We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us

Today we went to the Landscape Supply Company and looked at the pallets of rock that they had available.    Now that my labor force (visiting kids) has gone back to NJ we bought two pallets.  It was so hot during July, I certainly didn't want to work toting big rocks down to the backyard....imagine the kids and Charlie didn't want to either.   Now we can do the work at our own pace, a little bit each morning, while it is cool.
Waiting for the delivery I had my camera and walked around the yard.

Right out the front door was this tiny little anole.... very young, but fast!!

It is on the wall up by the soffit.    These little lizards love the stonework on the front of the house for hiding spots.

I took the camera out because I saw some more daylilies were blooming.  This one is another Hemerocallis 'Stephanie Returns' 

And next to Stephanie is H. 'Scottish Fantasy' another very pretty ruffled bloom.

I saw some more buds, I really didn't think these new daylilies would bloom this year.  What a great surprise. 

Above the daylilies are three very large  Beautyberry bushes.  The berries are starting to turn to their fall lavender/purple color.  My bushes are Callicarpa dichotoma 'Issai' which is supposed to be a smaller variety than C. americana but it sure has gotten quite large in the few years we have been here.

As  I walked around the side of the Beautyberry bushes I heard a noise in the mulch.  Hard to tell what critter would be skittering under the bush except that I saw it.  It was another tiny lizard, a Fence Lizard.  These little guys look like little dinosaurs.

These leaves that he is standing near are from the Gardenia bush, about half an inch wide and two inches long.    Never know what you are going to see when you walk the garden.

Some of you have read about Clematis Wilt from other bloggers.  I have been watching one of my Clematis vines and unfortunately I determined it was suffering from this wilt.  It is a fungus that affects the stems, not the roots of the plant.  Treatment is to literally cut off the infected stems.  Since the roots are not infected, new growth will emerge... so be brave and cut!!  The leaves on the infected stems get brown and withered, finally dropping all foliage.  An attractive vine can go to ugly quite quickly.  When pruning the infected stems off, make sure to clean up all the leaves as the fungal spores will remain on the leaves and the soil.   As I was checking for more Fence Lizards, I saw a little bit of new growth, a bud, coming out on the sad little Clematis.  I saved some seeds from the spent flowers for this one as it is in my family garden, this is C. Rebecca.  I certainly don't want anything to happen to this pretty addition to the family garden.  

Thinking I heard the truck, I hurried up the hill to the front yard, stopping to take a quick picture of the pretty blue damselfly.  Randy to the ID rescue again-- a Blue-fronted Dancer.  

thanks Randy!!

Coming down the driveway was our first pallet of round medium river stones.  We chose this type of rock as it matches the ones we have for our riprap along the shoreline.  

Pretty cool forklift. 

Here is what we will be working on for the next week or so--

For those who aren't  sure why we are doing this... the big section of the backyard garden has had some serious washout from our gullywasher rain storms. 

On the left side of picture near the big stones we had a lot of washout which carried downhill to the rock edging the pathways.  From there, a large ravine has been created on the garden side of the rocks.  Once the new rocks are placed, creating little 'pockets' we will get mulch and see about keeping the soil dressed to prevent more runoff.  This slope is pretty steep, we are hoping to redirect the water and split it so ravines don't get created.  Stay tuned! 

Before the kids left they were able to see my Epiphyllum oxypetalum blooming.  It is always so exciting when this blooms... I must have thousands of pictures of the opening blooms.  Rachel took a picture of me taking a picture.   You can see the plant itself isn't very attractive.  Will be doing more pruning on it this fall.  If you are interested in having a cutting, let me know and I would be happy to send a couple pieces to you.  

Don't you want to have one of these blooming on a warm summer night?  The fragrance is wonderful.

Will post pictures of our progress.  This is my summer workout program.  

©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.