going stag

 At long last...I'm finally seeing flowers in the back cutting garden.

nasturtiums

Mostly zinnias so far, but I love seeing those spots of color! The perennial garden by the house is holding its color nicely, too.

I always plant the usual solid colors:  lime green, soft pink, white, and deep maroon, but I love to plant more unexpected colors too.  Swoon!

Now, I love seeing the flowers in the field, and I love making bouquets, but I really love how flowers draw insects...my favorite thing to photograph.  

monarch butterfly caterpillar

Eastern pondhawk dragonfly

sarcophoga fly

ragweed leaf beetle

reddish-brown stag beetle

Sometimes the plants that insects frequent give the biggest clue to their identity.  I was combing my zucchini plants for squash bug eggs...again...and got a quick, blurry shot of this unusual-looking moth.  

It was just clear enough for Google Lens to identify it as a squash vine borer moth.  It lays eggs at the base of your squash plants, which hatch quickly.  The larvae burrow into the squash vine and eat, eat, eat.  Sure enough, the following week...

It's all right.  After a series of seriously huge zucchini...

...I'm ready to be done with them.   

Another interesting discovery...the pigweed flea beetle!  It feeds almost exclusively on amaranth, which made it pretty easy to identify.

 Its caterpillar form is already tearing into the amaranth leaves...

...but I'm not planning to harvest the amaranth and I don't mind a few chewed-up leaves.  

Still seeing plenty of deer...

...rabbits...

...and our wood ducks!  💗

(herons too!)

I love watching their progress.  Yesterday they were finally "allowed" by mama to swim the pond all by themselves!  She watched closely from the bank.

After the loss of so many young birds this year, I was ready to relax about our ducklings, until...

At first I thought it was a frog, but as I watched...

Another snapping turtle!  Argh! What do snapping turtles eat?  Fish, like the expensive grass carp that we just introduced to the pond...and birds.  Ducklings, full-grown ducks, and they've even been known to pull herons into the water!  They also eat frogs.  We're talking about trying to live-trap it and move it to the back pond, where it will do less damage.  

Otherwise, a bit of baking...

...and a bit of leisure time.

Looking forward to more.  Have a great week!  

the beat goes on

So say famed philosophers S. Bono and Cher, and it seems to be true.  The season is advancing, days are getting warmer, and things are greening up.  We're seeing more living things...after a quiet winter, mice are infiltrating the barn, looking for a comfortable spot to make a nest.

Todd was moving some large rocks and uncovered this salamander, the first that I'd ever seen here!  I carefully carried him to a safer place.

Spring peepers are singing both day and night.  This little guy was giving a great solo performance by our front door!

More delights in the established garden.  The mystery daffodils - one set, anyway - have revealed themselves to be tiny, delicate flowers that are perfect for bud vases.

New growth is continually popping out at the base of my perennials.

Love the color on this perennial geranium!

Of course, I'm very busy with my growing seedlings, nearly to the exclusion of all other things.  I wish I wasn't so single-minded with my focus.  I've joked that I'm a "serial monogamist" with my hobbies, throwing myself into one at a time, but always cycling back through the others eventually.  

Executive decision made:  these guys are being hardened off this week (left outside for long intervals to get used to the environment) and will go in the ground before April 1st.  Snapdragons, stock, honeywort, calendula, and "missing tag" things - something that's becoming more frequent.

I checked my winter sow containers and decided that bachelor buttons and clarkia were ready to go in the ground.

Shovel on compost, work into the soil, lay down thick brown paper as a weed preventative, cut big Xs for the seedlings, plant seedlings, cover area with mulch, water...phew.  It's hard work, and I ache all over today, but it's nice to have things actively in the ground and growing!

More peeking into winter sow containers showed that some seeds were sown way, way too thickly...in particular my poppies and my nicotiana.

I should just leave them alone, let them grow, and fish out a couple of big, healthy seedlings in a month.  But that's not my style.  This obsessive poppy fan couldn't let a single seedling wither due to overcrowding, so I pricked them all out into separate cells.  

Ninety poppies.  Ninety!  Where am I going to put ninety poppies?!?  If they survive, that is.  Tiny seedlings don't like having roots disturbed.  Possibly, this relocation will kill every single one.  But I had to take the chance.  It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, birds singing cheerfully and Claudia rubbing against my ankles.  I consider it a pleasant hour well-spent.  

I've also spent time with my ailing plants, like this nasturtium, which got singed in the heat within its plastic container.  Will it survive?  Maybe, but I have to give it a chance to recover.

If it does thrive, these will be gracing my bud vases all summer long...so I had to try!

photo courtesy of Baker Creek

I made every possible mistake with my dahlia tubers this fall.  I put them away while still a bit moist, so many grew mold.  Most shriveled.  I left them in our freezing cold garage instead of our moderately cold attic.  Still, I decided not to toss them.  Taking a chance, I brought them inside and let them acclimate to the warmer temperatures.  And...they started to bud out.  

I split them and potted them up, and now I've got close to 25 tubers throwing up sprouts, which I'll chop off and plant. 

I'll have a nice dahlia patch this year, I hope!  Last year, despite being planted late, left in pots too long, and positively starved of water and nutrients, they were beautiful.

Although I'm having a persistent and irritating problem with seedling droop...

...I'm learning a lot, and very optimistic about the future of my little (?) cutting garden. 

Have a great week!