The Visit

This past Monday I had the pleasure of hosting garden writers Felder Rushing and Darrell Trout in my garden. While I have met Darrell a number of times in the past, I knew little about Felder so made sure I checked out his website before the visit.

Seeing that Felder was into garden "junque", I made sure my "junque" was in tip top shape. The golf bag that is always out on my front lawn quickly got a companion although I do think I need to dress her in something more appropriate than my old nightgown.

The garden was just past peak bloom but close enough that it made little difference. This is what one of the front borders looked like.

Quite a few daylilies were still strutting their stuff. My garden is mostly filled with spider daylilies or ones with unusual forms like this 'Murphy's Law'. I find that they compliment the garden as a whole while the round ruffled tetraploid daylilies seem too stiff and formal for my country style of gardening.

The Helenium 'Mardi Gras' was just beginning to bloom. I look forward to two months of glorious color from this fantastic perennial.

The Stokesia (Stokes asters) are also at their peak and multiple photos were taken of them. I missed out on this shot, the lighting wasn't right.

Still, the tour was glorious. At the end we sat in my garden swing and talked about gardening on a whole. We were surrounded with waving blooms, daylilies, Lysimachia clethroides (gooseneck loosestrife), Mondarda (bee balm), Echinacea (cone flowers) and more. It was heavenly!

I'm going to cut this short right now since the clouds are thick and I want to run out and take some photographs this morning.

Wishing all of you a wonderful day!
Melanie

Garage Sale Today!

We are having a garage sale today. Cross your fingers, a monster storm just blew through here and we're heading out there now to set-up.

Lots of garden related stuff, birdhouses, toys, games and girls clothing. I'll be pulling stuff out of the attic and basement all day.

Say "Hi" to my mom and to Emily who will be manning the table. All proceeds go towards a computer that Emily needs for school this year.

Melanie

Slug Bait

One thing that's for sure during a rainy season is lots and lots of slugs. My garden has never had a slug problem in the past but this year I see quite a bit of damage from those nasty creatures.

Slugs love shady spots and Hosta are like candy to them. Yet, some varieties of Hosta are slug resistant. I don't know if it's that they don't taste good or that the leaf is thick enough to make it difficult for the slug to eat.

One thing it's not though, is location. As you can see in this photo, the dark Hosta 'Grand Marquis' is hole free while the white variegated Hosta above it looks like swiss cheese.

There are a number of remedies to rid your garden of slugs. I save egg shells and put them around delicate plants. Slugs will also crawl into bowls filled with beer and then drown but I have an aversion to emptying bowls full of dead slugs. One organic product that I've had excellent luck with is named 'Sluggo'. I think I'd better pick up a box or two!