An indoor week

I haven't had an ear infection since I was ten years old, but I apparently have one this week. That and the heat have kept me literally under the weather this past week. I watered a bit, but that was about it. The weeds are taking advantage of my absence.

While confined to the house, I started watching Garden Fit. It's a combination of great gardens and ergonomic exercises to help ease gardening aches and pains.

This is what I see when I look out one of my windows into the backyard: in the foreground fuschia, then Queen of the Prairie, then coneflower, and way in the back milkweed. Pinks!

My "ditch" daylilies get a fair amount of shade, so are behind most of the others in this area. Once I get the yard waste cleared away from the back fence, I may divide the clumps and move some out there.

In fact, I have a lot of plans for what to do with the open areas around the shrubs. Bees still visit the monarda on the south side of the house; that would be a nice addtion, maybe interspersed with the daylilies. That's the thing about gardening - there is always room for improvement and experimentation.

What's it good for? Queen of the prairie

The first time I saw Queen of the prairie (Filipendula rubra), I was in love. Although it tolerates clay soil, it likes to keep its feet wet, so it seemed like an unlikely candidate for my yard. Now that I have a rain garden, though, it's been added to the fringe. However, it may be a useless beauty unless you are interested in some of its medicinal uses. (I'm not.) I noticed a few pollinators on it.

I installed only one plant, but the clump it eventually forms may become quite large (4 feet across). Also, it spreads by seeds, which I hope does not become a problem. We'll see. Meanwhile, I will enjoy it - pretty in pink.

Elsewhere in the yard:

The strawberry patch looks very healthy. I've been able to pick a few berries from it every few days. Very tasty!

My granddaughter and I painted some small rocks to look like strawberries, to fool the birds. The faux berries need to be sprayed with fixative before I set them out. So far, the birds have left the harvest alone.

I keep trying to get a good pic of the "meadow". This one has the plants labeled, so if you enlarge it, you can at least tell what is there. Like many things, the meadow looks better in real life.

Up close and personal.

I don't think this Canada hemlock is going to make it. It looks peaked compared to its brethren. If it goes, a gold mop will replace it.

The latest addition to my flamingo collection. This one is supposed to glow, but it is either a dud or else just does not get enough sun. I'll move it and see if it does better elsewhere.

Another useless beauty, but I love the bright orange.

The first harvest from the green bean plants!

We saw plants, too

It occurred to me that I have posted very few photos of plants from the Garden Bloggers Fling. Believe me, we saw LOTS of plants, from acres of daylilies to native cactus. I didn't photograph many, just the ones to remind me of this or that.

These orange lilies remind me of the "ditch" daylilies growing in my yard, but in color only. They are Turk's Cap Lilies, a native wildflower. The blossoms perch on long stems. They can spread to form large colonies, but usually not in cultivation, where growing conditions may be less than ideal (like my claybound yard).

At the Eloise Butler Wildfower Garden

This plant is growing in my blueberry bed, among the milkweed. I did not plant it, nor could I figure out what it might be. Now I know: it's Indian Hemp. It's the kind of cannabis one makes fiber with, not the kind one smokes. It's related to both Dogbane and Milkweed. It's also poisonous.

At the Eloise Butler Wildfower Garden

This plant is also in my yard. I did plant it and I do know that it is Blue False Indigo. I did not know it would get so big. So now I am thinking I need to move it to a location more accommodating to its future size.

At Vera's Garden

I used to have the tall reddish plant in my yard (if it is Red Husker Penstemon - I need to replace it), but that is not why I took this picture. Below it grows what I have always considered a weed. And of course, I can't confirm it's identity, but it is some kind of mallow or althea. We were shocked that it is deliberately allowed into the garden, along with other "weeds" like mullein (said the gardener spreading fleabane seeds all about).

At Vera's Garden

I was impressed with this tall specimen of what turned out to be Queen of the Prairie. It prefers moist soil, but so does Joe Pye and it grows in my yard, albeit through the deck. I bet I could get this going, too.

In the garden of "Ruth," a member of Wild Ones. At least, I think that is where I took this pic.

This is bent grass, the same kind of grass used on golf courses. Separating garden beds, it looks like a smooth green carpet. The owners said it was there when they bought the house, in the 1930's. It takes some special care, which made me remove it from my list of must-haves, but it still was a spectacular contrast to the lush garden beds.

At the garden of Lee and Jerry Shannon

My front yard is made up of primarily purple and yellow plants of one sort or another, but mostly purple. When I saw this Sunkist Arborvitae, I immediately pictured it as an anchor plant in my front yard.

At Bailey's Display Garden

Ditto this Golden Spirit Smokebush.

At Bailey's Display Garden

My Blue Muffin Viburnum refuses to produce the profusion of blue berries it is named for, so when I saw one lush with fruit, I had to snap it just to prove to myself that it is me, not the plant.

At Bailey's Display Garden

And finally, we have this echinops. I thought it might be some kind of rattlesnake master, but it is actually a kind of globe thistle. The pollinators *loved* it.

At Squire House Gardens

The Garden Bloggers Fling has filled my head with so many ideas, I barely know where to start. But hopefully I will at least keep in mind the plants above that I want to add to my yard.