Before the Wrens

It is four days until my garden will be featured on the Waushara County Master Gardeners' Garden Walk, aptly(?) titled "Ring Around Wild Rose" (gaaa-wk!).  (Linked here.)

The garden at this point will pretty much be what it will be.  I am still hoping most of my LA and Asiatic lilies will pop,  but it looks doubtful, they will be in prime bloom.  I think all the clematis will give up a pretty nice show and some of the tail end of the first flush of roses will be evident. 

For the first time I can remember the area daylilies are not in bloom.  This means my hosta are in bloom without the three ring circus the hellstrip daylilies make this event.  The black 'Landini' Asiatic lilium I planted specifically to be timed with the walk look as if it will not be in bloom.  The black lilium blooming against the cottage-y pink I thought might give pause to the dangerous aspect of a gardener with thoughts of evil topiary/pruning plans for world domination and plant submission.... at least in my own yard.  A yard so tiny, topiary is a necessary evil and pruning, "the way."

The long border looks like a sea of green to me, but Darrel says it is "impressive".   The potager, not quite so much.  My timing is just off with the vegetable part this year.  There is a longish stretch by my berry bramble and next to the neighbor's much improved garage since residing that I waited to plant until they completed their work.

There is still a bit of mulching to do, a bit of the deck to paint, some pea gravel to move, plant labels to deal with (or not), and a couple spots to weed.    Even if I do none of these things, I don't think anyone walking my garden will be totally disappointed. 

Except, maybe the wrens.

While walking Faithful Companion I scared up a fledging robin, navigating in a manner that spoke too loudly of a bad Pixar movie with animated soundtrack of a juvenile robin screaming, "How do I fly this thing!"  It reminded me a lot of Handsome Son and his first driving attempts, especially the part where he went in reverse much too fast and gathered a spot of red paint from a different neighbor's garage on my bumper-- no damage to the garage. 


Also while walking Cinnamon, the wrens sent up a nasty racket from the nearby apple tree.  I paused.  "Like what's up with you guys?  Don't you have your nest much too low over in the long border's forsythia (appropriate height for neighbor's "feral" cat, however)?"

Ah!  The light dawns on my vast unconscious consciousness...the Lapin cherries are nearly ripe.  As a matter of fact, the ripest ones already show signs of tiny wrens eating a la fresco.  Picking them, the scant bowlful happened immediately.


This is the second year I have had just this bowlful of of sweet cherries.  This cherry is topiaried.  I have no room for a full size cherry tree.  It was covered with blooms, though and I expected much more from it.  More research is called for, perhaps the supposedly self-fruitful Lapin needs a bit of help with pollination in the form of my paintbrush in Spring, or perhaps again some of the fruit froze, although the nearby apple had no issues.



July 13, 2013
Ring Around Wild Rose Garden Tour
Wild Rose, WI
By the Waushara Co. MGA from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. rain or shine. Six gardens in the Wild Rose area feature a wide variety of gardening styles, including a covered bridge, an English garden, farm garden, working G scale train in one garden, and more. For details download the garden descriptions document. $7. For more information call Celine Pitzen at (920) 787-0795.