The beauty of time spent gardening

Last weekend was nearly perfect. Yes, it was hot and humid, because it's Missouri. But I found reasons to be outside nearly the whole time. On top of that, I got to visit and work in a very beautiful garden in Leawood, KS, another suburb of Kansas City, but this one is south of the city. I live on the eastern edge of KC.

This is the front of the home surrounded by the garden that I visited. You get a sense even here that it is lush and full, spilling out of it's borders.

A walk around one side of the home takes you past large terraced dogwoods and an immense oakleaf hydrangea bearing it's beautiful blooms that are just now fading to pink. You can see in this photo how much this gardener loves hostas. This is a tiny sampling of the never-ending variety that thrive here. The gardens behind the home are edged in this lovely red brick forming a neat edge that a mower's wheels can ride along easily.

Through this arch there is a shade garden filled, not only with hostas, but also with many varieties of Japanese maples and other shade-tolerant shrubs. A small patio in this space is surrounded by a large and obviously thriving variety of shade-loving perennials. The space was cool and inviting.

I came to this garden to help a long-time gardener/owner who felt she'd gotten a little behind in her planting and weeding. As you can see, the garden still looks lovely, there being very little that seems untended. I think  that's because this gardener is truly a lover of beautiful plants and over many years has amassed a collection of them that gives a visitor like me an eyeful of beauty everywhere she looks. With so many plants a weed has little chance of being noticed - and to be honest, there just weren't a lot of weeds.

We spent most of our time working around this area, exposing the brick edging. Behind these large, established plants is a terrace with two archways covered with climbing roses and other vines. One of these arches led to steps made of railroad ties. Standing beneath the arch I could hear birds playing in the vines entwined above me, very comfortable that this was their space. It was near midday when I was there and in the shade of the vines the air was cool. I succeeded in spending a lot of time making sure those steps in the shade were as clean as possible. It was nice under there and now there should be very few weeds obscuring the path.

In this photo the tall arching hydrangeas and the flowing grasses create a beautiful contrast to the lawn. And look at the canvas cart sitting in the grass. This belongs to this garden's owner. I love this gardener's tool cart. She has everything in there - even a skinny retractable rake. I'd never seen one of those.

This, I think, is my favorite spot. Behind the Ming house is a circular pond. The pond was constructed many years before by sinking a stock tank into the ground. There is a waterfall, but it isn't running. You can see on the left a threadleaf Japanese maple and a young ginkgo biloba that edge the pond. I remember what looked like a miniature juniper and other pretty ground covers helping to create an oriental feel. It's a very pretty space.

I enjoyed my visit to this garden. It was inspiring. I'm impressed by this gardener's love of plants which is obvious in the variety she has collected. I'm hoping to return and explore more soon. Maybe I can help get the waterfall going again?? I'd like that.

The definition of friendship

I think I've figured it out. A friend is someone who will spend two afternoons (basically, his whole weekend) in the hot sun pulling weeds with you in your garden and...  make you think he's enjoyed himself.

Here is the vegetable garden after we finished work on Sunday. So it really didn't take two more weeks of frustration to get my grabgrass-overrun vegetable garden back into some semblance of neatness at all. It just took one very nice friend with time to share with me. 

The weather even liked me last weekend. It rained a bunch on Friday night, so the soil was soft but not soaked. Ah, to pull a weed and get the roots, too, on the first try - that makes me happy.

I think pulling weeds is very, very good for me (and friends are even better). 

Gardening therapy

My life has been pretty much a mess lately. A lot is changing, people going and coming, plans that fall through, things that break, and there never seems to be enough time to adjust. Even in the best of times life can be crazy. Right now I've got a bunch of both the best and the worst.

And, of course, my garden - especially the vegetable garden - is suffering from my lack of time and attention. In this photo you can see that the crab grass has officially overtaken the space. 

Yep, it's basically mostly grass.

But here's the great thing. When I get overwhelmed and overwrought - just so frustrated I don't know what to do - pulling weeds is great therapy. There is something very soothing about yanking a huge ugly clump of crabgrass out, roots and all. It helped that we had a nice rain the night before. That way I didn't have the added frustration of leaving roots behind. It all came out relatively easy. On top of that I spent some quiet time listening to birds and bugs. There's nothing more soothing than that.

And, not only did I feel a whole bunch better, but I also rescued some pepper plants. About 2 more weeks of frustration and I might just have the whole thing cleaned up :-)

Surviving in spite of the heat

The heat has been nearly unbearable and lack of rain has caused everything in the garden to wilt. In spite of the sad, droopy leaves and burned up flowers, the garden is still attractive to many.

The American goldfinches have been flocking to the mass of purple coneflowers in the island garden. I'm having fun at my kitchen window these days seeing how many I can count among the flowers.

What surprised me, though, is that I'm also seeing hummingbirds around the coneflowers. I wouldn't have thought those dried up flowers would be attractive to them. The Missouri Department of Conservation puts out a calendar, the Missouri Natural Events calendar, that says hummingbirds are preparing to migrate and to look for increased numbers around feeders. Their increased numbers are very evident at my place.

We finally got a little rain yesterday. I like seeing the plants looking refreshed. Their sad, stressed look over the last two dry weeks was stressful for me. Yes, I worry over them like children. But, keeping true to my goal of establishing a more natural space, I avoided watering. Only the viburnums planted near the street got water. They looked very close to death, but appear to have recovered.

Now I just have to decide how to make the coneflower garden pretty without driving away the goldfinches.

Pond happenings

My pond is a real blessing this time of the year. In my part of Missouri we need rain and it's scorching hot. Everything is shriveled and dry - except the pond.

In the photo above you can see one of the reasons I'm loving my pond. I get an occasional waterlily bloom to brighten the day. Only one of the 3 water lilies in my pond has bloomed regularly this summer. I bought this one 1/2 price from a grower that sets up a stand in the parking lot of my grocery store. Amazingly, it appears much healthier than the pink one that cost 3 times as much from my local garden center. I figure I'm lucky to get blooms at all since all three are new this year.

I've also noticed two bullfrogs inhabiting my pond. Last night this frog (or maybe it was the other one - I can't tell them apart) was sitting outside the water. And today he was out again. I would have thought the rocks would be too hot. But maybe hot is refreshing for frogs.

In the quietest times, it's fun to search the pond to see if I can spy both frogs. I'm usually lucky to see one. They like hiding in wait for unfortunate dragonflies. I actually saw them catch one. I had no idea until that day that they would leap into the air to get their dinner. It made a pretty good splash and surprised the heck out of me.

Here's one in a more normal setting in some grass near the waterfall. Pretty sneaky, I think.

A walk in the woods

Today I walked a trail through a nearby park, Landahl Park, and saw a couple of plants flowering along the path. I'm always on the lookout for flowers that look good in the shade and one in particular seems to love it. It's American bellflower. I've seen the plants listed as Campanulastrum americanum and also as Campanula americana. The Missouri Plants website lists it under the second name.

It's blue flowers are striking and open along straight standing stems. The ones I saw today were growing very near the path. I imaging with a little more light and planted in groups these flowers will make a beautiful show.

The other shade-loving plant was new to me. It had small sweet pea-like flowers on branched stems. I'll have to bring my camera on my next walk to snap a few pictures. My memory might not have captured enough details to identify this one :-)

Fame Flower

Finally, my camera cooperated and I got a photo of this great flower. It's only about 1/2" across, but it's intense magenta color makes a big impact. It's fame flower (Talinum calcynium). I tucked these little succulents into the gaps in the rocks that border my pond and they are thriving. The tiny plants are now filling the spaces in the rocks and every afternoon I'm happy to see many of these pretty little flowers bobbing in the air around the edges of my pond.

We've had a pretty wet summer so it's still hard to say exactly how drought tolerant they are. Looks like there's a dry week coming up. I guess I'll find out. 

Even more butterflies

I think this one is pretty common. It's an Easter Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). It was the first to find the purple coneflowers I transplanted into the front yard.

This butterfly was in the island garden amongst that huge mass of purple coneflowers. This is a Common Buckeye (Junonio coenia). Although it's mostly brown, the large circular "eye" on it's wings are quite striking.

Here's another brown one. I think his one is a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele). Click on the butterfly name to check out the species description. On the description page there is a link that will show more images. It's a little faded, but the markings on the underside of it's wings look identical to me. It was a large butterfly, which also fits the Butterflies and Moths specied description.

Every weekend I appreciate that huge mass of coneflowers more. These are only the butterflies I could capture in a photo. There are lots more that just won't hold still long enough for a photo. I'll keep chasing them, though. It makes me feel like a kid again :-)

Plains coreopsis

Here's the newest addition to my prairie garden in the front yard. It's plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria). On my trip to Arkansas last weekend I saw this growing everywhere along the roadsides in the southwest corner of Missouri and as I traveled in the northwest part of Arkansas.

These plants are annuals that self-seed easily (from what I hear- and observed along the roadsides). I think they will add a lot of color and fullness to the area around the edge of the pond and perhaps fill in among the grasses and other prairie plants in the front yard next year. I usually shy away from annuals, but I like these. They're very pretty :-)

By the way, I'm really looking forward to the filling in part in the prairie garden. It looks very sparse right now. But, on the brighter side, I see new shoots on most of the plants, even the ones like the Monarda and rosinweed that have suffered from my dogs running through the garden. And this weekend I'll add some purple coneflowers from the island garden in the backyard and rudbeckia from an area near the vegetable garden. That should help.

I believe I'll install more of those ugly wire fences to keep the dogs out until I can move the underground fence. They protected the spring bulbs and the daylilies along the sidewalk this spring. I removed them when the daylilies filled in. And they were just a little ugly for just a little while :-)

More butterfly fun

Remember this butterfly from a post last week? I thought it was a Pipevine swallowtail. Actually I found a link on the Discover Life site mentioned in that post to another site Butterfliesandmoths.org. There I found a perfect duplicate of the butterfly in this photo and it was a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). The Butterflies and Moths site is a good one; lots of photos. The photos are arranged by butterfly or moth family, so you kind of have to know what you're looking for or be willing to spend some time looking.

I'm still looking for an image to identify the butterfly in this photo.

Growing veggies - still learning

Here's a view of my vegetable garden. I know, it's pretty well covered with crabgrass. But there are some vegetables in there. The beds on the far side of this photo actually produced lettuce and already have bell and hot peppers and tomatoes. As you can see the lettuce has gone to seed. The zucchini and yellow squash in the nearest bed are pretty slow to produce, I think. I'm not sure why. There are a few zucchini already, but no squash at all.

Here is a little bit of a bright spot - collard greens. They are a favorite of mine. These are a little bug-eaten, but still a beautiful and tasty plant. This is growing in the same bed as the lettuce.

This is a view of my tomato plants. They seem to be doing pretty well. They aren't overly productive, but we've already had to give away lots of cherry tomatoes and a couple of slicing tomatoes.

This has to be my favorite plant in the vegetable garden. It's horseradish. I think it's really lovely. I noticed it last year. Then this spring it produced tall stems with many small white flowers that were very, very fragrant. You can see the dead, dried flower stems here among the large shiny basal leaves. I think I'm going to use this plant near the foundation of my house in place of hosta. It is growing here in the shade of an oak tree, so I think it will tolerate a partial sun/shade location.

Next year, I won't have a water garden to build and a muddy front yard to cover with a prairie/meadow garden. I'll just have maintenance there. So maybe my big project will be raised beds for the vegetable garden. Or maybe it will be a grabgrass-free vegetable garden with lots of nice fluffy amended soil :-)

Purple coneflower frenzy

As little as a two weeks ago this was the overgrown island garden that I watch from my kitchen window. Please excuse the huge walnut tree seedlings that grow faster than I can find them and the purple loosestrife that no one should have in a Missouri garden. But notice the variation still visible at the edges where I've planted some herbs and tickseed coreopsis that I brought from my previous home. That same space is now nearly totally covered with layer upon layer of purple coneflower bloom. Here's a photo.

It is truly eye-catching. I've spent so much time in the front yard that this garden hasn't gotten much attention. Yesterday when some friends were over to celebrate the Fourth, I brought them back here to explain that I could share some purple coneflowers and, Wow!, was what they said. Standing back, like in this photo just doesn't do the beauty of this mass of flowers justice. You have to get close. Because when you do, you can see all the stuff that's happening.

The bees were everywhere. There were big bumblebees like this one and smaller bees. Are the smaller ones honey bees? I'm not sure. There were also many wasps, but not on the coneflowers. They seem to like the flowers on the oregano and yarrow that I transplanted from my old garden. The whole garden was buzzing with activity. It's very wonderful; more to see than you can take in with one look.

In addition to the bees and wasps, the garden is attracting some quieter and gentler bugs like this one. I haven't tried identifying a butterfly before. But doing a quick internet search I found a site called Discover Life that leads me to think this is a pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor). Discover is a cool site with lots more than butterfly identification. Nice, nice, nice. I love summer :-)

I may have to rethink the amount of coneflowers I want to move - and when to move them. In spite of its overgrown and kind of weedy looks this backyard, ignored garden has become beautiful. I would hate to disrupt the work of these garden friends. I wonder if bringing coneflowers to the space in the front will also bring all of this lovely activity? I bet it will. There's something to look forward to.

Happy summer!

Native prairie planting near the pond

Doesn't this look pitiful? Well, it's just the beginning; give it time. I wanted to show this photo as a placeholder of sorts. This will give me a benchmark for how this area looked when first planted. We'll all get to judge my garden design "vision." All the plants in this area are natives. Most were in the cartful of plants I purchased at Critsite's Prairie and Wetlands center. Many others were purchased at Heartland Nursery in Lee's Summit and a few at my favorite local garden center, Colonial Nursery. I'll highlight plants as they bloom rather than list all of them here now. I'm keeping my receipts which list the genus and species as well as the tags that came with each plant for future reference.

Hard to see in this photo is a bare spot toward the back of this planting. That will be filled with purple coneflower and Rudbeckia growing in gardens in the backyard. In the case of the coneflowers, I should say "overtaking" the island garden in the back. More about that project in another post.

For now, we'll just call this area the prairie garden. And this photo will help me remember how it looked in the beginning. The ground beneath this mulch is compacted from equipment and people traveling across this area while it was mud during our very wet spring. It will be interesting to see how well these plants fare given my hasty planting techniques and, for the most part, lack of soil amendments. At this point these plants have been in the ground for approximately 2 weeks. Almost all of them still look fairly healthy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed :-)

The pond's prettiness

The pond is done. It's just maintenance now. This photo was taken early in the morning from my front door stoop. Even in this beginning state, I think it looks pretty. The plants tucked in the rocks outside of the pond that I mentioned in my last post will hide a lot of the gaps and unnatural looking edges. So I think it will just get better. You can see the green wire fence I put up to keep the dogs out of the bog and off the rocks while the plants get established. With any luck they will quickly find a route they like to the pond's edge and forget they can walk on the gravel in the bog. Lucky for me the wire doesn't obscure much of the view and barely shows up in photos :-)

Update on pond planting

Here's a snapshot of some of the planting I've been doing. Might be hard to see here, but the gaps in the rocks are filled with gravel and dirt.

Tucked into those areas are sedum and Fame Flower (Talinum calycinum). I tried to photograph the intense magenta flowers with yellow-gold stamens that float on almost imperceptible stems in the evening above the Fame Flower. My camera must be intensity-avoidant because it just refused to focus. But you can see the little succulent leaves protruding from the rocks.

Planted at the bottom on the rocks in this photo are Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and Missouri Evening Primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa). These are planted on the east side. There are more planted along the south side of the pond.

Where the pond intersects the waterfall (not shown in the photo), I've planted Purple Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe involucrata ) and Bush's Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe bushii). The purple poppy mallow will trail. So I've planted one of them in a large crevice in the rocks around the pond. It should look pretty trailing over the side.

If all survive, it will be beautiful. I'll have to keep a close eye on things as they become established. If I haven't secured the soil in those rocks well enough, it's likely to wash out. It would be a shame to see those little fame flowers wither!

More daylily gorgeousness

I have no idea what variety these are and I don't really care. They are beautiful. The peach colored flower in the foreground has a yellow center. It's intensity makes the whole flower glow. It captivated me for several minutes before I noticed the pretty yellow flower in the background.

I'm spending so much time in the front yard with the pond that this area near the vegetable garden is hardly noticed. But when I notice, I'm always delighted with the loveliness I've been given :-)

Just passing along a very cool map

Garden Rant, one of the blogs I follow, discovered this cool land cover map. Check it out.
Here's a link to the map:
Landcover Map

Here's a link to the Garden Rant post about it:
Garden Rant

Daylily fun

Last week I noticed some color peeking through the weeds around the vegetable garden and found this beautiful daylily blooming. Now I'm excited to see several others nearby that will also bloom soon.

Here is another pretty variety blooming beneath the burr oak at the south east edge of the vegetable garden.

I thought, based on this planting along the walk to the front door, that all the lilies in my new yard might be Stella d'Oro. They're beautiful grouped in such a large number, but it's nice to see some other varieties have been planted. I guess I shouldn't be surprised knowing the previous owners loved gardens - just impressed at their choices - and thankful :-)

My kind of shopping!

I took a trip on Friday to CritSite's Prairie and Wetland Center just south of Kansas City in Belton. The day started out misty and threatening rain, but ended up very muggy as the sun broke through the clouds.

The Prairie and Wetland Center was my kind of place: all overgrown and full of growing things. I loved it. Here are a couple of photos of their selection area and display.

These tables are full of perennials. The low plants in the background in pink pots are Fame Flower (Talinum calycinum). I bought two pots. They grow on rocks and they're pretty. How could I not?

This photo shows a corner of one of their displays. It reminded me that I wanted some Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum). All of the displays were lovely and informative, showing great combinations and preferred location.

And this was my cart as I prepared to check out. It wasn't cheap. I paid over $200 for that cartful, but it was fun and I found most of what I wanted.

After we left the CritSite's Prairie and Wetland center we visited Heartland Nursery. I was impressed with their selection of native plants. I found a few that I couldn't get at the Prairie and Wetland center because they were still in production and not ready for sale yet. I even found an Elderberry (Sambucus nigra). I hadn't planned to purchase that since it isn't going in the area around the pond, but I didn't want to pass it up. What if I couldn't find one? The only plant I'm still missing is Butterfly Milkweed :-(

And this is the space my new purchases will fill - at least in part. That big pile of mulch is at the left edge of the area that will receive sun the majority of the day. The grasses, goldenrod, rattlesnake master, blazing stars, wild bergamot, penstemons, prairie dock, and at least one or two others that I can't remember will, with any luck, make a nice little prairie/meadow just outside my front door.

The other plants I purchased will soften the edge between the gravel path and the pond. Others, like the fame flower, will be placed in the rocks that edge the pond. And the American Beautyberry and Summersweet bushes will fill space near the waterfall.

Shortly after this photo was taken we had a huge rain and flash flooding. So not much was planted, but between thunderstorms I did spread all the mulch, getting nearly all the mud covered. And my new purchases won't suffer from lack of water :-)

Pond progression photos

Just for fun, I want to show the progression of the pond from beginning to where I left off last weekend.

 Shelves have been dug all around the edge, including the large shelf that will house the gravel bog filter.

Foundation for the partition wall of the bog filter is in place and I've begun creating the level edge for the pond.

Edge of pond is level and I've begun to place underlayment (carpet pad in this case) in the bottom of the pond to protect the liner from all the tree roots.

I've finished placing the underlayment and I'm ready to place the 45 mil. rubber pond liner.

Here is the pond liner in place and it's been filling for about 1 1/2 hours, reaching the 12" deep shelf for the bog filter.

I shifted viewpoints here and we're now looking from the other end of the pond. And as you can see it's nearly full. At this point we estimated based on how long it took to fill the 5 gallon white bucket in this photo that the pond is holding around 1200 gallons.

There's a big gap here in the photos. I installed the pump and plumbing including valves to adjust flow to the waterfall and bog filter. I used 1 1/4" flexible hose to go from the pump to the "T" and then to the ball valves. From the valves flexible hose takes water to the 2" PVC pipe to feed the bog filter and to the waterfall. Then, I was very busy moving cinder blocks for the wall that partitions the bog from the rest of the pond and shoveling two pickup loads of gravel into the bog. I also purchased plants for the bog and planted them.

After all that, here's what I had. You can see that the water level has risen to nearly overflow the edge due to displacement from the gravel and cinderblocks. The water is also very cloudy from the gravel. You can't even see the gravel just under the water and the plants.

In this photo the waterfall has been "roughed-in." It's just cinderblocks, liner, and the rocks creating the "splashy" sound that I like so much. The water is clearing up a little, but it hasn't receeded or evaporated much.

There's another pretty significant gap here. I am moving literally tons of rocks to cover the edges of the pond and waterfall as well as to form a path around two sides of the pond.

And this is how the pond looked last time I posted. The waterfall is now covered with rocks, the edge of the pond is completely concealed, and the gravel path around two sides is in place. You can see the gravel in the bog filter now that the water has evaporated a little.

I still haven't spread the mulch, but another weekend will be here before I know it :-)

Pond photo

Here it is!

The only thing not done in this photo is spreading that big pile of mulch. But that doesn't really affect the pond. I took this photo Sunday evening before calling it quits for the weekend. The reflection on the water makes it a little hard to see details so I'll explain.

This view is from the front door stoop. The gravel bog filter is the area at the close end of the pond that contains plants and doesn't look as though it has any water. The rocky lump at the far end of the pond, between the wheel barrel and the pile of mulch, is the waterfall.


More plants are needed around the edges of the pond. You can see one that I've placed near the waterfall. It came from my old, small pond and survived the winter in a shallow pan of water. There is a waterlily in the far right corner that purchased a week ago and a clump of water hyacinth floating in the center to provide a little shade for my gold fish. The majority of the plants I've purchased so far are in the bog filter. There is a water canna, cardinal flower, bog bean, two Louisiana water iris, a variegated sweet flag, two pickerel rushes, a taro (annual), something called a water wisteria, and two blue rushes. You may notice a small pot sitting in the gravel. That's a chocolate mint that my uncle gave me. I've heard it will grow in the pond, but that it's pretty aggressive. So I'll put it in a pot. There is also a plant with small yellow flowers in the bog that I pulled out of a puddle in a gravel parking lot the other day. It looks like a buttercup. I'll check it out and let you know.

It all seems to be working well. Most of the plants have been in the pond for over a week and they all appear to be growing. The water canna and the pickerel are blooming. The gold fish from my old pond that lived in the aquarium downstairs all winter were moved into the pond on Friday. They look healthy and happy.

Yay! And I still love the splashy sound of the waterfall.

I've been lost in the world of water gardening

Whew! That long weekend lasted too long. Placing 3 tons of rock and 1 1/2 tons of gravel in a pond is hard work. Not only that, but it leaves no time for writing about the progress on my pond.

I'll take a little time today to share how the project is progressing. No pictures to show yet since it isn't quite finished. Incredibly, I ran out of rock. So the top of the waterfall isn't covered and more flat rocks are needed to clean up the pond edge.

Three tons might sound like a lot, but there never seems to be the right rock for the spot. I just called today to have 2 more pallets delivered. That should more than finish things up.

Last time I wrote about the pond it had a liner and was being filled with water and now it is full and has a splashy waterfall :-) I wish I could share a recording. It reminds me of the relaxation tapes I used to have. Think small splashes in a babbling brook.

The plumbing and gravel bog filter are finished, too. The plumbing came together very well. The pipe that feeds the bog filter was easy, but putting together the fittings for the two ball valves to regulate the flow from the pump to the waterfall and bog was very tough. The flexible hose just didn't want to slide onto the barbs. But I got it done with lots of cursing and sweat - and it works, hence the splashy waterfall.

After covering the pipe in the bog with 1/2 ton of gravel, I purchased plants and another 3/4 tons of gravel. My guide to bog filter construction suggested placing the plants after filling the bog halfway with gravel. But I found it very difficult to shovel gravel in around the plants without damaging them. So I added gravel to about one inch below the water level and then placed the plants. The last inch of gravel I added by hand. So it's now a very good thing that I don't care how my fingernails look - because I have none.

I also jump-started my bog's biological filter by adding Microbe-lift to the water. It's some bacteria-mix stuff that my neighbor suggested. He has a very clean pond with huge, happy koi so I think he knows what makes a healthy pond. In addition, as a precaution, I added a water treatment to remove chlorine since I filled the pond with water from the house. It was probably okay since the water had been sitting for a week, but just in case.

The pond water was really murky due to sediment on the gravel and I was nervous about putting my 3-year-old. Laura at Brother's Pets where I purchase the Microbe-lift suggested I buy some feeder goldfish to test the water and start things off. Nine of the dozen I bought seem to have survived. The bodies of the other 3 haven't surfaced. They may still be there, too. The goldfish I am nervous about putting in the pond were also feeder fish (actually bait from the bait shop), but they are getting pretty big. It's a lot easier to dispose of a small fish body.

The water was pretty clear yesterday morning and I could see all the way to the bottom. Still didn't see the missing goldfish, but I think the filter is working.

Last night I finally took time to work at my desk in the sunroom and enjoy the new view of the waterfall. But I'll have to adjust to the restful sound. It's hard to stay focused on balancing the checkbook with that lovely distraction in my ears dragging my eyes from their task.

Ah, the troubles I endure :-)

Misidentified mystery plant: not Dame's Rocket - it's Money Plant

My most recent mystery plant turns out to be something I can keep. It's not the invasive Hesperis matronalis (Dame's Rocket). Instead it's Lunaria annua, better known as Money Plant.

These seed pods formed very quickly and were a dead giveaway. This plant is growing in a sunnier location than the ones I photographed earlier this spring. I was taking a stroll near the vegetable garden when I noticed this mass of flat seed pods. And I quickly checked the plants near the brick patio. Yep! They had the same flat seed pods.

I recognized it as money plant. A quick Google search and I found the name: Lunaria annua. 

Since I had seen many of the purple flowers growing in the woods near my home, I decided to see if I could locate a plant when I went for my morning run. Near the road I found several plants that still had fading flowers and pulled one up. Unlike the plants growing in my garden, the roadside plants had long, skinny seed pods. As shown in this photo. These plants also have longer, thinner leaves that barely wrap the stem at all. This plant actually is the invasive Hesperis matronalis. When Dame's Rocket and Money Plant are in bloom it is difficult to tell them apart. The flower structure is identical, so it was no help. The best clue before the seed pods form will be the leaves. Money plant has wider leaves that clasp the stems. Dame's rocket has thinner, smaller leaves; much like phlox. The trouble in identifying my money plants came from not plucking a plant sooner so I could compare.

I remember thinking the leaves looked like Brunnera last fall. They were large and deeply veined; nothing like the leaves on the flower stems. I plan to cut most of the stems before the seed pods dry; leaving a few to start new plants next year. I'll keep an eye on the plant that's left to see if the leaves continue to broaden or if this plant is a biennial and what I witnessed last fall was the first year plant.

I'm glad I found out this wasn't an invasive before I pulled them all up. Money plant is really pretty!