Night and Day

I was lying in bed last night, not moving and yet sweating in the heat, and not sleeping due to all the neighborhood fireworks. I got up to get myself a snack and looked outside to see if I could at least see some of the fireworks since I had to listen to them. Nope. But look what I did see! This is a supermoon, but it's a day past full. Close enough. I do wish there wasn't a stupid wire between it and me, but. There is.

A supermoon occurs when the moon is full AND the moon is closest to earth in its orbit.

The hot night led right into a hot day. I managed to do about an hour's worth of work outside in the morning, but then I just couldn't stand it. I had errands to do anyway, so that was OK.

My car thermometer read 92 when I left my house. I had to go to downtown Ludington. Of course, the big lake moderates the temperature there. It was mid-seventies with a light breeze. That was certainly a delightful difference!

Each year, the edges of Ludington Avenue is lined with red, white, and blue petunias. They are planted with the goal of having them look fantastic for the Freedom Festival on the 4th of July. This year has been so dry that a bunch of the flowers died and had to be replanted. The volunteer crew doubled down and started watering them twice a day. This is quite a feat because it has to be done at times of low traffic. A small tanker drives the streets slowly, watering the plants. Perhaps they aren't mounded as full as some years, but they look pretty good. Service clubs and individuals volunteer to plant and weed the flowers.

Ludington in summer is all about the beach and the tourists. I really hate going into town. It's even hard to get out of my driveway, and we live six miles away. True to form, the line at House of Flavors for ice cream was half a block long. Drivers were honking and yelling at each other. And, the beach isn't even crowded yet.

This is my favorite picture. The sky was hazy... maybe I should have titled this the Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer. But the beach umbrella makes the shot. You can faintly see a couple of sailboats out past the lighthouse.

Whether you want to sing a Cole Porter song or prefer Nat King Cole, it is certainly summer. Post 4th of July, Ludington solidly enters its tourism phase. Since I had to go downtown, I tried to do all the errands there that I could think of. I hate going there at this time of year.

Places are starting to mark down their plants. Yeah! But there were also mundane needs like an inner tube for the wheelbarrow wheel. The free table at the library had a Ngaio Marsh book that I didn't own, so that's now mine.

After I got home, the temperature began to cool significantly. We may get rain tonight. But the cooler temps allowed me to get some plants in the garden. I've got both doors open with fans pulling in the cool air. I've already gotten the inside temperature several degrees lower. I'll keep this going until the bugs start to come in.

See Post Blue Moon

Dirt Date

Betty and I did some work in her flower beds again today. She called it a Dirt Date! I like the sound of that. Roger was working there too, so we got to visit all together a bit.

I didn't ask permission to tell the whole story on the blog, but I will just say that this lily was Roger's before he met Betty. It was planted by his wife, Evelyn. (Roger and Betty each outlived a spouse before they found each other.) Now it blooms every year on Roger and Evelyn's anniversary. A wonderful occasion for remembrance.

I really should have taken a better picture of this, but maybe I'll have another chance when the flowers are fully open anyway, and without a shovel handle in the way. I've never seen a lily with flowers as big as these are going to be. They are simply huge!

She also has a whole row of lovely snapdragons.

And finally for today, a clump of bachelor buttons.

I don't know how they keep all these gardens in such nice shape. This big one is fenced, as is another smaller one. There are plants all around the house, planters on the deck and other places. I suspect that a huge portion of their time is spent on garden care. Yeah, I helped weed for 1 1/2 hours, but it was a drop in the bucket for what that many gardens require.

It's truly hot. I also managed a load of laundry and some work on my own yard and gardens, and some of the ongoing inside projects. And I'm still waging war on the biting ants. They are armed with nasty mouthparts and the ability to crawl inside my clothes. I am armed with death from a spray can. I'd be happy enough to let the ants live, if only they wouldn't bite.

See Gardening with Betty

Rock Garden Report 4

I am here to tell you that this much of the rock garden has not been weeded since 2009. I made brief attempts to recover it in 2014 and 2020, but neither time did I get very far.

There are now about 55 of about 80 numbered spaces weeded. I have put in stakes to keep track of the numbers. It looks tacky, but some of the rocks have gotten covered with dirt (I'm lifting them as I figure out where they are), and it's not as easy to look at my map and find the places. Also, the plants that defined the spaces have died or moved, so this is really helping me locate the spaces and make a new plant list. I'm taking these long shot pictures from the same angle each time, so you can more easily judge the progress. There are other angles from the deck and farther away that are also nice. I'll share those another time.

The western edge is not yet weeded- and there are spaces there that never got numbered. Totally new territory except I had rocks in place. The western 2/3 of the top set of spaces is still overrun by the Bloody Cranesbill. But, there are great open niches in which to put plants.

Here are a few of the new additions:

This is one I bought. It's Sedum takesimense 'Atlantis.' There are a lot of new hybrids and cultivars that are hardy. I stumbled over this one, which is quite unusual because of its light-color "flashy" leaves. I like it a lot.

And what's in front of it? That's what Dave did for me yesterday. Right at the bottom of the garden I had three chunks of mulberry tree that made a sort of retaining wall. Two of those were rotted out to the point that they were totally useless. Another friend gave me a couple of chunks of oak that had funky knots, making them less desirable to split for firewood. But they have nice interest for this location. Maybe I'll even plant something in the knots. So Dave dug out the old rotten logs and put these in their place. I have a little dirt work to do in front, but that's no big deal.

Here is a sedum that Betsy gave me. Sedum hybrid, 'Thundercloud.' It's very similar to one called 'Mongolian Stardust,' but that one trails instead of standing up straight, so this may be the first one. This clump had good roots, so it went directly in the garden. Another clump is in a pot having a chance to improve its root system. This one gets about 8-10" tall. Except for some plants at the very top, that's about as big as I want anything, but I like it in front of that rock.

Here's another I bought. I'm learning that the Sunsparkler series- a proprietary line of Sedum hybrids- has an awful lot of gorgeous choices that are hardy. This one is called 'Dazzleberry,' and in late summer it has raspberry-red blossoms. I'm not sure it will bloom this year, but let's hope it survives. These all should. The wimpiest one is supposedly hardy to -10 degrees, but it's one from Betsy and she's had it for years, so it should be fine here.

I'm here to tell you that you can order some of these more interesting plants, but a tiny puddle like this is all you get. And... I thought I was ordering two varieties from the same seller to save postage, but I guess not. This better end up being one of my favorites since it cost more than I usually spend.

This space is mixed bag. I bought a pot of these huge maroon Sempervivum at Meijer for half price becuase some of the leaves were damaged. Now, this is how I like to get plants. The pot was stuffed. Two of these huge rosettes and a bunch of babies. I've spread those around the garden.

And the yellow-green sprigs in the crack behind it is Sedum sarmentosum. I got the original plants from Marie... some of the earliest in the rock garden, and one of the most successful. But it was almost all gone when I weeded this year. It really likes to be out in the sun, so I'm wondering if all the years of tall grass just shaded it out. Anyway, Betsy gave me some more. I can move some of what's here later, and I also have more in a pot to get new roots. It looks great when it gets established, filling in cracks everywhere, so I'm glad to have some more.

Here's another one Betsy gave me. This one trails all over the place, but the flower stalks are tall, so I put it against the retaining wall. I also have another clump in a pot. This is Sedum rupestre 'Angelina.'

Finally, here's one of the hardiest of the survivors. This is everywhere! It's Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce' because the leaf stalks look like tiny blue spruce branches. Some of them are even blooming this year. The flower stalks snake all over the place and then have a flat cluster of yellow flowers.

Betsy gave me about eight different kinds of plants, so I haven't shown you all of them yet, but this is surely enough for one day. All this goes to show how a garden this size just swallows plants. Now that I've committed to this, I hope I'll continue to work hard to keep it weeded so the plants can begin to fill in again.

BONUS SECTION: Mowing

Remember the strange phenomenon of some critter eating the gas can?

After I got most of the upper yard mowed on June 17, nothing else had been done until today. I disovered that something chewed holes in the nozzle of the newer can. Yes, it can be replaced for $10 for another plastic one just like it to fit the plastic can that something with itching teeth also chews on. Well, there hasn't been enough rain for the lawn to grow or the parts that didn't get mowed to get any worse. So, I rummaged around this week and found our old metal can. It even has a metal spout. Perfect. I checked it over and the inside was clean and the seams were sound. Why did I ever stop using this can? No clue.

Today I mowed the rest of the upper yard and threw away yet another plastic gas "can." No more of those for me.

See Rock Garden Report 3

Betsy's Rock Garden

Today was mostly about the rock garden. Mine. Dave even helped with a project. But I'll do a rock garden report, maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday, I went to my friend Betsy's. She used to own the Icelandic sheep (link below). She loves to garden, and also to know the names of plants. She wanted to give me some things for the rock garden.

Her rock garden is beautiful. It's everything a nice rock garden should be- stuffed full to bursting with succulents and other low-growing perennials. She was embarrased, saying there were too many weeds, but I said they would hardly show in the pictures. Seriously.

She wanted to give me plants for my rock garden because when things get as nicely crowded as hers you have to keep thinning things all the time. She gave me a whole bucket full! There are a couple of layers of plants in there.

I also went to a nursery that wasn't very much farther up the road and found more rock garden plants that are supposed to be hardy.

She has more to give me (and I have some to give her), but I said we had to stop for now because I have to plant all those! I have most of them in, but there are still a few more to get in the ground. I'm also working hard on the record keeping. I really have to completely start over because there is so little alive and/or in the same places as they were before. The record sheets for each mapped niche were getting filled up anyway, so it was time to do it. I spent a lot of time on this today, but I think I've got the method locked in now, so it shouldn't take so long for the others. Although I do have to make some decisions about some of the spaces and what is really going to be in each one. For example, NOT just a pile of the Cranesbill that I've temporarily left in place.

And what was the fun thing Dave and I did last night? We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. It is suitably ridiculous and a perfect ending to the series.

See More About the Icelandic Sheep

It's Dave Day

Look who I kidnapped!

It's Dave, my "extra" kid. I was going to take a picture of the dinner we had. I actually cooked (nothing fancy), but I forgot. We are going to go do something fun this evening.

In case you don't remember, he's Marie's actual son. Their family is visiting relatives in Michigan.

Before he got here, it was a big rock garden day. Stay tuned.

See Meet David