Thursday, June 05, 2008

Face To Face


Sometimes, you just can't go wrong with some beautiful zonal geraniums for annual color. These are potted up in the greenhouse section of the restaurant dining room, where Leslie's been doing a great job of bringing some seasonal color to the decor with container gardening.

It was a long restaurant day today, too, with a breakfast event getting me there at 7:00 and a lunch to follow shortly after that. No worries though, really: it wasn't one of those weather days you minded missing particularly, what with the damp, almost-raining-all-day quality and the temps barely hitting 60 (It's 55 now...).

I'm not sure if I've never noticed these two doing this before, but I had it in my head that the roses and the azaleas didn't bloom at exactly the same time, usually. I suppose I ought to have been paying better attention.

The day went well and fled before too long. I made a sidetrip to the nursery on the way home. I needed (not wanted, but required really...)a sixpack of portulaca for a particular spot and since I was there, I picked out a young golden sage plant to replace the one that passed on last winter...and they actually had a pot of verbena bonariensis.

I'll hit you with some photos of mine later and no doubt throughout the season - this is another of my Top One Thousand Absolute Favorite(you can make me choose, but you can't make me choose just one) Plants, with it's squarish stems and pointy jagged foliage and lovely little deep purple blossoms! I squee a little just thinking about it.

I countered the grey weather with some showtunes in the car: Showboat today, and it was "Old Man River" that had me taking the long way around our circle to get to the house (you just don't shut off OMR before its through!), when I had to stop short for a pair of cardinals...possibly juveniles, who came crashing onto the roadway, seeming to wrestle with one another, more at play, I thought, than any real show of agression. There was a tiny purple finch on the scene, too. A referee, perhaps.

It was positively Disney-fied.

Which perhaps set me up for what would come next.

As I was changing, I looked out the bedroom window and saw Him. My Nemesis. The Nibbler By Night. The Hungry Hare. The Bunny Bane of my tulips and crocuses.

And damn if he's not adorable. Of course, I knew he would be.

However, he also wasn't in the garden itself, except in the way that British folks refer to the whole yard as The Garden (which I rather like, while we're being tangential and all...), but peaceably grazing on the diversity that is our "lawn". I snapped the first photo through the window, but then finished changing and went out to sit on the front step.

He (again I'm assuming gender...but what's wrong with boy bunnies, anyway?)regarded me with frozen concern at first, retreating to be closer to the shelter of the hedges if things should turn ugly.

After a few pics, I set the camera down and let him see my hands were empty and I meant him no harm, because really, I don't. Provided he's not eating all my bulbs, it's kind of an honor to have him visit. It didn't take him any time at all to dismiss me as a harmless rube and return to the grazing.

Perhaps there's something to this "Liquid Fence" stuff after all. Or maybe there's just something really tasty growing amongst the grass. I'll have a look-see in the morning.

After he'd gone and I got something cooking for dinner, I went out to plant my new additions, and also to do some more weeding and seeding, this evening adding the rest of the everlasting strawflower seeds, a packet of Pacific statice and teensy pack of red poppy seeds.

As for earlier seedings: the allyssum seedlings, the first to be scattered in early April, are now approaching blooming size, and are adding more tiny white flowers to the lowest edges of the garden bed. There are sunflower seedlings popping up all over the place and possibly the first of the bachelor buttons. The seashell cosmos have now begun presenting their true leaves, so they are well on their way, as the garden as a whole seems to be.

12 comments:

Patrick said...

Ah, there it is, looking so innocent, so cute, the little nibbler. How does the liquid fence seem to be working? Too soon to tell?

Greg said...

Patrick, come back!! I suspect you saw this post when it was only photos and no words--I accidentally published too soon!

Yah, isn't he adorable? The LF seems to be working very well, or he's found something tastier than my garden (as if...).

Anonymous said...

Rabbits, can't live with'em can't kill'em. They are so damn cute looking you just have to let them be despite any destruction they may cause.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad that you are happy to share your lawn with stray bunnies! Not all gardeners are as generous as you are. I'm going to have to read back a way to find out more about this liquid fence, if it really works there are some people I have to recommend it to :)

...and I had no idea that referring to the whole shebang as "the garden" was a Brit peculiarity - but then I wouldn't, as I'm a Brit :) So I learned something today!

Patrick said...

Ah yes, I first popped by when it was only photos; thanks for making that clear in your response, Greg, so I didn't sound like a complete moron, repeating your thoughts almost verbatim and asking questions you had answered. :) It's a testament to the narrative skill of your photography that I was able to anticipate your story so completely.

Greg said...

I've always been happy to welcome wildlife to my garden--it always feels more alive with a cast of characters living in it, after all! And I feel like I'm doing something right in the natural sense if they want to be there.

And in the past, I've had pretty good luck with them not eating the really pretty stuff...so this year has been a challenge and I'm happy that we seem to have, for the nonce, come to some kind of agreement.

Great minds, Patrick! I'm glad you came back for the whole story, though!

Bird, your way makes the whole place seem more festive and wonderful! Probably we made the change from "garden" to "yard" when we colonists mistakenly decided that vast expanses of uniform green lawn was the way to go.

Jess said...

Awww, he's adorable. We have rabbits on the other side of town. They seem to be slowly migrating closer. I hope they move into our yard one day (although that will be just one more headache for Marc, since he already has squirrels eating his plants!).

Greg said...

Jess, neighborhood integration is always a difficult thing at first. However, once people see how tidy the bunnies keep their lawns, they usually come around!

; )

dec0r8or said...

Oh Greg, I'm so envious of all of your pretties. My landscaping is going to have to wait until next year, I fear. I have big plans, though! For now, it'll be holding beds for me--too much else to do!!

Greg said...

Hiya, Sherm!! Holding beds will work just fine while you work on the new house and dream about what you want the garden to be!

All good things in time!!

Butch said...

Caught the wee devil. Ah, Welsh rarebit . . . ( I must be hungry )
For a moment I thought there would be an Hare's Lament but you let them live. ;-) I concur. ;-) We'll see how the new "rabbit-be-gone" works on them.

lostlandscape said...

I was meaning to mention that about the time you put this post up the NY Times ran an article, "Peter Rabbit Must Die!" on the creative but more violent responses people had come up with to the bunny problem. Congratulations on your restraint.