The Monsoon Flow

After an already full week of rain, it rained the entire day on Sunday. I looked out at a wet garden turning green from the covered front porch unable to tend to any chores. A sweeping view from left to right takes in most of the garden.

I enjoy viewing my garden from the front porch even when it isn't raining.

There was one short break in the rain and I took advantage. Over the winter I decided to annex control of another fifteen feet of the adjoining property below me; that still with brown section below the row of evergreen leucothoe. With a minimum of input I can change the inhabitants of this piece of the utility meadow and make it more floral and a better backdrop for the garden. It will also make another obvious visible demarcation before the garden for the utility company's plant killers.

Step one was cutting down the blackberry, elderberry and tree saplings. Done. Step two is a clematis weeding binge. Step three is let nature fill in behind me. Step four is let it grow tall for the season. Repeat annually as needed. In two to three seasons it should be as floriferous as the Tall Flower Meadow.

It was a very soggy Sunday.

The baby shrubberies don't mind it one bit.

Three tiny twiglets of Fothergilla that followed me home a few years ago have grown into small shrubs and are blooming quite nicely this year. The parent plant has great fall color.

My unknown rescue is now know. It is indeed a Showy Orchis. I have two patches of them in the garden now. I wonder how many times it was sprayed and lived? It has some recuperating to do.

This is how a Showy Orchis should look. I moved this one out of the deep forest only last year. Not only was it unfazed by the move, one plant became four, and it is loaded with flower buds. Maybe next year the rescued orchid will look this good.