The Surprise in My Garden

I've been working in the yard today. I fertilized the flowers and cut back some...did some dead heading and just regular cleaning up. I had a lawn cart full... by the time I rounded Mary's Garden. I have a hanging basket there, on the trellis with clematis...it's shady there and I thought that it might do well in this part of the yard. The clematis has grown so much and was almost covering the basket. I tried to pull the clematis away and trim it a bit, when something plopped onto the chartreuse hosta below. It was a tiny tree frog. It had landed in the perfect spot.....camouflaged by the very same colored leaf. As I watched it, I was surprised when it hopped on my hand. It felt like an insect....no weight to it at all. He looked at me with tiny eyes showing no fear. I got to study it with it's little suction cup feet. No camera....Joe wasn't around....I wanted a picture of this little fellow. So, I decided to try to go into the house and get the camera. We got inside the front door. He didn't move an inch. Around the living room and into the hallway. The light changed and I saw him crouch. He sprung off my arm and onto the carpet. I thought maybe it had been a bad idea to bring him in. How would I catch him? That would really be comical....two old folks chasing a frog around the room. He just sat there on the carpet and I picked him up. He hopped over to the bookcase and clung there while I got my camera. I snapped a couple of pictures and then thought that the fun would begin. He just waited for me to pick him up and we went outside. I placed him on the hosta leaf and sat down to watch him for a while. He sprung up to the clematis, where he had been before. I lost sight of him in the leaves. I had never seen one of these in our yard.

I like to keep track of different bits of nature that I see for the first time each year. This year, so far, this tiny frog, and some red headed woodpeckers. I hadn't seen the woodpeckers since I was a little girl.

I continued down the yard and sat under the birdhouse shaped like a church. I could hear soft peeping coming from inside. Then I heard the mom and dad chickadees scolding me...."Hurry up, we need to feed our babies." So, I worked a little faster and went on down the side of the house and watched them return with food for their young. A second batch of chickadees this summer.

I'm careful when gardening now....and wear garden gloves.The hostas are huge and I've seen snakes under them in past years.
I cut back the roses, because I saw some J. Beetles the other day. I do this each year at this time, so that by the time the beetles are gone, the roses will have their final flush of blooms. I hate to see them all chewed up and covered by beetles.....and I don't want to use chemicals or stand there dropping them into soapy water. I read the other day to cut back petunias on the 4th of July...so they don't get leggy. I got this information from Pat at  http://countryworkshop.blogspot.com/You do this with mums too.

I continued around to the back and moved some pots with flowering plants to the front yard. This is the time of year when our gardens are just about to start looking kind of tired. I move things around to give things a new look.

I was really tired, when I was finished. I looked like an old hag, when I came into the house :) We ate some leftovers and sat down to watch a movie....both of us so tired, we kept falling asleep. Now, I'm going to shower and wash my hair and do my best to stay awake until bedtime. Gardening is certainly labor intensive. Sometimes you just have to push yourself to continue on and get the job done.
Balisha