grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Armadillo in my Garden!

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Amadillo in the garden!

Each morning, I had to replant a few pansies here and there. At first, I blamed the squirrels, but as the problem grew worse, I began to suspect a different critter. Sunday morning I awoke to a freshly tilled flower bed and a tunnel under my porch. There’s an armadillo in my garden(!), and the nasty thing dug up most every flower. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see all the plants tossed around and NOT in the ground. So stinkin’ rude this digging, rooting, garden-wrecking creature.

I know he’s gotta eat, and his food of choice is grubs. So apparently I have grubs. Or maybe I only have one grub and he’s bound and determined to find it. Or maybe he’s digging to China where there’s a sale on grubs?

Only one way to take care of a problem like this.

Nip it.
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Specimen Frames – Dried Flowers on Display

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displaying dried leaves

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of fall leaves. I collect them on my daily walks. Open any random book in our house and odds are good that a dried leaf will flutter to the ground. And as of late, I’ve become obsessed with specimen-type frames which are ideal for displaying said fall leaves. This one came from Terrain. I’m obsessed with Terrain, too. (But this is not a sponsored post.)

I could say these frames provide a great way to keep fall around year round, or your favorite flower before winter takes it, or a bloom from your birthday bouquet—and all that would be true—but really, I like the overall look of this. Part sleek industrial, part mad botanist, part urban schoolhouse.Continue Reading

You might be a gardening geek if…………………. (monarch metamorphosis!)

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you might be a gardening geek if...

You might be a gardening geek if...

  • when you find a Monarch chrysalis, you plaster the news over social media;
  • you are convinced if there is one, there must be more so you crawl around on your knees in the mulch along the house and fence searching for other Monarch chrysalises—and you were right(!);
  • you read everything you can about the process, all the way to the last page of the internet;
  • you postpone travel plans because your Monarchs are likely to emerge during the time you would be gone;
  • you photograph your chrysalises several times a day (more often than you photograph your dogs) to monitor changes even though there don’t appear to be any;
  • you might even talk to them;
  • on the morning that two of your chrysalises begin to show true signs of metamorphosis, you skip an all day writing class because what if they are born while you are gone?;
  • you head straight to Westwood Gardens where you ignore the giant containers of fall mums in favor of more milkweed, your new favorite plant;
  • when you return, TWO OF THE MONARCHS HAVE BEEN BORN!

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