Saturday, May 31, 2008

New Catnip, A Cute Visitor and Other Things.....

My Mum called me yesterday to come over with my camera and see the visitor in their bird tree....

You can click to make these bigger. He`s so gorgeous!


Isn`t he adorable? His eyes are lit up due to the angle I had to take the picture. He almost looks like a toy.

He eventually decided to climb up the tree away from the annoying person snapping his picture...
Teds stands by while I take the pictures of the racoon...

Angus doesn`t seem to look half as big as he did in real here. He just looked so huge and comical, I had to snap him. The pots are back outside but that mint has to go and be replaced by something nicer. Maybe next weekend we`ll take a trip to a garden centre. Need some more basil because I killed all 5 of the 6 I ordered. Left them outside and it was unnusually cold.

My Dad brought me a larger catnip because the cats totaled the small one. It only has stems left on it.


The bricks are just layed unevenly here at the moment by the veg garden. Need leveling and sand.

Oh for petes sakes! Is it worth trying to get these to grow bigger? Yes. If only to see the antics of cats catching a buzz. "Why don`t I plant it in the garden?" you might ask.
Because of this next picture. And it`s only parsley!
I`ve never heard of Red Kew Lavender but it looked so pretty that I ordered it from my Richters catalogue. If you click on the picture you can see the flowers much better. I put it in a pot because I might like to bring it inside later after the summer, but I may just put it in the ground instead to spread about in this sheltered spot near the regular lavender that seems to have survived the nasty winter well.



My Dad planted some Japenese Willow bushes along the back
fence near my own garden....

Here`s a close up...

I love the smell of Lily of the Valley bath and perfumes so I decided it was about time I had some plants. There was tons along the woods-line so I stuck a few in the veg garden under the tree. Most of the bricks are still waiting for me to dig them in but too many mosquitoes out there today as well as on and off rain and thunder-bangers..

Time to pull the grass out of the Ajuga. Its a pretty plant but a mad insane spreader...

The Clematis is doing great this year. Sweet Woodruff seems slightly out of hand surrounding other things that hopefully will still do okay. It sure makes a good weed stomper.

My gardens are a real mess still. Need to weed badly as you may notice. I chopped down the killer rose bush today in front, that gave me such grief when I had a long term thorn stuck in my finger. Tetanus shots, poultice, antibiotics etc. It was one of the first posts I did. The bush never did well, yet had the best and most vicious thorns of every size you could imagine. From tiny minute needles to massive honkin big thick 1 1/2 inch suckers. It actually had two different kinds of roses on it but they never seemed very healthy. It looks bare at the moment but I hated that nasty thing. I`ll either leave it like this and see what comes back up or did the whole darn thing out and plant something nice.

I had a wack of beautiful lilacs but they have died, so I just grabbed some Sweet Woodruff from the masses I have growing outside (another great ground cover and spreader and very easy to pull out and move) as well as a branch of Honeysuckle to set on the table........

Hope everyone has a great weekend! There seems so much more to blog about without the darn winter!!


10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, thanks for the nice wish, I am not really fond of animals. How come that your sitemeter which shows the nationality of the visitors shows Europeans as a whole but european countries countries like Hungary is also showed? Aren't we Europeans? Should we establish our continent?

Rick Rockhill said...

Racoons are cute but can be so destructive.

your garden is coming along. I used to plant catnip in my herb garden and the cats would chew it down to nubs.

Christine Boles said...

I gave up on growing catnip, my cats and all the neighborhood cats would work it down to a nub very quickly~ it never had the chance to reseed!

Rowan said...

The sweet woodruff and honeysuckle looks really pretty in the vase. Wouldn't have thought of that combination but it works. I have sweet woodruff growing in the garden but it's right down at the bottom in the woodland area - as you say it spreads like wildfire but it's easy to pull out and control.

Rosie said...

I had to smile - catnip doesn't last five minutes in our garden either as our cats, and all the visiting ones, destroy it immediately - still I expect they enjoy themselves in the process. We struggle to grow Lily of the Valley, we have just a few plants but the scent is lovely.

Judypatooote said...

Thanks for the tour....mint really takes over in my garden...your cats would love it...my one cinnamon basil looks like someone was munching on it, along with the sunflower, that I finally pulled out, for the squirrels are doing the munching... I didn't even plant any tomatoes this year, for last year I found green tomatoes all over my yard with a bite out of them....and sure enough it was the squirrels for I found them with one in their paws.... Check into lily of the valley, for I thought that they were poison to animals if they eat it....I could be wrong but it's always better to check...since your kitties seem to love nibbling and napping on your plants.....LOL....I love the racoon with the bright eyes...I have them in my yard too....Max thinks he's a lion when he sees them....well nice post, and you have a great day....judy

It's you know who! said...

Oh I love raccoons, they are so cute! We had one long ago as a pet, but I wouldn't recommend it. And going camping and feeding whole families of them at the campsite...Nowadays you have to be careful of rabies too, at least where I live. I once saw one slide on ice on it's backside down a hill, it was so cute lol. :)

Julie said...

Tea,

Your address, please!!!

Tea said...

I had sent you my email so you could e-mail me personally but I guess you didn`t get it? I see that you have an e-mail now :)
Sorry....I didn`t want to put it up on your blog.

tea
xo

Gledwood said...

I see cats are precisely the same the entire world over...

(hey did I actually believe that anywhere they'd be in any way any different??)

that racoon: it does remind me of my robos

it's the face markings. even tho robos are harvest-on-white not black and white there's a similarity in poor light so much so I keep saying stupid things like "do you look like a racoon? yes you do! you dooo!!" as if speaking to a baby. a baby who looks like a racoon

o bloody hell that WOULD be bizarre now: haha!!