It's a warm, mosquito-infested day at the farmette. Very dry. I've had to water my gardens every day for the past couple of weeks. We have a 70 per cent chance of rain this afternoon. Here's hoping.
The world outside is still topsy turvy. Besides the Russian invasion grinding on in the Ukraine, with Kyiv being bombed again just yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women are no longer in charge of their own bodies in 'Merica. Can't believe it. Wait, yes I can, during these truly unsettling times.
Here at the farmette, it's fairly peaceful, except for an ongoing battle with Gordo the wild groundhog who lives under the barn. He's now decided to eat the tops of our beet plants, so we've had to resort to a jerry-rigged netting-clothespin-tent peg apparatus. I think we're winning - except I noticed some of my carrots are missing their tops, now. Sigh. Obviously needs some weeding, too.
The beds, however, are truly spectacular just now. Here's the one right beside the east entrance by the deck. Zebra grass and boxwood in the back, lots of hostas and stella d'oro lilies in the middle and hens and chicks on the edges. The succulents are starting to do their alien thing by shooting up the middle before flowering. Oh, and there's also Percy the penguin that Rob bought for my birthday a couple of years ago.
My portulaca, or moss roses, along the front of the east bed have burst out into a riot of colour. These hardy little annuals are practically no-brainers to grow, needing very little moisture. Good thing, given the lack of precipitation around our area recently.
The front bed that we had re-done about a month ago is really coming into its own. It's mostly perennials, and the plants were judiciously bedded fairly far apart by Jeremy, the landscaper.
That's why I decided to do some in-filling this year. The yellow calibrachoa in the top left is an annual I divided out from a hanging plant I got on sale at the Foodland, and the yarrow is a perennial I picked up from the Herb Fair here in Durham earlier in June.
The big gorgeous beauty bush is obviously starting to shed its blossoms, too.
There's lots more going on. The peonies have finished for the year and the astilbes are just starting. The buttercups are looking sensational, and I even have a few roses on my newish bush (from last year's planting frenzy).
Anyhow, that's it for this week's wander around the beds of the farmette. Here's this week's gratuitous cat photo. The boys Hobbes (left) and Calvin waiting for dinner, as usual.
