Ye Olde Garden

Surprise blooms!

4/29/2011 First Lollipop Lily of 2011The first lily of the year just made its appearance. My sweet cheeks spotted this Lollipop lily making a grand entrance in the lily bed–luckily he had his new camera phone to capture the moment.

Other blooms seen in profusion include the Oertel’s rose yarrow and the late blooming dianthus. The pansies are still growing strong, and the Hot Lips salvia is just now beginning to put out blooms, after a slow start.

The variegated society garlic have dropped their flowers, though the catnip is daring to bloom immediately, after having been relocated between the rosemary and lavender. There are yet plenty of peppers to put into the ground, but with this last taste of cool weather (May 1st lows of 48 degrees), I am hoping that warmer weather will permit the basils and peppers to flourish.

I also moved most of the Flame Callas to the salvia bed, in hopes that they will take to their new home soon. I know there is still a calla positioned under one of the oxalis plants in the lily bed, but I’m unsure what color it is or where to put it (except in a pot). Hopefully this next weekend I will have time to replant it.

Ye Olde Garden

Botanic Gardens at Heritage Park in Grapevine

Secluded enough for intimate events, picturesque enough to be memorable. My man and I came across this botanical garden unexpectedly–and what a pleasant surprise it was. However, much of the botanical side of the park is still undergoing development, so it will be interesting to see how these gardens mature.

Of special interest here are the selections of native plants as well as the water features and koi ponds. Off the beaten path, you can check out the historic tree and its marker certifying its age just under 200 years old. This garden sits adjacent to Heritage Park and is very family-friendly. After a stroll through the gardens, take the kids over to the play area for some fun time.

On our current visit, many families had descended upon the gardens to take advantage of the spring color show. They had come to photograph their prom-dressed teens against the beautiful backdrop. The gardens also has several spaces to host outdoor parties or weddings, if you’re planning for a small celebration.

4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (1) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (2) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (3) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (4) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (5) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (6) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (7) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (8) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (9) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (10) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (11) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (12) 4/30/2011 Grapevine Heritage Park Botanical Gardens (13)
Ye Olde Garden

Dahlberg daisies, calla lilies, and 99 cent hostas

I learned via email specials that Calloway’s had a sale on Francee hosta bulbs on Tuesday. I dispatched the honey to pick one up for me; he ended up bringing 2 home–but the bulbs/rhizomes were so puny I was worried that they’d turn out to be disappointments. He tried to pick out the best of the pile they had and one of them already had a leaf trunk growing. He also couldn’t resist bringing home 4 dahlberg daisies home with him.

I promptly put the Francee hostas in a planter box. I just don’t think they’d survive being in-ground given their size.

A note about dahlberg daisies: it seems that seedlings dislike overhead watering and should be watered from below. This coincides with my observations, since the frail seedlings end up rotting away after getting a light shower.

Several of the calla lily bulbs I potted up a few weeks ago are already bursting out of the soil. And it seems I still missed a few calla bulbs in the lily bed, after discovering several leaves next to the Hyperion daylily and one stalk coming up from under a purple oxalis.

Technical

Fail2Ban configs

I was fed up with all the dictionary attacks on POP3. So I decided to lookup configuring Fail2ban on that port.

First off, always remember to save your iptables: service iptables save

Next, I located the jail.local file saved under /etc/fail2ban. This file is a copy of the original /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf which I want to leave untouched.

Based on the following code, I will modify it to follow the current filters in my jail.local file. So that:

[courierauth]

enabled = true
port = smtp,ssmtp,imap2,imap3,imaps,pop3,pop3s
filter = courierlogin
logpath = /var/log/mail.log

Will turn into this:

[pop3]
enabled = true
port = smtp,ssmtp,imap2,imap3,imaps,pop3,pop3s
filter = courierlogin
action = iptables[name=POP3, port="smtp,ssmtp,imap2,imap3,imaps,pop3,pop3s" protocol=tcp]
sendmail-whois[name=POP3, dest=anna@ffdepot.com, sender=fail2ban@ffdepot.com]
logpath = /var/log/maillog
maxretry = 3
ignoreip = 184.7.254.24 202.62.124.147 200.74.244.86 127.0.0.1

The newly revised code is enabled and scans the default mail ports. It creates a jail called POP3 and scans the appropriate mail log specified by logpath. The maxretry before banning is set to 3 tries. Fail2ban will then email the whois info of the IP to me, similar to what it does for SSH attempts today. The filter calls on /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/courierlogin.conf which contains the regex format which Fail2ban uses to scan mail log entries:

failregex = LOGIN FAILED, .*, ip=\[\]$

Once the jail.local file is saved, restart the Fail2ban server:


fail2ban-server -x
fail2ban-client reload
fail2ban-client status

Which responds with the corresponding number of jails, which includes one called POP3.

Afterwards, I reloaded my iptables again:

service iptables restart

Then to view the iptables: iptables -nL
Stay tuned this weekend to see if this new config pays off.