It's Not Work, It's Gardening!

It's a flop

>> Wednesday, July 31, 2013 – grasses

Today I want to talk about a failure. A plant that I've been really happy with for the last couple of years, but only now has revealed its true, ugly nature.

The plant I'm talking about is a grass that I unfortunately don't have a great photo of: Miscanthus sinensis 'Silberpfeil'. It's the light-colored variegated grass in this month-old photo.

Hiding somewhere: mantis camouflage

>> Tuesday, July 30, 2013 – insects

Today I present a story about camouflage, specifically in the insect world. I'll use my favorite insect (the praying mantis) and one of my least-favorite plants (a euonymous).

Although my kept-in-the-refrigerator mantis egg case never hatched -- the first time I've ever had a hatching failure -- I've seen plenty of small mantises in the yard this year. I've also not been able to see them, even when I want to and know exactly where to look, and that's the point of this post.

Weedy!

>> Monday, July 29, 2013 – cleanup, weeds

I've been lazy this summer. I've let some weeds and weedy perennials get out of hand. I already mentioned the globe thistle that have spread more than I wanted them to, but there's more. Today we're looking at my largest raised bed:

This bed borders the stream and is what you see if you look down from the deck -- it's quite prominent, so you'd think I'd make sure it was looking its best all the time. Not this year.

Bees!

>> Sunday, July 28, 2013 – bees, globe thistle

My patch of Echinops 'Blue Glow' (aka "Globe Thistle") is in bloom right now: wonderful, spiky, too crowded, too big.

The one plant I had 5 or 6 years ago has been let to reseed almost at will, and now it's taken over this area. I had really intended to thin it out this year, but when blooming time comes around I'm glad I didn't.