Apropos of Nothing v.16

Julie, do your phlox have blooms on them yet? I'm anxious to see the ones you gave me in bloom! I have them planted out in several areas. I'm so hoping at least one group takes off and comes back next year.

I've been getting lots done in the garden, altho it really doesn't look it. But every tiny bit helps.

Remember that alpine nursery we went to last year at the roundup? I bought 3 little grasses and they have bloomed the sweetest tiny blue blooms. IThey're not blue-eyed grass. The grass blades are very fine and the blooms are super teeny.) I don't remember what they were and the tags seem to have gotten lost. I can't take photos - camera is broken. But I'm thrilled to see them blooming. They are teeny tiny. I have them in pots - I think they would get lost in my garden in its present condition.

We had crab from the store the other day. Dh said freshly caught crab tastes much different. Hopefully I'll get to try that some day!

We had a great 4th. We go down to a friend's on brighton beach and get a 180 degree view of fabulous fireworks. People spend literally thousands on them - it's amazing. We can see all up and down the beach we're on, and people setting off fireworks from hat island, camano island, and everett. We can also see fireworks coming up from behind the possesion point peninsula and from Langley. It's truly spectacular and soooo much fun. Ex my neck gets really tired from swiveling so much and I missed the grand finale of the everett fireworks while I was watching some closer by on the beach.

Julie- I'm taking my truck to get looked at this week- will get back to you when I find out if we can afford to fix it right away or not. I hope we can- I need to pick up a load of soil, and I'm afraid to with it making the clunking noises. Eek.

As for the kitty- she was scared of the two tiny foofoo dogs that live next door, so she probably wouldn't do any better with big dogs. I haven't seen her in two days- the fireworks started Saturday morning here, and she disappeared. I was hoping she'd show back up this morning now that things are quiet, but there's no sign of her yet. I hope she's okay.

Oh- and you could never bore me to death with DL photos! :)

Gwen- my 'David' phlox is in bloom now- I *think* it was one that Julie shared... I got so much stuff at the RU last year I can't keep it all straight as to what came from who. ;)

Is your David white? I got phlox from both last year and this year. Nothing blooming yet, but we're always behind. I don't even have buds tho. I don't know if any of the phlox from last year came back. I'll have to wait and see if it blooms to find out.

One of our cars is broke too. :( It's been making some thunking noises and yesterday when we went to leave in it, it really started thunking loudly and then making a sort of singing or whining noise too. It was very scary. In all my years of car problems, I've never heard anything like either of these noises. It sounds like expensive noises. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I'm going to have it towed in. Too scary to even drive. The shop is about 2-3 miles from our house.

Two of my outdoor holding spots for plants that need to go into the ground are almost 100% empty. Of course, there's lots more but seeing those shelves almost empty is really encouraging!

Has anyone seen a northern bob white around here? We have one hanging around, which is pretty cool. Took awhile to figure out what it is, and this is clearly not its normal range - more of an eastern bird. With 4-5 dogs (labs & boxers) also hanging out, no one got a photo.

Yep- David is the white one. My pink (or maybe it's blue, I can't remember) is much smaller and shows no signs of blooming yet. I'll attach a pic I took yesterday of David blooming next to my Vermeer lilies. I only had one little start, so I'm very pleased with what a nice plant I got out of it. I'm going to let him self-seed and hope he spreads well. :)

I just stopped by a shop to have my truck looked at- they took it for a test drive and said they couldn't hear anything abnormal. Huh. Okay. I do need new brakes, though, which I already knew. I'm going to get that done in the next couple of days, then I guess I'm good to go.

Purty!

Those lilies are gorgeous along with the Phlox!!! All my lilies are oddly misshapen this year, not sure why, so I will enjoy your lovely picture of them instead.

Thanks, Holly. :) Some of my daylily blooms have been badly warped- I think it's the overly wet weather. I'm really surprised my Asiatic lilies have all bloomed so nicely. Too bad I lost so many to the raccoons, or I really would have had an impressive show this year. Oh well- it's an excuse to order lots of new ones in the fall, right? ;)

Oh, Pony! I hope your dayliles have not been attacked by those awful awful flies that inject their eggs into the buds and then the larvae eat the buds up from the inside! Open one of the misshapen buds and check for the little white worms inside.....
Fingers crossed here.
I read somewhere that those little flies prefer yellow daylilies such as Stella...
I, (sob), have been infected by them.......

Julie, thanks for the good thoughts about a break in the weather. However, that's not going to happen til , who-knows-when. We had two of our sons' families here on Sat. and broke out a slipnslide. The guys did it too, to get dool. Then on Sunday afternoon, DH filled the canoe with water for a makeshift pool. Then yesterday, we used it to water the gardens. We have a bunch of 5gal paint buckets scattered around the yard that DH drilled a tiny hole in the bottom for the water to drip out.

Eek! ladyfiresign, I haven't seen any worms or bugs in them, although a couple have shown damage that could have been slugs or something. I'll watch them closely and see if I spot anything, though. Would neem take care of those flies if that's what it is?

I misss all the excitement around here. I was out grocery shopping Sunday and look what I missed. Good thing my daughter and Feisty were visiting.

I love Hydrangea!

What a neat photo, with the balloon!

Are those double or single-flowered hollyhocks you have growing there?

I do not know what that one will be. Will keep ya posted when it blooms. They show up in the most unusual places.

That photo of the kitty and balloon is so awesome. :D

I am taking a break from wedding preparation stuff to read a few threads before the rest of my family descends upon my home. The invasion will start this evening, and then it will be non-stop until Sunday afternoon. It's all fun stuff, but tiring! My daughter the bride & I went to Nordstrom's to find the necessary accoutrements that one wears under a wedding gown. At one point this poor girl, who does not enjoy shopping, was cloaked in some sort of retention device that is supposed to remove all signs of humanness so that the gown appears to be floating on a stick. She could hardly move. We were laughing so hard that we couldn't get her out of the contraption. We finally found a pretty little slip with lace trim, and the bonus is that she doesn't have to wear a bra. We had to have a cocktail to recover.

Quite right too. Cocktails are always good for elongating a fit of the giggles as well as the neck, shoulder, and arm. Soooooooo elegant. Lovely image of the two of you.

Have a grand time, Judi, and I look forward to some photos!

Pony, Your lilies and phlox make a stunning combo. Very nice. Glad your truck got a clean bill of health... it will make you much more comfortable to know that you will be able to get around safely with Tracy being gone.

Gwen, My phlox aren't even thinking about blooming yet... not even the ones in full sun. I hope yours do well for you, and will be looking forward to pictures when they bloom! I hope your car issue isn't a bad one either... it really sucks to be without transport, not to mention the dent to the pocket book.

Ladyfiresign, I think it is gall midge that you are talking about on the DL's..... your poor babies. Super ICK! It has supposedly never been in our area before, but there were people finding it up north (Snohomish if I remember correctly) for the first time last year. I am crossing my fingers that it doesn't make it to our gardens.

Bea, that picture of Feisty and the balloon is just too much! Definitely one for the photo contest this year! He sure is a plant muncher, isn't he? No wonder you kept your rose boquet outside!

Judi, it sounds like you and your daughter are already making fun memories from her wedding. Again, I wish you both a wonderful ceremony that is as stress free as possible!

There was a little brown bunny in the courtyard this morning. The dogs went nuts. Lucky for the bunny he got out the gate. I have never seen one in the yard up til now. Cute.

Let's wait til the cute bunny starts eating all your plants, Willow. Then we'll see how cute you think he is! You'll be begging the dog to go out and dispense with it!

I've never seen any damage from rabbits here. But if I can put up with the deer, can rabbits be worse?

Yes because what the deer don't eat, the rabbits will!

sorry got that wrong

This message was edited Jul 6, 2010 7:27 PM

Willow... ditto what Gwen said about the bunny....

Bonehead, I had forgotten to mention your bob white in my last response. How cool is that? It is really frustrating to try to ID a bird that "isn't supposed to be in your area", but pretty special when you know it is a positive ID. ^_^

I enjoy my front-yard bunnies, too, Patricia. They don't seem to eat everything and I don't have anything out there that is too special for them. Sadly, by the end of the summer they're usually gone . . .

Katie, bring cages! I can take care of your lack of bunny issue!!! ;)

I do think they're cute. I was wondering about putting in a little garden just for them. I was going to put a square raised bed on the front lawn. that's the lawn they cross to get to my flower beds, so I think they nest on the opposite side. I was hoping they'd stop off there and fill their little tummies, and then turn around and go back for a nap without coming over into my flower beds. Do you think that would satisfy them or would I just be putting out the buffet call to every bunny in the area?

I think you'd just be ringing the dinner bell for every bunny in the general area, Gwen! And if you don't want wabbit on the BGE, I would wonder why you'd do that!

Thanks, Gwen. I like your image of the bunnies snacking and then heading the other way. But I guess they're like humans, once they've moved in they just take over . . .

We had tons of bunnies at our old house, and they never ate a single one of my plants. Maybe it was because we had so many dandilions in the yard for them to eat- and I used to keep a pile of birdseed out in the yard for them- they loved it. It got to where I could walk right up to them to replenish their seed pile and they wouldn't run away. I miss them, they were so cute.

We have quite a few dandelions! I didn't realize they ate seed. I don't put seed out because when we first moved here, I hung up the bird feeder and within 24 hours had rats on the porch. So it came down immediately. Now with the cat, I think he keeps the rodents away but am unsure about whether he'd go after the birds at the feeder. Seems sort of cruel.

We had rats until I spent the entire summer clearing the blackberries off the property, then we didn't see them anymore, thank goodness. Actually, there's a story there... (uh oh... LOL)

Our landlord was such a miser he wouldn't hire anyone to clean his property up, and I couldn't stand it anymore. (it was like that when we moved in- the agent said they would do something about it. pffft.) The back yard and side yard were solid blackberries and holly- there were vines 30 feet long tangled up into the treetops. It was insane. It took me the whole summer working long days to clear it all, but I did it. I still shudder when I see blackberry bushes, remembering how shredded my poor arms and legs got.

I was blogging on Live Journal at the time- people were totally blown away by my photos of the progress I was making. I think there were times that that's what kept me motivated to keep going- 'cause I felt like a rock star. LOL! ;)

Julie. I think you may be right about that being gall midge. Awful, awful things! I have been trying to break the cycle by pulling off any buds that I even THINK may be infected and putting them in alcohol. I keep hoping I can get on it by making it impossible for thousands of little maggots to fall to the ground and then grow up to become more thousands of flies with daylily sucking maggots! ( But I have been told that my only recourse may be to get rid of the Stella's and plant with something more resistant....sigh....) I guess part of me just does not believe that if they eat Stella's they won't just move on to the next tasty looking DL. So Pony...I don't know if Neem works or not. I have not actually tried it! (Hides head in shame)

Hm.. the two DLs I've had show damage are red and orange. My Stellas have been flawless. I've got two buds on Tuscawilla Tigress right now that are looking warped- I'll keep a real close eye on them.

LOL on the bunnies. DH just put up some short chicken wire yesterday(after the fact that, some -read - most of my beans are eaten to the nub)

Judi, have a wonderful wedding week! Anxiously looking forward to pics.

Aw dang... bummer about the beans. :( All I grew was flowers, I guess they aren't as tempting as fresh veggies.

This little guy is my new buddy. His name is KP and he belongs to my neighbors. He is about sixteen wks and is a Bichon/Shi-tzu mix. He loves to play in the flowers. Chomped off the trilliums and smashed a strawberry plant, looking for berries. He's a bundle.

This message was edited Jul 7, 2010 8:58 AM

KP-with chicken-in the strawberry plant.

Oh Willow, he is would be a perfect playmate for Henry, my Bishon. Oh my, 2 bundles of energy running through the gardens.