Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Holy Petunias!

Abundance and Balance
It's been a pretty good year in the flower garden.

I didn't plant a vegetable garden this year (first time in 15 years!)
Nobody cared in May when I said
'The weeds are out of control ~ does anyone want to help
me clear out and enlarge the veggie garden
so we can have a proper garden instead of just squeezing in
some tomato and pepper plants?'

Nobody wanted to.

So I said OK, we'll just not do a veggie garden this year.
It's alright with me. Now Mr. Magpie is saying,
'Why don't we have any tomatoes this year?'

And I have to refresh his memory.
But the flowers have been abundant and pretty this summer.
It's been the best summer ever for petunias.
But just to keep things in balance,
it must have been a good year for the little
white butterflies (moths?) too, because now
I am fighting with their offspring, the cabbage worms,
for control of the petunias. Ugh!
These little buggers eat voraciously!
They can carve their way through a whole pot
of petunias in one night. I've seen them eating
during the day too. I don't think they ever stop.

See him sleeping peacefully after a night
of debauchery in the petunias?
 They are so hard to find nestled in the
leaves and stems. But I'll continue to
hunt them down and pick them off
cos I won't spread poison around
the entire garden just to get these
little critters. I feel like Elmer Fudd
chasing after that wascaly wabbit.
And we all know how that story always come out.

For some reason they have left
this pot of white petunias alone.

I apologize for the blurry photos.
(I actually took some very nice pictures but
you would not know it from looking at these)
I am blaming it on Blogger.
Suddenly, the photo uploader option
is not working and I had to go back to
the old editor. (Don't ask, I only found all this out
after many wasted hours in the Help forum)
It allowed me to upload photos with the old, old
uploader which you have probably forgotten about
but would recognize if you ever had
the misfortune to use it again.

If (when) the problem is straightened out,
I'll replace these photos with the good ones.
Update August 20: Blogger is now cooperating 
with me again, so I've replaced the pictures.
Maybe you can't even tell, but I can!  *sigh*

Happy gardening!
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12 comments:

  1. your def have a green thumb...yeah, we have those pesty white moths too....my cats kinda take care of em'.

    have a good one,

    bunny

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  2. I could stay in your lovely garden all day!

    I hope you are enjoying your summer!

    Love,
    LuLu♥

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  3. Bunny, I wish my cats were outdoor cats. They would probably keep the moths from laying their eggs on the petunias!

    LuLu, I never go out there except to water (and look for green worms). If you'd come and sit out there with me, I'd have an excuse to while away the day on the patio!

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  4. Pretty flowers... the white butterflies are probably Cabbage Butterflies, hence the Cabbage Caterpillars. Also, do you think that the flowers that you have planted with the white petunias could be repelling the caterpillars? I know marigolds will repel insects, I'm sure some other flowers do as well.

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  5. I didn't notice your photos being blurry. Hasn't that Blogger been a bug bite lately? An unscratchable bug bite!
    Brenda

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  6. Dianne, hmmm, the orange flowers are zinnias. I have heard that about marigolds. The only thing is, I have some white petunias in the front planter boxes, and those darn caterpillars have started in on those too. AND there are marigolds in with those! I do think the cabbage worms looovvve purple though!

    Brenda, Blogger has been a royal pain lately!

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  7. Beautiful blooms..oh so gorgeous..you have a magical touch!! lovely post as always!

    yes i know what you mean about the photos/blogger issue right now...hopefully they fix it!!I recall that happened a few months back..then it returned to normal becuase of complaints!
    Best wishes!!

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  8. Your pretty maids are all in a row...even if some are wearing tattered lace :)
    I am stumped on the challenge this week...thanks for getting me out of my comfort zone...
    but maybe my comfort zone is...nervous and unsure, lol
    xox

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  9. Kiki, from reading the help forums, I did see that the problem started around April. But I guess now it's baaaack!

    Lisa, I had a feeling that some would find the challenge very easy and some would be stumped (like me ~ I still don't have a clue either! Although I usually don't, hehe) No, I don't think 'nervous and unsure' is your comfort zone :-)

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  10. And Lisa ~ haha, my petunias are shabby chic!

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  11. Hey Maggie, I'm having the same issues with Blogger too- why do they continue to try to fix things that aren't broken? I LOVE Petunias especially the purple fragrant ones :) but our heat makes it a constant battle of deheading and wilt that I haven't planted them in forever! It's really nice to seem them the way they were meant to be- even if they are a bit on the shabby chic side.....

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  12. Beautiful garden, Maggie! I would never want to leave it, ;).

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