Grasshopper and Pink Turtlehead flowers

Each week there is something new.  While picking bush beans a week ago I discovered this grasshopper.  It has to keep well hidden with all the birds around.

I have always enjoyed grasshoppers.  Now that we have some tall grass in the meadow there are quite a few grasshoppers and crickets around.  But I enjoy these bigger more colorful ones.  When you go outside the summer insect sounds are loud and varied.

The pink turtleneck flowers are just starting to bloom.  I cut down all the dead joe pye weed behind it so that the area will look nicer.  Soon we will have goldenrod and sedum blooming.

Robin and berries of viburnum ‘Chicago Lustre.’

Soldier beetles are everywhere.  These beetles were mating on the agastache today.

After the rain I took a closer look and sure enough we have a cantaloupe growing now.

Our ten foot sunflower started to open today!

On summer mornings it is just nice to sit and look at the clouds.

Butterflies on Zinnias

It rained over 5 inches in 24 hours earlier this week and now it is hot and humid.  The vegetables like that.  It is also a busy time for the butterflies.  From my desk I can look out the window at the zinnias and it is fun to watch the visitors.

This looks like the eastern tiger swallowtail that I was taking pictures of a few weeks ago on the agastache.  Most of the butterflies are looking somewhat tattered now.

The zinnias in back are one variety that are 3 – 4 feet tall.  The ones in front are 2 – 3 feet tall.  The goldfinches have removed the petals from many of the flowers.  If you looks closely you can see both the eastern tiger swallowtail and a silver spotted skipper in this picture.

Silver spotter skipper on zinnia.

Silver spotted skipper on yellow nasturtium.  Here you can see how furry the back and legs are…

Goldfinch feeding on zinnia.  Sometimes more than one goldfinch is working away at these flowers.  I guess they are getting something nutritious here.

Once while I was taking pictures of butterflies this goldfinch landed nearby and then spotted me.  He kept and eye on me for a while, trying to decide whether to fly away or get a snack.

I have seen the monarchs in the garden off and on this week.  This one’s wing is ripped, but it still enjoys its feast.  Often I see the butterflies flap their wings to get rid of bees and flies that are buzzing around them on nearby flowers.  Under the zinnia you can see a soldier beetle.  They are everywhere in the garden now.

This is a picture of a monarch butterfly that I took maybe a month ago on a coneflower.  You can see how fresh and delicate the wings were at that time.  Maybe it had just emerged that day…

On Monday there were several monarch butterflies on the agastache.  Look at all the pollen on the body.  When we had the 5 inches of rain the agastache tipped over.  I am currently leaning it against several lawn chairs and trying to get it to stand up again.

Carpenter bee and monarch butterfly on agastache ‘blue fortune’ – giant hyssop.

I believe this is an orange sulphur butterfly.  It looks like the cabbage whites, but with the pretty yellow color.

The summer solstice zinnias are just starting to bloom now and will bloom until frost.  They are tiny yellow and orange flowers that really attracted the butterflies in the past, so I planted them again along the east fence, which is a sunny afternoon spot.

My brother was another welcome visitor to the garden this summer.  Behind us you see the zebra grass which is showy now.

August Snapshots

The late summer flowers are starting up now.  There is always something to keep the bees buzzing.  The weather has been a little drier now, but with a few occasionally showers to keep things somewhat green.

Facing west you can see the tall sunflower, which is getting ready to bloom.  I got a packet of sunflower seeds in the mail as a promotion, and of all the seeds I planted only this one grew.  Right now it is between 9 and 10 feet tall.  In front the sedum is getting ready to bloom, but right now the caryopteris, right in the middle of the picture, is busy blooming and attracting many bees.  Behind is the spice bush, which had a hard year, but is growing back up from the base.  The Baptisia australis – blue false indigo has set some big seeds which are cool looking.  On the left the catmint was cut back mid-summer, but getting ready to bloom again.

Caryopteris and bee.

Seed heads of Panicum virgatum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’ – switch grass.  In the background you can see the big seeds of the blue false indigo.

In another corner of the garden the hydrangea macrophylla foliage has been great this summer, but with just one flower.  Now that the plant finally seems happy, maybe I will get more flowers next year.

Here is a close up of the hydrangea macrophylla.  My understanding is the alkaline soil produces pink flowers and acidic soil produces bluer flowers.  It looks like I have a little of both colors here.  The soil is alkaline, but it is planted right by the three arborvitae, so maybe they make the soil a little more acidic…

Comma butterfly on Joe Pye weed.  It looks like I captured a soldier bug in this picture, too.  I tried to get a picture with the butterfly wings open, but the wings opened and closed too quickly to get a picture in focus.  The Joe Pye weed has turned brown now.

I love dragonflies.  It was a windy day and this dragonfly, a widow skimmer, was hanging on to this grass stalk as the breeze blew.

Bumblebee sleeping or resting on pink zinnia.  It was just laying on the flower, but when I got very close it flew away.  Maybe it was a cozy bed.  This bee seemed to be more yellow than other bumblebees I have seen in the yard.  I am doing my best to provide habitat for native bees.

It looks like we have fewer acorns in the Chinquapin oak tree this year.  The squirrel was in the tree this week and that prompted me to see if I could see any acorns in the tree.  I just saw one or two with a quick glance.

A week or two ago I put the rest of all the onion bulbs that I bought in the spring into the ground.  They came right up, so I will either have green onions that are big enough to eat soon, or if they overwinter, I will have an onion patch in the spring.  Also the lettuce and kale I planted last week germinated right away in the cool wet weather, so maybe we will get to eat that before cold weather comes.

I planted three tomato plants this year.  In front is ‘gold medal.’  The red ones are ‘Amish paste.”  I also have a nice cherry tomato.  I made a big batch of our favorite spaghetti sauce and froze a few buckets.  It looks like we will have to cook up another batch to keep up with the tomatoes.  Or maybe I will have some tomato salads!  The flavor of the Amish paste is excellent.

Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Zucchini, and more

All of a sudden I am seeing red show up in the garden and the tomatoes are coming.  It is time for the summer vegetables and they are coming quickly.

Marketmore cucumbers.  The vine went through the fence and we have cucumbers hanging in the easement.  Phil and I are each eating about one a day.  We peel the skin and remove the seeds and it is a refreshing summer food, whether in a salad or just as a snack.

This tomato is called “Amish Paste.”  I expected a smaller plum tomato like I see in the supermarket, but all the tomatoes are huge in my garden, it seems.  I also planted “gold medal” tomatoes that each weigh a lot and are yellow.  It looks like I will be making spaghetti sauce next weekend.

“Black beauty” zucchini flower.  There are three bugs taking refuge here, a bee, possibly a cucumber beetle, and a really small bug of some sort.  I had two zucchini that got really huge before I saw them and I just threw those in the compost pile.  Otherwise we are trying to catch up on eating the zucchini.  Now that we have finished eating all the cauliflower we can probably get to these.  There are also a lot of green and wax beans in the fridge.  I have given some away and put bunches of them in cauliflower soup.

Speaking of cauliflower, I was finally cutting back the old cauliflower leaves and putting them in the compost.  I noticed that beside most of these plants there are new cauliflower plants coming up from the roots next to the mother plant.  I am not sure if I will get cauliflowers out of these, but may get some nice greens to use.

 

The brussel sprouts are coming along well.  The little sprouts are forming along the stalk.  We will see if the little tomato cage will be able to hold the weight.

Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers.  I love these!  These long peppers turn bright red and are a great snack.  I ate several last week.  I ordered my peppers and tomatoes as transplants from Seed Savers.  I like the variety they have a little more than what I get locally, though I sometime end up with local transplants, too.

It looks like I have a few “Ichiban” eggplants to throw into some recipe.  I have another eggplant, an American variety, that seems to be producing its first fruit now.

This interesting picture is not from a visiting cat or dog.  They are mushrooms on the sight of our former silver maple tree.  Mushrooms are fungi and this is the above ground representation, maybe like a flower or fruit.  I am happy to have mushrooms in the yard and I think it is a good sign of life in the soil.

Viburnum dentatum ‘Christom’ blue muffin berries are ripening for the birds.  Keeping the birds fed is part of the plan in having an ecosystem full of biodiversity, that works without pesticides or herbicides.

While cleaning up this weekend I came across this caterpillar which I think might be a silver spotted skipper caterpillar.  When I first saw it I thought it was a cabbage moth caterpillar.  But when I looked at the picture of the butterfly it looked like a butterfly I had taken a picture of earlier this past week that I could not identify.

Silver spotted skipper butterfly on agastache ‘blue fortune’ giant hyssop.

The zinnias have been attracting a lot of wildlife this week.  This very bedraggled swallowtail butterfly has been visiting all week.  I know it is the same one because it is missing a good part of its right wing.  I read this week that butterflies only live 8 – 10 days.  Then another website said that swallowtails live about a month in the summer. In about five minutes yesterday afternoon I saw four different kinds of butterflies in the yard.  I can’t get pictures of all of them and they are all so different.

The bees also love the zinnias.

Empty birdbath:  The birdbath has been completely empty this week.  No robins, sparrow, finches, starlings, or any other birds visited it, as far a I noticed.  I changed the water several times.  I seem to remember something like this happening last August.  Where have all these birds gone?  I saw a few sparrow gather on the fence yesterday, but then they flew off.  Is there something else exciting happening?  Is it pesticides?  However I do have two kinds of birds visiting in the yard.  The cardinal couple have been around all week making clicking noises in the bushes on the northwest side of the yard.  The goldfinches are also busy working on the zinnias and other flowers they can pick apart for seeds.  The mulberry tree continues to attract birds, but they are far up in the branches.

Fall vegetable planting:  I got out today and planted several patches of lettuce and kale.  It is a little late, but hopefully we will get this plants going so we can have a nice late harvest before the snow falls. I would plant more, but the garden it full!

Snake:  Dan said he saw a little brown snake in the yard by the unmowed grass yesterday.  Glad to know they are still around!  If you made it this far in the blog – Thanks!

Swallowtails and Dragonflies

The agastace is in full bloom now and attracting butterflies and bees of all types.  I should have studied entomology!  I just checked out Sue Hubbell’s book about bugs, “Broadsides from the Other Orders.”

I think this is a female eastern tiger swallowtail on the agastache ‘blue fortune’ giant hyssop plant.

Here is a side view of the eastern tiger swallowtail on the hyssop.  I like the striped body.  It looks like she is using her proboscis to sip nectar.  Is that kind of like a straw?

Limenitis arthemis – red spotted purple butterfly, I think, on agastache.  At first I thought it was a black swallowtail, but it does not have a tail.

Here is a closed wing view of the red spotted purple butterfly on agastache.  You can see the pollen on its body.

Just below the agastache a black swallowtail caterpillar is resting in the parsley.  There are a lot of hungry birds in the yard, though, so I am never sure if these guys will survive.

Agastache ‘blue fortune’ giant hyssop.’  On the left is heliopsis helianthoides ‘Summer Sun.’  The agastache plant is really buzzing, mostly with bees and flies.

I think this is a carpenter bee on the agastache.  In any case it is a very big bee.

Here is a different kind of bee.  It looks a little more like a honey bee of some type.

Red admiral butterflies are fairly common in the yard.  Here on Echinacea purpurea – purple coneflower.

There are small white cabbage moths all over the yard.  Here on Russian sage with miscanthus ornamental grass in the background.

 

One day I was looking out of the living room window and I saw something slide out of the bottom of the big silver maple tree.  I went outside with my camera and saw this yellow caterpillar with black spikes coming out of its back scurrying across the lawn.  Looking it up online I found that it is an American dagger moth caterpillar.  Apparently they leave the tree and look for a good place to make their cocoon.  The spikey hairs are poisonous.

Red dragonfly on liatris spicata – blazing star – a native plant.  I saw a number of red dragonflies around the garden yesterday.  In Japanese the name is “aka tombo.”  If you look that name up on line you will hear a famous Japanese song.

I was having lunch outside one day this week and almost did not see this big green dragonfly that rested on the butterfly weed near where I was sitting.

Praying Mantis update:  I have not seen any praying mantises in the yard this year.  Considering that I found 6 – 8 praying mantis egg sacs from last year I expected more.  It may have been the very cold winter or it may be that we really have a lot of bird in the yard this year eating the babies.  Or it may be some other reason.