Critter Day

These were taken over the last few days. Here's my local woodchuck. They often take very human poses, and this one was standing upright for quite a while before s/he saw me and scooted away. Just needs a vest and tophat!

This is author friend Jean with one of her chickens that helps her sell books. This is Jelly.

Here's a Margined Blister Beetle. There were a bunch in the rock garden. I'm not sure what they were eating. Web says they eat alfalfa, but probably other things too. If you squish them the "juice" can give you a blister.

This is one of the red meadowhawk dragonflies. But it's smaller than the ones I usually see. Not sure which of the meadowhawks. This was also in a flower bed.

Here's the best one, but I couldn't move fast enough to get the best picture. There was a very large spider climbing up a rock in the rock garden. But it didn't look right. Then I realized that the spider was dead and it was being carried by about 5 ants that were probably taking it "home" for dinner. I don't think I've ever seen ants capture anything this large. You can see one ant hanging on the lower leg of the spider and one pulling at the very top.

Today, I worked my little part-time job, did some volunteer stuff and some gardening. Took a road walk after dinner- 4 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 273.1
Onekama Challenge: 84.9 miles

See Ruby Meadowhawk

Heuchera Health

I'm trying the next possible way to get Facebook to pull through a picture. This suggestion says to put a picture before any text. Let's see if this works.

Today's post is going to be a report on all my various Heuchera. It will be long, because I now have quite a nice collection! The picture above is one of the new ones this year called 'Smoke and Mirrors.' It looks really good.

On the other hand, I think, with no regrets, I'm going to give up on the very first one I bought about 30 years ago. It's the very common 'Purple Palace.' One year it got about twice this big, but it just never was able to thrive. Who knows why? I have a very pretty Heucheralla picked out to put in the space, but I need to not buy any more plants for a while. At least any that cost more than a couple of bucks.

This is another common one, 'Caramel.' Because it's common, I thought I didn't want one, but I decided it would look really good in this spot, and I was right.

In general, I've tried not to have any duplicates, but I did split the 'Caramel.' The piece was quite small, but I think it's going to live. I know it doesn't look great, but it is alive.

The other one I have several of is 'Firefly.' I love the bright green of the leaves and the flowers are actually showy enough to enjoy. You can see one of the late ones still in this picture taken today.

'Midnight Rose' has darkened. The pink spots don't show up as well as earlier in the season, but I suspect that this is normal. It also looks good except for a few leaves that got a bit too much sun. I kept them out of the picture.

This one is'Seasons King.'

Which contrasts nicely with 'Carnival Cinnamon Stick.'

Here's the first one I bought other than the ill-fated 'Purple Palace.' This is 'Cathedral Windows.' It almost died from the days when the animals browsed through the gardens at will. They killed quite a few nice plants. But this came back.

When I put in 'Caramel,' I moved 'Peach Flambe' to a new location. It's not really happy there and has gotten smaller. I'll need to watch it. The light is too dappled for a good picture, but I like the color a lot. It was the first one I bought in 2023 when I started trying to spiff up this garden bed.

Another that I bought, maybe later the same year was 'Electric Plum.' It is also brighter earlier in the season. But it, too, has gotten smaller, and it's one of my favorites, so I'll need to watch it. When the light shines through the leaves they really do seem electric.

Also purchased in 2023 was 'Dark Knight,' which is naturally smaller, but I really like the shape of the leaves.

I think there's just one other, which is 'Amber Lady.' It stays fairly red all season.

So how many different ones is this? Not counting 'Purple Palace,' it's eleven different ones. Of course, I have picked out a couple others I want. Eventually... not right away!

I said today was going to be a rest day, and I enforced that except for truly minimal putzing in the gardens. Mostly I read books. Tomorrow I need to get back in gear.

See Front Garden Report #1- 2024

Holland Centennial Park Gardens

 I thought I showed you some pix last year of the gardens at the park where the Art in the Park vendor event is held, but apparently not. They are very nice!

The gardens are dedicated to L. Frank Baum because his family cottage was nearby, and it is believed that he wrote a fair amount of The Wizard of Oz while at the cottage. The book is a frame covered with 6000 plants. It is taken inside every winter.

I'll only show you a few of the garden beds. There were many! This one has several kinds of hosta - big ones- a purple heuchera, and a border of begoinias.

I love this! It's a very light-colored Hakone grass with really dark heuchera.

One whole garden was edged with alternate coleus and begonias.

Mass plantings of zinneas were bright! This has a racemed hydrangea behind it.

This was also one of my favorites. This is two different kinds of coleus both in the Flamethrower series. The red is 'Adobo Pink' and the green is 'Salsa Verde.'

I did OK at the event. The weater was cool (good), but drippy with sprinkles (hard to manage books, and lower attendance). The worst was I had a stomach ache all afternoon. Only a minimal clue why. Pretty much gone now.

I am declaring tomorrow a mostly rest day.

I may have figured out how to force Facebook to post a picture. We'll see. Of course it's a pain in the butt.

See Hemlock Crossing and More

Hemlock Crossing and More

I have landed at Jean's for the night with the Hollard Art in the Park tomorrow. We already have the canopies set up, and we've talked author and editor stuff till we kind of ran down.

I stopped on the way down here today and hiked at a new-to-me park. I think it's going to be my favorite stop on the way to Holland. Called Hemlock Crossing, on the Pigeon River (the short one that's totally in Ottawa County).

Here's another view showing the footbridge to the trails.

There are miles of ski loops mostly in the woods. Moderate topography. The whole thing also connects to a regional multi-use trail

I just liked this log.

I hiked 5.3 miles, and there are probably at least that many more miles of trail without duplicating very much.

At Jean's, she's been working really hard at cleaning up her hillside garden. It's looking fantastic.

I'll probably show you more of it another day, but for now, here's a coreopsis called 'Golden Threads.'

Best of all, I got to meet her new dog, a cheaglehund (chihuahua, beagle, dascshund mix) named Loki. She's going to have to watch me carefully, or he might end up coming home with me. He is 7 pounds of spring loaded beagle. I'm definitely in love.

I have to go to sleep now. I'm beat.

Miles walked in 2026: 269.1
Onekama Challenge: 80.9 miles.

Hemlock Crossing park, Holland, Michigan, various loops- 5.3 miles.

See Jean's Garden

When Life Gives You Orange

When life gives you orange, well... you have orange!

Orange is not my favorite color, but it's sort of interesting because there aren't very many flowers, and very few wildflowers, that are orange. Most of the ones that are orange are lilies.

The common "Ditch Lily" is always orange. It is not native, and a lot of people are trying to get us all to get rid of it, but it's so naturalized, I don't see that happening. All the day lilies are imports from Asia.

However, there are a lot of orange butterflies. This is a Northern Crescent. Google tried to tell me it was a Pearl Crescent, but my good butterfly book says Northern. They don't look THAT much alike. It's enjoying some Joe-Pye Weed.

Did you know that some kinds of baby carrots grow on tall stems?

You know I'm kidding, right? But I've never had Tiger Lilies before, so watching them color up and take days to open was sort of mysterious. These are also ornamental plants, imported from Asia about 200 years ago for gardens. There are some native orange lilies.

Here's a view looking up into the flower.

For one of the native orange flowers, here is Spotted Jewelweed or Touch-me-not. It likes to have damp feet.

I tried to make today be more calm. I did a good amount of editing, finished my LDN column for the month, started the third weed-through of the season on the rock garden, dug a little dirt in the moon garden where it was shadier- but there were biting gnats. If I can get my butt in gear to go get gas, I think I'll mow a little yet this evening.

See PFS 2019- Orange