Our last dahlia has finally flowered, so despite this year's dahlia-hell spring of slugs, snails and chilly temperatures, I can now claim a 100 percent success rate. And this one has several more good-sized buds so I think we'll see more flowers over the next month or so, before it finally gets too cold.
And I've got to share one more picture of our hollyhock, which just keeps putting out flowers -- because we've got to enjoy it while we can, right?
One thing we are not enjoying is the aroma of our living room. On Monday I came home from work and noticed a distinct animal tang in the air. It smelled like a fox had somehow gotten into the house and, ahem, marked its territory. I sniffed all around the room -- the carpets, the door frame, the shoes by the door, the couch, the dog bed, the dog herself -- and I couldn't find the source of the odor. Fortunately it's one of those things that diminishes as you live with it, so after a while we didn't notice it any more.
But then last night, when I walked into the room after work, I was hit with it all over again. I decided it had to be the dog bed, which often lies out in the garden all day and which a fox (or cat?) may have marked when our heads were turned. I loaded it into the washer, hoping that would solve the problem.
It did not. Dave and I finally decided it must be the yucca's new pot. That pot sat by the back fence for months, empty, before we put the tree in it. We're thinking a fox or cat marked it, and we just didn't notice because it was so dry. But now it's holding a new plant and it has been watered, and that glorious pungent fox aroma is leaching out.
I wiped it down, hoping that might help, and I may be deceiving myself but I think it has. Hopefully in time the pong will subside.
I must say I never anticipated this particular risk in storing empty flowerpots outside.
I must say I never anticipated this particular risk in storing empty flowerpots outside.
A message from me and one of the neighborhood trash piles!
Oh yuk! To have that smell suddenly inside. I'm glad you found the source and will be careful myself with pots from my garden. I don't have indoor plants but do sometimes store empty pots in the back porch and they may have been peed on my possums.
ReplyDeleteHow awful. I never would have thought of that with a flower pot either. I worried an animal had died in your walls. Your photos are always so artful. I love that shot of the dahlia. Those trash piles would make me nuts.
ReplyDeleteYuk, hope you got the source. I wonder what next for foxes in urban areas, will they take over empty buildings?
ReplyDeleteYour hollyhock is adorable, How are the leaves holding up? I gave up on them because here the leaves just become frazzled, eaten (?) and they look pretty messy after the inital bloom.