Nope, that’s not just a reflection. The water really is green. It’s also inhabited by hundreds of tadpoles at all stages of development, plus a yellow-bellied water snake. We’ve been calling it Nessie. Any tips for relocating a snake?
Photo by LauraP

My second favorite daylily – an elderly man on the next street over ran a small garden center and traded me the starts for these in exchange for a division from my patch of old-fashioned double daylilies. Some past gardener planted these yellow-throated reds at our new farm, too. Kismet?
Photo by LauraP

Old-fashioned double daylilies grow rampant in my perennial bed. Twenty years ago, when I was laying out the gardens in the first house my husband and I bought, a cousin shared starter plants with me. She’d obtained hers years before from Aunt Adele, who got hers from Great-grandma Cruikshank’s garden. I thought it a good [...]