Can’t you smell that smell?
Wow, I just quoted lyrics by Lynyrd Skynyrd! Never thought I’d do that.
Every June we are visited by this crazy, bad smell of death. Oh, it’s just our amorphophallus blooming! I am always stunned by how bad this flower smells and I even forget it is there until the breeze shifts. This year is the worst yet as the smell of dead rats creeps all the way up to our back door. I am a bit embarrassed as to what our neighbor thinks–he probably is setting up rat traps as we speak. I can’t get rid of the plant since it really is beautiful, but dear god, it’s bad.
Wikipedia has some interesting information on the reproductive cycle of these guys. The second image is what this beast’s belly looks like. It acts as a temporary trap for insects to pollinate the flower.
I don’t know if I could tolerate that, being familiar with the smell of dead rodents. Yeeeechhh!! Nice mower in the background! I’m totally buying into your idea of ripping out lawn for more garden too!
We are on board for ripping out our lawn also (that is, Zep and I are on board, Brodie, not so much).
We were just talking about rotten flesh smelling plants today. Zep thinks you should wear a gas mask to protect yourself.
I love your garden, I have been living vicariously through your blog these last couple of weeks. Everything here is already starting to die back and gear up for the hot summer. Everything but the insects, of course.
You have one of those old fashioned lawn mower things! That’s awesome. I want one of those but can’t seem to find one for sale that works.