Wednesday Vignette: The good and the bad

As I suddenly have extra time on my hands, I spent a large part of yesterday in my garden.  I noticed a couple of interesting and unexpected things, one good and one bad.

On the good side, I nearly tripped over a plant that seemingly appeared overnight, Ferraria crispa, otherwise known as the Starfish Iris.

I planted 2 bulbs in 2016 and 2 more in 2019 but thus far only one plant has shown itself

I believe this must be one of the 2 I planted last year as the flower color is much different from the plants that grew from the original bulbs

The bulbs I planted last year came from a chain garden center with a label that said the flowers are a red/brown color, although the flower on the left looks more reddish purple to me.  The flowers that bloomed last year looked like the one on the right.  Hopefully bulb blooms in the lighter color will also make an appearance soon.

So that was a nice surprise.  In the not-nice category was this:

I wanted to believe that this pile of dirt and rock at the base of the stacked stone wall in the front garden was due to decomposition of the stone

My husband pointed out the gap between the stone wall and the mountain of dirt beside it, confirming my worst fear than a gopher has taken up residence.  One of our next door neighbors has battled them for years in her back lawn but I asked her not to send them in my direction in her effort to evict them...

Sadly, we all often have to accept the bad with the good.  We've had rain on and off for over a week now and there's still more in the near-term forecast.  That's good!  Our season-to-date total thus far here is 8.24 inches.  Not great but certainly better than it was at the start of the month.  And all three of my rain barrels are now full!  On the nightmarish, nearly unbelievable side is the novel coronavirus pandemic that has turned nearly everyone's life completely upside down, including my own.  I hope to discover a way to "encourage" Mr. Gopher to leave my garden for an empty lot or a nearby hiking trail, and I hope that our government and world leaders from other countries will find a way to halt the progress of the virus plaguing us.

If you have any suggestions for ridding a garden of gophers, please let me know.

For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.


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