairs window.

Meanwhile, the bee balm popped and the coneflower is getting ready to go, my broccoli (planted in the flower bed because I’m like that) has actual…err… broccols…on it, and the pink catmint waited until my back was turned and became large. The bees luuuv that one. And the shrubby St. John’s wort, which has been teasing me with buds, finally opened one. It’s REALLY cool–sort of like a daisy crossed with a scrub-brush. I’m glad I planted that.

It was nice to just wander around the garden in the morning again. A whole bunch of plants needed deadheading, so I spent awhile wandering around chopping the heads off things. I picked up a mealy-cup sage during our travels, at the Elizabethan Gardens on Manteo Island, which needs to be planted, but a spider took over my gloves and I think laid eggs in it, so that’s gonna wait until I can get new gloves. (Yes, I could wash them and they would probably be fine, but I WOULD FEEL THEM CRAWLING IN MY SOUL. Ahem.) Hacked back the pineapple sage. I think that needs to go to another part of the yard. Y’know, where it can’t eat the world.

Meanwhile, the birds are out, and they all want to sun in one particular area–I keep seeing them spread their wings and press their breasts to the ground, then just sit there. We’ve had cardinals, chickadees, and some unknown still-not-quite-out-of-baby-fledge (probably a brown thrasher) do it in this exact same spot. I don’t know why that’s a good spot, unless they’re not sunning but passively “anting” to kill parasites. Hard to say.

Man, it’s good to be home.

Originally published at Squash's Garden. You can comment here or there.

Tags: day-to-day, my garden
Subscribe

  • (no subject)

    New novel, coming November 27th! Woohoo! It's called SWORDHEART. It's an epic fantasy romancey thing with an enchanted sword. Yes, as one of the…

  • (no subject)

    The problem with not posting constantly is that then I feel the urge to start every post with an apology for not posting, which makes me not post…

  • Wonder Engine Pre-Order open!

    Psssst. Wanna buy a book? *opens coat* Pre-Order The Wonder Engine now! Other formats are also becoming available but take longer to…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
  • 41 comments
Previous
← Ctrl ← Alt
Next
Ctrl → Alt →
Previous
← Ctrl ← Alt
Next
Ctrl → Alt →

  • (no subject)

    New novel, coming November 27th! Woohoo! It's called SWORDHEART. It's an epic fantasy romancey thing with an enchanted sword. Yes, as one of the…

  • (no subject)

    The problem with not posting constantly is that then I feel the urge to start every post with an apology for not posting, which makes me not post…

  • Wonder Engine Pre-Order open!

    Psssst. Wanna buy a book? *opens coat* Pre-Order The Wonder Engine now! Other formats are also becoming available but take longer to…