I will post a few outdoor flowers. The echinacea flower keeps coming back in the same spot year after year. It is one of my oldest perennials. The Crocosmia Lucifer is my second oldest flower in today’s spotlight. It has an abundance of flowers this summer, and last is a new gaura flower named Siskiyou Pink. It has long wand like flowers.
Today is Juneteenth and my official start to summer break.
My garden is showing off many colors this year. The featured picture shows a few.
I have many white Asiatic lilies and an abundance of Going Bananas daylilies blooming. The dark Asiatic lily is only one plant with several blooms.
I have several other flowers blooming now. Some are new additions and others have been with me for many years.
I am patiently watching some Sweet Purple asparagus beginning their first season of growth. I was so busy that I planted the crowns at the tail end of what is acceptable. I will not be able to harvest any until their 3rd season. (They are a perennial vegetable.) It is a learning experience for me. Across from them in another raised bed I am growing 3 types of beans: cranberry, lima, and goldilocks yellow. They are doing well.
I will end with showing you a cranesbill hardy geranium I planted in a big planter.
Here is another throwback. This one is from 2017.
I have seen many catbirds so far this spring.
They are very bold.
I almost think I could train one to land on my hand
I was reminded that these were my thoughts on this day 7 years ago.
It was a simple poem about the Praying Mantis which I used to see all the time in my garden back then.
I have not seen one yet this season.
The season is still young with summer around the corner.
Whenever it has been possible I have been working at garden improvement. I have been mostly focused on pruning and working on growing a few vegetables. The gorgeous Regal Geranium pictured above was an impulse buy. It is proving its worth these days. I have it potted on our deck and I can see it from my kitchen window.
We have a long weekend coming up after tomorrow. I plan to spend more time getting the garden in order. Hopefully, the weather cooperates, though we do need the rain, and I was so happy to hear the steady rain last night. We even had some lightning last night which was a blessing because it fixes nitrogen and will help the beans I planted the other day.
“Lightning drives atmospheric nitrogen fixation by using its immense heat and energy to split tightly-bonded atmospheric nitrogen molecules. These separated atoms instantly bond with oxygen to form nitrogen oxides. Rain then washes these compounds into the soil as nitrates, acting as a natural, plant-ready fertilizer. “
I don’t have much more to say today. However, I was inspired to post a picture of the beautiful geranium on our deck.
I let my image generator create this lovely picture. The redbud tree looks very much like this one. It captured its color very well. The blue jay in the birdbath is a nice added touch. My mother was a proud Jayhawk (KU alumni), so it seems appropriate.
This has been a surprising spring with new discoveries and new visitors. Sometimes all it take is some loving attention to bring back former beauty. It is as if the plants and flowers sense my anticipation and want to live up to it.
As I have been going round and round trying to bring order to chaos, it occurred to me today that perhaps nature’s chaos can sometimes be better than my sense of order. The other day I noticed the redbud tree that started as a small seedling. It was given to me by a neighbor many years ago. I had complimented him on his lovely redbud tree and mentioned to him that it had been my mother’s favorite tree.
I had planted the little redbud seedling just beyond the birdbath in a corner of our garden. I watched it closely for a couple years as it struggled to thrive. I eventually stopped watching it as my own life needed attention.
When I saw it the other day I was surprised to see that it had grown up and now is about chest high. I missed seeing any blooms, and now it is showing all its lovely heart shaped leaves which are unmistakable. I was dismayed to see that my husband had piled yard debris right next to it, so I started clearing it away today. Last night he agreed to remove all the debris and take it away, and I am helping by making sure it is far away from the redbud. It is part of his mother’s day gift to me, and I made this request to honor the memory of my mother.
I hope all that might read this have a pleasant mother’s day, especially if all you have is fond memories.
I thought it would be fun to experiment with the image generator again. The palm patterns on my clothes are more varied than these examples,and some are more suble than others.Though,I really do like this new image generator.
Saturday morning before others were awake I started to reorganize my closet. It started with me trying to locate a new top that I have rarely worn. I could not find it, so I kept looking deeper and deeper into the closet, and in the process brought forth my spring and summer clothes, and pushed to the back the winter and fall clothes. One advantage or disadvantage to getting older is that I have had more time to accumulate clothes. I do periodically go through and do some purging, but not as frequently as I should. Unfortunately, my closet has not gotten any bigger.
The whole process took more time than I thought it would especially since I had interruptions with helping my family when they woke up, and now I am feeling unproductive since I have not gotten outside.
One interesting thing that I noticed is that in recent years I have acquired more clothes that have a variation of palm leaf patterns. As a matter of fact, my favorite garden pants, which I frequently wear at home, are made of a soft cotton with palm leaf patterns all over them. The colors are cream, celery, and sage.
Subconsciously, I must really like the palm leaf. It has good symbolism across many cultures and religions. And also, palm leaves were used in antiquity for writing manuscripts.
Hopefully, tomorrow I will be productive outside in the garden. The rest of today I will devote to doing laundry, and of course taking care of my family.
These pictures posted above are old pictures from my garden when I grew Swamp Milkweed. They are a host plant for the Monarch Butterfly.
At my school there are several common milkweed plants by the school entrances closest to the staff parking lot. The common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) looks different than Swamp Milkweed (Aslepias incarnata). Both are host plants for the Monarch butterfly. Today as I was leaving school for the day I was surprised to see a Monarch butterfly on one of these common milkweed plants. It seemed odd to me especially since just the other day I posted about Monarch Pass. I cannot remember seeing Monarch butterflies in Virginia this early in the season. In my home garden I don’t normally begin to see them until the middle of summer. I pulled out my cell phone to take a picture but I could not get one before it flew away.
Today I wondered if Monarch butterflies are seen around Monarch Pass, Colorado. I also wondered how high the monarchs can fly. I read that they can be seen around the Monarch Pass area from early May through October, though this is not how this location got its name. As to how high they can fly, I read they “typically migrate at altitudes of 800 to 1,200 feet.” They are capable of soaring much highter. I don’t know how accurate this is.
I continue to work hard in the garden whenever I get the chance. This weekend was productive since I got my husband to help me clear away the ivy from the old stump and cut it partially down. The camellia was also pruned, though it needs a little more work to shape it better. At least now it is no longer overshadowed by ivy.
I also did a little pruning on an old deciduous azalea by cutting away some dead wood. It is still blooming so I was not too aggressive. Some weeding was done. I am constantly surprised by my garden’s resilience. The roses pictured above are true survivors. The Golden Showers rose has been with me for over 20 yrs. I used to have four trellises full of them. They have a complicated history in my garden, and the trellises were removed many years ago. Three fothergillas were planted in their place. They are a slow growing shrub, though now since it has been several years since I planted them they are much taller and fuller. They are much easier to care for than the roses, however, I have two rose climbers left. One section of Golden Showers is still with me, and a Stairway to Heaven rose that has been with me for about 15 yrs. I did not want the work of roses, especially since they are on a side of the house that gets ignored by me, and they constantly have to withstand my husbands desire to put tools and equipment in their area. They are true survivors.
I posted the picture of the sunflower from several summers ago since I love its golden color, and the birds and bees love it. I will have to plant more this summer.
Speaking of ‘golden’ reminded me to make a book recommendation to any readers out there that might read my posts. Right at the beginning of my spring vacation, which is always the week before Easter, I read the book Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. It was just what I needed to get me ready to tackle my garden and pond during my break. It uplifted me and made me realize that there are many kindred spirits in this world of ours. I would definitely recommend this book. It focused on the important things in life, and was a study in human personality and connection.
Have a great week and stop to enjoy the beauty of our natural world!
Honor our Earth by planting a tree.
Honor our Earth by preserving our refuges.
Honor our Earth by planting a garden.
Honor our Earth through art, there are many ways.
We only have one Earth.
Let's not waste it.
movingforwardslowly 