Actual Gardening
At ten this morning I decided I wouldn't go hiking. Since it was supposed to rain for a few days straight, I figured I'd get some plants in the ground. Especially since yesterday I spent some money on some very nice plants, and didn't want to chance killing them through laziness.
I'm a sucker for nectar plants, as I'm always trying to get butterfly pics, and it is infinitely easier if they show up in the backyard. To this end I have 3 types of milkweed, 4 types of bee balm, numerous kinds of mint, some phlox, 5 or 6 kinds of yarrow, a bunch of coneflowers, and 2 kinds of rudbeckia. I'm lacking host plants other than the milkweed, but I'm working on that. I bought a shorter kind of bee balm, a rudbeckia, and another swamp milkweed (which I totally recommend, as mine has been blooming nonstop since June.) The swamp milkweed actually came with a monarch Caterpillar... to add to this I saw a monarch fluttering about today laying eggs on my other milkweed. Hopefully, I'll be seeing some more soon enough.
I also had my first experience with spray paint, which I'll likely never repeat. It is the stinkiest, and least efficient way to paint, unless you happen to be painting wicker like I was. With three coats, it still does not look done, but the chairs will at least be staying serviceable for another year or two, so I guess it was worth the irritation.
I finished around 7:30. Though technically there were two shopping trips in there when I ran out of paint, and thought I should see what other plants could be found in a bargain area. I bought three Strawberry Seduction Yarrow plants for $1 each. And yes, their first bloom of the year was floppy, black, and dying, but all three were growing back from the roots quite happily. Judging from several I bought last year at the bargain price, they'll bounce back just fine. I also remember eyeing them when they first came in a $6 bucks each. Patience gets the plant, provided it isn't one you must have in which case that's what credit cards were made for.
Now if only I could keep a butterfly bush alive through the winter I'd be buying the bargain ones of those too...
I also had my first experience with spray paint, which I'll likely never repeat. It is the stinkiest, and least efficient way to paint, unless you happen to be painting wicker like I was. With three coats, it still does not look done, but the chairs will at least be staying serviceable for another year or two, so I guess it was worth the irritation.
I finished around 7:30. Though technically there were two shopping trips in there when I ran out of paint, and thought I should see what other plants could be found in a bargain area. I bought three Strawberry Seduction Yarrow plants for $1 each. And yes, their first bloom of the year was floppy, black, and dying, but all three were growing back from the roots quite happily. Judging from several I bought last year at the bargain price, they'll bounce back just fine. I also remember eyeing them when they first came in a $6 bucks each. Patience gets the plant, provided it isn't one you must have in which case that's what credit cards were made for.
Now if only I could keep a butterfly bush alive through the winter I'd be buying the bargain ones of those too...
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