My parents are travelling and that leaves me in charge of the garden. It's a headache and a half in hot, rain-less summer conditions, which means I do have a few hours to spend watering in the evening. Thank god dad has installed an electrical pump on the big rainwater tank.
But I have also been stealthily using this time of non-parental supervision to prune some of the plants to my liking. My dad and I often have dissenting opinions how to prune some plants (mostly, he says 'never' and you end up with gangly plants with only flowers on the far end of bare branches that you have to tie up to bigger shrubs or they'll fall over) Mind you this is also the man that planted
trees in raised beds right next to the house and on one memorable occasion an oak in a low veranda. And he did this more than
once. (Guess who has been keeping the one in the veranda in check? Spoiler: not
him. Although he utters loud cries of dismay each time he sees the result of my pruning. It's been
years, dad, I think I have proven pruning it hard won't kill it. And he just says 'yet.' I know I cannot win this one, so sneaky pruning the others it is.)
Now, I know that some of these plants
can in fact be pruned, will survive being pruned and will actually look better afterwards. So I have sneakily been pruning some plants when he wasn't around. He never noticed the ones I don't want him to notice. But with the COVID lock-down I haven't been able to do so, until now. Now to get rid of the evidence before he returns.
My potatoes finally decided to sprout and then bolted. Just the one pot, though, so I fear I will not be able to make a meal for three out of this harvest. Damn, I was hoping to improve on last year. I have been wondering whether I should just plant up the second pot again, and with the changing climate, maybe the growing season can be extended further into autumn. I probably should read up on that.
The flower meadow in the front garden is a bust. Things sprouted and then just... dissapeared. I'm confused, rather. I find no evidence of wildlife snacking it all up. I did take care to water. And it all didn't do
anything. Potentially the problem may lie in sunlight. The garden's fairly open in early spring when I sowed, but surrounded by big trees with broad summer canopies. Still, I included shadow species in the seed mix and there is a good deal of early morning and evening sun when the sun is low enough to get under the canopy. So whyyyyy?
I think I will attempt my meadow one more time next year. Three times the charm. And maybe really till the place deep and add more compost. If it doesn't work... I had a dream recently the whole place was tufts of prairie grasses with gravel beds and boulders, and I have to say the vision
was nice. There are grasses that can take some shade and it's about the only thing that hasn't died in my attempted meadow so maybe that might be my best shot. And I do love me some rocks...
You have a pond? I'm jealous.
Several small ones, actually. My dad dug a new one everytime he learned something new with the previous one. And it was a steep learning curve...
But they do require a lot of maintance and then there
still are far too many algae and too little amphibians. Although I wouldn't want to trade the waterlilies (just prune the hell out of these pond-fillers, the roots do explosive growth like woah) or the dragonflies and demoiselles. Ponds are nice and I'd recommend them to everyone.
I had to share this photo from yesterday. After all my efforts to deer-proof my perennial garden, this little doe found the last way in: by walking underneath my deck. It's a big deck - 35 feet long - and I never thought a deer would attempt it. Silly me. Fortunately she only ate some day lily blossoms, took a few nibbles from my weeping Japanese cherry tree, and a bite or two of stonecrop and hosta - and then, I guess, left the way she came. While my trail cams reveal the occasional visit from deer after dark, this was in broad daylight, in a fairly busy suburban neighborhood.
The husband and I went out in the rain to staple deer netting around the access points, and are hoping that will foil a repeat visit until we can put up something sturdier.
Life will find a way...
It's a good thing it didn't cause too much damage. Cool you got the visit on camera, though! Wildlife cameras are fun things although I haven't used them often in the garden. But they did help me identify the rogue rodent that raided my tree seedlings on my balcony in the past.