Perhaps A Little Too Much Fun In The Garden

A beautiful day like today means plenty of fun in the garden.  On a less perfect day I might have been discouraged when I got a wasp sting on the palm of my right hand before I even made it out to the garden.  I was not taking no for an answer today!

Ed chose to work on the bed where he wanted to plant the Oregon Giant edible pod peas.  They are a very special garden treat for us!  I chose to weed the daffodil and snow drop bed.  I wanted to work close by poor Ed who felt like he was being punished working so hard to dig the quack grass out of his planting bed.  It thrills me to reclaim a bed from those pernicious weeds.  I'm sure we did not get them all, but many trugs of quack grass, sheep sorrel and other assorted weeds were taken from this bed.

When we were finished, the peas were planted and the bed looked like this!

Cleaning up Mom's iris seemed like a great way to spend some garden time.  Gentle Ed and the Shasta daisy benefited from being in the area.  However, I was beginning to think that perhaps I had overdone my garden fun.  It's interesting.   I can be working along doing great and  then I realize I am getting a little sore, a little stiff and a lot tired.   I hated to stop, but I did.

We got the camera and took some photos of the beauty around the garden.  The trailing arbutus is the star this week, but the trout plant that I got from Sarah is looking good with its pink and blue flowers and beautifully spotted dark green leaves!

Glory of the Snow  looks even better to me without the snow!

What could be better for an Easter picture that these brilliant yellow King Alfred daffodils in front of Ed's stone wall?

The sky grew dark and the wind began to blow.  I had to chase my hat several times.  Ed managed to take this terrific picture of my pink trout lily anyway, but soon giant raindrops began to fall.  It was definitely time to top.  After dinner and a nice warm shower we are both feeling good!  Maybe in the end today in the garden was just right!

Autumn Asters, My Fall Favorites

The time after the Autumn equinox, after some light frost, but before the leaves on the trees really begin to change is perhaps my favorite time of year.  Purple New England asters against the yellow of goldenrod and other yellow fall blooming flowers are a vision of gorgeous color in the garden and in the surrounding countryside.  This year many of the flowers  were knocked to the ground by heavy rain, but their beauty is not to be denied.  They may be down, but the mounds of flowers are still a purple delight.

I'm not the only one who appreciates these flowers.  They swarm with bees and other pollinators now that many other flowers have gone to seed or been killed by the frost.

This exuberant billow of October Sky asters, tumbles into the garden path nearly closing the east entrance to the stone square.   Its habit is not unlike the billows of New York asters that line the ditches along our country roads.  Fields of bright yellow golden rod accented with  shades of purple asters are a feast for the eyes.  For me every aster that grows in the garden is  a delight.  It would be impossible to have too many!  The single spot  of orange on these asters is a small butterfly.  Although I may have seen this kind of small brightly colored butterfly before, I did not recognize it.

I could not have been more delighted when this American Copper butterfly, Lycanea phlaeas stayed put long enough for me to take this picture.  It made it possible for me to make sure just who this small but striking butterfly might be.  When I read that the host plants for this butterfly are sheep sorrel, Rumex acetosella and curly dock, R.crispus, I wondered why I haven't seen more of these little beauties.  Both of those plants are weeds that flourish here.  The sheep sorrel is one of our worst weeds that we struggle with constantly, occasionally winning a battle, but never the war.  Somehow it's comforting that something beautiful comes of the nasty, annoying,  pernicious, @*#$!, weeds.  I'm sure sheep sorrel will always be here. We can never have too many asters or striking butterflies.

Unseen Enemies Revealed

The snow cover on the garden is gone. It has pretty much all melted, but the ground remains frozen. Now the pernicious weeds that usually lurk under the snow are in plain sight. Sheep sorrel might be welcome in some places. I know I have seen seed for sale, but here it is plant non gratis big time. In our garden dreams we find a way to eradicate this plant without using herbicides. In truth spring and plenty of hard work will be needed to make a dent in its numbers.

They say you should know your enemy and in this case I don't. All I know is that this weed is also on our most unwanted list. These tiny plants have significant root growth. I can't do anything now, but I know where they live and I'll be back!

Chickweed can be a helpful plant. It's supposed to be good in salads, but I don't like it. It's juice has been known to cure skin rashes. In this case we just have way too much of it.  I'm not interested in a green carpet of chickweed as a ground cover in my garden beds.With the ground frozen all we can do is wait and make plans to uproot these huge plants in the spring.

A big white breasted hawk was sitting in a tree this afternoon. I really wanted a picture. Ed volunteered to sneak out and try to take it, but at the sound of the kitchen door closing the big bird was gone. Perhaps he will be back!