Garden Update and a Whirlwind PA Trip

On Wednesday, I returned from a whirlwind trip to PA to help my mom, aka “Momma Jane” prepare for another move — this time from a standalone house into a 2BR apartment in an active retirement community where many of her friends live. She’ll hire packers and movers, but my 5-day trip laid the legal, financial, insurance and emotional groundwork for her shift. Big mountains (of paperwork!) moved. The weather in PA was hot, hot, hot to this Michigan gal, but on my last full day there, we remembered to take a sweaty selfie:

I came back to a raucously blooming garden that needed a bit of deadheading but otherwise maintained itself. Here’s some seasonal red, white and blue:

Red bergamot “fireworks” with a bumble bee up front

Madonna lily in bloom

Delphiniums on the Fourth of July

… and pinks:

Flowering groundcover sedum

Yarrow in pots so it doesn’t spread

The garden continues to reinvent and rearrange itself, with the ailing yellow rose bush I cut to the ground suddenly making a healthy comeback. You can see it below, next to the red dianthus, which will now get moved to the former ruby chard container.

Rose bush resurgence in the bottom center, along with red dianthus to the right, yellow coreopsis to the left of center, purple salvia to the far left, catmint to the right, and red lilies at the top. The daisies had temporarily fallen over after a hard rain.

I had just wondered where to put that dianthus when what to my wondering eyes should appear?

A groundhog, of course!

That fatty ate the ruby red chard he had previously rejected, which means the only remaining non-herbal edibles in the front yard are getting replaced by groundhog-disliked dianthus. Ask and you shall receive — in a manner of speaking, anyway. I keep getting the message not to plant edibles up front, and literally every single time I think I can get away with it, a groundhog arrives within 12 hours of that thought. “You think you can harvest greens? Silly human, greens are for groundhogs!”

Meanwhile, all the extra flowers up front delight not only me, but especially the birds! It’s like an aviary between the weeping birch branches and all the flowers. Last evening, we had dozens of birds on the tree and sipping from flowers. This morning, the fun continued with multiple species all taking turns. I love it! Given the number of birds, I probably won’t get to harvest any of these ripening blueberries, but I do love the song, beauty, and entertainment:

I have to admit, the flowers, birds and bees bring me so much more joy than fighting off critters for a few bites of greens or short season tomatoes. With Uranus in Taurus trining my Ascendant and my progressed Moon exactly conjunct my natal Uranus, change is on the menu, even if chard isn’t. I’m grateful for all the organic, fresh food options in Kalamazoo, and for the beauty and life right outside our windows.