like a weed

Right! So you all know my opinion on weeds -- ambivalent. Love 'em in a meadow like this one, where each season brings new surprises. I'm sure that Mother Nature does not consider any plant to be a pest or useless and She comes up with the most creative, eclectic combinations of all in her landscape designs! Not so sure how I feel about the weeds in my garden...

However, it's a sure thing that weeds will grow, just like kidlets.

Here, Granddaughter is outgrowing her bicycle. Isn't she the cutest thing ever??

mixed feelings

A very weedy thing which I'm ambivalent about. Several clumps about the place are putting on a show now, but having struggled to weed them out of a couple of flowerbeds, they don't have my wholehearted affection. They multiply by millions of seeds and creeping white roots, but it's the long, tough rhizome, somewhat like a parsnip, which snaps away easily and stays in the ground that makes the creeping bellflower, Campanula rapunculoides, so difficult to eradicate once it gets a toe hold in your lawns or flowerbeds. This is amongst many campanula which were introduced from Europe and Asia as garden flowers.

Another weedy thing, but I've got to admit the late afternoon sun makes even this thug, the tawny daylily, glowing gorgeous!

Hens-and-chickens living happily on an old stump near my back step.

These flowers are a little peculiar only because I hardly have taken notice of them before. They have, however, redeemed the flowering stalk of the hens-and-chickens which when it first made its appearance, seemed a tad rude! Maybe it's just because my perverted mind keeps going back to a funny photo posted by Melissa aka the Empress.

No idea what the name of this daylily is. This is a new one for me. It's tangled up in a clump of daylilies under a maple and the old hickory or butternut (I'm not sure which), that keeps dropping bits of itself all over the driveway. Most of those daylilies did not bloom last year. But there was one spectacular double orange that I'm watching with great anticipation for it to open up again this year. I think I decided last year that it is Hemerocallis fulva 'Kwanso' -- a coming attraction.

The hollyhocks are multiplying themselves into the raspberry patch and even the ones I dug up and transplanted closer to the house are doing well. The storm that roared through here on Thursday night knocked the raspberry canes right over, but the berries are ripening still and I think I'll have some for breakfast tomorrow. It's not a tidy picture, but if the hollyhocks and raspberries are happy together, who am I to complain?

veggies & herbs (& weeds)

santolina with potatoes in the background

Apothecary rose

bee balm, Monarda 'Cambridge Scarlet', white Asiatic lily, apothecary rose, lavender by back step under my clothes line

monarda 'Cambridge Scarlet': a candidate for the Red Hat Society!!

lovage in bloom

weeds, weeds and more weeds, broccoli and feverfew

leeks in flower, hollyhocks, fleabane, thistle, lavender, raspberry bushes and more fleabane

Guess what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow??

tomatoes, weeds, lavender, chervil, leeks, feverfew, brussel sprouts, ox-eye daisies

hmmnnn, what's visible: tomato, lavender, bronze fennel, (weeds), brussel sprouts, leeks, beans, feverfew, and way, way in the back, salad burnet and golden rod.

pests and troubles

This is the post where I show you the dirty underside of my garden! You just might want to skip this 'cause it can get pretty ugly, particularly if your tastes go to the neat and trim style of gardening!

I'm an inconsistent gardener at best. I can be obsessive about every microscopic seedling one day, then too exhausted to think about it for days on end. During those days, the weeds march inexorably on in their bid to take over the garden and the tender seedlings of my 'intendeds' start to shrivel up, suffering terribly of neglect! When I get back into the garden, I swoon with guilt for a second or two. Then I get inspired to abuse my little 'intendeds' even further by yanking them up after I've decided they look better somewhere else. They get plopped into their new home, drenched with water and...to my amazement, nearly every time, my garden continues to surprise me with the determination of even my tender and abused 'intendeds' to grow and bloom!

I think that is part of the blessing that a garden is for me. In observing the beauty that results inspite of my bumbling interference, I realize that life is irrepressible! Life will come up for more again and again, inspite of everything that seems to be against it. Life is exuberant and abundant and gorgeous.

Oh, this is terrible! Is this evidence of Japanese beetles munching on my Apothecary rose?? And look at that! Those @#$% tawny daylilies persist, even though I thought I dug them all out of this bed beside the greenhouse!

Can you see the pig weed masquerading as basil in the middle of the row?? How did I miss that in my weeding? The root on that sucker will be as large as a Japanese radish!!

The cilantro last year seeded itself far beyond the original bed it was in, right into the path. I've already enjoyed many a meal in which the bright, musky flavor of cilantro just sang! But even I can't get to all the cilantro and in this heat, it is quickly going to seed again, as you can see. This is fine, actually. Only hitch with this is that it is now largely in the middle of what I intended to be a path through the garden and if it self-seeds here, am I going to revise the direction of the path to go round it?? I've found that lifting the seedlings of cilantro to move them to a "better" location doesn't work as easily as it might with say something like dill or fennel.

Bronze fennel generously seeded itself about, and where it's not a complete nuisance, I've just let the seedlings grow on. The fuzzy bits of the unfurling leaves did give me a start on first glance, making me think I was looking at a furry caterpillar! Of course, you see I'm not keeping up with the weeding, lamb's quarters, purslane and green foxtail grass being far too generous with their seedlings, thank-you very much!

The first little signs of fruiting on the tomatoes. I'm pretty relaxed about "pests", but I'm keeping out a very careful watch for the tomato horn worm (shud-d-d-der!!!!).

It started with just the ripening berries going missing. Now, it's not just the berries but most of the stalks as well that are being bitten right off! I should put netting over this bed. It's worth doing even this late because this is an ever-bearing variety and I could reasonably expect more berries all summer long.

Netting might keep out the critter responsible for the destruction -- unless it's a bug-like critter. I was going to say "thieving" but I think that's highly inaccurate as the critters with whom I share this world don't have any idea that I think I own the strawberries.

I have noticed earwigs are rampant in every part of the garden.

And we still have had no rain.