Garden Visitors + Pond Emergency = Busy Squared

My dear gardening and garden-blogging friends: I don't know how it could be two weeks since I last posted! But looking back on the past two weeks, it has been a rather busy summer time:

1. Last weekend we had two groups of visitors over: first our church's new pastor and her husband for tea and a garden walk last Saturday, and then a group of parents with children about the same ages as our kids from our church for a grill-out potluck and garden walk last Sunday. Needless to say, we spent the week before trying to catch up with weeding, mowing and tidying both the gardens and the house!
2. My parents then arrived on Tuesday for an overnight stay.
3. Wednesday I came down with a cold, which I thought might be really bad allergies until other family members started getting it too. I felt pretty bad for a couple of days.

But most recently: While my parents were here Tuesday, we made the shocking discovery on our walk around the gardens that one of the large paving stones edging our pond fell into the pond as a result of the edge collapsing from our heavy rains of the past week, and the water level had alarmingly dropped six inches overnight! 

Before: All looked fine a couple of weeks ago.

I greatly feared that the stone had punctured the lining (although I would have supposed that our nearly 100% clay subsoil would have prevented such a rapid depletion of the water). Fortunately, when we partly refilled the pond, the water level stayed constant, so I can only surmise that when the stone fell in, the top edge of the rubber liner folded down and the water ran out of the side into the sod surrounding the pond. (I still don't know where approximately 250 gallons of water could have gone, but I guess that will remain a mystery....) At any rate, my husband and I have counted ourselves lucky that we don't have to remove everything from the pond and replace or try to patch the liner. 

During repair: The spot where Puppy is sitting is where the paving stone fell into the drink and the edge collapsed. I have removed most of the pavers in this photo and you can see that while the pavers on the short sides were supported by rigid metal bars, nothing but the earth edge was holding up the pavers on the long sides. I'm sure it was just a matter of time (it did hold up for three years) until the edge became structurally unsound. I'm just glad no one was standing on the stone when it happened! 

We've been working on building a lumber frame around the edge to support the stones -- something we should have done when we built it. I hope we'll finish repairing it in the next few days.

We first tried 4x4" lumber, but decided 6x6" would be more solid. We'll still use 4x4" on the short sides, bolting the corners together. Then we'll refill the pond, staple the liner to the lumber and replace and level the stones. Oh, the labors we gardeners take upon ourselves.... :-)

Anyway, that's what I've been up to in the past two weeks. But it hasn't been all work; my gardens have had some beautiful moments that I haven't been too busy to notice while outside working. Here's a few of them:

The delphiniums were at their peak a week ago. I think these are probably
'Pacific Giant' varieties.

This is the first year I've had any luck with sweet peas. I wintersowed them under milk jugs
along the east side of my house in late February, and finally started getting some flowers in
early June. I think they like the afternoon shade here, and I hope they will continue blooming
even in the heat of summer, although they are a cool-season annual. These smell wonderful
-- they are Burpee's 'Old Spice Mix'. 

The milkweed that sowed itself at the very front of my North Border is doing its job....  

More prairie goodness for butterflies (although none appeared for this photo), with cornfields beyond.

The hollyhocks are starting to bloom in the Front Border (actually just outside it, in the
driveway, where they prefer to seed themselves). Roses and yarrow and snapdragons
are merrily accompanying them.

More butterfly action among the delphiniums and daisies.

A clematis whose name I apparently didn't write down in my garden journal, one of two planted on our
gazebo. Very pretty purple flowers -- I suppose it could be 'Jackmanii'.

This view is back toward the house from our Flowering Grove, which we have planted with crabapple and other spring flowering trees. I just finished mulching the circles around the little trees last week. We've been striving for a "parklike setting" in this area, and it looks good at this time of year. 

One more shot of the delphiniums before they are gone for another year. (Actually, if I cut them back after they are done, they sometimes re-bloom in September, although not with so many or so tall flowers as in June.)

I hope you are enjoying your own June gardens and that you haven't had any garden emergencies as upsetting and work-requiring as my pond-repairing business, although I know that many of you have garden tours in your gardens, which are indeed a lot of work to get ready for. But June is such a beautiful time in our gardens that we should be sure we encourage ourselves to enjoy them.

Happy Summer Solstice, and thanks for reading! -Beth