ABBA-cadabra

 The last of my poppies are blooming.

For weeks, their crinkled, lettuce-like leaves have elongated and unfurled.  Really, the leaves are so pretty that the flowers are completely extraneous.  The buds are heavy and gorgeous, too.  

Then overnight, the frizzy flowers flame and then wilt quickly.  They frizz, and then frowse, in a day or two.  Poppies don't like the heat much.  But that red is gorgeous against the blue of the forget-me-nots!

The chartreuse of bupleurum is a nice backdrop.  It's a lovely plant, with its tiny yellow-cupped flowers on top...

...and its lily pad-like leaves at regular intervals along the stem.

They're putting on a good show, but as the heat continues and intensifies without even a hint of rain, I know that they won't be around for long.  Todd has continued to plow up land for me...

...and last week, I direct-seeded hundreds of celosia, cosmos, and zinnias.  Sometimes I was a bit heavy-handed with my seeding...

...but it will be easy to spread them around.  I also seeded hundreds of sunflowers, and the first few have unfurled already.  I'll have to be diligent, because I've seen the warning signs in the garden...

Deer.  As soon as the sunflowers are a few inches tall, I'll have to continually lay down Liquid Fence...and cross my fingers.

Despite the heat and the ticks, it's been nice to work outside, especially since we had a few days of unseasonably cool weather.  So many butterflies...

...and bees.

Random single poppies...

...and other interesting plant bunches, like this nigella, are easier to enjoy at ground level.

One of my favorite things about working in the garden early in the day is the gnat swarms.  They are positively poetic as they shape-shift a few feet above the ground, like bird swarms in miniature.

Gnats sleep in the meadow grasses until they're warmed by the sun.  Then they rise and congregate.  

They are a real pleasure to watch!

Claudia watches me work from some cool perch.

Inside, the kittens are growing and continuing to charm us with their antics.  They love being in the bathtub...

...and are quite a pair of scamps!  They fit right in with our random naps.

Calliope has found a new sleeping spot to avoid their bothersome attention.  It's...on top of my newly-cut fabric.

Oh, well!  We've enjoyed gorgeous cloud formations this week...

...and even managed a quick concert.  ABBA, of course, or the closest thing to them...a cover band.

All in all, June is shaping up nicely.

Have a great week!  

assassin (bug)'s creed

 While kittens are sleeping peacefully inside...

...we've been working like crazy to get garden things done ahead of this historic heat wave.  As of Friday, I had twenty-two containers of seedlings that needed to be planted.  With my tendonitis and our hard clay soil, I just can't efficiently get the digging done...so I had to have help!

We have a little electric tiller, and thanks to the recent rain, Todd was able to get quite a bit of ground ready for me.  I crawled behind, digging and planting as quickly as I could.  After the containers were planted, I started to direct-seed the summer stuff:  celosia, zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, etc.  I've never had much luck with direct seeding, but at this point, it was the only option.  If it works...it's going to be glorious!

I love the ground-level view of the garden.  A brown cricket watched me dig, bringing back childhood memories of hauling a wire cylinder full of crickets to the local fishing hole.

(spider warning!)

A parson spider fled before my trowel, dragging behind her egg sac.  It's hard to see here, but it's called a parson spider because the white strip on their abdomen resembles a priest's collar!

A shield bug supervised from a safe distance.

Of course, I love being eye level with the bupleurum and forget-me-nots...

...and oh, those poppies!

All self-seeded from last year.  Another surprise...I planted 'Ice Ballet' milkweed last year but no flowers...this year, it's finally blooming!

I love milkweed because it's a MAJOR insect attractor.  Bees, of course...

...but also grasshoppers (look how tiny...the size of one milkweed blossom!)...

...this battle-scarred soldier beetle...

...this swamp milkweed leaf beetle, hiding under a leaf...

...lots of milkweed bugs...

...and many others.  But let's face it...milkweed is a major Lover's Lane.

This last amorous pair?  Ambush bugs.  They crouch amid blossoms...

...and wait for prey.  I think they look like tiny mythical creatures!  Their bodies are jagged to help them blend into flowers better...assassin bug relatives, they pierce their prey and liquify the innards.  They have a pretty nasty bite for people, too, so best to give them a wide berth! 

I love seeking out unusual life in the garden and am so grateful to have the opportunity to draw them in.  I had almost given up hope of having a garden this year and have been absolutely astounded at what has come back on its own this year.

It's so easy to go out and grab flowers for bouquets, and especially gratifying, because I didn't plant any of this in 2022.  Cue the Hallelujah chorus!

Have a great week!

you've got to mole with it, baby

 Some of my ranuculus have gorgeous blooms.

They're a lovely little lot spot of color in the garden...

...and a favorite in bouquets, paired with silvery artemisia.

Unfortunately, they're being assaulted from all sides.  As soon I had finished laboriously weeding, digging, and depositing seedlings in the side garden, I started to see this:

Moles.  Moles, drawn by the disturbed earth, decimated the area, raising big tunnels beneath the prepared earth, eating the delicate plant roots.  I don't want to poison them, so I'm stuck.  And attacks from above:

Deer don't eat coneflowers.  This was done by RABBITS...and we've got a lot of them here.  As tempting as it is to just throw up my hands and forget the whole thing, I've decided to just seed the space with sunflowers.  I'll use Liquid Fence (and Claudia) to try to keep the rabbits away, just until the seedlings are tall enough to to evade their grasp.  

Thankfully, I have many flowers that deer and rabbits aren't interested in...

golden loosestrife

yarrow

clematis

roses

phlox

foxgloves

If I don't have as many flowers this year, at least I'm fairly certain to have a nice amount of insects.  Gnat swarms are starting to form as individuals look for mates.  They're a swirling tornado of dots from a distance...

...but if you look closer, you can see the little bodies that make up the clusters.

These crane flies have already found their partners!

Syrphid flies are everywhere.  They are bee mimics...

...but don't sting.  They are true flies.  Aren't they beautiful?

A tiny praying mantis, less than two inches long, hunts for a meal amid the feathery leaves of the yarrow...

...and both dragonflies and damselflies hover constantly as I'm working.

The kittens, too, are constantly watching and learning...

...when they aren't playing...

...or sleeping.

Growing up is definitely hard work.

Have a great week!