April 11 2012

The rats are chewing the insulation off the wiring...

One more reason to love the cat...
She caught this monster right in front of me....
It was dusk, there was a big commotion in the lumber, I shined the flashlight toward one end, the rat zigged when he shoulda zagged... right into the cat's teeth.... The cat didn't waste time torturing the big mean nasty rat...
Rats must be tasty, cats sure eat them up in a hurry.

Early blooms in the silphium...

The buckeye blooms have been pretty...

the viper's bugloss is starting to bloom.

Pretty in purple...

Columbine and iris.

Somebody was here... Good sized snake came and left his calling card...

It's not raining enough...

Spring with Rain!

After last years terrific drought, having a bit of rain makes a very nice change...

The poppies are blooming...

But...
The bees and butterflies are going nuts over the chinaberry tree.

Yeah... I know... Invasive menace...
But I didn't plant it... It was there when I cleared for the garden.
Makes it ok...

Here's a zebra...

I picked some greens...



Magenta spreen.... Real tasty...

I have spinach too....




The cat is taking a break after a busy day killing varmits....
A bit later I watched the cat stalk a short-tailed vole... She played with her meal for what seemed like an hour before finally eating it... We should all eat food that squeaks... the cat certainly seems healthy enough on a diet of live rodents...

Camping in the Garden

Cheery fire.

The cat brought dinner.

I pulled the weeds last winter, and spread well-aged manure...
A little too well-aged... It came with weed seeds which grew with the cool season rains...

Got some manure that isn't as well-aged... Hoping for a few less weeds....

Top dressing the flowers after pulling out the weeds... Let's see how they do...

Toadflax.

I consider this winter annual to be a wildflower...

Coral honeysuckle.

Eastern columbine

Salvia

So far things are looking up...

We deserve a decent gardening year after the one we had last year...

Early Spring

I have some early blooms to share...

Is February too early for peach and pear blooms?

I had good pears last year in the drought, but the peaches didn't set...

I'm not really expecting a second year of pears, but I wouldn't complain if I got some.... A friend is taking the Master Gardener course offered by the extension service, and she tells me that peaches are difficult for the home gardener to grow in GA.

Here's hoping for a bit of luck... I really like peaches...

bloodroot

getting some nice camellia blooms.

I grew these beauties from seeds.

I still have bulbs...







These corydalis can get out of hand and require pulling... But they're pretty...

How about that cat!!!

Febuary bloom

I missed GBBD this month, was under the weather, couldn't get any pictures.

It's been a nice winter, this pear tree has leaves...

The forsythia and the hellebore are putting on shows of colour.

Those hellebore sure look nice.

The native vines look nice as well. (Carolina Jessamine)



The camellia bushes have been blooming...

The cat is killing stuff...

A Southern Garden in January

Why I garden in the South

sulfur yellow butterfly

A vegetable garden full of henbit is kind of embarrassing, but the butterflies like it fine... They say that God doesn't make junk....

Painted lady butterfly

The butterflies seem to be happy with the weeds...

gulf fritillary butterfly

Not just butterflies in the garden on this fine January day, I found a blue-tailed skink and a frog too!

The pictures click...

Winter Rain

We are in a deficit for rain this year, just a few weeks in... We were seriously hurting last year...

Seeing any kind of clouds in the sky is a hopeful event.

This looks very good...





It's coming!

Rain!



Lots of rain!





Raindrops hitting the rainwater that fell faster than the thirsty sand could absorb it...




Raindrops on the winter burned golden rod.



An inch and a quarter of rain in a single storm...
The rain Gods were very kind.