It's going to be a noisy summer—the cicadas (brood II) are back from their last appearance in 1996. Do not reach for the bug spray—they won't harm you or your plants or your pets (unless your feckless Lhasa Apso eats 14 of them, but he'll only throw up.) They're perfectly harmless, except to your ears.
I opened my pond/waterfall contraption and released my poor fed-up-to-here-with-this-tiny-aquarium goldfish. They've spent the last two days surfing in the waterfall, led by Diva Gloriana of the veil-tail and the red, gold and black movie-star body. (And, yes, in spite of their tiny brains they are capable of inventing and having fun.) The folks who built my boulder falls got an "A" for engineering and a "D-" in rock placement (and I thought I was being nice by vacating myself from the actual construction). So I have a big pile of rocks glued to each other by what looks like dog puke.
My job, which I've already started, is chipping away the extra plastic glue; filling the many unnatural looking holes with a mixture of dirt and compost; and planting these little gardens with sedums. I'm heartened that many of the plants beneath the fountain that I tried to move, survived and are emerging only slightly bedraggled. The twin-leaf and the giant lilies made it! There are several bare areas around the falls that I'm going to plant with columbines and johnny-jump-ups. I'm putting some pink, purple and red hollyhocks behind the falls from seeds I got from my sister in Kansas.
Other garden plans: All new perennials will go in pots to get established in my overcrowded yard. The cannas have been split up to go in separate planters; the columbine that's come up in a crack in the patio for 3 years is back but being much put upon by Nova, my tenent's white husky. Nice dog but he lives to pee. I built a little brick wall around the beleaguered posie & surrounded it by pots of plants. Nova, by the way was drinking from the pond, and was so surprised by the fish (new to him) that he fell in. I do appreciate the fact that he puts the fear of God in the resident (not for long I hope) rats. He really wants those tasty critters; he's named them Hors d'oeuvre #1 & Hors d'oeuvre #2.
I'm planting a whole patio container with borage. I recommend it: A) for drinks, B) for bright blue flowers and C) because bees love it. I'm also planting some mints up for my tenants who seem to have an uncanny knack for knowing what's good in alcoholic drinks.
My Virginia bluebells have spread around, even though there's not as much shade as there used to be. I see baby Indian balsams everywhere including in the compost heap. (These are the emigrant impatiens from Asia that are related to our native jewelweed.) The resident glamerous thugs—painter's palette falopia, purple shiso/beefsteak plant/perilla and pokeweed have yet to make their appearance. I like serendipity. My five-foot-tall garden pagoda has attracted all by itself a tiny leafed ivy which has twined in and out of its windows.
The blue squill are spreading around nicely but I need to put more species tulips about. And when did I plant red tulips (not to mention a five-foot-tall orange fritillaria.)?
I've noticed a few nefarious things in spring garden catalogs: One touted a Piet Oudolf type of landscaping a la Millenium Park in Chicago using native grasses and native perennials. Yeah, yeah, yeah and both the pictures and the write-up had plenty of agapanthus, aka lily-of-the-Nile. Beautiful but no native. Another catalog showed a sample multi-plant selection that one bought as a group. Some of the plants were lupines but they looked a little odd: they had been photo-shopped so that the medium sized plant looked the size of lilac bushes.
Here's my recipe for this month. It's called "Japanese Pancakes" and it's a savory, not a sweet dish. It is designed for left-overs, rather like chop suey or fried rice are. It is a Japanese comfort food. I got it from the mother of a childhood friend of mine, Jimmy Roehrig. His mom, Meo Roehrig, was a Japanese war-bride. She doctored this traditional recipe for her American husband and her half-American kids.
Ingredients: several cups of flour (any kind—I use wheat), a whole onion or several green onions, an egg or two, a can of beef gravy, soy sauce, leftovers from a meat or vegetable dish (Chinese take-out like beef and broccoli is excellent), cooking oil.
To do: Chop onion(s), mix with egg(s), a little soy, flour and left-overs. Make into patties about the size of a fried egg (but they'll be thicker). Fry both side till light brown. Thin the gravy in a sauce pan with soy to taste. Serve over pancakes.
Bambi, beware! The New York Times reports we are a finger's length away from a marketable flying garden drone that would chase deer or woodchucks or the like off. You can already get a plastic owl that turns & glares at intruders. Waiting in the wings, and already invented, is a sensor for a Twitter message from your house plant that says, "Water me please."
