My husband, greyhound and I walk through the flower garden every morning and every evening. My husband has even started talking to the birds, bees and butterflies (just like me)! It won't be long before he's talking to the flowers, too. LOL

Cameron

PS Yes, the Japanese Beetles bring great dispair with their damage to my KO roses and weeping cherry.

I absolutely love sitting on the back screened in porch with my first cup of coffee and watch the early sunlight play across the backyard and wooded area and thinking 'this is ours and my husband and I created it'

.....but what I find most rewarding is watching nature interact with the gardens. A gold finch on the BESs, butterflies on the lantana, hummingbirds in the salvias - that is what the gardens are for - I am just the caretaker....

Lynne

I totally can relate to all of your posts and lynne - your words were touching...

I especially love walking through my gardens, especially after a nice rain (rain? what's that?)... but then I have these deep thoughts that come to me as I walk around the yard - what the heck did our Lord make Japanese Beetles for? :0/

Carrie

Nothing like a big ol' sunflower nodding in the wind!

The first tomato ripening. Awesome and torturous at the same time.

Great thread. =)

I'm with Lynne..up early out on the screen porch with the cup of coffee watching things outdoors come alive. How the morning sun hits certain trees and you notice all the different colors of green.

I also delight to finding a plant I know I haven't planted..that volunteer datura when I haven't had a datura for nearly 3 years. The lettuces that pop up all over the place because I dragged last years stalks to the compost pile.
Indeed, tormenting amorous JB couples with a sharp flick of the finger.
Not as satisfying as drowning them in detergent water but a much more personal attack.

I decided this morning that I could watch the bees on my gaura all day! They land on the blossom and the whole stem bows under their "weight". My son and I have sat out there and watched them, giggling the whole time. It must be like a canival ride for them!

Here at Chirpin' Bird Hill, my "estate" there was a bee cradled in a pale pink La Marne blossom yesterday. How sweet!

My greatest pleasure has always been to walk through my gardens in the AM especially with my coffee. It's never the same any two mornings. It's even better than a waterfront home at the ocean. But, my fantasy would be to have the front with the ocean and the back with a fanciful secret garden. By the way, the house is a gigantic old Victorian with widow's walk, amazing porches and turrets overlooking both sea and garden.

Speaking of Jap Beetles, I got a kick out of something yesterday.

It had just rained and I was looking out our sliding glass door onto our deck and I saw a Titmouse bird hopping around on the deck catching and eating bugs. At one point, he flew up and grabbed a bug off my banana tree and flung it down on the deck. Yep, it was a Japanese Beetle. He broke it in two and devoured it slowly. Maybe I'm deranged, but I quite enjoyed watching that. :)

You mean there are actually predators for JB's besides humans?
The JB's here are collecting on the vitex blossoms..not a bird in sight.