Friday, July 11, 2008

Summer Days


Well, the days certainly slip by quickly here in July. I never got around to posting yesterday. My computer sort of reminded me recently that there are other things to summertime life besides blogging. You see, I have this CD burner that is usually pretty reasonable, but every now and then, the software that came with it doesn't recognize the burner...and the best bit is that it usually decides not to see the hardware exactly the week that my photo files start to clog things up and need to be burned to disc. The Laws of Murphy are strong in this one.

Finally, after much futzing, I got the burner working and spent some time burning discs--two of them for the first three quarters of June!!! Anyway, now my hard drive's all freed up and running a little more smoothly...but between this issue and the connectivity thing, I found myself with that time I was looking for to dive head-first into the Wind in the Willows, as inspired by both Cooper and Patrick...and I just never want to stop reading it now!! Blogging, what's that?

I can't remember when I read this book, but it was a terribly long time ago, and so this feels like a brand new thing for me, while also an old friend. You know, you read a book as a child and you take it in on a much simpler level...and then you come back to it later, and you see a completely new pleasure, informed by the years you've lived, experiences you've had, knowledge gained and people you've known. I don't think my pal Bob would mind or disagree with the assessment that he is not unlike Toad in many ways, for example.

I find it's a difficult book to read late at night, not only because it keeps hitting me in the face when I fall asleep, but also because, when I'm not tired from a long day, I'm laughing right out loud almost constantly and I'm a little concerned I'll wake everyone up laughing so heartily. Anyway, if you haven't read this book recently, get a copy, read it for yourself. Read it to your kids. You won't be sorry.

Ahem. Okay, hopping down from my Read a Book soapbox, let me show you this beautiful evening primrose that's starting to strut this week. I didn't plant these guys, though I may have transported the seed in soil from the old garden.

They are sort of wild and weedy in these parts, but I find them pretty well behaved (and easy enough to yank up if you don't like the spot they've chosen) a wonderful bit of height and color in the summer garden, so I'm happy when they show up here and there.

As the name suggests, the new flowers open up as the sun is setting. Yesterday morning there was one, but I noticed around 10 or so last night (by flashlight beam) that these four had opened, sending their scent out across the night air, teasing night time bugs and moths to come taste...which in turn brings the bats out to swoop around.

Ah, nature.

In the interests of full disclosure, not all of the photos to follow were taken today, but rather, they represent a melange of garden activity during the last thirty-six hours. Like you care.

I don't know about you, but I can't look at these portulaca flowers enough. Each day there's a new array of assorted colors. I'm so glad I didn't end up with the pack of all one kind of flower that was originally in my hand at the nursery. I'd much rather have all these colors in a random collection.

I'm also sort of tickled to point out a small hedge of about four cleome seedlings in the background, still fairly small, which were born of a second seeding with the remainder of the packet somewhere around mid-June.

While the first flush have yet to actually bloom yet, it's nice to know this second wave will be coming along to bloom much later in the season, possibly as the early guys begin to fade. I've always enjoyed this plant, but haven't had the conditions to grow it well for a few years. It's nice to have it around again.

On the Produce of the Future scene, the Three Sisters experiment is going quite nicely. Here's one of the best hills, featuring a good balance of corn, beans and squash all growing together. You may also note that I should spend some time this weekend doing some weeding around these guys.

You may recall I was eight days late after the Full Corn Moon planting my corn seeds this spring...so it shouldn't be any surprise that it was five or six days after the Fourth when my corn plants began to reach that knee-high benchmark you're supposed to have hit according to the old saw about corn growth, Knee-High by the Fourth of July.

Also, while the title seems a shade dubious, the "Early Girl" tomato is making some promises for a first harvest of fruit sometime fairly soon...but not really early by most measurements.

Now, I try to be good about admitting mistakes, and I am reasonably assured that this lovely red rose which I've been touting as the return of the often-dead Mister Lincoln tea rose, is not at all that plant.

You see, in Spring of 2007, I bought two rose bushes rather inexpensively at the Ocean State Job Lot. One of them died over the summer, but the other did pretty well, though never bloomed to cement it in memory.

This is that second plant, which I think may have been called Proud Nation, or Proud Land, or something like that, and if I recall(or stumble across the label, which I did tuck into some book or other for safe-keeping. Hopefully it was actually a garden related book.), it's actually supposed to grow into a serious bush of such blooms. This would be wonderful, as right now it is rather small.

Now, not only did I recently recall that purchase and the survival of the rose, but also Wednesday, this other, smaller red tea rose began to bloom down at the other end of the fence garden, and I realized that this, indeed, was the real Mister Lincoln standing up.

But sadly, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

I found this lovely purple hydrangea blooming under a tangled clutch of bindweed this evening, which I tore out by the handfuls to reveal this lovely flowerhead. This plant is badly crowded by an azalea and a juniper bush and needs to be transplanted to a location where it can thrive a little better.

Also, it's past time to address the bindweed, which is a little seductive with its pink flowers, but will wrap itself around me and my coffee cup, if I sit for too long in one place. It weaves through all the foundation plantings around the house and will probably completely cover the house one day if left unchecked.

Check out this massive spidery-looking sunflower head. This plant is now just a little taller than my five foot and eleven inch height. I just love the crazy way it looks. This is definitely one of the Russian Gray "giants" who love to get so very tall. Can't wait to see how high we can go with these!

Along the inside of the fence, another shade of African marigold has begun to bloom. These guys (there are also some in a canary yellow color in the cleome bud photo earlier this week) will eventually get to be about three feet tall themselves.

I like this color. It's not that pale bright yellow, but it's not the neon orange. It's a nice golden cross between the two...and a real bridge between all the other shades of marigolds in the garden.

Here's one of the gardens down around the bend here on Wisteria Lane. It sort of amuses me, as I think from a distance that this is a statue of Saint Francis, who welcomed all the animals of the world to him. And the garden in his honor, properly fenced to keep the animals out.

I wonder if this bunny was thinking something similar.

I think I'll post this picture over at BugGuide.net, to see if it's clear enough for anyone to identify the species of pollinator seen here. I don't think there are bees with green heads. It would be a real lesson for me to accept the evil Greenhead Flies (of the painful bite) as beneficial to the garden in the absence of more bees.

[EDIT, 7/12/08: First response to my posting at BugGuide suggests this is a halictid bee...which I'd never heard of before. They are also called sweat bees, which I have heard of previously. Other photos I've now seen indicate their entire bodies are green, sometimes. Join me, won't you, in a brief education on the subject (and some much better photos) here.]

I did see a nice group of honeybees flitting about the roses outside the bank in Eastham the other day and that was a bit of a relief for me. I've still not seen a single honeybee in Harwich. Have you seen this? (Thanks, Curt!)

8 comments:

lostlandscape said...

The animal-proofed St. Francis is a hoot!

My Early Girls (Tardy Girls?) are finally turning color--Looks like your's aren't too far behind. Time to dust off the tomato recipes!

crpitt said...

I have not read Wind in the Willows for years, but the latest counselling book I bought is called Counselling for toads. It uses the wind in willow characters as a way to explain counselling to children and young adults. In the book 'Toad' is depressed and his friends are worried about him :)

Its still raining here, so I will have to make do with looking at your lovely flowers.

I posted my first bug shot on a flower picture, its the first creature that stayed still long enough for me to take a picture :)

I will see if I can identify that bee for you :)

Greg said...

Lost, between the "Early" Girls and the coming cleome, it's a pretty exciting weekend here at the MG.

For the first tomato recipe, I've got my mind sort of set on a nice thick sliced tomato sandwich, with a little mayo and some salt and pepper!

Claire, I think I've heard of that counseling book. That Toad is a character, for sure, but how lucky he's got such good friends--I laughed my way through Badger, Ratty and Mole's intervention about Toad's motor-car obsession. Of course, it was all for naught, by they tried!

Lacey said...

Wow...you have fruit already on your tomatoes. I have lots of greenery, but only flowers, so far. Maybe I got them in too late. And the deer seem to keep taking the tops off them. Wonderful pics, all. Love the hydrangea.

Greg said...

Hi Lacey! It's hard to get tomato plants in too early in New York state, if I recall...I'm sure you'll have fruit a little later in the season.

Meanwhile, to keep the deer at bay, try tearing strips of tin foil and wrapping them around the highest parts of your stems. Sometimes the crinkly noise keeps them at bay, or the way the sun flashes on it may deter them...other times the taste will do the trick.

Of course, those deer who aren't snobs about take-out may find ways to eat around the foil, but its worth a shot!

Joe Jubinville said...

The evening primrose is lovely. It seems to be rather different, at least in its growing habit, from its jewel-like primula cousin - one of the few flower species whose colors span the rainbow.

Your corn and tomatoes look promising. Only one thing better that a plant that smells nice is one that tastes good!

I wonder if St. Francis would enjoy the irony. He uttered one of the great lines of all time: "Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words."

Greg said...

Hey Joe! 'Tis a very different plant than it's multi-hued cousins, who prefer shade, moist, if possible. These guys love the full-on sun and will thrive with only rainfall, tho they are that much more loverly with the regular waterings my perennial border enjoys.

Ha ha...I always knew I liked St. Francis!

Anonymous said...

You have a lot of very nice flower photos and a couple of others that are nice. I have all sorts of pollinators and for a long time this summer was worried that the honey bees were gone. But the lavender came on as did the bee balm and then the cone flowers and now there are bees everywhere. Thank god for that.

Everything is lush here in Ohio this year. Last year we suffered all summer in a drought. This year is just the opposite in every detail.

My new hydrangea, "Pinky Winky" blooming white, as it should and then those will change to red or pink this fall. It is a first for me. I never buy first of a kind plants and did this time and spent way to much money on it. But there is a time and place for everything.

I came to thank you for your visits to my blogs and for your comments there. Thank you.

Abraham Lincoln
Brookville, Ohio