Summer is Here!

I say this even though the high temperature yesterday was only in the mid sixties.  But it is supposed to get warmer soon.....

Here are some shots of what's going on in the yard right now.  My neighbor and I have both been allowing milkweed plants to grow all over, and she found about 10 monarch caterpillars on some of her plants.  So we each took some in and kept them fed on fresh leaves until they formed their chrysalises.  About 10 days later for each a beautiful monarch butterfly emerged.  They were set free in the yards and we see them all over now.






Watching for more caterpillars, but haven't found any yet.  They say that 90% of those sheltered in this way survive, vs. 90% being eaten if left outside.  We're doing our part.

We were gone for 6 days in late June and that meant we came home to massive overgrowth of shrubs, weeds, etc. that needed tending.  But things are looking much better now.


 
The monarda plants are beautiful now, and the coneflowers and daisies are spectacular.  We spent the last week and a half spreading 8 cubic yards of mulch and are very tired of that.




 

 This year I've been trying to convert places with invasive, difficult to manage plants like wild geraniums into easier to maintain plants like hostas, heucheras and astilbes.  It's getting harder to keep up with all this.

A Long HOT Summer

It’s been really hot all summer, and very dry.  Hardly any rain in June or July.  Many of the perennials were looking pretty shabby, until a recent rainfall did some amazing things.  I have never seen anything like this.  The purple coneflowers throughout the yard began sprouting new growth from the spent seedheads.  They are actually quite beautiful. 

Pretty much every clump of them has at least one head doing this.  I’m not sure what they will do next, whether those are flowers or new plantlets.  But for now, pretty special.

Catching Up

One of the biggest problems with writing a garden blog is that it is just really hard to get to writing when the garden is in full bloom. The days are so long, and there is so much to do, both in the garden and otherwise, that its difficult to find the time to write about what's going on. But here is a catch up attempt for the happenings of the last week.

The gooseneck loosestrife is about as nice as it gets right now. It is a very dramatic plant at the right time and in the right place. I don't think mine is in the right place, it is really not very noticeable where it is along the east side of the yard. This spring I used a well placed spray of Round-Up on the periphery of this clump, and I think that will be needed every year from now on. It is not as invasive as its cousin purple loosestrife, but it does have a robustness about it.

Just after deciding it should be noted in the blog, I was taking a look at the creek and couldn't get a good view anywhere except from atop the culvert. I looked down and found, much to my surprise and dismay, a purple loosestrife plant growing heartily just beneath the east opening. It wasn't "quite" in my yard, but I just couldn't let it be. Despite being tired, hot and ready for some cool lemonade and a chair in the shade, I called Bill and together we cut and dug and bagged the beast. I really hope we don't have to be fighting this invasive along with the buckthorn for the rest of our time here.

This weekend could be defined as the start of the Raspberry season. We had Mike and Mary over for dinner after a nice bike ride on Saturday, and the berries made a wonderful dessert over a little french vanilla ice cream. We will eat them daily until they are done, which won't be long enough for either of us.

I also brought in the first tomato of the season today - pretty early really. Didn't eat it yet, but can hardly wait. Dinner changed from leftovers to a stir fry when it became clear that the broccoli was in significant need of cutting. Can't let fresh broccoli go without cutting or the plants will stop producing, and there is no point in just putting it in the fridge. Gotta eat it. So we did.

The Purple Coneflowers came into full bloom this week. Last week I struggled to find a couple to put into the bouquet of flowers I bring to work each Monday, and this week they were abundant. They are so beautiful when they are new - fresh and young with the cone on top still bright and small. It will elongate and harden over the next several weeks, though the plants will still be attractive for awhile. All of the prairie natives are maturing now, though the gloriosa daisies are still the garden stars.

We had two inches of rain over the last week, quite something for mid July. It really is nice to have a year of enough rain for a change. I hardly know what to do. Things grow so well that there is no need to walk around with the hose, but cutting plants back is more necessary than usual. Had to tie up the Tamarisk, and cut back the lower branches of the Magnolia today. It was so hot that it was difficult to be outside working for more than a couple of hours.

The little black cat is closer to becoming a part of the family. Kate and Cleo may not be entirely sold on the idea, but Grace has been living in the upstairs bathroom for the last several days. The vet gave her a clean bill of health, but she is older than we thought - at least a year, maybe more. Integration will be a long process.