You may remember that this year I undertook a rather significant enlargement of the “ring” flower bed around a tree in our front yard. I want to eventually have several perennials in there and mix in various annuals from year to year. This is also the first time I have ever used mulch. Mulch is a wonder drug, if you ask me. No weeds, less watering, nicer look. It’s all good unless you sow seeds in a to-be-mulched bed.
A few things came up from last year in that bed: two of my three purple chrysanthemums and a couple clumps of pinks, but I wanted much more. I planted a lot of impatiens (pink, white, and purple), several pink vinca, and both purple and red verbena.
I had saved seeds from my last year’s voluminous crop of marigolds, and I sowed them around the edges toward the center of the yard. I splurged probably too much money on a lovely hosta. It’s supposed to be a perennial and I fervently hope it survives the winter and comes up again next year. It did make a tall column of delicate pale purple flowers early in the summer.
In addition to the saved marigolds, I also wanted to buy some different seeds, but I was having a hard time finding seeds for flowers that thrive in shade. (It’s shady under that tree.) I looked in several places, and finally found at a Wal-Mart garden center one and only one package labeled “shady mix.” Evidently the last of its kind, it was a jumbo pack, and I snatched it up. After all the hauling and mixing and dumping and digging and planting, my back was sore, my legs were sore, and I was hot and sweaty. I did not have the energy or inclination to dig neat little rows in which to sow that final pack of “shady mix” seeds. Instead, I dumped the whole pack into my tired right hand and flung them across the bed. Highly scientific.
What has come up is a thick, dense bed of flowering plants, full of color, and of varying heights and textures. I love it!! And so do the butterflies. Yes, some of the unknown “shady mix” plants have crowded out several of my impatiens, and there is a relatively bare spot on the driveway side of the tree, but there’s plenty of variety, plenty of colors, and plenty of butterflies.
There are two of the same type that come around a lot. I think they may be Eastern Black Swallowtails. I don’t know how to tell if it’s the same pair, but they (or their look-alikes) spend a lot of time sucking nectar from our flowers. They like the tall “shady mix ones” and they are particularly fond of my marigolds.
I have tried to take pictures of the butterflies, and it is a challenge, to say the least. However, I have learned that when they are really hungry (or is it thirsty?) they are so busy sucking that they will let me move the camera in quite close – sometimes less than a foot! Of course, I do have to take 326 pictures to get two good ones, and I have yet to get them out of my camera and into lickr, but when I do, faithful readers should be duly impressed.
It should also be noted that pictures from Jessica’s and Andrew’s Children’s Theater Workshop performances are now in my Flickr sets. S-L-O-W-L-Y but surely, I am getting my photos organized online.
Today Josiah asked me how many pictures I had on my computer in my shared pictures. I thought perhaps 2000. I was wrong. He told me I have just shy of 11,000 pictures saved! When did I ever have time to even TAKE 11,000 pictures? Oh, I guess it was when I was standing next to the tree bed shooting butterflies when I should have been doing something more useful.
But housework will be with me always, right? The butterflies might not be. Not to mention children. But I can’t think about that, because I am not scheduled to cry again today.