Hendersonville, NC

This is a learning together bear painted with handprints in Hendersonville. I missed the gardening bear, though. The views and spider are from Jump Off Rock. We didn't jump.

Required bug catching tools

My great-nieces taught me about catching bugs today.

KS/SC Mimosa Memories

It was a nice surprise today to arrive at my brother's house in South Carolina and find the mimosa blooming. It came from a seed of the tree at our family's house in Kansas. We had many years of summers around those KS trees.

Sunshine!

And rocking chairs at the Baltimore airport. DH is left in charge of the littlest tomatoes. (Matron-a black cherry tomato finally sprouted! Golden Jubilees are now in the garden.)

Petunia has returned!

She's living in these irises.   I hope she is eating a lot of slugs.

Evening Grosbeaks

A flock of evening grosbeaks have been in the area for a few weeks, on their way to somewhere.   These are taken through the window on a rainy day this week.   Yesterday and today, I haven't seem as many of them.   

They are a very cheerful and chatty group.  They remind me of the cedar waxwings who loudly announce their arrival for cascara berry season later in the year. 

Matron offered up slug training as a thesis topic in need of research.   While that is not in my sabbatical plan, squirrel training  is quickly moving up the list. 

Week's Weather Phone Post

The week's weather all on one view. This is a test post from my phone too.

Training Method Transfer

Hmmm... DH has picked up on my slug training methods. Now he is using them on me!

To train a slug, you simply change something enough to make their bad behavior less convenient or satisfying. For slugs who eat my seedlings, I surround the plant with ground coffee. So far, it has worked and the seedling has a chance to grow large enough to survive. I think the slugs will avoid the places with ground coffee (texture?) and stay in places without ground coffee. See these links to slug training post I and post II.

DH decided to clean out his desk drawers and bookshelf, but then went out of town before doing something with the treasures he found.   This makes it very inconvenient for me to use his desk!   Now, he will say it started with those fuses(?) I cleared out of the kitchen and left on his desk.  I agree his desk drawers are much cleaner now.

I will give him credit.  As an incentive for me to use this desk instead, he quickly set up a monitor and a key board before he left.  Usually, it is his desk looks like this.  We still have work to do on this alternative desk set-up, though.     I think I've been trained. 

"Border" Gardens

From our outing on Thursday, here is the northwest corner of Point Roberts, Washington, at Monument Park.  This is the start (or the end) of the "world's longest unguarded border," but it's not ungardened.   The house on the left is north of the border, in Canada.  I'm standing the US (I think). 

Along much of the US-Canada border, it is a ditch or a clearing that separates the two countries.  The fences on the left belong to Canadian houses.  The road on the right is in the US. 

To northern gardeners - a maintained ditch and a road mean a break in the trees.  A place for a garden on the south side of their fences!  

Most houses along the ditch made use of this southernmost edge of Canada.  We saw lots of gardens, some chairs, composters and a trampoline.  Some people without fences kept everything neat all the way to the road.    

I liked the garden houses (sheds) in some gardens along the ditch.  It reminded me of the train-side view of allotment gardens I've seen in the UK. 

There is supposed to be a geocache on the US side, but we felt odd parking on the road and wandering around in the hedgerow so close to the border.   Next:  The southeast corner of Point Roberts and tree tops.

Bean Structure Returns

 

The bean climbing structure is in place for one more year.  It blew over in a storm two years ago and I thought that finished it off.   We put it in place (without checking it too carefully) and expect it can make it one more year.    (It is made from two moveable fence panels the previous owners left here.) 

See photos in this link with the beans in place.  I've gone back to that placement, with it set in two beds and the pathway underneath.  Either way, it is difficult to reach the top of the structure, but it is just more fun with the pathway underneath.  See this link for it placed in one bed with the pathways on each side.  

The peas I started in the garage have sprouted.  They will go in the space between the bean structure and the chives (minus one chive clump).   This week I'll watch for a break in the rain to plant the peas and some assorted seeds.

The furthest row is full of lamb's ear (fuzzy), lemon balm and chamomile (bright green).  Hardly a weed can squeeze in so I'll leave it as is.  The flowers please the bees.  Borage is sprouting everywhere and I found two starts of anise hyssop by the bean structure.

No Petunia sightings yet.     She has lived in this lamb's ear bed in the past.  Now, it is so full she could have moved in and I wouldn't know it.