People, if there's one thing I do NOT want to tell you all about this month, it's my garden. I don't want to rant and rave about Japanese beetles. I don't care to complain about how dumb my cucumber trellising plan was, and how dangerous - yes dangerous - it is for me to pick cucumbers as a result. Do you really care if my tomato plan was little better than my cucumber plan, so that it's nearly impossible for me to prune the tomato plants? Do you want to see shots of weeds encroaching on my newly planted raspberries?
But it's that time of the month, again, and publish a post in the Hive Garden community I will do. But I'm gonna move us out to my favorite part of the house, my front porch.
Crossword puzzles and coffee anyone? That's how most of my mornings start: me, my dog, a cuppa, and a crossword, from the daily hardcopy paper, out on my quiet porch. One of the best things about my porch is that when I look around, I don't see a ton of work to be done. Sure, the steps need staining, and the porch needs sweeping, and the bird's nest area needs scrubbing out, but that can all wait. I have to water the few potted plants and little else. Heavenly!
Most of the plants on my porch are house plants that were given to me. I've augmented with a couple of petunias, and some thunbergia, but the rest of these go into the house for the winter. Unlike a lot of my gardeing friends, I keep house plants to a minimum. When the outside garden goes to sleep, I am grateful that I will have some time off from enslavement to plant care.
If you come to my house and are not recognized by my dog Hazel, she will behave quite threateningly, a good guard dog. But if she knows you, she will whimper, and shake, and press her ears back, and try very hard to keep her butt and paws on the floor, as she has been taught to do. "Off!" is the command you should use if she jumps on you, then "sit!" It doesn't always work to keep her from jumping on you, but she is getting better. I find training the humans to insist that she stay off, and to use "off" and "sit" as commands, to be more difficult than it has been to train Hazel!
But come on up those stairs and sit a spell with me. There is something very friendly about a visit on someone's front porch.
Once up there, choose a place to sit, then look to the east:
to the south:
and to the west:
As you can see, it's quite a private spot for me. It's also very quiet! There is hardly any traffic on this block. Very relaxing! I'm so lucky to have this porch in my life.
I found a curious pattern of holes in my prayer plant today. Does anyone know what might have made these two rows of oval holes? A Hungry Caterpillar?
How can I let a month go by without telling you about all the FOOD I am producing on the north side of my house? I can't, so here's a bit of info.
This is my entry to Hive Garden Community's monthly garden challenge for August 2023.
