EACH NEW DAY BRINGS SOMETHING DIFFERENT

When each new day begins I have no idea what it will bring. Every day is different. One thing is sure. As soon as breakfast is over I will head out into the garden to take a walk around. This morning, with no sun, I had camera in hand. The pale pink achillea and magenta rose campion have formed a partnership.

A pale lavender larkspur with hot orange cosmos.

and mother nature has paired this dahlberg daisy with a prairie verbena. Perfect.

For the first time in our 10 years horsemint has shown up at the far top of the lot by the road.

No surprise because it is growing everywhere along the roadsides and in the fields. What was so special about this year? Surely it wasn't just the wet winter.

And so my gardening day started on a happy note. Then--

I went into the greenhouse. What's this in my container of pumice? Oh no! It's a nest.

Then the realization hit. Over a week ago the door of the greenhouse, which had been held open by a tin of sand, closed. There had been a strong wind.I saw the trail in the pea gravel as the wind had pushed the tin across, and the door closed. When I saw it I took note but I ignored it. The bird, which must have been sitting on the eggs, must have flown out in a fright as the door began to move, never to return. The door had shut. I felt so sad. I wish the wrens would build nests in the bird houses I provide for them rather than in the teapot hanging in the potting shed or on top of the towel on the peg, in the bike shoes in the garage. It always ends in disaster.

My next 'downer' was to see one of my dahlberg daisies looking very sick. I pulled it out and found root mealy bugs. I had these last year on some blackfoot daisies. Maybe the dry conditions over the last few weeks have led to this. I doused the others in the area with some spinosad. Later, I read diatomaceous earth might help.

I spent he rest of the morning cleaning up the gravel and the perimeter bed in the vegetable garden. I cut the coreopsis and brought them into the house then headed off to the Senior Activity Center to the garden club, where the speaker was to talk on Plant Propagation. Right up my alley.