An update from Dan B in Seattle:
I’ve attached some photos of what’s going on now. Message: Gardens are dynamic, especially when you spend 40 years figuring out the tricks.
Alstroemerias are going bonkers and Daylilies are next with hundreds of buds.
We’ve got a group of eight friends here on Friday so it’s time to weed and tidy.
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What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
debbie
Lucky kitties!
Wvng
I am in awe, also jealous. In my garden I’m trying to deal with a very clever groundhog that evades every kind of trap and any line of sight action and is currently digging up my prized asparagus patch and eating up the zucchini. I’ve caught and relocated more than six raccoons. The 7 foot deer fencing keeps them out, but no kind of fence keeps groundhogs out, unless buried several feet into the ground.
satby
I’ve added DanB’s garden to my bucket list! Every picture is more beautiful than the last. Especially enjoy the potted kitties.
@Wvng: I’ve seen groundhogs in the area and fighting moles is a constant problem. But yesterday I think I uncovered a groundhog tunnel going under my concrete front porch. Thought it was a mole tunnel, but watering that bed made the front collapse into quite a large opening going into a tunnel.
mrmoshpotato
You can grow cats from seeds?
mrmoshpotato
That doesn’t sound good.
kalakal
What a lovely garden. Thank you for the pics
J.
What a beautiful garden and kitties!
CCL
Beautiful! What’s the purple flower in the last photo? A Veronica?
Jeffery
Are you able to see how well done it is or do you see what’s wrong with it?
JPL
Wow!
OzarkHillbilly
@mrmoshpotato: Better if you transplant them.
Stunning, Dan B. In the good way.
delphinium
Such a lovely garden and cute kitties!
OzarkHillbilly
@Wvng: You can’t live trap groundhogs, their butts are too big so the door can’t slide down to lock. I’ve tried damn near everything myself but nothing short of lead poisoning works. I had 2 take up residence here this past spring. They were a matched pair which fortunately hadn’t gotten around to making babies when I was finally able to dispatch them.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I am groundhog.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Dan B, I scrolled through about three pics and then thought “Wait. Whose garden is this?” because it’s so gorgeous.
germy shoemangler
Baud
@germy shoemangler:
I am not groundhog.
Ken
@germy shoemangler: The documentary Caddyshack demonstrated some methods of getting rid of gophers, which might also work on groundhogs.
Immanentize
@Wvng: I had groundhogs/woodchucks/land beavers/whistle pigs under my shed for years. They were just too cute to exterminate. This year after their hibernation, I used my own organic, natural, home brewed urine around the entrances to their den. They left, whether or not that was the reason.
That garlic pepper stuff works not at all, neither does the coyote freeze dried urine you can buy at the garden store. I think, as we have been over this here a few times, the ultimate solution is bubble gum or gum balls. The little fatties cannot resist double bubble which will occasion the end of your garden torments.
Immanentize
Dan B — beautiful garden and I love the idea of inviting people over just to force me to weed. I have to try something to get me going on the weeds.
OzarkHillbilly
I do have a question for you, Dan: How jealous are your neighbors? Have you ever received any death threats? Any arson attempts?
Ok ok, that was 3 questions. Sue me.
Spanky
NIce to have so many friends there to help out! I hope you fed them.
MomSense
@satby:
I’ve got that problem in my side garden.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: @MomSense:
You have my sympathies. Here in NM, I’ve been at war with pocket gophers and pack rats and ground squirrels. I hates’em all.
Josie
Your garden is so beautiful. Does it stay this lovely year round or do you have winter to contend with? You must have plenty of rainfall for everything to look so lush. Right now I’m having to water my pot plants every day and sometimes twice a day to keep them alive.
JeanneT
Wow! My garden is almost that lush sometimes (when the weeds are thick), but never that lovely.
And in spite of that inspiration I’m going to spend the day grooming dogs instead of garden work….
and regarding groundhogs: my son has one that is determined to live in the chicken coop where access to grain, chicken chow and water is easy. Those critters don’t take no for an answer!
Lapassionara
What a beautiful garden. Thanks for sharing.
MazeDancer
Stunningly gorgeous garden. Also kitties.
Jerzy Russian
All of those burrowing critters (gophers, moles, ground hogs, et al.) will have the last laugh when that meteor strike wipes out all surface life.
Somewhat related: a burro is an ass, a burrow is a hole in the ground. It seems that many people don’t know the difference.
OzarkHillbilly
So are Ozark hillbillys. Or so I’ve been told.
oldgold
Last Tuesday, at the crack of noon, I was rudely roused from my slumber by my trusty Grandson, “The Reminder”, “Gramps you forgot to plant the garden on the Fourth of July?” Damn!
Ever since, it has been a beehive of gardening activity around West of Eden.
Working up to 25 minutes a day with the intensity and dedication of a thin junkyard dog on a t-bone, along with my trusty Grandson, (“Gramps you forgot to zip up your pants.”), today we plant.
”Gramps, why do you plant West of Eden in July?” Me, “I dislike June bugs and eating garden vegetables.” “Gramps, aren’t you forgetting something?” I checked my fly and it was up, “Now what?” “Gramps, you put the pro in crastinate!”
TaMara
Of course, Dan B. grows kittens in his garden.
Lovely photos, lovely cats.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: To give your organic home brew an extra kick, do you eat asparagus shortly before spreading it on the garden? :-)
MelissaM
Are the cats grown from bulbs or corms or tubers or … And when do they bloom?
WaterGirl
I love how you leave plenty of space around the cat in the big pot. What does the tag say… space at least 24 inches apart?
oldgold
@satby:
I am probably the only one here that is old enough to remember the radio feud between W.C. Fields and Charlie McCarthy.
Charlie normally got the best W.C., until the day W.C. arrived with a jar of termites.
Perhaps, this tactic might be effective in getting your varmint to relocate.
satby
@oldgold:
no thanks, not termites. They’re getting the used kitty litter treatment. Lord knows that with 6 cats we have more than enough to share.
citizen dave
These are beautiful pictures. I’m sure the cat pics could make it into the 365 cats (cat a day) calendar. Although I think they own the pic if the use it…
munira
@OzarkHillbilly: I managed to live trap two groundhogs when I lived in Quebec. I had the really big have a heart traps. The first one I put directly in front of his hole where it came out into the garden with some yummy stuff in it. He sat in his hole and watched me set it and then went right into it. The second one I managed to trap under a bunch of big rocks by covering all the openings into the garden with chicken wire except for the one that had the trap. Again he went right in.
J R in WV
I see I’m not the only person who wondered how those cats were planted… bulbs, root stock, seeds, just attract one kitty and others spring up as if from nowhere…? Cuties, tho~!~
ETA: you might find having a dog in the garden pen would diminish the damage done to burrowing animals. Dogs can even excavate if necessary. Have had a number of o’possums eliminated by dogs, one was reaching for a chicken in the coop when I found him, and tossed him out of the coop into the large group of dogs at the house to help the adults party one summer evening.
Interstadial
Beautiful garden! I suppose that to a cat, a large pot is the next best thing to a cardboard box.
SkyBluePink
WOW !!!
Dan B
@CCL: Sorry about the late reply. I had a wonderful drowsy morning. I was surprised my pictures were posted.
The purple flower is Hebe ‘Midsummer Beauty’. It’s a huge plant: 9 feet tall and 10 feet wide, at least. It’s hardy to Zone 7B. Bees go nuts and it’s fragrance of clover is strongest at mid day.
Dan B
Thanks for all the compliments!
The neighbors have scorched earth gardens. Age and culture does that.
We had a very wet April through June but normally it gets dry in early May. We redid the gutters so 3/4 of the roof and all of a large tool shed / my partner’s clubhouse drains via a big airborne pipe into the big rectangular pond. We pump it all summer to water plants that need water in the summer. Most plants were chosen to tolerate summer drought. Seattle gets an inch of precip in July and in August and not much more in May, June, and September.
Cats grow from cans and bags. Tuna is especially good at germinating kittehs as are chicken, beef, salmon, and petting.
Dan B
I fed the friends Cappelini with fish stock with Squid Ink, a tomato sauce and poached Salmon with Basque spices and six month Manchego. Oh, fresh Marjoram and Bay leaves from the garden. It was so good it startled me, and our friends.
Our neighbors to the south were busy removing every tree and shrub from their yard but were persuaded to stop while we dined outside.