6-13-20 VERMONT: One week from the Summer Solstice and it’s in the mid-fifties and breezy, feeling like October. We have had a little rain, very little. The new pond is down about a foot, but the swampy area is still wet.
There is a turtle in the new pond, I can’t tell if he/she migrated from the old pond or is a new arrival. I found the crawfish trap that I made several years ago in the basement, dusted it off, dropped in a hot dog for bait and threw it in the old pond one recent evening. In the morning it had about fifty ‘bugs’ that I poured into a bucket of pond water, spilling about half of them on pride rock by accident. These last went back in the old pond, and the ones in the bucket are colonizing the new pond. The new pond also has thousands of tadpoles and baby frogs.
I repaired an outdoor rocking chair and end table.
After a trip to Brown’s Nursery, I planted several perennials—in the new brook, two Primula sieboldii, one Lobelia siphilitica, ‘Great Blue’, and one Marsh marigold, Caltha pallustris, in the wall beds, two Astilbe, ‘Mighty Red Quinn’ and ‘Mighty Chocolate Cherry’, one Liatris spicata, ‘Blazing Star’ Gayfeather, and two Astrantia major, ‘Ruby Cloud’. I planted a small horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, at the east end of the new dam and have two red oaks, Quercus rubra, to put somewheres around the new pond. The trees are all small, a size I can handle. I was thinking about having the nursery plant larger specimens, but they are backed up with work for the next two months.
New blooms: yellow flag iris, Asian lilac, weigela, bishops weed, anemone, Wentworth viburnum, Siberian iris, terrace roses, rosa rugosa, chives, thyme, burning bush, lupin.
I trapped a bunch of crawfish from the old pond for colonization of the new pond. While emptying them from the trap to a bucket of water, I spilled a some out of the trap. Judy took this picture of them when I was putting them back in the pond.
Wentworth viburnum. The flower looks like the Double-File viburnum flower, but the leaves are very different. See the May 5, 2020 post for the DFV.
Yellow flag iris, the lowest three, drooping petals and the middle three horizontal petals are full sized, but the top three, upright petals are vestigial.
Siberian iris. Compare the three large, upright petals with the flag iris above. The pollinators enter where the yellow markings lead them between the lower two rows of petals.
Water lily pads are surfacing and one frog has re-created a cliché.
Iris and Primrose at the old pond with the dam of the new pond in back in the sun.
There is a turtle in the new pond, I can’t tell if he/she migrated from the old pond or is a new arrival. I found the crawfish trap that I made several years ago in the basement, dusted it off, dropped in a hot dog for bait and threw it in the old pond one recent evening. In the morning it had about fifty ‘bugs’ that I poured into a bucket of pond water, spilling about half of them on pride rock by accident. These last went back in the old pond, and the ones in the bucket are colonizing the new pond. The new pond also has thousands of tadpoles and baby frogs.
I repaired an outdoor rocking chair and end table.
After a trip to Brown’s Nursery, I planted several perennials—in the new brook, two Primula sieboldii, one Lobelia siphilitica, ‘Great Blue’, and one Marsh marigold, Caltha pallustris, in the wall beds, two Astilbe, ‘Mighty Red Quinn’ and ‘Mighty Chocolate Cherry’, one Liatris spicata, ‘Blazing Star’ Gayfeather, and two Astrantia major, ‘Ruby Cloud’. I planted a small horse chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, at the east end of the new dam and have two red oaks, Quercus rubra, to put somewheres around the new pond. The trees are all small, a size I can handle. I was thinking about having the nursery plant larger specimens, but they are backed up with work for the next two months.
New blooms: yellow flag iris, Asian lilac, weigela, bishops weed, anemone, Wentworth viburnum, Siberian iris, terrace roses, rosa rugosa, chives, thyme, burning bush, lupin.
I trapped a bunch of crawfish from the old pond for colonization of the new pond. While emptying them from the trap to a bucket of water, I spilled a some out of the trap. Judy took this picture of them when I was putting them back in the pond.
Wentworth viburnum. The flower looks like the Double-File viburnum flower, but the leaves are very different. See the May 5, 2020 post for the DFV.
Yellow flag iris, the lowest three, drooping petals and the middle three horizontal petals are full sized, but the top three, upright petals are vestigial.
Siberian iris. Compare the three large, upright petals with the flag iris above. The pollinators enter where the yellow markings lead them between the lower two rows of petals.
Water lily pads are surfacing and one frog has re-created a cliché.
Iris and Primrose at the old pond with the dam of the new pond in back in the sun.
No comments:
Post a Comment