What Actually Is

It would be wildly inaccurate to claim that our gardens are anything close to well tended this year.  We have always had more cultivated ground than we could keep up with but the present combination of the weather and our age has created a huge mess in what was our garden.  This is the present state of our asparagus bed and the overwhelming presence of the giant weed seeds does not bode well for next year.  This is a sixty square foot planting bed and it could be cleared rather quickly but there are so many other places just like this one.  The combination of heat, humidity and biting bugs had us inside by 10 AM today.

Looking past the brightly colored self planted Gloriosa Daisy, one can see the stone path that edges our planting beds and a horribly invasive relatively new weed that has taken and holds this ground.  It grows close to the ground and finding the centered root mass is not easy.  We believe it essential to remove both the seed bearing growth and the root mass in a futile attempt to eliminate this weed.

 

When selecting photographs to share, it is customary to frame the image so that only beauty can be seen.  This combination of Ruby Spice Summer Sweet, Milkweed leaves that have served as a food source for perhaps a Monarch Butterfly caterpillar, a feeding butterfly whose name is not known and a background of grass and trees is a great picture.  In addition to the visual image, the scent of the pink flowers is fantastic beyond description.

These feeding bugs and a caterpillar appear to be working together despite their obvious differences.  We cannot be certain that they are not harming each other but they may be sharing.

We have been posting Lobelia cardinalis pictures perhaps to excess but the real star here is the Giant Blue Lobelia.  How these plants that feature so many differences can have the same last name puzzles us.  Both are native plants but the structure of their flowers is more different than just color.  These plants are both self planted here but we tend to focus our efforts on the striking red plants.  That should change but we can no longer keep up so the blue beauty will remain on its own.  One thing in its favor is our limited time weeding will not remove a self seeded plant that we do not instantly recognize.

Closed Gentian is a native plant that presents flowers that never open.  It is a vigorous plant that has taken and holds considerable space in our garden.  Pollination falls to the huge bumblebees that force their way into the tightly closed blossoms from the top point where the  petals meet.  Upon first glance, I thought that an insect had chewed a hole to gain an entrance into the flowers interior but that is not true.  A closer look will reveal that the fly's internal organs are visible and that the bug is totally outside of the undamaged blossom.

 

Truly No Care Gardening

My standard gardening fantasy involves no work required to have beautiful plants.  Many books have been written and perhaps small fortunes made describing how to grow flowers with little effort expended.  For years we have been growing way more plants than we can respectfully care for and have just now discovered green beauty growing and reproducing here without any help from us.

This wall cap stone has both lichens and moss growing on it.  Names have been assigned to these natural wonders but the labels have altogether way too many letters and microscopic examination is needed to correctly make identifications.  We have settled on two names.  Lichens in this photo are flat whitish gray objects.  Mosses have thickness and are green.  Some of these pictured mosses are visually different from the others and likely have individual proper names.

Despite just having been released from the snow cover, this moss has sent up the structures that conventional gardeners would call seed heads.  Mossers, properly labeled bryologists,  call them capsules and more words are added to describe their unique forms.  These are clearly not droopers but here is where the microscope is needed.  Seed is not the proper name for the reproductive  part but spore might be correct.  This moss was recently covered with snow but  some liquid moisture and daylight have moved this moss to procreate now.

This moss resembles our native giant salamander known locally as Hellbender.  The white beads to the right may be this mosses fruiting body.  We will look here again tomorrow to see any changes that might follow.

This clump is a total mystery.  What looks like a group of dead sticks reveals individual depressed tip circles that certainly look like they served some useful purpose.  We cannot be certain that these are growing from moss.  The nearby out of focus red moss certainly catches the eye.

We are quite sure that this multicolored growth on a dead stick is neither moss nor lichen.  It may be a mushroom.  We have no plans to explore the effects following drying and smoking this little beauty.  We prefer functioning kidneys.

This destroys our claim of having discovered no effort gardening.  Weeds and desired flowering plants are growing with this moss.  The flat green blades belong to Blue Eyed Grass, a wonderful plant in its own right.  The oval leaves mark an unknown weed that will require the use of tweezers for its removal.  Clearly we have been denied entrance to our gardens for far too long.  We really need to place our gloved hands into some thawed ground soon.

Better Late Than Never

Evening scented stock, Matthiola longipetalta bicornus is one of my very favorite fragrant garden plants.  A favorite from gardens years ago, it has fallen from favor.  In my experience it is not easy to find seed and not easy to get packaged seed to grow.  It has successfully self seeded here for years but not last year  and not this one.  I found seeds available from Select Seeds.   I tried planting seeds, but this year has been a total disappointment.  After we pulled the peas in this bed, I planted the rest of my purchased seeds hoping for a miracle of sorts.  Things being what they are with us right now the seeds were left to tend themselves.  Among the weeds are 3 evening scented stock plants all in a row just like I planted them.

Yesterday there were a couple of open flowers, the aroma was lovely, but it was so dark and cloudy by the time they were open a picture was impossible.  Today I went out while the sun was still shining.  New flower buds are poised ready to open after the sun sets.  The fragrance and nectar of these tiny pink four petaled flowers are saved for pollinators that fly after dark.  Floating on an evening breeze, the fragrance of just a few flowers will fill this gardener with delight.  It was chilly this morning.  The heat came on in the house.  If I am to have fresh seed this year I will have to pot up these plants and put them in a sunny window hoping that they will continue to bloom and produce some fresh seed.  Many times I have transplanted them in the spring to give to gardening friends.  I wonder if they will take the move inside now?  If they do my house will be pleasantly perfumed in the evening, if not I'll likely buy more seeds and try again in the spring.  These tiny treasures are worth the effort!

Peas Are Past. Pink Poppies Are Present!

There was a time when we tried to grow a substantial amount of our food in the garden.  Those days are in the past.  Each day is still 24 hours long but we accomplish less and less with each passing year.  Our focus has shifted to a few memorable meals in season.  Snow peas are at the top of the list for great meals.  This year the late frost with a freeze really hit the peas hard.  Three different plantings are made several days apart.  The smallest peas were hit the hardest.  Then the rains came.  We did not spend those few precious clear days pulling weeds.  Now we have a mess like this.  We did get several excellent meals with the snow peas but it is time to clean up.

Becky's pink poppies are always mixed in with the weeds.  We can always count on them for color after the vegetable plants are pulled.  Hand weeding is almost a religious experience here.  This morning was full of pleasant time well spent.

The mess is gone and these poppies of various ages will keep this bed in flower for many weeks.  Our resident mother turkeys with their ten youngsters would love to roll in the loose dirt.  Five circular cages were placed in the more open places to discourage their entrance here.  The area within the cages received flower seeds that we never got around to planting.  We do not know if anything will come of the late planted seeds but our chances are better than simply leaving the seed in their envelopes.  Turkeys get up early!  The outer cage wire will be put back in place before dark.  We want the pink poppies to be safe in their bed.

The War On Weeds

We have such a magnificent selections of weeds here.  It is hard to decide where to begin.  This morning  it was hot and sunny.  On a day like that I look for a place to weed that is  in the shade.  It might be war, but my comfort comes first.  Dandelions are a bit of a contradiction for me.  I love to see fields of those yellow flowers.  I know they provide food for the bees, but I hate to have them growing in my garden beds.  When they cross that line they are the enemy!  Seeds parachute in on the wind infiltrating when they are just a piece of fluff.  Tiny little plants are easy to overlook.  When they are established and put down that huge tap root, they are a formidable foe.  It's a  never ending battle, but we shall continue to dig them out anyway.

Some of our weeds are  perfectly good plants, if they were somewhere else.  This is a little oak tree complete with its acorn. It was likely  planted by a squirrel.  The tree providing the shade here is a black locust.  The nearest big oak tree is some distance away so the acorn has traveled some distance to invade my space.  Lots of other weeds were present: bindweed, purslane, quack grass... the list is a long one.

This is the WEED! I have been trying to eradicate this ever since we arrived here.  It has become a rare sight here, but today I was horrified to see six plants lurking among the other weeds.  This is ragweed, Ambrosia trifida L.  It is my policy to kill these while they are small before they can do their dirty work making people sick with their nasty pollen.  If you wear gloves and rip these suckers out before they flower you will be safe.  It is a public service to eradicate this weed.  Perhaps we would all be better off if this plant became extinct.  I suppose it might have some redeeming quality that I don't know about.  If it does I would like to hear about it.  Here it is on the most unwanted list and extinction within my territory is the goal.  When I see a ragweed plant , it is gone in a flash!  The battle is over for today, but the war will continue until victory is ours!

Beating Back The Wild Things

It's a plain fact that we are being overrun here.  All the rain has served to keep us out of the garden and it has given the weeds the opportunity to run wild in the garden.   Somewhere hidden beneath the grass and other weeds are Ed's beautiful planting beds and  stone paths.  Ed worked on this area today.  He plans to replant peas here.  We have the seed and sometimes we can get a late crop of peas if the weather cooperates.

I chose  to search for desirable plants in this bed .  I uncovered some dianthus, wood betony, closed gentian and a hollyhock.  I caught sight of Ed's rose, but I did not get it uncovered yet. Digging out the grass is slow work and looking for hidden treasures slows progress down even more.

It's not only the weeds that have gone wild.  The trumpet vine has completely engulfed the golden glows.  A few small golden flowers have managed to break through the vines to catch some sunlight anyway.  Other plants in the area of the trumpet vine have not been seen at all.

Trumpet vine tendrils are marching across  our gravel parking spot.  New runners are popping up in the gravel at some distance from the original plant.  One can't help feeling that parking there for too long will result in a car covered with vines.  However, I can't deny that I love to watch the hummingbirds  zip around the trumpet vine chasing each other at dizzying speeds.  As long as the red flowers that they find so attractive are blooming, this vine gone wild is safe.

Still there is great beauty in the garden.  This Salmon star lily and its tantalizing fragrance is so attractive to a hummingbird moth that I was actually able to get this great picture.  We feast on fresh summer squash, basil, lettuce and the now ripening tomatoes.  Today in the garden was great!

No Time To Say Hello Goodbye...

Today the  garden is a busy place. We have pretty primroses only slightly frost singed.
 

A Mount Hood daffodil surrounded with grape hyacinths makes a beautiful picture.

At long last the tulip tree has some flowers!

Tonight's salad will contain the first French tarragon of the season.  Might as well weed out those violets and eat them too!

This is such a pretty picture. I love the  colors, but really it consists entirely of weeds.  Some of the Johnny Jump ups went in the salad as well, but I never did develop a taste for dandelions.

Late October Bloomers

Last night's thunder storms dropped about an inch of rain on the garden.  Everything was wet, but when it looks and feels as great as it did out there today you just have to go out  and do something.  Ed headed for the back to work on the wilderness garden.  I tried weeding here and there, but too much of Ed's garden soil came along with the weeds.  I did get a great look at a Northern Harrier while I was working.  It soared low enough over the garden that I could easily see its distinctive white rump patch.  Eventually, I put away my garden tools and swapped them for the camera.  I decided to search the garden for after the frost blooming flowers.

  

Perennial flax plants are so lacy and fragile.  It's surprising to me that these plants are still green and making flowers.  These plants self seeded and are growing on their own terms.

Although the wild asters seem to have completely finished blooming, this cultivated variety planted on the east side of the stone square is still making a few perfect flowers.  Ed saw a late Monarch butterfly that was trying to fly into stiff south winds.  Few flowers remain to provide nourishment for this straggler.

The freezing temperatures and hard frosts killed the blooms on this chrysanthemum, but some of the remaining buds are opening in the warmth of the sun.

We were sure that this Helen Mae chrysanthemum had missed its chance to bloom this year, but never say never.  The persistent plant has a beautiful flower with several more buds to come.  I hope this one gets an earlier start next year.

The Emperor of China is always a late bloomer.  This year is no exception.

I found a few yarrow blossoms.

As always, the Johnny Jump Ups flower no matter what.  These last two plants are considered flowers or weeds here depending on where they are growing.

That is not the case with this last plant.  This is a true weed.  It was still blooming and green after the freeze and it continues to thrive now.  When things dry off a bit, this one has to go!

Basil, Peppers, Dust Bathes, And Weeds

The garden is hot and dry, but Ed persists.  The basil is all weeded and mulched.

Basil adores the heat, but with the lack of rain the plants are very short and starting to produce flowers.  

You can see by my footprint just how dry the soil in the garden is now.  Some of the birds think it's great.  This morning  I watched a beautiful brown thrasher take a long, writhing, wriggling, dust bath.   It was fun to watch and the bird loved it!

The basil plants are very small, but strangely enough the only way to keep these plants growing is to pinch them back.  The leaves I remove will make tonight's salad something special.  Basil tastes best and is happiest when it is good and hot!

The peppers will get weeded, watered and mulched next.  These tiny little pepper plants have some blossoms, but it is hard to think of plants that small supporting peppers.  I'm sure if we get some rain these plants will grow.  If not it is likely they will drop those blossoms anyway.  Tonight is the first time in weeks that the forecast shows a real change of rain.  I hope we get it.  That brown thrasher has had her dust bath,  it would be nice if she had to wait awhile for her next one.

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!

Stop What You're Doing And Come See This!

After heavy rain last night we began our day in the garden tying up plants that needed assistance. After that there were peas to pick and process. Mixed clouds and sun made it a lovely morning for weeding. We both stopped briefly to watch a group of turkey vultures circle over our heads. They came low enough to raise the hair on the back of my neck, and for Ed to remark that he didn't think he smelled that bad. We were weeding in seperate areas of the garden when Ed said, "Becky, Come here you have to see this."



This is what I saw, a large moth , perhaps 4 inches, in the grass right next to a "wild" area that Ed has begun to clear out , but has not yet reached. I seldom get a really good look at a moth. This one was soft and furry looking. The moth was not moving much , so we got the camera, and Ed took its picture. It was around 11:00 so I headed inside to work on lunch.



Later just after noon, Ed checked the moth again. The sunshine had reached the moth, and Ed was able to take this fantastic picture. With the lower wing in view identification of the moth was possible. It's a Polyphemus moth. My caterpillar book says rose is a possible food plant for this species. Perhaps this moth was among the leaf litter under the Rugosa Rose. Thank goodness Ed's bed clearing had not reached this far. We might have missed this thrilling opportunity.

After lunch when Ed went back to the garden, the moth was gone. We were happy he could fly away, but grateful for our chance to observe him so closely!

June is Busting Out...

New flowers are coming on all over the garden. When I left the catchfly growing where it self seeded next to the lady's mantle, I'm not sure I envisioned the hot pink and chartreuse that would come. Oh well , color in the garden is a good thing.



The weeds are growing too. This basil patch was in serious need of weeding. Ed did the job today along with the carrots and the new lettuce bed. We had the arugula from the overgrown spicy mesclun mix in an arugula and nectarine salad with toasted walnuts and raspberry vinagarette for lunch. YUM! Tonight for dinner some of that basil and the Oregon giant snow peas made for a lovely pasta primevera. Sometimes the garden can seem overwhelming, but its rewards are many. No one eats better than a gardener this time of year!