Over the Garden Fence: The latest serendipity with help from a little frog
Yesterday, June Rauchenstein and I worked for 3 1/2 hours at the flower show building on the fairgrounds. Oh, yes, it was hot. We were thinking an hour would make all sides of the building look groomed. After all, the mulching was done back in May and some annuals were planted back in June.
The Earth, Wind and Flowers Garden Club was ahead of the game. The plan was to pull all thistles and bring the milkweed under control.
Plans change. The opened tarp began to fill with thistle, crab grass, some vining convolvulus and other assorted plants we did not want in the landscape. We removed gobs of violets and then we met the milkweed. It was so healthy-looking and happy and at home. We decided it had to go. Believe me, it had another plan. We know root remnants will bring it right back next year. For the sake of the monarchs, we apologize. We did not plant it.
As we made the halfway mark on the south side, we both agreed the Rose of sharon needed to be pruned and thinned; way to much and upon the ground. We rescued lamb's ears, which were clear out in he grass. They are in pots tonight.
Pulling the tarp to the Dumpster was not difficult, but the day was heating up. June kept on going. I ran to a store for cold water. That June is tough, and pressed on cutting off unsightly stalks on hostas, digging a few dandelions and taking stalks off coral bells.
The dear dear were having a feast
We began to notice all the leaves that had been yanked from hosta plants. Some leaves had huge bites, tears really. This kept showing up on plants until we got up to our award plaque stone. It is sort of humorous but aggravating, too. Smaller hostas had been stripped of foliage and now their full blooms displayed color almost covering the work of feasting deer. Then we saw deer had eaten petunias.
Weedy clusters were removed from the concrete approach. June offered to come with an edging tool and make light work of that job along the outside of the bricks. We dragged another pile over to the dumpster. The flowers were watered with a light fertilizer solution.
Today, Joy Lauthers and I were deadheading daylilies and again removing unsightly leaves when she directed my attention to a small, very green frog on a huge chartreuse hosta leaf. Chelsea Gottfried identified it as a juvenile gray tree frog. She added it had likely left water a few weeks ago. What water? Where? This wee frog just sat there in the heat. We did not touch it nor move it.
Why ponder nature, which just defies so much of what we know. If that tiny green frog got here from a water spot, there was a journey involved. Here, perched atop a tall hosta plant would have taken even more maneuvering. Did an ark drop him here?
It was small and unexpected but a serendipity of sorts — an unexpected, noteworthy surprise.
Life is good.
Mary Lee Minor is a member of the Earth, Wind and Flowers Garden Club, an accredited master gardener, a flower show judge for the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs and a former sixth grade teacher.
This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Over the Garden Fence: Sprucing up at the Crawford County Fairgrounds
