The Giant Joe Pye

It's the biggest one I have ever seen.

I need to stop calling it the Joe Pye WEED. It could be that moniker that has required some sweet talking in order to save it twice now from removal. "It has great butterfly attracting flowers." "Look at the drama of that thing."

"Ok. It can stay." Whew! That was close.

Next time they ask me what it is I'll say it is a rare native Eutrochium. People pay good money for them at the nursery. You have the biggest Eutrochium I have ever seen.

If it ever has to go, I'm digging it up and bringing it home.

As It Should Be

The wild flower meadows are having a very good year.

The sisters have visited at a very good time.

I will continue editing.

There is plenty room for more floral abundance.

White Daisies

Lilies

And a sunset view I have not seen for awhile.

Flora

There Will Be Plenty Blooming

When the sisters arrive tomorrow.

We are having a much better floral display this year compared to last year's late freeze fiasco. We have lilies this year.

Oddly there are fewer Ratibida this year. There is still a good crop of them though. It will be interesting to watch how much they might spread on their own. I have seen a little movement already.

The plan is to begin eating the fine produce in the roadside vegetable garden. A new chef will be on the mountain.

At the end of the vegetable garden the wild flowers begin.

Yes there really is a vegetable garden hiding inside the wild flower surround. Just driving by, most people would never guess.

The sunny utility meadow will be filled with blooms for the sisters.

Perhaps there will be time for a weed identification and pulling lesson. It will be theirs one day. Then they will have to pull weeds.

Gardeners Live Here

Goodbye Buttercup

It was a fun little experiment. I let one Buttercup run wild. It was pretty when it all bloomed. By the time it was done blooming it had taken over half the cabin side bed and continued to advance at an alarming rate. Plus it was looking rather ratty.

Goodbye Buttercup. It is time for you and your smothering ways to go. You didn't fit in with my plans for this bed. I'll have to stay on top of it for the next year at least. It bloomed and set plenty seed. I'm sure I missed a crown or two.

I want to stick with my Oat Grass, sedges and add more liatris. The Rose Campion and Cleome are self seeding well. There's iris, daylilies and mums in this bed. I need more interest, more movement, more drama. A solid mat of Buttercups won't do.

More drama, more movement, more interest. The sewer line bed is getting more of all of it.

The discard rack lilies have finally bloomed. Last year they got froze. They don't look anything like what they were tagged as, basically short, white Easter Lilies. No lily this tall could ever be sold in a big box store. Still, I'm having a hard time imagining them being perverted in a green house with growth hormones into something else entirely.

The gladiola which are not supposed to be hardy here are back. Gardy don't dig no bulbs and tubers for winter storage. Plants either live or die by their own level of endurance to winter's chill. Gladiola are proving to be more hardy than dahlias up here.

More lilies and no Buttercups.

I have a feeling though, now that one Buttercup has followed me home, they are here to stay.

This Is The Wildflower Meadow

So many gardeners these days think they want.

There are pros and cons to this kind of garden.

It only has to be mowed once a year and when the meadow has its bloom on, it is indeed something to behold.

But don't listen to anyone who tells you how easy and low maintenance a wildflower meadow is. They lie.

The weeding and editing out of the unwanted that is required to achieve this kind of bloom is not for the faint of heart. But no one will ever notice if you miss a few weeds.

So you think you want a wildflower meadow?

It would drive a good number of gardeners absolutely insane.

There Is A Vegatable Garden In There

Trust me. There really is.

This is the okra and strawberry patch with a few self sown wild flowers I was unable to bring myself to weed out. I'll move them when they are done blooming.

When you turn and look in the other direction there it is, a nice organized and weed free roadside vegetable garden. The wild flowers I have been unable to weed out over in this direction are still pretty small. I'll move them as soon as I get the chance. Mostly I am finding Ironweed and I have found they do not like being transplanted once they get too big.

Today I actually harvested a yellow squash and two nice heads of lettuce. Mother did the same a few days earlier. That is the first produce we have eaten from the garden this year. Rows of lettuce went unused. Two crops of radish went to seed. The peas weren't shelled. The box turtles ate most of the strawberries. The vegetable garden was neglected.


When one hears the vegetable garden was neglected the first thing apt to come to mind is giant rampant weeds and spindly vegetable plants hidden in the tangle. With wood chip mulch I don't have that problem. Even in my neglect I can go through and weed the entire garden in less than ten minutes. I only did that every other week at best.

Neglect is beautiful produce left to get to old to eat in the field.

The sunflowers are still self sowing in the vegetable garden. Kindly, in this year of neglect, there was only a small crop. If there had been more, things could have gotten out of hand. I find it just as hard to pull the unneeded sunflowers as I do the wild flowers.

So I cleaned up the unused old crops today and sowed for a fall garden. The sisters are coming to visit next week and I told them we need to eat the food in the garden for dinner. Maybe that will get me in the habit of harvesting. Other wise I am planting vegetables just to watch them grow. Well for that and the box turtles and rabbits. The raccoons are gonna be pissed this year. No sweet corn for you!

I do have a legitimate excuse for my neglect. I have been busy gardening. I waited quite a long time to really be able to concentrate on developing the garden becoming. This year I dove in.

The enhancement and organization of the Lush is in full swing. Just this weekend I planted about 20 baptisia and milkweed each, maybe 10 liatris, campanula, the native ageratum and perennial lupine. I need more blue.

There is a garden in there. Trust me. There really is. I just need to find it.

Baby Shrubberies Bloom

It only took three years to go from a rooted twig to a blooming shrub. They are not even full grown yet and I'm thinking, did I plant these oakleaf hydrangea to close to the bamboo? I'll know better in a couple more years.

The flower and foliage contrast between the two is working as intended. As they both grow larger and begin to touch and mingle they will continue to crowd out the unwanted. That is also the intent. It could work out fine. They can fill the space how they wish so long as they fill the space.

Small divisions of hosta planted over a large space have grown large enough to bloom profusely and crowd out the weeds. My slow approach to garden making theory is proving to have some merit.

I plant directly in the Lush and weed around the baby plants and shrubberies until they are big enough to compete on their own. As I keep planting and weeding a more proper civilized garden begins to emerge. In the mean time I get to enjoy the blooming exuberance the Lush has to offer.

In time the Lush will be more subdued, a natural compliment to a planted garden. That's the theory anyway. Things could also go awry. I keep adding natural compliments to the Lush itself, many which have shown a wanton ability to self sow.

The Eryngium yuccifolium, Rattlesnake Master, I planted went to self sowing immediately. The baby plants are now blooming in their second season. I'll be gathering this year's seed crop for sowing further afield. Now if I could just get the Echinops bannaticus to be so wanton. I did find a few seedlings of it this year, but they are just sitting there in the seedling state. I'll have to gather and sow more seed of it again.

I want to get some Joe Pye going at the far east end of the sunny utility meadow. The Ironweed has been self sowing like crazy in the roadside vegetable garden. Those need to be moved while they are small. It would be nice to get the Verbena bonariensis established in more places. I have Milkweed to plant and the liatris seed will need to be collected and sown where new patches are wanted.

Yea right. Subdued I tell you. One day the Lush will be organized and subdued. Ha.

In The Garden

Shasta Daisies

Some other miscanthus with Loosestrife.

Sunny and warm in the roadside vegetable garden.

Daylilies galore.

Uncle Ernie and echinacea.

Sun and shade.

Liatris above the byway.

The invisible art piece interacts with its environment.

It's all out there in the garden.