do the dew

 The back flower garden is finally coming into its own.

I weed the holes at the base of the plants occasionally, but mostly I just stand back and let it sprawl!

I make big bouquets once a week for the house and the porch.  Cheerful color everywhere.

Lots of company in the garden.  The usual birds...

ruby-throated hummingbird, female

goldfinch, male

both!

wood ducks...momma has left, just the little ones remain!

And so many butterflies, of course. Just too many to list...there's a constantly-fluttering cloud over the garden rows.  At least twenty-five...thirty?...forty...at any given time!  They even share.

one...two...three.

I've found so many interesting insects lately.  The banded tussock moth caterpillar...

...and the parent moth!

A mating pair of eremnophila aureonatata wasps.

The eggs are laid in the ground, and the female includes a paralyzed caterpillar so that the newly-hatched larvae have a nice snack right away!  

Sweat bees sting...

augochlora

...but they're great pollinators.  And despite the tiger bee flies, we still have plenty of carpenter bees!

still shaking the morning dew from his eyes!

Check out that pollen pack!

We're getting pretty regular rain in between our hot, humid August days...and the dew is really heavy lately.

dew-covered leaf hopper

...so pretty.  We're both loving the natural beauty here!  So much color this time of year.

our daily morning hike path

celosia leaves in the garden

fallen sunflower petals

Looking forward to more discoveries in the last two weeks of August.  Have a great week!  

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!