Yesterday was one of threatening rain, which often means no rain. But the air cooled and overnight the storm let loose. The almost empty rain barrels filled and overflowed.
The rain continues to fall so hard that Sassy looked outside and decided against a stroll in the backyard, where she often defends her territory against neighboring dogs - by barking at them. Sometimes the warnings are so urgent inside she must run outside and give them a piece of her mind.
Weed Abatement
Our helper came over to work on weed abatement, the term used by cities for cutting weeds. Last year the issue was crab grass, which we smothered with newspapers and mulch. Now we have grassy weeds pushing through the mulch.
The new rose garden along the fence was fostering some new weeds, so that was attacked. I hastened to point out the bee balm.
A young bee balm plant could easily be another weed. Pigweed starts out rather benign and looks rather majestic when blooming. Ragweed sprouts with big ugly leaves and just gets worse. No wonder it is called ragweed.
I pulled a bee balm leaf off folded it over and showed him - fragrant. "This is a mint that does not invade like other mints. Bees, beneficial insects, and hummingbirds love it."
The great thing about bee balm - for the wild garden - is being able to transplant clumps of it. This is the first year for young plants, so they are just getting started. Once the hummingbirds know a food source, they come back and look for it.
