Back in the garden again!

As you probably have noticed, I've been going long stretches this summer without posting -- sometimes only one post a week (or less)! Mainly this is due to a busy schedule that leaves little time for gardening, but it's also due to the weather, as it's just been a very hot summer. Until now that is.

High temperatures around 85ºF (29ºC) with lower than normal humidity have given me the will to spend some time working outside. With a long list of tasks to tackle -- some of them being quite labor intensive -- I just jumped in with the first thing I saw: Milkweed.

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Due to its colonizing nature, I have Asclepias syriaca (common milkweek) taking over the prairie beds. How many monarch butterflies have I seen back here? None. How many caterpillars are feasting on the bounty I've provided? None.

As I said a month or two ago, once these were finished blooming I would remove many of the stalks. They were 5-7' (1.5-2.1m) tall and quite thick:

Before I cut anything out though I took a panoramic shot of the area:

So much going wild this year!

Cutting, cutting, cutting...

Path revealed:

When pruning (which I guess you could say this was) you have to stop and take a look once in a while so you don't go too far:

My Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) was now easily visible:

When I got down to the end of the bed I worked on the bamboos a little, starting with the mostly dead rose:

When I removed it I found that there was a tree sapling growing there too, and it looked very much like the rose canes:

I like to think that it did this so it could better blend in with the thorny canes, but surely this is a pest infestation of some kind?

Anyway, the bamboos got cleaned up a bit and are looking so nice together:

Closer...

Closer...

Closer still...

That's Phyllostachys nigra on the left, Indocalamus sp. 'Solidus', and the variegated one is Pleioblastus fortunei.

After a little more milkweed removal and other weeding, things are looking pretty good!

Here's the "before" image again for comparison:

Ah, it's so nice to be working in the garden again!


It looks like I'll be able to do it all week long, as temperatures won't break 90ºF/32ºC! Big smile!

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