Hummingbird Magnet

I thought I had pulled all of these out last year, but they are back and taller than ever. The hummingbirds love them and we spotted them at least a dozen times today. Beautiful, and yet very tricky to catch a hummingbird on film.

Did I mention my camera broke? Yep, the little beep beep, "I'm in focus" noise no longer works. Wish me luck taking clear photos!

What's Blooming

These were taken on Thursday of last week right before I left for the weekend - more on that soon. Do you notice how I only take close-ups of my flowers? I'm assuming you've figured out I do that so you can't see all of the weeds - at least I'm honest about giving you all the false impression that I have some beautifully landscaped yard!


Look at this attractive specimen. We have a lot of these .


It has been a very dry month and our yard is rather scorched. We just turned on the sprinklers yesterday and remembered the little problem we were having last season. Our yard has 12 zones and zone 12 likes to stay on the whole time the rest of the yard is being watered. Then, if I shut off the sprinklers, zone 12 still stays on. It may shut off for a few hours but it will randomly turn on all throughout the day and night. I literally have to shut off the water valve to get zone 12 to behave. Anyone know anything about apparently possessed sprinkler zones?

What's Blooming

Here's a little game for you. Try and count how many weeds you can see in this post. Then, if you are so inclined, stop by and help me pull them and I'll give you a cupcake.


Our little apple tree that one cannot see unless you march around the enormous pine tree (which still has a hula hoop stuck in it).

This is my favorite color tulip in the yard.

The rhubarb plant I just plopped in the ground on the side of the house several years ago. It has grown and grown and now I have enough rhubarb for an army. Good thing I'm making rhubarb bundt cake today. If you want some rhubarb, come and get it - and maybe pull some of those pesky weeds.


And the stinking voles are still at it.

The Voles Left Me Some Tulips

Actually, the voles do not seem to like the tulips - they prefer to munch on my now non-existent lilies. The rabbits have a thing for the tulips. So thank-you, little pesky rabbits, for leaving me some tulips to enjoy.

In Memory of My Garden

Remember the nasty voles that moved from my neighbors yard into mine? Well, turns out they are still wrecking havoc in my neighbors yard and they have destroyed one of my garden beds. I finally managed to get outside to do some weeding (like 1/100th of what needs to be done) the other day and as I was pulling out the dead vegetation, I found this:


Those used to be lilies - lots and lots of lilies. These bulbs below used to be tulips and other stuff I can't really remember.


They have even eaten the bark off the flowering bushes! I want them all dead. Not deterred, scared away or moving into someone else's yard. I. want. them. dead.

I have some to terms with the rabbits. They nibble a good 50% of my bulbs as they come up, and I just plant more. The difference between the rabbits is this: the tulip the rabbit nibbles, could catch a break and come up next year. The tulip the vole gets to is gone - it eats the whole bulb.

So how do I accomplish my mission to kill the vile vole rodents? We already have rodent traps under the bay window in the front of the house and under the deck in the back. They are the kind where the little vermin go in, eat some poison, then go die somewhere else. We actually found a dead vole in the backyard on Thursday morning, but I was too busy cleaning up vomit on my carpet to properly celebrate.

The two poison stations are not cutting it so do any of you have any suggestions. And no, we cannot get a cat. I am very allergic.

Signs of Spring

Spring is slowly coming to the frozen north. This time of year is actually frightfully ugly as the dingy grey snow melts uncovering all of the garbage collected there during the winter and showcasing the brown grass of all of our yards.

I took the camera out to the front lawn to search for signs of spring and look what I found.

Life!
So, I have a confession to make. I love my flower beds, but by the end of last summer I had much bigger worries in my life than whether or not my garden beds were ever weeded. So, I never actually got the beds ready for winter. Instead of mulching them, I decided the sheer volume of weeds would provide a natural cover for the flowers over winter. It's almost bad enough for me to wish for another blizzard to cover them all up so I do not have to contemplate how many hours of weeding I have ahead of me!

The rabbits are out in force. Notice in the photo how they did not nibble on the surrounding weeds and grass, but instead chewed on only the new flower shoots. Anyone have a good rabbit replant that's not a firearm?


And these would be the tracks left by very destructive little voles. Last spring when the snow melted our neighbors lawn was covered in these trails. They must have put something on their lawn because clearly the voles have moved to ours.


Ah, spring.

What the he** is that?!

When I stepped outside today several of these enormous flying bugs were circling the flowers by front door. Sophie decided she needed to catch one though I though we should all just run away! These things are the biggest bugs I have seen outside of Brazil! Evidently they sting too as Sophie quickly found out! Can anyone identify what these are???!! I'm not sure the photos do them justice. The largest ones are about 3 inches or more!! They are like bugs out of a bad horror flick!

What's Blooming

Our mid-summer blooms.

What's Blooming

The summer flowers are now in bloom and are beautiful! I never managed to move the ones that needed to be transplanted so that remains on the to-do list. I also need to mulch, dig up two clematis that did not make it, weed every garden beds and continue to try and revitalize the dying grass. Man, the to-do list never ends!