Lilies, Glads and Magical Moments

My lilies were absolutely gorgeous this summer! I remembered to spray Bobbex on them regularly so the deer left them alone for the most part and they bloomed abundantly. :)

The Hollyhocks grew tall and stately as usually and looked quite stunning against the east side of the house.

They are at the end of their bloom now, though and I have clipped a number of them back already. (August 27, 2012)

 My Helianthus-false sunflowers along the side of the house are looking really good this year as well. They are in the same bed as the hollyhocks and clematises.

We have had a fair amount of rain this summer but it rarely comes from the east so that particular bed usually gets little rain. Since we put eaves up on that section of the roof 2 years ago, it doesn't get any run off from the roof anymore either. Clematises don't like to be dry and so I have put a soaker hose in that bed to ensure it gets enough water.  

Purple Monkshood, blue delphinium and the tail end of the red Maltese Cross

Maltese Cross

The perennials in my round Angel bed have done spectacularly well as usual. The Delphinuiums and the blue Monkshood grew tall and the red maltese Cross bloomed large to the delight of the hummingbirds. My pink Monkshood grew and bloomed more sparsely. It was overcrowded by my gigantic helianthus- false sunflower in the centre of that bed. 

(Note to self: Dig out more of the helianthus next spring to try and contain it better.)

My diligent husband dug around the long bed and added these beautiful stack stones around the sides.

The delphinuims in my long bed did not grow as well as they have in the past. I had dug most of them out this spring to get at the massive amount of long, endless grass roots in this bed. I guess the re-planting might have set them back somewhat.  Then 'something' kept eating away at the leaves and eventually most of the delphinium leaves were devoured. 

The Beer traps finally identified the culprits . Who knew that I had dozens and dozens of slugs eating their way through my flower beds! I have been emptying out the little tin beer bait traps almost daily and I have lost count of the numbers I have drowned, but I know it is close to 150! (I will never be able to eat or look at escargot ever again!)  

I really should not be surprised, since we had a rainy spring and relatively rainy first part of the summer, that plus the mulch around the perennial beds provides ideal living conditions and hiding places for slugs. 

Another note to Self:  Put out beer bait traps in June next year; not wait until August...

Brandy Wine rudbeckia and pink cinquefoil

Next Note to Self: Dig up sprawling cinquefoil perennial and move it to the wild bed by the road. It is very pretty but takes up a lot of room.

I like the 'Brandy wine' rudbeckias, but not quite as much as I loved the 'Autumn Colors' rudbeckias that I had last year and the year before...

My firebird dahlia is taller than ever this year and blooming beautifully in my birdhouse stackstone bed. The rose bushes have started to set some new buds and I am pleased to see that I seem to have contained the rust on them. :)

I am really impressed with the gladiolas in that bed. They are a gorgeous two tone deep purple and others are purple with silver lines along the edge. )I need to find the tags and write the names here.)

One morning recently, as I was admiring my flower beds from the deck, I saw a hummingbird dipping in and out of the delphinium flowers that had self-seeded in that bed. After a few sips, it continued on to  the glads and after that  the hummingbird had an uncharacteristic rest in the mostly bare branches of the chokecherry near the bird feeder where the chickadees usually hang out. 

I watched the hummingbird for 2 or 3 minutes and couldn't believe it was sitting still for that long! 

I debated with myself:

Do I run inside and grab my camera, or do I just stand here and enjoy the moment. Okay, I'll stay and enjoy the moment. When it continued to sit still on the branch, I finally dashed inside for the camera, but, of course when I reappeared,  the hummingbird was gone. It was quite a magical moment anyway. :)

Gladiolas, Delphiniums and (Ugh) Slugs

Gladiolas, Delphiniums and Slugs

Usually my garden looks its best in July and by August many of my perennials have finished blooming. This year is no exception, but the beautiful glads that have started blooming are sure a welcome addition! I bought 10 healthy fat bulbs at the Echo Glen Greenhouse booth at the Trade Show in town in April. I have found in the past that some of the glad bulbs that I planted did little more than grow tall nice looking leaves so I thought some of these might do the same. With that in mind I planted 5 of the tallest sprouts in my round Stack stone bed and the other 5 I planted in the centre of some of my deck pots instead of using a Spike. The ones on the deck have produced double  stems of flowers and the 2 bulbs in my tub at the bottom of the stairs have grown gigantic! (Likely thanks to the Miracle grow I was socking to the regal geraniums there.)

My poor delphiniums were not at their best this summer. I had dug most of them out of the long bed in the spring in order to clean up that bed, remove as much of the long grass roots growing rampantly there... That may have set the delphiniums back somewhat compared to last summer when they grew profusely, about 7 feet tall! Plus this year their leaves were decimated by some nasty garden insect or other. My poor lupines had their leaves ravaged, too and the marigold which I had planted in my triangular stack stone bed to replace the first eaten batch were also decimated. I guess I had other things on my mind this summer as I didn't clue in as to who/ what the culprits were.

I finally went online and Googled it... It was either a Earwigs or slugs. I decided that, yes, it could very likely be slugs since we have had problems with them before in the veg garden especially  among the lettuce. The slugs had the perfect hiding places under all the bark that I had added to mulch the flower beds. 

I took 4 empty cat food tins from our recycle bin and sunk them into 2 of my flower beds, then filled them with beer and water. In one night alone I caught over 60 slugs, drowned in the watery beer traps! Yay!!!

Yay, I won this battle!!!

I replenished the traps with fresh beer and had dozens more! I discovered quite a few slugs lurking under my garden statues waiting for the sun to start going down so they could continue their destruction! I squished a few, snipped a few with the garden shears, but that seemed to gross so I tossed the rest head first into the beer. I think I need to add a few more traps to one other bed as well.

And more importantly:  MAKE A NOTE IN MY GARDEN JOURNAL TO START SETTING OUT BEER TRAPS IN JUNE NEXT YEAR!!!  

Once the nesting song birds have raised their families and left our property, the slugs take over! (UGH!) Where are the hungry robins and house wrens when you need them?!

Okay let's end this post with a more palatable picture:

One of my favourite geraniums this year along with diamond frost Euphorbia and 'small leaf'

Another slug solution:

Add sliced cucumbers to an aluminum pie tin with some water. Apparently it creates some kind of electric shock when the slugs slide in. (Not tested yet.)

Add epsom salts around your plants ( Slugs don't like to crawl over salt). I tried this solution but of course it rained the very next day. The salt might not be good for a flower bed anyway...

Earwigs Bait:

Equal parts soy sauce, cooking oil, and corn syrup (or molasses). Cover 1/2 inch in bottom of container and sink container into the ground to brim. Cover partially to keep out the rain and to make it dark. I have not tried this solution either as I have not had an earwig problem (to my knowledge.)

Happy gardening! :D