Week 17 - Year 1: Aerial Views

Given that the mood of my more recent posts has been fairly gloomy (you know, death, disease, suicide, etc.), I thought I would take a breather from the doom and gloom and showcase some happy pictures of our garden from above and below.

Week 16 - Year 1: Midnight Traveler

A few weekends ago, we got home late from dinner around 11:30pm and I had to water the plants late at night. When I stepped outside, I noticed we had a new guest. A tiny frog had somehow climbed four stories to rest on one of our columns. He must have been a very strong climber and some how shimmied his way up the brick posts that hold up the decks. He was breathing heavily (you will notice his tongue is hanging out) and I was worried about scaring him, so I quickly stepped back inside without watering anything.

Of course, we quickly disturbed his privacy and started a photo shoot, which probably did not help him calm down from the climb. My husband suggested he might need water, so he subtlely placed a bowl of water next to the little guy. I'm not sure if he used it, but we both hoped he might like to stay if we set up a plush place for him.

Sadly, when we woke up the next morning, our froggy visitor was gone. The only thing in the bowl was a small lady bug trying to tread water. While we were sad to see him go, we enjoyed our visit with our amphibian friend and hope he made it back down safely.

Week 16 - Year 1: And Then There Were None

Like the character's in Dame Christie's epic thriller, my plants are dropping off like flies. This is probably not surprising as we are reaching the end of summer and transitioning torwads fall. This month my plants have battled with being indoor refugees, humidity, weird infestations, dropping nighttime temps, heavy winds, downpours and extreme changes between dry and humid air. Needless to say, not all of them have made it. Here's an update on the latest casualties:

Browallia

Sadly, it looks like these guys got the bug infestation. They began wilting and turning brown in early August and finally gave up the fight mid month. I left the roots in the container because browallia is supposedly a perennial. However, if it died from a disease, it may not come back at all and/or infect my other plants, so it is a catch 22. I think I will have to quarantine it over winter. I am still watering it though with winter in mind.

Sunflowers

These guys barely made it a week! They just wilted and never recovered. I had planted them in the container that was previously inhabited by the now departed campagnula, which had the little white flecks all over it and in its soil. We thoroughly cleaned the container, but apparently it wasn't enough because I found the same white flecks in the sunflower's soil. It's depressing to lose these guys so fast.

Begonias

Early this week, I discovered that half of the begonias had basically given up. It looks like the plant got too heavy for its stem and just keeled over. Fortunately, 1/3 of the plant was still standing up right so it is not totally dead. I was able to salvage the other 2/3 as cut flowers to enjoy at the office.

Week 14 - Year 1: Suicidal Lobelia?

The PGA players are not the only ones being affected by the wild Wisconsin weather this week. We have had a nasty combination of humidity, blinding fog, excessive heat and torrential rain. This has spelled disaster for some of my flowers, especially the newbies who are still trying to get situated in their new environments (a.k.a. the sunflower hybrid has basically wilted).

However, one of our veterans took even more drastic measures in response to the conditions. The right container decided that life was no longer worth living this week and took a header off the deck. Literally, the lobelia, nierembergia, soil, window box and window box hanger took a dive off the deck after some heavy winds. Fortunately, no one below was hit by the falling missile, and the results were pretty funny.

After retrieving the fallen window box, my husband felt the lobelia must have been after a Darwin Award (Darwin Awards are given to people that make the biggest spectacle out of trying to remove themselves from the gene pool in the most idiotic way possible). Apparently, the lobelia decided that taking a header off the deck was not enough, and also managed to throw itself another three feet from the box when it landed. I've since replanted both, and the lobelia still seems bound and determined to die, so we may have to let it go. The nierembergia seems to have survived it's little joy ride and is probably hoping that its next box mate has less suicidal tendencies than the lobelia.

Week 13 - Year 1: Emergency Succession Planning

My garden is under siege, and we are not winning. Unfortunately, it looks like the trip inside may have invited a few nasty pests to wreak havoc on our plants. Early this week, I noticed small white dots on the bidens and calibrachoa in the middle container, and on the champanula. Plus, there were green dots on the nicotiana. I did some internet research and did not come up with much on the white dots, but figured the green dots were the most dreaded of all garden pests - aphids.

I'm still not sure what the white dots were, but various home remedies all failed, and I had to say good bye to the victims. I tried two solutions. The first was a combination of water, liquid dish soap and baking soda in a spray bottle. The second substituted vegetable oil for baking soda. The idea is to spray the leaves to get the buggers to slide off and not come back. It was definitely too late to get rid of the white guys. The aphids seemed to respond to the vegetable oil, but I'm still not sure if the battle has been won and it looks like they may be attacking the browallia.

Unfortunately, I had to trash the bidens, coral calibrachoa and champanula. I tossed the dirt in all of their containers too and scrubbed the containers down to try to get rid of the bugs. I also bought some organic insecticide to try to wage my own war on the invaders to prevent further contamination. We will see how that works out. So far, it's bugs 3, Me .5 (nicotiana are still hanging in there).

So, we had some openings in our garden and it was time for some succession planning. It is a bit early to be thinking fall, but I figure there is not enough summer left to plant any thing but hardy fall winners. So, here are the successors:

Replacing the bidens & calibrochoa in window box #2: Hardy mums & lemonade lantana.

Replacing the champanula - Sunflower hybrid.

New addition - Z_____ (I know it starts with a z, but I can't remember anything else!).

These guys have the funniest new buds. They hold everything in until they are ready to open, so they look like little pouches.