The Frog Bar

P9140011.jpgWe need to name our pond something like Heron’s Hang-out or Marlow’s Frog Bar or something. We’re down to three fish left, from the eight we started the year with. Poor things. The frogs seem to be hanging in there, but several times I’ve found wading birds of different flavors in the edges of the pond, usually around sunset, with either a fish or a frog dangling from their beak. I go run out like a madwoman to scare them away, but really, there’s not much hope for that. I should just call them feeder fish and be done with it. But they’re so cute! They come up to us to be fed and everything.

Frank and I tackled that area behind the garden where we cut earlier in the summer. First we put down seed for some sort of cover crop so the trees and weeds don’t take it over.

Then we worked again on that back garden area, improving a bit of soil where I hope to have at least some veggies next year. Covering the weeds with cardboard, coffee grounds and mulch is an awful lot like work! My whole body is sore tonight from all the lifting and hauling, I think.

The burning bushes are starting to go from that dull red to a prettier color, finally. They stayed pretty ugly for too long though, and I still haven’t remembered to figure out what they need in the soil.

I’m not sure what it says about the state of the lawn that we are finding mushrooms all through it. We think they are puffballs, but because we aren’t completely sure, we’re not eating them or anything, just tossing them in the compost.

P9140002.jpgThe pumpkin plant in the back remains huge and unproductive, I’m unhappy to report. We aren’t sure what the problem is. Did they not get enough water, maybe? We get blooms, but they never set fruit. No bees to pollinate, maybe? Is the soil where they were planted too awful? Our area of the state is where the huge pumpkins that win weight contests are grown, and we are failing at growing any. I wonder what the deal is.

P9140003.jpg P9140004.jpgOne of my climbing roses has grown up the wrong side of the trellis. It’s got a lot of blooms on it, but you can barely see them through the wood trellis. It looks like we planted it way too far back, and that’s got to be moved next spring.

The Autumn Joy sedum is just starting to turn, and there are all sorts of blooms on many of the roses as well. The clematis is still hanging in there as well, and has reached the top of the post of the pergola. Putting the trellis on the pergola posts has worked out quite well. Frank thought they would look funny, but I kind of like it, and it’s really helped everything grow up the posts properly.

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