08/11/2023 – Around Colehaus

Here at Colehaus, most of our flowers are wrapping up their summer color. It’s been forty-some days without rain which is pretty typical for this time of year. Back when we were planting this property in 2000-2002, we planned for color and interest every month of the year and so far, that hasn’t failed us. These Echinaceas are just getting going.

The daylilies seem to be blooming all at once and most of ours finished flowering last week. It all depends on the location, we think. Neighbors across the street whose exposure is north, still have buds on their daylilies.

Mr. MewMew doesn’t want to hear anymore talk of flowers. He’s here for the chicken catnip treats!

These Crocosmia are just about done, in Mom’s gardening book, as in never to plant again. This variety is terribly invasive and even so, last fall Mom couldn’t bring herself to throw out every bulb and root in the yard debris bin. She saved out a dozen bulbs to plant elsewhere and now, though beautiful and beneficial for hummingbirds, the bulbs took over that restricted flower bed and overcrowded themselves. Sounds like Mom’s going to have to thin them out. Maybe this will be the last year for those? Doubtful.

Dear Russian Sage, thank you for flowering so well over the past few years, even though you didn’t stay where you were supposed to bloom from. We’re okay with that. You knew best.

Visitor Colby hangs out watching birds, which he swears he wasn’t doing anything of the sort.

With our limited budget for garden anything, Mom found a reduced-price million bells Calibrachoa and planted it in a sandy bed along with a silvery gray Dusty Miller that somehow lived through our snowy winter. Her thinking was she’d like to bring some white and gray color into this small bed to contrast with purple and magenta transplants. The result might have turned out but failed because the raccoon babies decided this was one of their playgrounds and those magenta and purple transplants didn’t survive the constant uprooting. They probably wanted bold red and green colors. You raccoon babies! Stop rearranging our flower beds!

But elsewhere, safely tucked into a flower pot that, sadly, must be eliminated at the end of this season, this apricot salvia did wonderfully! Last year, this plant looked downright sad; the color just didn’t work with what it was planted with and looked more like dead and dying flowers than anything else. This year, it’s the star of the pot! Mom hopes to transplant this into the new flower bed she’s creating from where that big Arborvitae used to reside. And that it’s rooted well enough in by next spring so no raccoon babies will dig it up.

Mom remembered to cut down one or two of the very old blueberry canes and was rewarded with big, juicy berries this summer. She’ll try to remember to do this again next February, after any snow falls. There’s three or four ancient canes left on this one bush that could stand to be replaced with young, strong fruit-bearing ones. Did you know that blueberry bushes can live to be older than 50 years old? Clearly, it’s a life-long commitment.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have two feeding stations. Visitors Colby and Lloyd each have their own side. Knowing each reasonably well, we know these boys would have patiently waited for the other to finish if there were only one station and one bowl. These are very handsome and polite visitors.

Here’s a baby of a baby of an original spirea we planted a decade ago. This one, often frequented by bumblebees, is slated for the old Arborvitae bed.

These coreopsis were rescued from a field a couple of miles from Colehaus way back in 2004 when Mom and a neighbor stumbled across a clearing where someone had dumped a load of yard debris. These have since seeded and reseeded themselves many generations over and now that the field is currently under construction for some massive warehouse buildings Mom isn’t sure our town can even use for anything (we live in a small town), it’s her task to make sure the coreopsis continue to seed and reseed themselves. Some of next spring’s seedlings will be added to that old Arborvitae bed.

And visiting girl cat Murray wishes you to know that visiting boy cats shouldn’t get all the attention. Visiting girl cats are better, anyway.

There are four raccoons in this photo. Three are babies and one, mostly hidden behind the bush, is mama Shaggy. Really!

Lastly, we’re doing okay. We’re very much looking forward to a month that doesn’t contain some expense that hasn’t been planned for, like vet visits and cat X-rays or car tires or sprinkler/fountain/air conditioning/heat pump repairs. And we’ll probably let you know when that happens. So, until then, just assume that something else has broken around here and we’re finding a way to get that repair under our belts.

Thank you, dear angel and Friends of Colehaus, who have helped us along the way. All the Colehaus Cats and from ourselves, thank YOU! And always, thank you for visiting us!

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2022 – No post
2021 – Growing
2020 – No post
2019 – No post
2018 – No post
2017 – Summer Hots
2016 – No post
2015 – Ruby Tuesday
2014 – MultiCat Monday
2013 – A Random August Post!
2012 – No post