gnatty dread

 It's still August-hot, but I'm seeing more encouraging signs of fall.  Virginia Creeper and some deciduous bushes in our yard are taking on a hint of color.  Relief.  

I'm still loving our late-blooming plants, like the 'Cherry Brandy' Rudbeckia that I don't remember planting, but am glad I did.

Ditto for my swaths of Black-Eyed Susans.  I don't know how they got there, but they're fantastic.  Long-lasting, and they really brighten up a bouquet.

I usually do one big bouquet-picking per week, but as flowers fade, I replace them mid-week as needed.  It doesn't take long and it's a great pleasure.

We're trying to eat more in the dining room - a year and a half of eating in front of the living room T.V. because of various construction issues is a hard habit to break.  I always bring in an extra bouquet and it makes the meal feel really festive!

Picking flowers makes being outside in August a little easier.  There are still sleepy bees...

...here-and-gone visitors...

...and watchful cats.

I love finding a new flower that was planted months ago and finally opened up, like these Batchelor Buttons.

You've got to take the bad with the good, however.  One major irritant right now is fungus gnats.  Their eggs are often in potting soil.  Pot up a plant and bring it inside, and the eggs hatch.  Cue the hordes of tiny terrors, which then lay eggs into damp potting soil.  The larvae eat your plant roots and mature into the flying gnats...and repeat. They're larger and more fly-like than the gnats commonly seen outside...

They don't seem that numerous until you set out fly traps.  Then...

This post could've been titled 'Fungal Bungle," because I didn't take any steps beyond fly paper to eradicate them.  This week, I'll be buying some fine sand that the gnats can't penetrate, for covering the soil.  Hopefully this will knock them out for the year.

I've been shaking my fist at my cleomes, too.  They're so effortless to grow and make such nice accents in the fall garden...

...but those SEED PODS!

I spent an hour clipping them off last week, and was astounded to see that this week, they're all back and all ready to pop - again!  Once more, I picked up my scissors and went to work - but if they continue to put out pods, I'm going to go ahead and cut them all down.  Too much trouble!

Mostly, though, everything is manageable and enjoyable.  Outside...and inside! 

Have a great week!

seed greed

Being the fall fiend that I am, I am already looking for signs that the seasons are changing.  I've seen some encouraging ones.  Turkeys...and baby turkeys (or poults)!

Turkeys eat frogs and grasshoppers, and they can find those here in this back meadow, but especially love acorns.  They should be out foraging for those very soon!

I've seen signs of another fall visitor in my coneflower beds.  Large bald patches are appearing on the drying seed heads.  See anything?

Look closer!

Goldfinches are also hitting up the bird feeders.

Goldfinches eat mostly seed, so they nest late, in order to take advantage of late summer/early fall seeds.  I've seen quite a few this week.

I'm continuing to see record numbers of butterflies in the back garden, too...I've counted at least 15 of the larger varieties (monarchs, tiger swallowtails, etc.), and that number can be counted at any given time, really, but especially in late afternoon.

Unfortunately, my coneflower mites are back.  They're in the same area as last year, but I can't tell if they're on the very same flowers.  I've got several bunches of coneflowers growing there.  The afflicted flowers are easy to spot with their obvious deformities - immature petals and green tufts.

I've cut off the afflicted flowers and haven't seen any sign of spread.

Working in the back garden, I'm seeing lots of cucumbers, but not many zucchini.  The problem might be squash borers.  Look at the tip of this immature zucchini. That's a squash vine borer larvae.

Squash vine borers are jaunty-looking moths with bright orange abdomens.  They emerge from the ground in early July and lay their eggs near squash stems.  The larva bore into the stems and start to eat.  They'll munch for close to 6 weeks, then return to the ground to pupate.  If you see holes in squash stems or yellowing, wilty vines, you've probably got them.  Some gardeners plant a second squash crop at the beginning of July to avoid these pests, or they can apparently be tricked with buckets of bright yellow water.  They're highly attracted to the color yellow, so they'll fall into the water and drown.  

We're nearing the end of the wild rabbit nesting season (they're typically done nesting here by September), but I still see an occasional young rabbit around.

Speaking of rabbits...you've heard the phrase that speaks of their amazing ability to reproduce? Well, I've got a better one.  Cleomes reseed wildly and spread further than anything I've ever planted.  This big bed of cleomes in front of the house?  I didn't plant them there...not a single one.  They grew from one flower last year that dropped its seeds.  Phew!

They have long, bean-like seed pods that hang below the flower, and sometimes a second circle of them will appear halfway down the stem.

Each pod contains thousands of seeds.  Each flower has around 40 pods.  You get the picture.  I have a ton of seeds left over from last year, so I carefully snipped off the hanging pods on all plants this weekend.  In early fall, they start to split and drop their seeds, so unless I want to start a cleome farm, this is a necessary late summer task.

A really fun fall sighting this week:  bird nest fungi, which is a sign of healthy soil and appears mostly in the fall.  It's easy to see how it gets its name.

The "eggs" contain the fungal spores, which are easily spread when the "nest" captures rainwater and splashes out.  I've been seeing them all over and am happy to know that I'm being assisted in the never-ending job of transforming this hard clay soil into something healthier for my plants!

I've been doing a lot of work in the back garden, weeding and mowing, to prep it for mulching.  I love my garden views.

See that black shadow in the background?  Yes, that's Claudia.  She's with me nearly every time I'm working in the garden, keeping an eye on things.

The back garden is continuing to thrive.  Zinnias, marigolds, and celosia are all popping, and cosmos - those ferny bunches - are starting to bud.  It's going to be quite a bounty when they bloom.  And this is just my 'failure' group of seedlings.  Next year...

As long as I continue to have lots of help...ahem...

...it will all work out.

Have a great week!

feline work shirk

A wonderful sign of fall...our apples are starting to darken up.

This continues to draw deer, but I'm happy that they're satisfied with eating fallen apples and don't venture into the mammalian smorgasbord that is the flower garden.  A few apples and then a mad dash to the hedge.

They're becoming fairly comfortable with us watching their antics, and don't seem too annoyed...

...except by the biting flies that proliferate in late summer.

Another late-summer proliferator...the cleome.  These tall, spiky pink flowers were a bit of a surprise.  I'd forgotten how bold they were when I sprinkled a few seedlings around the garden...they're now the dominant force there.

They're a bit wild and unruly, so I'll be more careful next year.  They're annuals, but are rabid re-seeders.  I've collected a huge bag of seeds already and if I'm diligent, can probably quadruple the amount I currently have.  I could seed a whole field with these guys!

Eriophyid mites have infected another group of coneflowers...

...but otherwise, things are calm in the garden.  I'm seeing delightful signs that summer - my least favorite season - is nearing an end.

Autumn Joy sedum is starting to bloom.

My pure white Little Lime hydrangea is starting to get a tinge of fall color.

And a great fall bloomer, ironweed, is coming up everywhere in untamed meadows beyond the fences.  If you see a splash of purple looming in the roadside weeds and fields, it's probably ironweed.

It's actually a member of the sunflower family and named ironweed for the tough stem.  These tall fall visitors are great for butterflies and bees.  The tiny flowers look like little asters when opened...

...and thistles when closed.

They make great fillers in bouquets, although I had to be careful when picking these from along an overgrown fence line.  Todd found a hornet's nest out by the white barn, and hornets are busily entering and exiting the nest all day long!

They're great pollinators and die off when the weather gets cool, so normally we'd just leave the nest alone, but I'm not sure we'll be able to mow in the vicinity of the nest if it's occupied.  We're still deciding what to do.

Speaking of barnyard companions, Claudia is keeping an eye on us.  Sometimes she's in the tree...

..or keeping careful watch from the vicinity of our outdoor activities.

She proudly delivered another dead vole this weekend, proving herself to be both a cuddly, joyful cat and a great worker, too.  We love having her around!

Our other cats are somewhat less motivated to work.

That's okay...we'll still keep them around.  :)

Have a great week!