As much as gardening makes me happy, there are a few things I find somewhat annoying.
Here's my top ten:

1. Checking the weather to make sure rain is NOT in the forecast. Spending half-an-hour spraying deer deterrent on all my flowers while it's sunny. Hearing thunder in the distance not two hours later, followed by a rainstorm that lasts only long enough to wash off all the deer deterrent.
2. Planting a new perennial and finding it the next day all chewed up and lying on top of the soil about a foot away from where it was planted.
3. Constantly digging walnut trees out of my flower garden. I do not love walnut trees; thank you very much squirrels.
4. Moles burrowing underneath my new daylily babies and heaving them out of the ground.
5. Finding a dead, rotting whatever in my flower garden.
6. Watching a bunny eating a daylily scape that I can't get to quick enough.
7. Same as #6, but replace the word 'bunny' with 'deer.'
8. Japanese beetles 'doing the nasty' on my daylilies. Really?
9. May gardening in my winter coat. I love Wisconsin.
10. W.E.E.D.S.

Pictured: Daylily 'Green Mystique' inundated with Japanese beetles

Peak bloom is over in Wisconsin, even though some of my late daylilies are still blooming. For whatever reason, my garden never seems to grow exactly the way I planned or imagined it to. As hard as I try, there are always those areas that need to be fixed. Sound familiar? As the season winds down, I have started my list for fall transplanting and dividing. It's my annual attempt to make my flower garden look even better next year. Those of you who garden know how painstaking the decisions can be. Especially when you are dealing with the ever-present trifecta of size, color, and bloom time being different for each individual plant. In addition, there are so many variations in soil and location (even within my own yard) that can impact the plant's growth, not to mention weather and temperature!

Questions I have asked myself:

• How did that daylily grow six inches taller than its description? I can't see the plant behind it!
  
• Why did this one only grow 25" instead of the anticipated 35"?
  
• Who planted THAT plant there? Couldn't have been me...
• Did a mole burrow underneath this poor daylily?
  
• What was I thinking when I put those two peach plants next to each other?
• Did I really manage to leave an open space in the garden with no bloom in mid-July?

I rest assured knowing that Mother Nature always gives me a second (third, and fourth) chance to get it right. So as long as I'm able, I'll just keep on trying...thanks Mom!

Pictured: Daylily 'Carnival in Mexico'

I may be just one person, who grows just one garden, but my chemical-free yard does make a difference.

My flower garden:

• reduces pollution and purifies the air by absorbing carbon dioxide and  releasing oxygen.
• reduces greenhouse gases.
• helps to remove chemicals and bacteria from water in the ground.
• supports beneficial insects, bees, frogs, butterflies, birds, and bats to name just a few.
• has plants, trees, and shrubs that can absorb sound and help with noise pollution.
• assists with reducing water run-off and soil erosion.
• provides beauty and tranquility, keeps me fit, but most of all -- makes me happy.

Pictured: A tiny visitor sitting on a day-old bloom of 'Techny Peace'

If you grow daylilies, you can take the madness a step further and collect plants with specific topic-related names to comprise a theme garden. To date, there are 83,487 registered/reserved cultivars, so finding a theme is quite easy.

For instance you could choose:

• Names  - Let's say there's a 'Jean' in your family. I searched the American Hemerocallis Society Daylily Database and came up with dozens of daylilies with 'Jean' in their name. You could even assemble a special tribute garden for a family member who has passed. There are numerous daylilies with "heaven" and "angel" in their name.
• Holidays - I searched Halloween and  came up with "Halloween Costume," "Halloween Candy," "Halloween Face Paint, " and "Halloween High Jinx." There are others like "October Thirty-First," and "Trick or Treat."
• Native American - "Cherokee Memories," "Cheyenne Bride," "Comanche Drums," "Topguns Pawnee Princess," "Pueblo Sunrise," "Geronimo's Spirit," and "Navajo Blanket."
• The state you live in - For 'Wisconsin' I came up with  "Teasing Wisconsin, "Wisconsin Cream," and "Wisconsin Warlock." I also found "Packer Backer," and "Cheese Head."
• And finally, Led Zeppelin songs: "Kashmir," "Stairway to Heaven," "Heartbreaker," "All My Love," "Moby Dick," "Dazed and Confused," and "Over the Hills and Far Away." I did this search just to prove you can find daylilies related to just about any topic, no matter how obscure.

Once you've decided on a theme, then comes the fun part -- finding the daylily vendors and buying the plants.

Pictured: "Tholian Web" (2004) You could add this daylily to your 'Sci-Fi' garden, since its name originates from an episode of Star Trek entitled 'The Tholian Web' that was aired in 1968.

Last weekend (February 18-19) was, yet again, unseasonably warm in Wisconsin -- over 60 degrees! This gave me an opportunity to check out all my plants and see how they fared over the winter. As I walked around the yard, I had to tread carefully to avoid deer droppings. Gross!

After some online reading regarding how to collect and dispose of the droppings before mowing season starts, I learned that deer feces can carry dangerous strains of E.coli. So, worse than finding droppings in your yard or flower garden would be finding them in your vegetable garden, or say strawberry patch. Food-related outbreaks of E.coli have definitely been linked to deer droppings. (As if the deer ticks aren't bad enough!)

Deer waste should be handled carefully. Try to remove as many droppings as possible, using a shovel to bury it elsewhere, and be sure to disinfect your shovel before you use it for any other tasks.

It's hard to believe this cute little fawn can cause such dire problems. I'm getting out the deer deterrent, and ALWAYS wearing gloves!

Fawn photo from pixabay.com Creative Commons-public domain photo.

When I watched HGTV (Home and *Garden* Television) it was the gardening and landscaping shows that I liked the best. Over the years, the 'G' in HGTV has all but vanished! No more "The City Gardener," "A Gardener's Diary," "Curb Appeal," "Urban Outsiders" and other used-to-be's. I miss the valuable ideas and tips I learned from these shows. When I drive around in just about any neighborhood, gardening and landscaping is very much alive and well. So just call me puzzled. Where are the gardening shows?

HGTV needs a new, more correct identity acronym; something like RETV (Real Estate TV).

I took this photo at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The shrubs were enormous, but the statue was epic!

 Last week I had a lively conversation with my friends. We were talking and laughing about the countless ways we have inflicted pain upon ourselves and been grossed-out, all  in the name of gardening.  It's what we refer to as "the dark side" of tending to our daylilies/flowers.  Here are a few of our collective experiences. You may smile and nod your head with familiarity. And P.S., I'm not admitting to any specific event as being my own. Smile.

• Pitchforks work great for lifting daylilies from the ground. They also are quite efficient at stabbing you in the leg. Thank you tetanus shot.
• Wheelbarrows are handy helpers...that can quickly turn into vehicles of destruction when you lose control of them while going down a hill.
• An unbalanced wheelbarrow=a bad thing. They inflict pain when they fall over on your leg/foot. The dirt and sharp tools inside just add insult to injury.
• Wire tomato cages are great for protecting new daylily plantings from deer. Just trip over them and see how much blood they can draw, especially the rusty ones. Again, thank you tetanus shot.
• Seeing a long handled claw tool (or garden rake) on the ground -- spikes up -- and mentally making note that you really need to turn it over so you don't step on it; getting distracted for a split second, turning around, stepping on the claw tool and WHOP! Stick-to-the-head.
• Here's a stroke of brilliance -- pulling on that ever-so-solid weed that finally gives way and you end up somersaulting backwards off a brick wall.
• How about taking that deep breath while digging, and getting a mouthful of dirt. (And feeling momentarily bad for mentally chastising someone you have recently seen spitting on the sidewalk...)
• You always wear garden gloves, right? But the *one* time you don't you get the stiff stalk of a weed jammed underneath your fingernail that swells up and takes weeks to be normal again.
• Burning nettle...enough said.
• Unexpectedly finding an underground bee nest, getting swarmed, and running for your life while simultaneously swearing.
• The nicety of clubbing your garden helper in the head with the handle of a shovel after they have so graciously offered to help you.
• Swatting a mosquito on your sweaty face, only to realize your garden glove is full of dirt. That usually happens right around the time a neighbor comes over to chat!
• And speaking of neighbors, there's the 'scare factor.' When you are deep in the gardening Zen-zone and someone comes up behind you and speaks. You jump up from your crouched position and scream, then they jump back and scream as well having been scared from scaring you.
• Accidentally shoveling a poor toad that has burrowed underground in the dirt - which makes for a no-good, horrible day!
• Getting a buzzing insect stuck inside your ear that refuses to come out.
  
• And finally, snorting and/or swallowing a wide variety of bugs. Routinely.

Gardening is just a little bit of yin and a whole bunch of yang. And that's why we still enjoy it!

Pictured above:  Daylily "Sharky's Revenge"

Red isn't my first choice color - not for clothes, not for cars, not for paint colors inside my house. And it's no different with daylilies. Garden stats verify this - my daylily garden is a measly 12% red. I just don't gravitate to that color, but as you can see by the photo there are some beautiful reds to be had. When I purchase daylilies I always have to consciously tell myself, "I WILL get reds, I WILL get reds." Once I have them I really like them--even love them! How could a garden possibly be without "Red Volunteer" or "Chicago Apache," two outstanding old-school reds? Or "All American Chief?" The vivid reds really complement and punctuate the yellows, oranges, dark purples, and cremes, so they are an important part of the garden color scheme. I just have to make it a point to get them. Note to self (yet again): Mo' reds!

Daylily pictured: "Tuscaloosa"- In addition to the prolific bloom, I love the white-ish colored buds on this daylily.

I hope that this holiday season brings you and your family everything that you expect it will.  As our nephew would say (while wearing his Santa hat and big smile), and I quote, "It's a celebration bitches!"
Rest in peace Mitchell.

Poinsettia photo from www.publicdomainpictures.net (David Wagner)

It's uncanny how certain plants remind us of people who are or were important in our lives, and because of that they evoke great feeling. I can't ever see moss roses without thinking of Ange's mom, Mary. These annuals were her favorite and gave her such pleasure every summer. This year I have them planted by my back door. Every time I go in and out of the house I can see Mary smiling at me.

Ange and I were only in our 20's when Mary died, quite unexpectedly. It was a jolting reminder, at a very young age, that life has no guarantees. We need to enjoy and appreciate each day, not to mention those we love. And so it is. I plant moss roses and fondly remember Mary.