the miserable gardener

One of the things ….one of the many things, I bet….that put people off about this garden is my absolute refusal to kill creatures that visit my garden. My wife did say it was irresponsible not to put a mosquito dunk into the pool because of West Nile Virus, but other than that, I let living things alone.

I’m not especially fond of squirrels (my weapon of choice against them is a squirt gun), and have been trying to get the dog to come outside and help me chase rabbits away, but he really doesn’t feel like it. I’ve found the places where they tunnel under the back fence …..the rabbit fence….but every few days there’s another tunnel.

This morning I was taking some pictures and chased two adult rabbits back into the field, squirting them with the garden hose. But one stayed behind.

I was working, really. Filling up a trash can (clean trash can) with water so I can water new plants out in the far corner of the yard, with a watering can (my preferred method). I can’t hear their cries of thirst from here, and dragging 150 feet of hose is a bit more than I care to do. I am retired, after all, and don’t feel like doing much.

Saw a couple of cactus in bloom, though the sun isn’t out and the flowers aren’t fully open. I admit to an addiction to cacti, and I find it odd that the vast majority of Denverites dislike cacti, preferring the lush greenery that only massive irrigation can bring, and thinking that the presence of such plants in gardens makes Denver look too much like a desert. Well, guess what?

This first one has the biggest flower I’ve ever seen on a hardy cactus. This is a seed-grown hybrid whose parents are unknown. Maybe Echinocereus reichenbachii and something else echinocereus. I think that’s Verbena wrightii in the background. It’s a verbena, anyway.

Then Echinocereus fendleri, a plant with a reputation for huge flowers but dwarfed by the first one.