another puzzle

Today I dug up young plants, what I still think is volunteer shiso from a few garden beds and paths, and moved to a row against the fence like before.

Found this one growing in the same area. Feel once again, like I ought to know it, I recognize, but can't remember what it is. 

My first thought was that joe pye weed had scattered its seed downhill- but the leaves are slightly different color and not quite as long. Here's the joe pye- all grown in thick and fast!

Would be nice if it was a little bit of black-and-blue salvia, but that doesn't quite match either.

I looked more carefully comparing it to lemon balm- nope.

Then went and scratched my head over bed seven, that my kid used once- this plant I thought was sprouts of catmint 

(here's the catmint)

Well, it isn't. Here they are next to each other- you can see the catmint is slightly darker and bluer in hue, with leaves a tad narrower and more toothy.

I thought with happiness- maybe it's the blue sage! Because there's quite a few of these unknowns now growing across that bed, and I do love the blue sage. But here's one alongside bed four, where I know I grew blue sage last year, and the foliage matches my older pictures of that.

So I've got more looking through photos to do, for both of these. Or just wait and let them grow up and flower, and then yank them out if I instantly recognize it's something I don't want (like I did that yellow maybe-it's-false-indigo plant. 

And by the way, here's the real false indigo starting to flower. Lovely!

strawberries

In spite of the neglect (I have not fed, watered or mulched nearly enough), my strawberries are giving fruit.

I ate some this morning- small and few in number, but so good!

However as you might be able to tell from the first photo, something has been coming into the yard again, eating the strawberry leaves, and the tops off all the mayapples. I suspect the deer.

small herbs

I have potted up and planted most of the herbs. They are pathetic. I was wrong about those summer savories in the planter box. I don't think they grew from prior rootstock, but from self-sown seed. Found a number of savories down in the garden beds, where I certainly didn't plant any last year! They just grew so much better, at the right time (mine started way too late).

Now into a pot (and trimmed, which parts we ate on fish)

I was cleaning up the garden beds (don't want weeds taking over and scattering their own seed everywhere) and dug up/moved half a dozen summer savory plants and four dill. Left this one where it was. It's over a foot in height, whereas the few dill I started from seed, are barely an inch. 

I think the younger plants are really struggling in the heat. A third have died.

As for the other herbs- my sage never germinated. So I guess that seed from mother's garden is finally too old! But I got some sage cuttings from another gardener. They had been left out on her driveway (for no-contact pickup) all night, so I'm not sure if will recover. I have two large pieces with woody stems, and several smaller ones with tender young stems that I pulled off the larger. Dipped all in rooting hormone and crossed my fingers. They look super sad right now.

 It's nice to see in that bed, the winter savory recovering! (Maybe I should cut it back hard every spring) 

Sculpit is really taking over the space, I had to trim it back (need to eat it more!) You can see tarragon just behind the sculpit to the right- I'm glad that one's growing again because just finished using up all the dried tarragon from last season.

Lavender is also sprawling all over needs a serious trim (after the bloom time) and sorrel starting shooting up flowering stalks that I've been cutting off. 

My garlic chives are doing okay, but the green onions I started got nipped by cold one night, or withered in heat one day. Hasn't been the greatest year yet. Most of the parsley died- I have one seedling left in the pot I moved them to

Of all the thyme, just two small plants alive. Also potted up now.

The fenugreek all died, but two more of the seeds sprouted in the tray (I hadn't dumped the starting soil yet) so I hope those will make it. Fenugreek is one I always seem to plant too early and then struggle with.

But the basil is doing great! 

Of all those that grew, three lived and that's enough for me.

So the herbs I have: winter savory, summer savory, tarragon, sculpit, dill, basil, sorrel, a small amount of thyme, one parsley plant and maybe sage- if it recovers at all. And the bay leaf tree! Also chocolate and ginger mints, and the established pot of chives. Not too bad, but I hope also for fenugreek and wish to plant rosemary yet again.

I had a bird in my hand

I'd been out in the sideyard, pulling a few weeds and watering some of the newer plants. My cat followed, and there were several wrens scolding harsh little buzzing alarm calls from the euonymus shrub, over and over. I wonder if they have a nest there, although it wasn't just one pair scolding, but three or four birds. Did two pairs nest in the shrub? or another pair nested nearby and they gang up on my cat? probably

Anyway, I went back in the house, where I'd left the sliding glass door to the deck open for some fresh air. Heard a wren again, chirping but it sounded particularly clear, and too loud. In the house. I turned and yes there was a bird in the house fluttering against the window and when I went to try and shoo it outside, it flew onto the mantlepiece, then down near the floor into a corner, then around into the kitchen where it landed on the counter among some dishes, and so on. Trying to hold my coat wide and coax it towards the open exit didn't seem to be working, so I got a lightweight small towel. 

When it flapped along the kitchen windowsill (that has a bug screen so I couldn't just open it for the bird) I moved to hold the towel up behind and kind of cupped it around the bird and suddenly it quieted in my hands. I held them both loosely around the bird in the towel, and stepped outside. Opened my hands more, and for a few moments the wren was just perched on the towel, on my hands. So small, and so very light! If I'd had my eyes closed, I wouldn't know there was anything sitting on that towel at all. When it sprang into the air dipping flight away into a tree, I didn't even feel it leave. 

I was glad to help it out into freedom.

so very late

but I did finally pot up my herb seedlings. Even though they will probably go into their larger pots and/or the ground in just a week or two, they needed nutrients from regular soil. So small still! Basil

Dill 

Summer savory 

Thyme

Actually got a few fenugreek- two more sprouted in the seedling tray

The parsley, 

garlic chives and green onions aren't quite big enough to prick out yet 

It seems like the cardinal climbers leapt overnight- this was a few days ago when I potted them up

And now: is it my imagination, or are they slightly larger already

Here's a more visible difference in size: summery savory seedlings just before I took them out of their tray

compared to a few of the same plant, that grew back from roots in the planter box on the deck! I didn't know this herb could survive the winter, but these two did just that (only two out of the dozen I had growing last year, so not much but still)

I was wrong

 about that plant. It's definitely not false indigo. 

The flowers are spiky, and yellow.

I still don't know what it is, but I think it's something I don't want growing here. Although- a quick search tells me that false indigo plants can have yellow flowers! So now I'm even more unsure, ha.

I've been trying to figure out

the identity of a plant growing on the sunny hillside. I can't remember if I transplanted it, or perhaps it spread by seed naturally. I think it's the same as this one- the false indigo down in the back near the compost heap. This one, in more shade, has longer leaves, which made me think it wasn't the same plant, but perhaps they grow longer because of the light difference.

The second false indigo in the original location by the panicle hydrangea is not there- I remember it was faltering one year, and I can't recall if I dug it up and moved it over here to have more sun . . . that would explain this. I looked back in my record here to see if I'd made note of it, but nope.

Here's the one I'm wondering about. 

Closeup of the leaves

They look so much the same, with that simple pleated fold in the middle, except some of these have slightly serrated margins? It does have a very vase-like shape viewed from a distance, which clued me in. Nearby are two smaller plants I think are the same, though at first I thought they were some kind of clover (ha) and almost pulled them:

The large one is about to bloom- so soon I can make a more positive identification (and remove it promptly before seed sets, if it turns out I once again nurtured a weed!)

I do recognize this clump nearby- one of the sedums I transplanted over here from the other dead stump spot in the front yard (which is so rotted out now I could remove all that sedum and put a new young tree there . . . )

some things

around the yard: boarage is getting big leaves and filling in thick around the mailbox spot!

Some sensitive ferns are growing in among the lilies of the valley- I don't mind how it looks mingling, but probably will have to dig/pull some ferns before they go too far. 

My first cranesbill, that seemed to have died off earlier in the year, is doing just fine now! Although still half the size of the other one.

Spiderwort blooming. Looks taller and fuller this year.

All the joe pye I hastily dug up and moved to be against the house wall on the first sideyard, survived the winter and are coming back. They did much better here than the swamp milkweed (I still haven't found more than the first three clumps to move) so I think the milkweed wasn't really thriving here.

That one orange flower came up again among the bleeding hearts and hellebores.

Mountain laurel is starting to bud! Though it doesn't look so happy in this spot- still doesn't have many more leaves. Now I'm starting to wonder should I move it yet again.

Rumex. I always like seeing this plant in spring, though later in the season it always looks ragged from the bugs. . .