Public Enemy No. 1

 Creepy-looking, no?  This is the reason my garden basically consists of roses, hydrangeas and lilies.  Mrs. Woodchuck dug a big hole in my new shrub border and I was thinking of trapping her after she ate phlox in the front garden.

Then Saturday I looked out the window and saw . . .

Three little baby woodchucks!

They looked like rabbits from afar.

This guy's standing on his hind legs munching weeds.

This last little bugger climbed the peegee hydrangea tree then swung down like a koala bear and landed on his butt.  So cute!

UNTIL, I saw they ate my rose campion and I once again contemplated hiring a hitman.  Grrrr.

Free Stuff

No, I'm not talking about Curbside Alerts on Craigslist.  I mean plants that show up in the garden without having been bought and planted. Like this beautiful allium that showed up last year.

Or this deutzia in the front border, which I transplanted to the new shrub border out back.

 Unfortunately it appears it didn't survive.  I think it died shortly after I transplanted it, and I was hoping for a miraculous resurrection.  But it's still dead.  I want to look around the neighborhood to see where this came from and maybe try to transplant another section.  I just hate it when things die on me; I take it so personally.  I didn't even know what this was and had to ask the GardenWeb shrub experts.


My neighbor's spiderwort crossed the street and hopped in my garden.  I never really liked it before, but apparently I've become really fond of all things free.  It seems really happy.

Ivy showed up.  It's growing quite rapidly now.  It's really pretty.  I love the shape.  Sorry but this is the only picture I have; it's in the upper-left corner, above the stepping stone.

I've had mint show up in a couple different places but usually pull most of it out since it's so invasive.  Then there was this beautiful large purple hyacinth.

Some catmint showed up in the front bed.  At first I thought the catmint under the mock orange had jumped the walkway, but I think this is a different kind.  It's to the right, in front of the Dutch iris.

This morning glory showed up last fall.  My neighbor had grown these a couple years ago.  It first showed up in the side garden.

Five beautiful red tulips showed up.  This showed up shortly after I moved in, in 2005.  I adopted him and named him Rudy.

Isn't he beautiful?  Looks like a Russian Blue.