Bulbs, acorns, accidental melon, and butterflies

The number of acorns that drop from our oak trees varies from year to year, but this year the one in front has dropped a comical number of them. I believe that it has been--and I am not exaggerating--tens of thousands of acorns. You walk across the lawn and you slip and slide; it feels like walking on ball bearings. Nary a falling leaf to be seen yet, naturally, as the tree wants to send out its seeds before blanketing them protectively. But that's coming!

I don't know whether you can see all the acorns, shining a bit in the grass and garden bed on Oct. 12.

Here's a closer look. And there have been a lot more that fell after that!

I have not paid much attention to the acorns falling in the back, because of our backyard renovation.

Every year I stress about planting bulbs because they need to go in the ground just when I'm freaking out about finishing the Halloween costumes. This month I did a couple very long weekend days of gardening, and got the bulbs in the ground in just one day! (One seven-hour day that left me very sore, but at least it was done). I planted the following, all in front because again, the back looks temporarily like armageddon:

• Narcissus Prom Dance (12)
• Crocus Tommasinianus (50)
• Ipheion Constellation Of Blue Stars (50, all in front of the sign posted in the garden with our house #)
• May Day Bouquet Hyacinth Mixture (30)

Above is the front yard on Oct. 7. Note how gorgeous everything looks on the bottom right: the lantana has taken off close to the steps and above the geraniums, and the gomphrena also became substantial and beautiful close to the driveway.

I tried to divide the darned iris just to the left of the steps as you're looking above, and boy was that a chore. I ended up using a shovel, trowel, and knife to hack off a sadly small piece of it that I replanted close to the driveway, but who knows whether it will survive?

We finally got to harvest our small accidental melon on Oct. 4! Truth be told, it did not have much flavor, but it was a truly lovely color, and Emma ate the whole thing.

With warm weather lasting through the middle of the month, we've had a lot of butterflies.

Monarch and painted lady on the lantana

Painted lady

Monarch

Garden happenings

Dabah Designs has been redoing our backyard. This is a huge, huge project and I find it convenient to pretend it's not happening outside my window every day, so I have taken few pictures. But I have hopes that it will be fabulous when done.

When our old storage cupboards were removed for the renovation, look what was left!! Emma was weirdly delighted by this mummified squirrel.

Remember my miraculous snapdragon from July? Well now there's another one!!

There are a few peppers that we'll eventually get to harvest from the pepper plants we planted. I don't know how you know when to pick them, though. I think they're supposed to be yellow or red?

Emma writes in her garden journal

Oh deer

I was afraid this weekend that a fawn had taken up residence in our yard, after it stayed there overnight. Would it be "our" deer now? Were we to adopt it? Luckily, I needed not answer that question because it finally left in the morning.

Evening

Evening

Evening

Morning (deer in center of picture)

The most wonderful thing has happened in the front: a mystery snapdragon has appeared. The only time I have ever planted a snapdragon (and it was possibly only one) was in 2015! See https://aylwardgarden.blogspot.com/2015/05/spring-planting-front-yard.html

Could that four-years-ago snapdragon be the ancestor of today's snapdragon? Is it silly to get excited about one tiny, possibly immaculately conceived plant? I don't care, I'm thrilled! Wouldn't it be cool if it self-sowed and there were more next year? In the photo below, it is the pinkish-red blossoms at the bottom.

Several weeks ago, I was alarmed about things dying in the garden, but things have turned around. I even think some of my long-ago-sown pepper seeds might be coming up in front of the peony. I wonder if it was just simply too wet through mid-June. It's been a lot drier over the past 1-2 weeks.

Clockwise from crepe myrtle below: sage, rosemary, basil, cilantro.

Below: another couple blooms on my California Poppy 'Alba'! It's described as an annual but a self-sower....let's hope so! Also the self-sown purple Larkspur (being crowded out by the Shasta daisies).

Below, the sweet pea is climbing cooperatively up my netting on the lamp post.

Garden happenings

LOTS of rain this spring. Just sayin'.

May 21: iris poised to bloom, and allium looking good

May 21: baptisia starting to bloom, and poppies sending up buds

May 21: dianthus looking gorgeous, and lilac starting to fade

May 21: remember the weird allium that sent up only a bud, no leaves? It bloomed anyway! Small but sufficient.

May 21: Sweet pea seedlings direct-sown around the lower lamp post.

Today: front left. Iris looking great!

Today: front right.

Today 

Gutters

We needed our gutters cleaned, and I tried out Gutter Plumber for the first time, and was very pleased with their service. In particular, the responsiveness is unparalleled.

One of the upper gutters in the back, below the 3rd floor bathroom window, sags a bit and water pools there. One imagines delighted mosquitoes raising countless generations of their children there. Unfortunately, this was not something that the team was able to fix, so it may be worth trying a different service next time, but maybe this is something no one can be reasonably expected to fix.

The total was $240, and while that's a ton more than the $95 Reliant has been charging us, I will say I think they were quite a bit more thorough. They send "before" and "after" pictures. It might make sense for us to alternate between Reliant and Gutter Plumber, since we need someone twice a year.

Here are the before pics:

Gutter Plumber's notes, for my records: "Pitch is fine. What was affecting water flow was all the asphalt and muck as well as the bent screens [which we had them remove]. There was one area where we had to put in a new clip middle of house section but I found no pitch issues at all." We had "pounds of moist debris and muck and the water not draining that smelt like sewage.   We cleared those lines really good and they flushed out well.   The screens sitting down in the lines did bend the gutters slightly and that why we had to put 3 new clips on the  middle right side but honestly you should be fine now as long as you take care of the gutters in Spring and Fall."

Here are the after pics: