Good Grief! Call Yourself A Gardener?

Well as it turns out... actually yes....

The story goes like this. In the 1850’s one of my distant ancestors left County Wicklow, Ireland and arrived in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, where he was hired as a groundsman on a large estate with formal gardens. He was called thereafter ‘Gardener Davies.’ (probably working alongside 'Gardener Williams,' 'Gardener Llewellyn,' etc., well you get the point).

I’m quite sure ‘Gardener’ would not have let the estate under his shared charge slide into the disarray that my yard is in. I mean seriously.. was I asleep or in a trance or something? Those darn fairies.

Left photo showcases a simply delightful collection of weeds the area  of which used to be part of my seasonal tomato patch.

You can see that my shovel means business, it’s practically quivering with indignation.....

4 hours and two gallons of water later (me not the garden). I think I might have shed a 1lb or two, or maybe gained it, water is heavy after all. 

Let me tell you there was a BIG spider in there carrying around her egg sack on her abdomen. But hey, at least I had a platoon of lizards helpfully picking out the roaches and bugs as I unearthed them. I mean thank goodness for that, I though I was going to have to eat them myself. 

Afterwards with raised bed installed

I only left a Milkweed plant standing - because it’s part of my - ahem - butterfly garden........Oh I’m sorry, wait a minute I can’t remember where that is now.

Some kind of butterfly garden that is!

Oh there it is......

....... I know, I know, I’m just disgusted with myself. I'll go put a burlap sack over my head or something.

I have a lot of work to do.

Butterfly Garden 2010-2011

Above: Here’s my butterfly garden two years ago - taken from opposite direction. Complete with puddling bowl for the Monarch butterflies, who apparently forgot their water wings, since there was no takers for puddling.

All that digging and weed pulling quite wore me out, but then I had an Alfred Hitchcock moment.....no not Psyco silly....

One by one some visitors silently arrived..........

Creeping Closer

American Black Vultures. They eventually totaled about 6 in number. The branch they are sitting on is about 15-20 feet off the ground to give you an idea of how big they are.

"Now look guys, when I said earlier that I was "dying of thirst", it was you know a figure of speech, I didn't really mean to suggest that I was, you know, dying or anything....let's be reasonable about this......"