back to buzz-ness

 The title is a bit of a cringe, but says it all:  we're home from our travels and focusing on things around here, which includes a whole lot of buzzing.

It's the time of year when insects are EVERYWHERE:  bees and butterflies are frantically working the flowers...

...competing with hummingbirds for the nectar.

It seems like every flower peered into houses a little guest.

Insects have to share a space with our voracious birds.  Whole flocks of goldfinches rise, scolding, from our beds if disturbed.  All local feeders are empty - a DNR directive, as scientists are attempting to discover what's causing a wave of bird deaths, and are discouraging the congregating of birds at feeders - so they're making the most of our flowers.

Birds who don't eat seeds are eating well here, too.  A Great Blue Heron hunts daily in our front pond.  They are quite skittish, and sometimes it's only by seeing their reflection in the water do we know that they are there.

It takes patience to wait for them to reveal themselves.

Small fish and frogs, which they love, can all be found here.

Signs of fall are everywhere!  Care has to be taken when bringing in flowers this time of year, because spiders are marching, mating, and making egg sacs.  Thankfully I discovered this one before it hatched!  Peeking inside, you can see the eggs.

Speaking of babies, our local turkeys are still making a daily trek through our back fields with their poults.  A normal turkey clutch can contain up to 17 eggs, and as few as 9, which is the number of poults in this little family.

Mosquitoes, too, are laying now for fall.  I noticed mosquito larvae in the bucket with our tadpoles.

They are pretty distinctive.

Tadpoles do not eat mosquito larvae, so I had to sprinkle in mosquito dunks - a bacterial attack, which will only kill mosquitoes.  Sure enough, the larvae were gone in a few days!

Deer stop by daily to eat the immature apples that drop from our tree.

This sweet bounty means that, for the most part, they leave our garden alone.  

Our late-summer sunflowers are growing well...

...and I'm still making bouquets.

Tabitha focuses on making peace with this little encroachment upon her space.

Seed gathering and flower drying continue as weather permits.  The season marches on!

Have a great week!

the last of the red [cool] lovers

I love my little herb garden, even though it's pretty inconveniently distanced from the house.  Dill is great for salmon, cilantro puts out beautiful tiny flowers that I love to use in bouquets, and parsley is great for a mild accent.  I haven't used any thyme yet, but I have plenty...along with the basil.  When you plant 10 varieties, you get...a lot of basil.

So far, I'm only using 2 varieties in cooking.  Cinnamon, Ruffled, Lemon, Holy Tulsi, Amorotto, Cardinal, etc. sound interesting, but they don't smell quite right for recipes.  Thankfully Todd likes pesto!  So far, a broccoli lemon pesto pasta and a standard mixed-basil pesto for an artichoke/roasted tomato pizza have been rousing successes.  And, of course, all basils are lovely in bouquets!  

We had one last blast of rain before the summer heat set in.

My beloved sweet peas and snapdragons are rapidly going to seed.  I've picked a last few bouquets using those and other last-legs cool flowers.

The final poppies are giving up the ghost, but leaving behind gorgeous seed pods.

Thankfully, there's new growth in the garden to distract me.

These are strawflowers, which look like juicy raspberries before opening.

They are so named because their petals already feel dried - like straw - when they bloom.  Naturally, they last forever in bouquets and dried arrangements.  Aren't they unusual?

See the little hunter?

We have a lot of other life around here.  Deer...with baby!

A lone turkey, hurrying into the underbrush.

Growing tadpoles!!

Bees...

Dragonflies...

...and loads of butterflies.

Pests are abundant, like Japanese beetles...

...and the flea beetles on my amaranth.

You have to take the good with the bad in gardening, of course.  Now that the heat has set in, "the bad" includes 3 hours weekly of monotonous watering for me, and around the same for Todd with mowing, just to keep our paths clear around the barn and to the pond.  Typical summer stuff!

At least the dry, hot weather slows down the weeds. 

Have a great week!

keep on keeping on

 Rats!!

Well, not in the literal sense.  This time, it's deer.  They jumped our fences and decapitated close to 130 sunflowers.  One hundred and thirty!  A pretty devastating morning with more than a few tears.

Then...a flash flood.  "Tornadic clouds" passed over and dumped over 5" of rain in just a few hours.  Thankfully, no real damage, but my poor garden went from this:

...to this.

Gardening is not for the faint at heart!  Thankfully, I was able to harvest from the wreckage.

Beautiful, mysterious poppies.

Sprawling nicotiana, with its angular, architectural structure:

Sweet peas...

...and so...many...snapdragons.

The color range is just amazing.

I am only missing blue and purple to make a full rainbow.  Thankfully, forget-me-nots and canterbury bells round it out for me.

Between the deer, the moles, the beetles, and the crazy weather - cool to blistering hot, drought to torrential downpours - the garden is in pretty poor shape.  But, it's not all bad.  After a week, many of my shorn sunflowers are showing new growth.  They'll be bushy and short, bit I think I will have flowers.

Tadpoles were discovered in a large outdoor bucket!

And many of my perennials are still standing tall.

No matter what condition the garden is in, we always have butterflies.

Our bee balm in particular is covered in these Great Spangled Frittilary butterflies.

So I'm going to ignore the weeds, try to shore up my flattened plants, and just keep picking.

Have a great week!