One of the many benefits of getting away from home for six days? The changes in the garden jump out! It's as though the plants have exploded in volume and color. Upon our return, even #1 Son commented on its beauty and the multitude of butterflies. I am thrilled to give you a peek into my oasis!
My fellow gardeners will not be the least bit surprised to read that the bee balm is the most significant butterfly magnet in my garden.
Of course, some species seem to prefer other plants, such as the coreopsis (upper left) or yellow penstemon (bottom).
Today, I was surprised to find a host of tiny grasshoppers hanging out on the prairie coneflower. They weren't the least bit fazed when I leaned in for the close-up.
Speaking of critters, my commitment to let nature run its course with my native plants is a strategy that seems to be paying off. The caterpillars that nibbled on the goldenrod do not seem to have had a lasting impact; if anything, the munching caused the plant to branch out and produce even more flower heads. The aphid infestation on the asters has not destroyed any part of the plant. And I wonder if, by allowing the aphids to linger on the asters and other plants, it kept them from flocking to the non-natives such as the burning bushes; the last two summers, those bushes had tell-tale leaf curl from aphids -- but not this summer.
In general, I am delighted that the garden has started to "fill in". As faithful readers will recall, we started with minimal plantings three summers ago. Through natural seeding, as well as my own strategic sowing of seeds collected from the garden, several beds have begun to take on the full, higgledy-piggledy prairie look that is my goal.
The "big picture" views excite me, and close-ups are also a source of joy.
The fence baskets and deck pots are also coming along nicely.
The rock garden near the front of the driveway is still a work in progress, and that makes sense given it has only been in place two years.
I may regret planting this lamium, a perennial from last year's baskets; they are not native and can quickly take over a bed. But for now, they provide color and interest while the rest of the plants get up and running. Just another part of my garden journey!
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
I am feeling a little under the weather. Maybe it's a side effect from the second part of the shingles vaccine that I took yesterday. Or perhaps it's a type of seasonal affective disorder, brought on by the ongoing smoky environment and the shortening days. As I thought about writing a blog post this week, it took some effort to screw up the energy to do it. I decided I would take an easy route, and stroll the back forty for some inspiration. Do you suppose it is just a coincidence that most of the pictures are plants that have gone to seed? Gone to seed: showing signs of advanced wear and tear and neglect. (Merriam Webster)
Despite ongoing spraying, thistles are abundant in our lower prairie. A plant can produce up to 6,000 seeds that can persist in the soil for over 9 years. As the saying goes, it's a marathon, not a sprint. I have taken to cutting off the heads to at least halt the seed production.
The Labor Day wind storm brought down a couple of our aged aspen trees, with collateral damage on the younger aspens nearby. A close look at the stump shows that it was becoming hollow; sawdust would suggest that termites were hard at work. In the end, it was no contest for the 40+ mile an hour winds that day. I used to put my trail cam near here, since the deer have worn a path through this grove of aspens. They will have to adjust their route! For now, they have been continuing to frequent the area to eat the aspen leaves that are suddenly within reach.
Shorter days and lower night-time temperatures are wielding Nature's paintbrush, revealing yellows, oranges and reds that have been hidden by abundant chlorophyll.
Not everything in my world of Nature is rolling up the carpets for the winter. I can't tell you how many of these ant hills we have around our property, but I can tell you that they are still very active, as you can see in the video below. I could spend hours watching this activity and trying to make some sense of it. How tall does the hill need to be for it to be done? Are any of the sticks food? If not, who is focusing on the food part of the equation? I have written before about the beaver family that occupies the lake at the bottom of our property. When the beavers moved in, they applied their superior engineering skills and very effectively dammed the creek and raised the water level. While this is a boon for the wetland ecosystem around the lake, it had the undesirable consequence of dramatically reducing water flow to several of our neighbors, some of whom rely on the water for their cattle. The battle of the brains began, man versus rodent. How to restore some water flow without impacting the beaver, and in a way that the beavers would ignore? Initially, every solution the team created was thwarted by the beaver; ditches were filled in overnight, pipes with holes were plugged with mud, strategically placed boards were removed and added to the dam. It was equal parts funny and frustrating. At this point, it seems the latest man-made engineering feat has worked, but only time will tell. On my last visit to the dam, I observed that the beaver has begun constructing a secondary dam, 15 feet below the original dam. It has not stopped the water flowing into the creek, but I am not sure the critters are done yet! Watch this space!
If you look hard enough, you can also find some plants with blooms.
I try to ignore for the moment that the daisies and knapweed are considered invasive here. If I get too focused on them, this walk would turn into a weed-pulling exercise rather than the diversion it is meant to be!
Update: it has been a couple of days since I started this post, and I am glad to report that, physically, I am back to myself. I do think it was the vaccine; no regrets about taking it, but it just reminds me that I do not make a good patient! Mentally, I am still working on my attitude. The forecasted rain for last night and today has not materialized; the skies are gray and the smoke lingers. Logically, I know I should count my blessings and find myself a rich woman. Thinking that music often helps bring me around, I went looking for "autumn" songs, and came across "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire. I hope this post finds you well, but if you need a little pick-me-up, maybe this will lift your spirits and send your toes tapping!
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I begin to pen this post about July 2020. How can it already be August 2? If you’re like me, August rouses memories of back-to-school shopping, and last-minute attempts to collect on all of summer’s unfulfilled promises.
A few days ago, I was weeding along the roadside, and a neighbor paused
to chat while walking her dog. She
listed the summer visitors she had been hosting, and then switched gears to
describe the fall activities for her kids.
“And then it will be Christmas,” she said. It might have been the heat and the dazzling
sun, but I almost passed out.
Christmas? Stop the bus, I want
to get off! It feels like summer has
just arrived, and it may disappear again with the blink of an eye. Even Whitefish Mountain Resort joined the
conspiracy by sending out an invitation for past employees to re-apply for
winter positions. Really? So, this post is my deliberate attempt to
drag my feet, to savor summer, to deny that fall is around the corner.
It has been a full month, when I pause to reflect. Three hikes plus one
over-night camping trip.Several doctor’s
appointments (all is well) and a lengthy visit to the dentist for a crown.Volunteering at the museum.Coffee chit-chats and kayaking with my Dear
Neighbor Friend.Ongoing job search
support with #1 Son.And of course, joyful
intervals in my beloved garden.Activity
seemingly makes the hands of the clock launch into overdrive. Occasionally, I long to simply lounge on the
deck, gazing out on the beauty right in front of me.When these feelings occur, I rationalize that
the season of “lounging” will come of its own accord, when I can no longer be
so active. And I jump back into the
fray!
Non-human animals have it much simpler, and maybe we (you know I mean me) would be wise to take some lessons from them.
First: take a nap in the heat of the day (not my strong suit)
Second: Eat well (A+ on this one thanks to Head Chef)
Third: Avoid predators (in my case, it's mosquitoes and ticks that threaten my health, and dare I mention the c-word?)
On July 21, I was working in the garden and the badger strolled within 5 feet of me. I was caught by surprise and didn't get him on video. But wouldn't you know he stuck around most of the afternoon, apparently hunting chipmunks, and for your viewing pleasure, I have two videos below. Don't worry, no death and carnage in either one. But if you watch the second one closely, you will see a chipmunk escape the foliage and run under the deck, literally under my feet and then the badger follows.
Fourth: Hang out with buddies (COVID has put a bit of a kibosh on this; I've relished my coffee/kayaking dates with Dear Neighbor Friend, and we invited a couple for dinner on two separate occasions.)
Our back forty is a popular location with the swallows given the lake and the multitudes of flying insects that congregate there. A dead aspen has become a gathering spot for the swallows, until something triggers them to all take off at once, as you can see in this video below.
Fifth: stay hydrated (I don't have any animal pix for this one. And I don't think alcohol and coffee count toward the 90 ounces of liquid I ought to be drinking ... maybe I should move on ....)
Sixth: look after your offspring (this is a joy, not a "task". We are so excited #1 Son is moving to Montana while he continues his job search, and #1 Daughter and her boyfriend are visiting in August. The family reunited!)
July is the month when
most plants in Montana progress rapidly from leaves to blooms to seeds. As many times as I have walked our property
and the surrounding land, I still make new discoveries. And I rejoice in seeing old favorites as
well.
My garden is also
flourishing; you can expect another post on that soon. For now, I am tickled “yellow” with the
success of the yellow penstemon since in previous summers it seemed weak and prone to insect infestations. Sometimes,
gardeners have plants that tend to crowd out others, and we have to actively
restrain them. I am not quite ready to
do that with the coreopsis (the yellow plants in the pictures below), but I can see the time is coming. Just look at how prolific they are and all
from three plantsat the time the landscaping was installed.
No summer is complete
without a “campfire” and S’Mores. As
faithful readers know, I always take the makings for S’Mores on our camping
trips, so this summer “promise” has been partly fulfilled. But you may be shocked to learn that we had
not yet used our firepit this summer!
That was rectified last weekend, and at the end of the night, Spousal
Unit said “We need to do this more often.”
In Montana, it’s never too hot in the evening for a fire – as soon as
the sun begins to dip, the temperatures drop dramatically and the stars blink
on. You are likely to spot several
satellites tracing their way across the sky.
Night sounds are distinct, and identifying them (or letting your
imagination run wild) is entertaining.
That evening, we saw a crane fly up from the lake and land at the
tippy-top of a pine tree some distance from our house. So special.
If you live in the
Northern Hemisphere, what remains on your wish list for the summer? I am dreaming about swimming, attending an
outdoor concert, and a picnic at the lake.
Oh, and definitely more ice cream!
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
Blue flax - from wildflower seed scattered last fall
I have so much to share with you, dear friends. The ongoing transformation of my garden. My burgeoning knowledge about the plants in
this region. The challenges of gardening in
the woods with critters of all kinds. My embryonic plans for next year’s
garden. Are you seated comfortably? Then let’s begin. In my previous garden posts (June 9 and July 21), I have featured
70% of my formal plantings.Today you
will see the remainder, again through collages illustrating their progression
since the snow melted! (Click on the collage to make it bigger.)
I always thought of Goldenrod as "common" - but it has
"grown" on me - LOL!
Bee Balm was in my June 9 post, but before blooming
Coreopsis - in the upper middle photo, the plants are
barely visible. They exploded into my most prolific plant,
all by self-seeding. I transplanted many of them just to
make the flower bed look a little more shapely (lower middle
shot is "after"). This is also the plant most plagued by deer.
Aster - far right plant was drastically nibbled by deer
earlier this summer - silver lining? Abundant flowers
on the ends of multiple stems
Prairie coneflower - I love this plant. Began blooming in
mid-July and is still full of color. Knock on wood, deer
don't bother it.
Goodland apple - I wrote about the apple trees in my
June 9 post - at that time, they were still in flower. The
Goodland has 12 apples. We beefed up the protection on
this tree after the 1 small apple on the Honeycrisp
disappeared. Suspect? Chipmunks.
Scarlet Gilia - given its delicate nature last summer, I was surprised it returned at all.
I have since learned by observation that it does not grow back from its base, but only
by self-seeding - we must have over 140 "volunteers". I have also learned from visiting
the nursery that it will not flower this year but next.
Russian Sage - another love. As you can see, it grows back from its base and becomes
this sprawling web of purple. And the deer don't bother it.
Black-eyed Susan: another plant that returns only via self-seeding. It takes a keen eye to spot
these "volunteers", and some patience to see how they develop before deciding to keep or
to pluck. Shortly after the last picture, deer came along and ate this bloom and several of
the buds closest to opening. Grrrr ….
Speaking of deer – perhaps it is obvious that our “deer defense”
system has ceased to be effective.I
guess those clinking beer/cat food cans are now music to their ears!Few plants have been immune to their
affections, but the coreopsis below the mudroom has been nibbled almost every
night for the last month.Good thing I
have a lot of it – I have deliberately left some sections uncovered in the
hopes that the deer will focus on those. Friday we installed an “Animal Repeller” – when it senses an animal,
it emits a high-pitched noise, and if at night, flashes a strobe light as
well. So far? Mixed results since I do have deer tracks this morning. Might need to move it slightly. This has also taught us that we need to change up the defense
system. Cans for a period, then sparkly
ribbons, then the repeller, and so on.
Black aphids also returned to the pearly everlasting and the
yellow penstemon in mid-August.The good
news?The Columbian ground squirrels
have gone into hibernation!!!At least
one less threat to deal with! As
you can see from some of these pictures, the “formal” landscaping is quickly
outgrowing its defined boundaries. I am
torn between a desire for “order”, and the joy of nature doing its thing. Just given my personality, this will be an
ongoing tussle, but I am determined to encourage a natural garden, so “disorder”
is the preferred condition. This means
allowing many plants to grow until I can figure out what they are – the benefit
is less weeding (at first)! Each time I
realize I have a new volunteer, it’s like a instant shot of joy.
It
is much easier for me to accept “chaos” in our “prairie”, which you may recall
was planted with a grass seed/wildflower seed mix last fall. It’s the gift that keeps on giving – I can
almost always find something new out there.
Clockwise from upper left: Larkspur; Coreopsis variant; Lupine; Purple Coneflower; Blue Flax; Black-eyed Susan
I learned that Blue Flax flowers last less than 24 hours. I took the above picture in the morning and I was glad I did!
Yarrow
It seems each day brings new learning for me, and from a
variety of sources. Most of it is plain observation. For example, the aster plant that was
significantly pruned by deer produced the most flowers. And once a plant is flowering, the deer don’t
eat it. And I have been amazed (and
pleased) that most of our plants are as advertised – they thrive even in our
dry conditions. Of course, the Web is a
superb source of information, but sometimes you need a fellow human, and in
that case, the Center for Native Plants has been a god-send. While
the wildflowers have been easy to identify, the grasses have been much more
difficult.
I
called Hooper’s Garden Center (which provided the grass/wildflower mix), and
they gave me a list of grasses that was included in the mix. I studied each of them, even sketching
diagrams in my garden journal, and teaching myself about grass anatomy. Unfortunately, most of them did not seem to
match the grasses outside. I reached out
to a friend who works for the Forest Service, and he recommended two sources:
the book “Plants of the Rocky Mountains” and the Center for Native Plants in
Whitefish.
I
ordered the book and it was helpful to identify some of the grasses, but I
still had gaps. So, on one of my weekly
trips to Whitefish, I stopped in the Center and talked with Sarah about my
challenge. She referred me to the nursery
manager, Hailey. She suggested Hailey
might come out to our house (for a fee plus gas), but that she might also be
able to identify the grasses just from pictures. Sold!
That night I sent off a series of emails to Hailey, and within a few
days she had responded. Most
importantly, she was able to tell me that only one of the grasses is highly
invasive.
Lower middle is Cheatgrass - highly invasive. Fortunately, I only found two small patches of it - pulled it up
carefully - trying not to spread seeds - and threw it away. Only three of these matched the list given to me
by Hooper's. Go figure!
While I am enjoying the plants which are blooming in the
garden now, half of me has already turned my attention to next year’s
garden. At the end of July, seeds were
ready to be harvested from both columbine and blanket flower plants. Since then, I have also collected the
following seeds: aspen fleabane, lupine, chives, goldenrod, nodding onion, aster,
coreopsis, rocky mountain penstemon, red poppy, bee balm, coneflower and
yarrow. It gave me great joy yesterday
to give some seeds to a friend who recently moved into her new house.
At
least half of my seeds are to be planted in the fall, so I am creating to-scale
drawings of each of my flower beds, including all the volunteers. This will allow me to decide where to augment
the landscape, taking into account size, color and the time frame for
blooming. I would like to make sure that
every flower bed has something in bloom at all times.
Red Osier Dogwood
In early August, we transformed the area near our “address
rock”. Our neighbor on the hill had
previously given us nearly 20 rocks, and had carefully arranged them in a
semi-circle using his tractor. After
driving by it numerous times, I decided for a different look, and he willingly
came down the hill with the tractor and re-arranged them in real time. And gave us a scoop of dirt. And dug a hole for a dogwood we plan to place
there. What a pal! The barter system is alive and well in
Montana; he was happy to help us out in exchange for the water he has been able
to access from our well head throughout the summer!
We will be adding some top soil to the area, and then fall seeding
will begin using the design you see below.
The Red Osier Dogwood will go in the hole – it is meant to provide some
contrast with the pines, and to anchor that end of the flower bed. A few transplants, such as juniper, will
complete the fall planting and we will let Mother Nature do her work until it
is time for spring planting of the other seeds.
I am so excited to see how this develops.
Re-focusing on events closer on the time horizon, I wanted
to get a jump on the deer and/or the elk that might take a shine to the apple
trees and maples. (You may remember my post from September 29 last year, when
elk had seriously pruned one of my maples and also nibbled the apple
trees.) Not this year, my friends – we bought
taller caging material and put it around both maples and the apple trees.
Soon
we will harvest the apples to prevent them from attracting bears. And frost might nip away at my flower pots as
early as next week. But in the meantime,
I will relish all the beauty that they have to offer.
Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme
where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain
time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your
blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and
enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an
easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I
stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join
in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.
