July In The Garden has been a bit up and down. The Monarch Butterfly adventure has been going good, so no complaints there. The Hydrangea garden that as been testing my patience tool is finally paying off. Yay! Right?
Yes, yay. Then there was the bad news. I went out into the garden for my morning inspection and found that half of my Acanthus, with the big beautiful blooms, had fallen down. I have no idea what could have happened. In the two or three years I have had the plant, it has never done this. I was heartbroken, and I thought it looked kinda stupid with just half a plant still standing, so I decided to take the risk and cut it way back. I mean WAAAY back. No leaves, just a naked stump. We shall see what happens
The next bit of bad news has to do with the Loofah and Birdhouse gourds. They were growing fine, and even had a baby loofah and gourds growing on the vines. They were great! Unfortunately I neglected to fertilize the plants and it showed. The baby gourds were soon turning yellow and dying off. I thought that the fresh soil that I used would be enough, but I was mistaken. I have since given each of the plants a good feeding. Let’s see if I can turn this back around if its not too late.
Let’s move on from the bad news shall we? Snails! Yes, I know people usually think of them as bad news, but I like them. They are funny little fellas that make for entertaining mornings. I love going out in the early morning and seeing all the snails finishing up their business from the night before, and heading back to their homes. Wherever that may be. It’s funny to find them hanging off of leaves, looking as if they are wondering how they are going to get off the leaf without breaking their shell. Or I find them making their way across the patio as if they are commuting from work. I don’t do a whole lot to fight the slugs and snails in the garden. Instead I do what I can to attract wildlife that feeds on the slugs. That seems to be working great for me. My plants may have a few bite marks on them, but nothing too drastic.
Hubby and I took the family on vacation the first as well as the last week in July. My garden took full advantage of my absence and went nuts. Usually I love coming back to the garden after a week of being gone to see a more drastic change then the small changes from daily inspections, but this time I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Thank goodness I love gardening, because I have a lot of catching up to do.
Raising Monarch Butterflies