birds in thirds

 Good morning!

red milkweed beetle

It's been a very busy couple of weeks around here.  First, we had a series of crazy storms...

Seventy mph winds that uprooted a 30 - 40 ft tree right in front of us!

Todd cutting up fallen yellowwood tree

We lost power three or four times, for up to ten hour stretches.  Then, we had smoke drift in from the Canada wildfires, and for some reason it was really bad here.

For reference, our air quality this morning is 33!

That kept us inside for a couple of days, too.  But once it stopped raining, and the air cleared, we were able to get outside and get back to work.

Corn is growing!

I'm getting insanely big 2 lb zucchini from the garden...the one below is one of the smaller ones!

Borga is unimpressed.

That's a lot of zucchini bread!  

Grilled zucchini ribbons with white beans and pesto coming today.  Because, you know, we also have a ton, and I mean a ton, of basil.  

I love using it in bouquets...the cilantro I'm growing is great, too, with its pretty purple flowers...but I prefer to eat it.  I made pasta with a basil vinaigrette and roasted cherry tomatoes last week that was to die for!  I'll make it again soon and pop in the recipe here.  

I've got to be diligent about checking our veggies for insects.  I found close to 50 squash bug eggs on our lone zucchini plant.

They'd devour the plant if allowed to hatch.  Helpfully, I found a mating pair of trichopoda flies on a leaf, too.

Trichopoda flies parasitize both stink and squash bugs, helping to balance things out just like the ladybug nymphs did on the milkweed last week.  I've always got to be diligent with the plants, because even flowers have pests.  This isn't a great photo, but one of my cosmos stalks was infested with oleander aphids this week.  Fascinating to see all the different things going on in just a few inches of space!

Tiny-but-deadly ambush bugs help keep things in line, too.

They are venomous and can deliver a nasty bite, but they also eat aphids and other pests!  Here's a quick video if you want to see their grab 'n stab technique.

Lots of animals out and about.  Here's our possum, right at bedtime, after one of our big storms.

I see our big turkey family several times a week.  There are nine poults and I love hearing them chattering in the field!  I can easily see them from my office window.  

In our front pond, we've started seeing a little wood duck family every day...mom and three babies!!

Although the back pond is fine (probably because it's a lot larger), you can see that the front pond is choked with algae.  We've ordered grass carp, a type of fish that love to eat algae, and we're hoping that they'll quickly clear out the gunk.

Of course, we see the chogs all the time.

I see hummingbirds every single day.

waiting out a storm

They are pretty foul-tempered birds and I can almost hear their string of profanity when I enter the garden and they have to zip away for a few minutes.  

The roses are done blooming after a brief show...

...but when one thing stops, another starts.

hosta flower

Madame Butterfly snapdragons

It's a lovely time of year, both outside...and inside!

Have a great week!  

ticked and sicked

 I've started my seasonal baking for early summer...and what's better than homemade strawberry shortcake?!?  Recipe by Stella Parks, found in her amazing Bravetart cookbook.

I love highlighting the arrival of a new season.  And what's more appropriate for mid-May than some home-grown veggies, nearly ready for the garden?  They are so cheerful!

This year, I'm growing watermelon, zucchini, cantaloupe, 13 kinds of tomatoes, jalapenos, corn (!!), bell peppers, and lots of herbs...in addition to flowers and, of course, a ton of pumpkins.  I'm starting them off on heat pads, under lights, and then potting them up as they get bigger.  It will be time to plow the back field soon!

It's been slow going here.  Todd was sick with a terrible cold for over a week, and then promptly got bitten by a tick...the bite became infected...he had to start antibiotics...and they make him nauseous.  So I've had to do more of the "heavy lifting" work in the garden, and subsequently pulled a muscle in my shoulder and neck...barely able to turn my head for days.  I've had to limit myself to a daily single wheelbarrow of compost.  But I've been focusing on the garden directly behind the house, and I'm so pleased!

It's really coming to life.  Except for the tiny seedlings, ALL of these are perennials.  It's quite by accident that this bed turned out so well.  Long ago, I read that you should plant your garden by how the foliage looks, not the flower, because blooms are short-lived but the foliage lasts all season.  Vary your design and clump, clump, clumps of the same plants in scattered groups.  I did this quite by accident.  Too much of something somewhere, I'd dig it up and plop it wherever there was space without much thought.  Somehow, it worked.

A different view...

The paths aren't laid, but hopefully this week!

Ferny, spiky, rounded leaf...silvery, chartreuse, deep green...somehow, I ended up with a pleasing variety that comes up reliably year after year.

Coral bells, spirea, lamb's ear, yarrow, and cemetery moss...all foliage, all different shapes, sizes, and colors, but somehow it just...works.  

The delight is that as much as I love it now, in another month it will burst into bloom and be another garden entirely!  The front beds, too, have come alive on their own.  All perennials...all just doing their thing without any help from me...other than weeding and mulching, of course.

Just a few flowers right now...the cranesbill (purple flowers above), some columbines...

...and even anemones!  Yes, the anemones that I forgot about for an entire year but decided to soak and plant anyway are bursting to life.

It's nice to work in the garden with my usual pal, Claudia, while the kittens watch from their perch.

I mean, if they've got the time to watch.  Sometimes they're preoccupied with other things...

What a delightful time of year, ticks notwithstanding.  

Have a great week!