assassin (bug)'s creed

 While kittens are sleeping peacefully inside...

...we've been working like crazy to get garden things done ahead of this historic heat wave.  As of Friday, I had twenty-two containers of seedlings that needed to be planted.  With my tendonitis and our hard clay soil, I just can't efficiently get the digging done...so I had to have help!

We have a little electric tiller, and thanks to the recent rain, Todd was able to get quite a bit of ground ready for me.  I crawled behind, digging and planting as quickly as I could.  After the containers were planted, I started to direct-seed the summer stuff:  celosia, zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, etc.  I've never had much luck with direct seeding, but at this point, it was the only option.  If it works...it's going to be glorious!

I love the ground-level view of the garden.  A brown cricket watched me dig, bringing back childhood memories of hauling a wire cylinder full of crickets to the local fishing hole.

(spider warning!)

A parson spider fled before my trowel, dragging behind her egg sac.  It's hard to see here, but it's called a parson spider because the white strip on their abdomen resembles a priest's collar!

A shield bug supervised from a safe distance.

Of course, I love being eye level with the bupleurum and forget-me-nots...

...and oh, those poppies!

All self-seeded from last year.  Another surprise...I planted 'Ice Ballet' milkweed last year but no flowers...this year, it's finally blooming!

I love milkweed because it's a MAJOR insect attractor.  Bees, of course...

...but also grasshoppers (look how tiny...the size of one milkweed blossom!)...

...this battle-scarred soldier beetle...

...this swamp milkweed leaf beetle, hiding under a leaf...

...lots of milkweed bugs...

...and many others.  But let's face it...milkweed is a major Lover's Lane.

This last amorous pair?  Ambush bugs.  They crouch amid blossoms...

...and wait for prey.  I think they look like tiny mythical creatures!  Their bodies are jagged to help them blend into flowers better...assassin bug relatives, they pierce their prey and liquify the innards.  They have a pretty nasty bite for people, too, so best to give them a wide berth! 

I love seeking out unusual life in the garden and am so grateful to have the opportunity to draw them in.  I had almost given up hope of having a garden this year and have been absolutely astounded at what has come back on its own this year.

It's so easy to go out and grab flowers for bouquets, and especially gratifying, because I didn't plant any of this in 2022.  Cue the Hallelujah chorus!

Have a great week!

a midsummer night's stroll

Hot hot heat!  Mornings and evenings are the best times for being outside right now.

Sometimes Todd and I will walk down to the pond after supper.  The fields are filling up with wildflowers after 2 years of battling invasive weeds and thistles.

We had the back of the field fenced...

...to try to keep out these guys.

We have a limestone-bed stream that runs along the back part of the property.  It's usually quiet, but swells up after a rain.

No prolonged gentle sprinkles here.  It's hot and dry, and then a torrential downpour will come...flatten everything and be gone in minutes.  These somewhat frequent mini-monsoons have caused the soil to erode from the sides of our bank, exposing the limestone beneath.

Todd found an eastern box turtle on a recent jaunt - the shell, anyway!

Love the geometric shapes.

I've seen it reproduced many times in clothing, like this knitted skirt.

photo courtesy of Norah Gaughan, Ravelry

We can see the effects of the weather in other places besides the stream banks.  I'm frequently seeing a slime mold, delightfully referred to as dog vomit fungus, in the garden. 

It's not really dangerous but does spread quickly, but at least it's easy to scrape up if you don't want to look at it!

Otherwise in the garden, poppies are somehow still going strong in the heat.

Ditto sweet peas.

Forget-me-nots and bupleurum, both cool-weather flowers, are somehow still doing well, too.

But the heat lovers are vying for attention.  Coneflowers are popping!

Celosia has self-seeded EVERYWHERE.

Shorter varieties of snapdragons are opening up, too!

Claudia loves helping me measure progress with her constant presence!

Here's hoping for more moderate temperatures and gentle rainfall.  Have a great week!

petticoat junction

For the past week, I've watched my fall-sown poppies crack open.  Would they be pink?  Purple?  White?  The buds slowly split, soon looking just like a Victorian lady's dress, with bustle and fancy ruffled petticoat.  The poppies are...red.

Red is a color that I don't use much in the garden.  I prefer soft pinks, cream, lavender, yellow.  But these are making a bold statement that I like more than I expected to!

I don't pick them for bouquets...just leave them in the garden to enjoy.  

The white flowers are nicotiana - flowering tobacco.  They have delightful lettuce-y leaves.

We've reached the part of the season of purely morning work.  With midday temperatures in the mid-90s, I have no interest in being outside.  At this point, the plants are on their own.  I do a little weeding, a little watering, but mainly, I leave them alone.  It's been damp and humid enough for some pretty nice mushroom colonies!

Hot and humid are the norm for an Indiana summer, and I'm just glad that we made it to mid-June before the heat really set in.  The extra-long cool spring provided a wonderful foundation for my "cool annuals," which are just starting to wind down.  The first of the "hots" - snapdragons! - are just beginning.   

I like being out in the early morning.

Dew dapples the new blooms.

I like seeing the new blooms, from flowers which were just theoretical the night before.  Paper seed packet pictures and a long, slow youth as identical green nubbins in the soil.  Then they burst open and are finally real!

As they bloom, they must be picked, or they'll go to seed.  I've been slow about ordering flower food - those little powder packets that come with store-bought bouquets - so mine only seem to last for 3-4 days.  Therefore I toss, toss, toss, and cut, cut, cut.  A couple of times per week...

I definitely have a soft spot for the aforementioned snapdragons.  They're a flower that I remember from my childhood, and they're long-blooming and vigorous.  And the colors!

There are early-, mid-, and late-blooming snapdragon varieties, and I've planted them all.  I can't wait to see what comes up!

The newly-plowed back garden is finally showing some growth.  At last!  I won't get any blooms for another month, but still exciting.  I've planted close to 140 sunflowers and many of them are here.

My new lens is still (and indefinitely) back-ordered.  This means that I can't take my usual insect/nature photos, which is tough.   Even though my subject material is now pretty limited, at least it's a pretty nice source material.

Have a great week!