I know it's been a while since I did a proper post. I apologize. I've been pretty busy and have been less than inspired. I've been working on my yard as much as possible, which ups my pain level, so it's a cycle. But I do love to garden so I refuse to give it up. I'll go out and plant something, or weed, or whatever until the pain gets too much, then come back in and cool down and recover a bit. Then do it again. It's slow and frustrating but it's really gratifying to see things you grew from seed first bloom, and plants you put out for pollinators being used. I've been on the lookout for caterpillars but haven't seen any yet.
I know I've written before about gardening for wildlife. It's kind of a cause with me. This year I have a bed that had a tree removed from last summer. I planted a crabapple tree in it and am planting native wildflowers around the base. I put my lilies in there, but plan to move them. I just didn't have another place for them just yet and bulbs aren't too hard to move. 🙂 That is, if they survive. Because the issue is my yard doesn't drain well. It's clay and takes quite a while to drain. We were hit with an absolute deluge the other night. I had a cool-whip container on my porch that was completely full, so at least that many inches. Then we got two more smaller rains. So, I went out and dug up one of my newly planted natives and saw standing water. If I were able, I'd till in a crapload of amendments so the bed was improved, but I'm not able. Instead, I dug up a few and put in potting soil and perlite, scooping out some of the mud. This will create little pockets of good soil, which isn't good, but better than standing in that muck. Anyway.
I have planted a Sweetspire bush, Virginia bluebells, foam flower, Cardinal flower, Blue lobelia, Trilliums, Twin leaf, Dwarf crested Iris and Indian Pink root. The place I bought them from sold bare roots, so I'm actually still waiting for most of them to come up. I planted some Rudbeckia, a Beebalm, and Columbine. I have one bare earth section where I put a bunch of seeds at and have some Bachelor's button coming up there. I do have a few non-natives as well. I have Sweet woodruff and an Elfwort plant in there. I really want to get some Bunchberry but can't find it for sale anywhere. Now, I'm afraid that all that work is going to be for naught because it's too damn wet out. I guess we'll see. I'll dig some stuff up again tomorrow and see how it's going.
My front garden beds are looking pretty good, but something is coming along at night and helping itself to flowers. And yes, I'm growing it for wildlife, but I kind of thought pollinators would get a chance to enjoy them, and maybe birds. I see the plant grow from seed to full size and then put up a flower stalk, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in bloom, and chomp. Something noms it off. To add insult to injury, they have then spit it out several times! They bit my mock orange and weigelia in half, so those are protected now. Especially the mock orange, because evidently that's good eating. I've never seen deer in my yard but I think that has to be it. Time for more cameras outside.
On the side of the house is where the water issue is the worst. There I'm trying to plant things that might help soak up the water and maybe keep it from being washed away. I planted a Button bush, and have a Fringe tree on it's way. I planted White Turtlehead, the host plant for the endangered Baltimore Checkerspot, and Swamp milkweed. I have a weedy sort of bed over there that I grew last year. It's not really a proper flower bed, just an area where the grass was mostly dead. Here I threw loads of annual wildflowers, and they did great. That tiny bed was a hotbed of activity last year between bees and butterflies. I think it had more activity than the rest of the yard combined. So this year I did the same, and added a few new ones. So, I have Cosmos Sulphureas and Cosmos Bipannatus, Zinnias, Ditch Coreopsis, Gloriosa Daisy, Marigold and a few others. It's part shade so they don't get as big as I'd like but they were still loaded with blooms. I go out there now and weed out some of the grass and see all these seedlings growing up. I'm looking forward to it but wondering if I need to protect it from my night time visitor.
Along the fence I have several types of honeysuckle and a Passionflower. I'm a bit leery of passionflower because it's so aggressive, but it's a host plant, pollinators love it, and it's gorgeous. It's not hard to mow over the shoots anyway. I need to get some photos.
More coming soon, with some poetry as well.
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