July 2007 - Page 5 of 9 - Bumblebee Blog

Bzzzz July 14th, 2007

A garden is continually changing…

Plants grow, flourish, produce their fruit and then find their magical ways to create a new plant.

The spinach bid adieu long ago. Our lettuce also has finally gone to seed. This is, perhaps, one of the saddest passings in our garden, since a green salad is nearly always on the dinner menu. One of the great joys of a garden is going out and picking what is fresh and ripe, rinsing it off and eating it within minutes of the harvest.

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Lettuce going to seed

But to take its place, our cucumbers are thriving. Cucumber salad. Cucumbers in neufchatel cheese. Oriental cucumbers. Chopped cucumbers in veggie wraps. Homemade bread and butter pickles.

Yes, you can perhaps have too many cucumbers. And zucchini.

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Cucumber vines

A closer look at the flowers in the garden also reveals a bounty of bugs. Some good. Some bad.

A constant are the bees–at least so far. I do worry about the mass bee deaths that are occurring. So far, we still see bees, particularly the big fat bumblebees.

Bumblebee

My favorites are the butterflies. I haven’t made a conscious effort to attract butterflies. It just happened. They love any and all flowers. But especially, they love the butterfly bush.

I wish I had the skills to capture what happens near the end of the day. Although all day long the butterfly bush is FILLED with butterflies, around 5 p.m., there seems to be some sort of butterfly meeting. They all converge in a frenzy of activity. Perhaps they are trying to get that last bit of nectar before it gets too late and everyone has to go to bed. Really, though, I don’t know why. But I wish that I had the ability to capture the mass and movement of butterflies. I’ll have to figure that out.

Butterfly – Red Admiral (vanessa atalanta)

Until I do, though, there will be plenty for me to do cataloging and identifying the wide variety of butterflies that visit our garden.

Butterfly — Anise Swallowtail?

Can anyone tell I have a new camera? After seeing all the fabulous photography in some of the garden blogs I visit, I decided I need to be a better photographer.

Good grief. Another thing to do! Ben is already laughing at all my “pet projects!”

Posted In: Gardening

Tags: gloriosa superba Rothschildiana

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Bzzzz July 12th, 2007

Today’s is a look at the good, the bad and the ugly at a Bumblebee Garden.

It started over at Colleen’s In the Garden Online. Colleen was bold enough to expose the dark side of her garden–the less-than-magazine-picture-perfect shots that every gardener has and doesn’t want others to know about.

I wholeheartedly applaud the motivation behind this thread of discussion. With all our pictorials of bountiful harvests, perfect specimens, rampant foliage and peaceful garden retreats, garden bloggers may sometimes tend to err much the way that the glossy garden magazines have erred–by presenting an ideal that no novice–or even experienced gardener without help–can maintain.

So here goes with my own version of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Weedy corner in the Colonial theme garden

It seems that every year since I began the Colonial theme garden I have had one weedy corner. I tell myself that it’s my tribute to the true laws of mother nature. I rationalize that it’s an acknowledgement of the untamability of our natural environment.

In reality, I usually just don’t know what I’m doing. Take this weedy corner, for example. Last year I planted an obedient plant here. I don’t recall that it did particularly well. I have never before seen an obedient plant, so I don’t remember what it looks like. So when plants started doing what plants do, I didn’t know what was weed and what was obedient plant. I still don’t.

Yes, I know I can go and look it up. And truly, it’s on my list. But I never remember when I actually have the time.

Out of control roses

Not too far from the weedy corner is a pair of out of control climbing roses.They look shabby 11 months out of the year. Weeds grow under them that I cannot get to because the bush is so thick. I could whack at them every week and they would only grow more robust from the abuse. I should take them out, but that would require a crane.

Weed pile with broken down garden cart

I saved the worst for last. I have a 3′-high weed pile. This is where I have thrown weeds that I didn’t want to compost or the profuse quantity of sticks and stickers that just couldn’t be mulched without gumming up my machine. As a result, I have an ugly and, sadly, growing collection of discarded weeds.

The broken down garden cart adds to the scene. I bought it on sale at K-Mart for $40. Stupid. It didn’t last any time before the tires went kaplooey. I haven’t figured out how to have it fixed because I dislike the cart anyway. It has a bar that sticks out under the handle that always manages to jab me in the leg.

Really need to put all this into the pickup truck and take it to the landfill. But the pickup truck is broken down–again.

Now that I’ve exposed the ugly parts. Here is a quick look at some of the Bumblebee Garden that I don’t believe I’ve shared before.

Purple border

I have a lovely little purple border with these fabulous cock’s comb flowers. A friend gave me one of these flower last year and I saved the seeds, sprouting them in my light garden. I had dozens of these, which I dotted around the garden. That’s a volunteer elephant ear that’s coming up underneath the cock’s comb. I forgot that I had put it there last year. They aren’t supposed to overwinter outdoors here in zone 7, but no one told this elephant ear.

Container garden arrangements

I love mixing up different plants in containers. This arrangement of tiny petunias, salvia and dusty miller has been a repeat show stopper on the back deck.

Sky pencil holly arrangement

Similarly, the sky pencil holly arrangement, modeled on one that I saw at the Dixon Gallery and Garden in Memphis, is a bounty of color.

Okay, I have done my duty by showing the dark side of a Bumblebee Garden. And I hope I have somewhat redeemed myself by showing that I’m not a total garden loser.

Like most gardeners, I don’t have any garden help. I mow my own lawn. I do my own weeding. My own planting and such. My husband helps out with some push mowing at the wild edges about once a week or so. My teenage son will occasionally help me with some tote-and-haul work. He is also a good helper during my shopping sprees at the garden center. Otherwise, the garden is mostly mine.

It’s not all pretty. But I hope that the pretty parts distract from the scraggly corners.

Posted In: Gardening