One More Thing To Mow

In high summer a full mow job of the wild cultivated garden's mile of pathways, roadside edge, the Great Lawn and extraneous areas for a complete civilizing tidy is not something I want to do in one sitting. That is too much vibration for one day. The different gardens are distinct enough in their own right that they can be mowed one section at a time.

I've been out with the weed whacker when time and weather permits. My garden is last on the list. It might happen this weekend. I've been busy.

On day three of Bulbarella's new knee all is well. Quite good really. She has had minimal pain and is already mobile and practicing her physical therapy while we wait for one to actually show up. I'm just the assistant gofer in all this, but it does take time.

I won't be whacking my weed flowers when I do get around to it of course, but a civilizing mow job has amazing effects.

Then there is the shed calling me. Hale Mini is ready for a door and siding. I've decided to go the simple easy route and get some 4x8 sheets of manufactured siding made to look like 'Knotty Barn Board'. Maybe I can slip that in this weekend too.

On The Day Of Surgery

One new knee is done. Bulbarella is alert, comfortable and pain free. Day one gets marked excellent. A very good place to start.

Praise be for Sister #2. She handled all the hospital business and will be supervising the first three weeks of rehab. A most excellent way to start.

Hale Mini Gathers Form

So what did I do when I got home from work today?

I framed out a door opening for Hale Mini of course. I decided to build my own door to the size I want, working with the dimensions and framing I had.

I measured thrice, pondered the options over several days and ended up with a nice proportional 50% opening. Now to build a door. Should it have some bling?

Some magic kind whirlwind has caused a shed to take form. It already stores stuff just fine and it's not even done. It is going to be a mighty fine shed.

On the pleasant shores of Turd Blossom Lake

Where Voodoo Lilies spend the summer.

Now of course, one main point of this shed is to make this rotting pile of collectibles disappear. Part of that will involve fire. It will make a fine winter project.

A few days ago I had a vision for the tile floors. I checked already. I think I have exactly enough. I'll cipher again to be sure. That one cracked stack will be turned into an asset. I had a vision.

The garden tour committee got a better idea of who I am today. I bumped into them at two of the proper gardens I tend.

People can be a bit gobsmacked when trying to fit me in both the wild cultivated gardens where I play and the proper gardens I tend. Out here, the mowing can wait until I am in the mood. We all know where the paths are. Deadheading? You jest.

The Garden Needs Me

Between sheds and bears, work kind work, pestilence of every kind and the lack of incoming visitors, the mowing of the paths is a bit overdue. I wasn't feeling moved. Why bother? Everybody up here knows where the paths are.

I managed a walk, muttering, and hollering at the damn varmints. The deer discovered all of my red and yellow twig dogwood planted below the garden and well over the property line. Deer love dogwood.

The deer have never sampled the Aralia racemosa.

The routine floppage of the Tall Flower Meadow has begun. Thank goodness the bear did not stomp on the Doll's Eye, Actaea pachypoda. I'm looking forward to a full set of eyes. Bears are actually quite tidy foragers. They can dig underground wasp nests with precision. They do poop right in the paths though. Everybody up here uses the paths.

I feel certain a nice civilizing mow job will help hide the pestilence.

Much better to focus on the abundance.

It really is a zoo out there.

The bugs are just one dimension that I largely ignore.

We got four inches of rain in the last twenty four hours. I had a rain day off from work. A window from the house my grandfather built was framed into the shed.

It was far too wet to mow anything. Sister #2 will be here shortly. I need to get something mowed this week. Bulbarella is getting a new knee. She had the good sense not to leave her alone to recover with just me.

Rusty Trinkets

A lily bulb fell out of the ground somewhere at some point and ended up here. I have no real recollection of how it came to be. I do know I did it. I think. The color of course is a complete surprise. So it goes, the draining away begins. Nice lily though.

So a thing happened.

We were rejected for the 2020 Haywood County garden tour.

What!!
How dare you. Don't you know who I am?

Christopher needed a lesson in humility. He was given a week of pestilence.

But, but, but, after twelve years, Ku'ulei 'Aina is...….

Keep your mouth shut. I was verklempt. That is the wisest option.

The wild cultivated gardens unseen, rock on.

With pestilence

Well hidden in the Lush.

I trudge on.

This morning was spent adding flashing and hard wire to all the vermin welcome signs I could find on the new shed. The casing around the Styrofoam roofing panel floor was the worst. I heard some gnawing inside there while in process. It will hopefully be impossible to escape.

The dung piles and parking lot got whacked to make the compound look more civilized. Better to see a bear coming too. Four mystery melons rising in the dung were given plenty room to grow.

Then there was rest.

Trinkets. Rusty trinkets will help. In memory of Jean Wall Penland.

Post Bloom Day

I missed Bloom Day. The full moon voodoo was in charge. The week was filled with pestilence. Pestilence of every kind. I was rendered verklempt.

I trudged on.

Surrounded by beauty and pestilence.

Blight spread through the tomatoes like wildfire. Magnolia 'Jane' has scale bad. The iris have borers. The pines have had disfiguring caterpillar attacks three years running. Pestilence.

The animal kingdom was having every day is zoo day.

Last week I was nose to nose with an adolescent bunny out for a joy hop, the deer browsing through on her normal route and the raccoon that acts like it wants to move in with the cats. It wanders in on a nightly basis to check in. Groundhogs have developed a fondness for pond plants in the Almighty Falls. There was loud talk on the byway about pigs. Damn varmints.

A loud thrashing of greenery was unusual for the deer. Because it was a bear! Just what I need to finish a full week of pestilence.

It was the honey, Boo Boo was after. I had already seen three dug out ground nests during the week in my wanderings.

It's been hot and steamy. At least the okra is actually growing

I will take verklempt on the subject of human pestilence.

When I looked up from the pestilence and realized I missed Bloom Day, I zipped outside for a liatris Bloom Day quickie, but I was still verklempt. The pestilence kept coming.

It was a very full week.

A needed balm. Just look for the bear first.

The full moon has passed. Voodoo has opened a new leaf. I trudge on bearing witness to a pestilence of the very worst kind. What will next week bring?