Shift of Tow

We have such a mosquito problem out back. I am tempted to not weed again until it’s cool out there and the plants are dying and the mosquitoes have gone to wherever they go in the winter (mosquito heaven?). Today I went out and took a few pictures, then spent my time picking up debris from the wee little tropical storm that came through, then sweeping off the patio, deck, and carport. I did this instead of weeding because when I got out there I was instantly attacked by several mosquitoes, and spent the rest of the time out there doing the “don’t bite me” dance. I could probably help this by mowing, but it’s super-cloudy and about to rain, and our mower plugs into the wall. Ah, well.

I thought this was a weed, but it’s suddenly blooming. Maybe it is a weed, but now I don’t want to yank it out:

The flowers are papery and have little speckles on them.

There are three of these growing along the shady side of our house, and I don’t know what they are:

These little guys were choked off by the coreopsis and weeds; I bet if they hadn’t been, they would’ve been really gorgeous. Next year!

Someday I will know the names of all of these things. In the meantime, if you know, tell me.

We’ve got a couple of compost bins out back, and I’ve been meaning to start using them almost since we moved in. The hold up is that one of them has a bunch of cannas growing in it.

Since there aren’t any cannas growing in our yard that I can see, I wonder where they used to be, and why they were thrown away.

Today I got on my new gardening gloves and went out there, intending to yank out all of the cannas and turn all of the compost over into one of the bins.

I yanked out a bunch of the cannas and started making a big pile of the bulbs. I’m hoping that removing them from the cannas I’m putting right back into the compost will keep them from growing again. The bulbs were buried pretty deeply, so I imagine this was more a problem of not turning the compost than anything, or maybe the previous owners stopped caring so much and just tossed them in at the end of last summer.

I got a lot of them yanked out, which you can see if you compare the next picture to the first one.

Why did I stop before it was done? The canna side of the compost is full of bees, and one of the little bastards stung me right through my glove.

I forgot how much it hurts to get stung by a bee. I fled inside and left the shovel and the pile of bulbs laying in the yard. I’ll get back out there… sometime, and finish. I need to find a bucket to use for compost, get the last few cannas out, and turn the whole thing into one bin. However, I think I’m going to spend the rest of today on my fainting couch, clutching ice to my hand.