WiseAcre Gardens

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What happens when you’re away 3 weeks in June? The weeds start peeking in the windows to see if you’re around.

Common Mullein - Verbascum thapsus 

 My wife considers common mullein to be an ugly weed but I happen to like the plant for it’s foliage.  The silver-gray leaves have a velvet look and feel and in garden conditions  can grow to an impressive height. This is a plant you can really look up to.

A biennial alien wildflower one used for medicinal purposes. My Peterson Field Guide also states that the seed is a narcotic fish posion. Who in the world researched getting fish high on narcotics?

 I really like how this garden bed went ‘wild’ this year. It’s hard to make out in the photo but some Lamb’ Ears (Stachys byzantina) found their way over and seem to be mimicking the mullein with their foliage and flower stalks.

I do have to admit the flowers are not anything to write home about. They’re hardly worth mentioning here.  Only a few flowers seem to bloom at any one time and the flower stalk is never seen full of flowers.

One good thing about this plant. Weeds don’t stand a chance under it. And to ‘weed’ a good space all I need to do is pull up one plant.

So next time one of these germinates in your garden you might want to think twice before pulling it. You never know when you might need to posion a fish.

 One last Photo before I go. I didn’t realize I shot more than the flowers of Yellow Loosestrife until I saw the photo. It made me think of the Green Fingered Photographer and all the great insect photos I’ve seen on his blog. The link to his site is a thank you for him taking the time to come here after I asked him to identify a ‘moth’ I happened to get a photo of the other day. Turns out it was no moth but something between a moth and a butterfly called a Skipper. I was happy to find out I’m not the only thing caught between the rungs on the evolutionary ladder.

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And it snapped back and hit me in the head.

I missed the last couple GTS postings. This Blue-eyed Grass and Buttercup were the last wildflower photos I managed to take before losing all sense of time.

 I didn’t get a chance to post them since I took off for Long Island to do a little gardening for a ‘friend’. You know - a little weeding, dividing and transplanting that an established garden needs. But what I found when I arrived was a major pain in the backside. The whole backyard was tore up after new cess pools were installed. And to top that off the new pool house was still in a state of unfinished limbo with construction debris laying all around. To make a long story short - I ended up spending 3 weeks instead of 3 days.

 Temps pushing 100 F. didn’t help. It must have been the heat that made me open my mouth and volunteer to do the pool house patio. I don’t do pavers! But the homeowner is more of a friend than a client and someone needed to get the ball rolling again.

 Too bad I forgot my camera. Before and after photos would have been nice to see.

 I’m back now - but burnt out. Temps pushing 100 F. in the first weeks of June didn’t help. And now I just don’t feel like doing anything but going fishing. Tomorrow I plant the perennials I returned home with and after that I’m going to go missing again for a week to recharge my batteries. I’m headed to some backwoods wilderness area to commune with nature and introduce some Largemouth Bass to my favorite lures.

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You know the place, that little spot you don’t want exposed in public. If you follow me around the corner I’ll show you one I had to deal with today.

 Don’t mind her she’s just been hanging around watching me work.

Just a bit farther

 Look over to the corner on the right and you’ll see where the sun don’t shine.

 That corner and all along the wall remains in shade all day long. But there’s no reason it has to stay bare. That is once I gave in and dug up 5 of my Ligularia. I figured if they go and wilt with the little bit of early morning sun they get at my place that they would be happier somewhere else.

 I didn’t rough them up on purpose. They’re mature plants and getting the root system meant a good clump of wet soil that wasn’t easy to wrestle around.

 One of the reasons I like Ligularia is the fact I can tell people to “plant it where the sun don’t shine” when they ask where. Not to say i don’t give the same answer to anyone who bugs me.