I've got an alibi and I never saw that pick ax before!

It’s Sunday night and so I thought I would do a little update. Nope, no special reason. Well maybe because it’s Sunday night and I got nothing people. Nothing!
Do you remember this little effort of mine where I wanted to turn this massive boulder into a second waterfall? This is where it stands so far. Here is an in progress shot from earlier this summer and then the current view. I haven't decided if I think it needs a bigger pump or not. There is another falls to the left a few yards plus the little pond to the right and I don't want to feel like I have to yell over the roar of a tidal wave or something. It's supposed to be soothing not water boarding.

I had planted some variegated ivy in there but the heat wave killed it back so severely I am not sure if it survived at all. That’s a shame too because it was trailing down the sides and was going to look pretty cool. I have alyssum and marigolds holding the fort till the perennials get going. I do have trailing sedums in that little pocket bed and I just put another ivy in so maybe something will trail somewhere sometime. Please, please, please.

Next up is the gravel ditch also from earlier this summer. I was so happy to find myself pick axing through endless feet of hard packed gravel again. I can't believe it was only last summer when me and the chiropractor were like this (fingers crossed to show just how close we were). Boy, those were the days. I went down as far as I hoped I needed. I did start seeing some of the old growth forest roots from back in the day when there were actually trees on this spot so that must be a good thing. I think. Got it all filled in with some rich “composty” soil and mounded up for more depth. I then promptly proceeded to over plant it as is my style. I’ll deal with it next year. Right now I just want to see plants in there.

Then there is the rose which is actually at the top of the post because it was a much better picture to start the post with. In a flash of genius I decided to move said rose to the spot next to the sumac which was now planted in the new gravel bed. My flash of genius was promptly followed by the thump of stupidity as I proceeded to kill the rose bush with too much Miracle Grow in the transplant watering. Ever the optimist though I refused to take that leafless thorny stick out of the ground. I mean come on, how could that beautiful bush really be dead? No way. It was really quite a horrible lingering death. I just planted some plants around the murdered thing to hide my crime and went about securing my alibi. Then lo and behold a miracle occurred, no thanks to the product of the same name thank you very much. The little thorny leafless stick has LEAVES. Yes, leaves, green lush baby leaves. There will be roses again and they will climb up the sumac and through the branches just as I envisioned and be spectacular! Well that’s as long me and the Miracle Grow stay away from the poor little thing.

I also wanted to share some of the work the birds have done in the garden. They deserve some recognition for all their efforts. They have planted these pumpkins which I am really enjoying. There are several around the garden and I love the big round leaves. They even have several actual pumpkins growing on them. I have decided to grow them on purpose from now on. The thing that really gets me however is where they are growing. When we started the whole “yard” area was just packed gravel and ratty weeds. We decided to cover the whole area with sawdust from the neighbor’s wood mill. It smothered the weeds and gave some cushioning to the ground. The bird plants are growing in the sawdust. Not a lick of actual soil.

The second favorable thing the birds did this year was to plant sunflowers. I had originally intended and planted a sunflower bed at the back of the garden. Last year it was great. This year we apparently changed things enough that the lady ferns that were long dead by June last year just stayed on. They stayed on and took over. They blotted out every thing. Now I like the ferns and I am happy to have them fill in the back side of things but they took out my sunflowers and the Black Eyed Susan's. OK. Then suddenly sunflowers started popping up all over the place. Yeah! I love sunflowers and I especially liked the spontaneous design the birds laid out. So, the ferns can keep the sunflower bed and the birds can keep planting where they want. We got a thing going on.