wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

 

wordless wednesday

road trip

Last weekend was the Lincoln Highway yard sale. It runs from Chester, West Virginia to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Pat and I traveled the section between Bucyrus, Ohio and Chester WV, with a side trip to Newell WV and the Homer-Laughlin fiesta ware plant. We decided to start in Bucyrus because it’s about in the middle of the state and has really cool murals in the downtown. This was going to be fun for the history buff in me. We had no clue how far we would get, or what we would find. That was OK because we were using the “know it when we see it” method of hunting.

The road trip was great. We didn’t go off course once. We just kept following the “Historic Byway signs. One minute we were on US 30 and the next a side street. We weren’t in a hurry and had a couple of days to get there. Eastern Ohio still has stretches of the cobblestoned road from the 1920’s. Besides looking for places to stop and shop, we kept our eyes open for gardens. I spotted a ton of joe pye weed along the swampier stretches of the road. I don’t get it. We were out in the middle of rural Ohio, where there has to be a bunch of deer, and yet the joe pye seems to thrive. My plants are still about a foot tall because the deer keep eating them.  

Oh yeah, we found some neat stuff and some great farmers markets along the way.



I do believe that this is what the pilgrims saw when they got to eastern Ohio, except for the telephone line I forgot to crop out.

oh deer, oh deer

We knew that we had deer visiting our yard every day. In the morning the bird feeders would be ransacked. Hosta, flox, and joepye weed flowers and buds would be gone. Deer tracks were everywhere in our wet clay soil. We even started to plant away from their trails in the hope that maybe we could hide some plants.

Well, this last week or so our diners have shown themselves. We get to see ’em early in the morning and right about dusk. It’s fun to watch, but hard to get pics, since Pat and I have gardened up the entire back yard. Today, I watched my last joepye bloom bite the dust, or actually, get eaten. The neighbors, who all are turf aficionados, ask us if we see the deer that are in our yard. They think it is very cool, and so do we, but they don’t get their yards ransacked. Yeah, I know I could chase them away, but how can you do that to Bambi, not Bambi the thug I’ve written about before, but this little guy. 

 

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

swampus milkweedi



I finally decided to come inside and blog. I’ve been in the garden since school let out in June and I haven’t wanted to do anything else except work in the yard. I count sitting in the yard as work because someone has to watch all the birds, bees, butterflies, and critters as they go about their day.

A few years ago, Pat and I bought a couple of swamp milkweeds (asclepias incarnate) from Scioto Gardens in Delaware Ohio. We wanted to attract bees and butterflies. I also wanted an exuberant plant with a pretty flower, so that when it started to take over the garden, Pat might not notice. The plant attracts bees and butterflies like crazy. I can hear the buzz of a zillion wings moving around the yard. It also self-seeds like nobody’s business.

I have seeds and plants for the asking. They need wet soil and sun. As you’ll see, they can get to be 6 feet; but only after a couple of years.