The Green Thumb

I took some pictures of my daughter, Jen's yard last week. I told her I was going to do a little blog on it, but of course when I tried to upload or download or sideload or whatever, the pictures, they wouldn't do what I wanted them to- go figure. In an effort to keep from having a total meltdown at the end of a long day I just put it off until now. The pictures don't do the yard justice. She has a beautiful front yard and the abilty to grow just about anything. Folks who have plants dying will bring them to Jen to revive. The top picture is of a Rhododendron bush. It's one of the biggest I've ever seen. I was looking it up in the dictionary to see how to spell it and found out it's part of the Heath family, which I guess is part of  the Heather family- for whatever that's worth. Jen has a huge Fir tree growing in the corner of the yard that everyone who goes up and down the street in front of her house has to pass by it. During the spring a family of crows nests in it. From her porch she can look down at the people walking by and hear their conversations, although they often don't realize she's there. One day, one of the cold storage workers came by when the crows swooped down and made a swipe at his head. It was totally unexpected and unprovoked, so he turned around and yelled at the crows "What the hell did you do that for? What did I ever do to you?" Another fellow who's a little unstable was attacked also. When Jen asked him about it he smiled and said-" They make me laugh." Oh well.

  In her small area she grows Lilacs, Rhododendron, Hasta's, Peonies- which for some reason always has ants on the buds. You seldom see ants here, but they always find the Peonies. There is also two apple trees, strawberries and  raspberries. There is an assortment of other flowers like Pansies, Petunias, Geraniums, Shooting Stars, Cone Flowers, Lillies, Marigolds and whole bunch of other things I can't remember. In any event, it's refreshing to gaze at on a summer's day and a continual source of enjoyment to all who pass by. My garden is doing a spendid job of growing Dandelions and Marsh Marigolds, as well as a creeping varigated vine that at one time was planted to fill in a small bare area. Now it invades the entire landscape and it would take a whole herd of goats to tame it. I always start off good in the spring. This year my son Brian came over and we reset a bunch of the slate rocks in the garden and weeded and put new dirt in and transplanted some strawberry plants. It looked really good for about two weeks. Then I started fishing and everything went to hell. The strawberries were being crowded out by the Fiddle Ferns and Nettles are threatening to come creeping down the hill. Last year I left a bunch of brush that I had cut in a pile by the steps. I meant to deal with it in a timely manner, but got busy doing other things and by the time I got around to it, I noticed a steady stream of large bees hanging out in the brush. There was no way I was going near that. I figured I'd wait until the first frost and maybe move the stuff and expose the bee's nest. Let them all freeze to death, or at the very least be too cold to fly after me. I can't remember what happened, but this winter there was a mouse hanging out where the bees nest had been, so maybe he took care of the problem for me. It just goes to show, you leave a problem alone long enough and it will take care of itself.