Blooming on the 4th of July

It is hot and flowers are blooming!

This is the first big purple coneflower that really opened up.  It is in the sunny part of the garden that we do not mow.  The coneflowers in the shade are still getting their pink petals.

In the back of the last picture you can see the three false sunflowers that are blooming.  Can you see the little monarda blooming in the background?

One little monarda bee balm is blooming among the weeds.  Maybe others will get going.

From the patio I enjoy watching the goldfinch in the meadow.  Here she was eating grass seeds.

A few days later the goldfinch was working on the coneflowers.

Nearby the Shasta daisies are still looking good.  In the background is blue hill sage, or if you prefer blue hill salvia.

The zinnias are getting going…

This garden is near the patio and is cheery.  I need to deadhead the gaillardia, frequently.  The red hot pokers made an appearance. The spike speedwell will need to be trimmed back before long.

Red hot pokers in front of Miscanthus ornamental grass.

Coleus

Yellow marigolds

Agastache ‘blue boa,’ false sunflowers, and butterfly weed right by our patio.

Juvenile robin and coreopsis tickseed

Coreopsis ‘zagreb’

Swamp milkweed

Lady’s mantle, though not a great picture.  On the left is blue fescue grass.

Prairie verbena grows next to dragon’s blood sedum.

My son, with false sunflowers and butterfly weed in the background.

Fireworks:  On 7/3 I went to bed early, as usual, and I had just fallen asleep when the fireworks started, which I had forgotten about.  I turned out the lights and opened the shades and saw a yard full of fireflies lighting up in the dark in nature’s own fireworks!  I enjoyed watching them for a while, then read a good book until the fireworks died down.  I do enjoy watching fireworks, but only make the effort to do it every few years.

Blue Beauty

Sometimes you have to stop and smell or take time to enjoy the flowers!

Baptisia australis, blue false indigo.

Close up of blue false indigo flowers

Veronica spicata Royal Candles (spike speedwell)

‘May Night’ sage, in the salvia family

The sage is often in the shade, but gets some sun in the morning.  The yarrow is just starting to turn yellow.

‘Blue Hill’ sage, max frei geraniums, and penstemon digitalis (foxglove breadtoungue)

Digitalis purpurea foxglove

Meadow sage

Clematis jackmanii

The birds hang out on the tomato cages near the bird bath.  The clematis, virginia creeper, and soon the tomato vie for climbing space on the fence and cages.

The garden is planted.  The zucchini, which just popped out of the ground, the cucumber, and the zinnias will fill up the open space on the right.

Enjoying fresh greens each day

Tomato flower

Ajuga and coleus

Blue fescue ornamental grass. In the background are cone flowers, coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’, and asclepias incarnate – swamp milkweed.  Those flowers should be blooming before long.  The Russian sage is trying to pop up everywhere, too….

I just planted the little bluestem grass on the right, and the sunflower seed I planted is getting going on the left.  I have another little bluestem grass that is more established and the grass looks bluer.  The great part  of this grass is the orange/red color in the fall.

Blue damselfly on rhubarb leaves

The day I took this picture Dan said:  “This is the most beautiful day of the year!”

Iris.  I think I got rid of my blue irises because I really like these red ones best.

We pulled out Rick’s old tent, that we have never used on a trip, and it looks like it will work for Stephanie’s first camping trip.

Last weekend, on our walk around Lake Katherine, we watched this turtle laying her eggs.  She was on a mission and dug a hole on the side of the path where people were walking and running.

 

Backyard blooms, berries and beyond

Following on in the “B” theme, look in this blog post for a bull frog, blue damselfly and Indiana dunes beach….

The butterfly weed is in bloom.  We are waiting for the monarch butterflies to visit…

Veronica spicata Spike speedwell ‘Royal Candles’ a little bit past its prime.  Red hot poker flowers in the background.

Kniphofia red hot pokers in front of miscanthus ‘morning light’ ornamental grass.

The view from the patio.

Aruncus goat’s beard does well on the north side of the house.

The first gaillardia blooms.

Bright yellow yarrow, and in the background salvia ‘blue hill.’

The alyssum re-seeds itself each year and is starting to bloom now.

Does cauliflower count as a flower?  I cooked this up in a soup today!

The collards are looking nice and we are trying to keep up with eating them before the cabbage worms do their munching.  This plant does not look too chewed on.

We haven’t had to buy lettuce for a few weeks.  This leaf lettuce is nice, but the romaine is starting to bolt with the hot weather.

In a bowl this morning from our yard – serviceberries, strawberries, mulberries and raspberries.  I enjoyed them with my oatmeal.

Ripening serviceberry.  I am competing with the birds for these now.  The robins are often in the serviceberry tree.

Unfortunately this berry loving cedar waxwing died after crashing into our kitchen window!  I saw a big serviceberry in its mouth before it died.

A downy woodpecker has been visiting the birdbath.

There seem to be a lot of wasps in the yard this year.

Blue damselfly on miscanthus ornamental grass.

We visited Indiana Dunes State Park last weekend.  We hiked for a couple of hours in the dunes before enjoying our lunch with the crowd on the beach.

A little cactus along the prairie trail.  This state park has quite a few endangered species.

Tomahawk Slough in the Palos Forest Preserve, where we hiked last Sunday.

One of many bullfrogs at Tomahawk Slough.

There were also a ton of little toads or frogs hoping around near the water and on the trail.  I guess it is time for them to head out on their own and see if they survive.

Great blue heron at Tomahawk Slough.

Birding:  I signed up for a birding blitz in the Palos Forest Preserve for June 17th.  I am just an amateur birder, so I was looking forward to going out with someone who could identify a ton of birds.  I showed up in the parking lot at 5:30 am and then remembered to check my email on my phone.  The blitz had been canceled for weather reasons, as thunderstorms were predicted.  I could hear all the birds around me, but the expert birders were not there.  We did not get any rain on Saturday as I guess the rain fell somewhere else.  But it was probably a good thing that I was not involved, as my foot has been giving me some trouble after all that hiking last weekend.  So it is a good weekend to just rest and recover and get this blog post done!

 

Berries and Goat’s Beard

After a poor start on the strawberries, I got ahead of the birds and bugs by picking strawberries once or twice a day.  We ate out first raspberry on Friday.  We are working through the cool weather vegetables now, eating a lot of lettuce and kale, starting on the collards, and enjoying a few peas.

I picked this small bowl of berries yesterday and ate them with a little vanilla ice cream.  Yummy!  It includes strawberries, raspberries, mulberries and service berries, also called June berries.

We tied the raspberries canes to the fence and they are just getting started bearing fruit.  Once the raspberries are eaten we will cut back those canes and tie up this year’s new canes that will have raspberries next year.

Aruncus dioicus Goat’s Beard.  Since we have moved the goat’s beard to this location it keeps getting bigger each year and I can enjoy it from my office window.

Close up of the goat’s beard flowers which have been attracting a lot of pollinators, especially some really big bees.

So far it looks like we have one red hot poker flower coming.  A month ago in Washington state I saw a lot of these blooming, so maybe that climate is better for them.  You can see one small blue petunia on the ground.  The rabbit nibbled down all the petunias when we first planted them.  We finally got rid of the rabbit, for now, so the flowers are getting going again.  Also in the picture are gaillardia, spike speedwell, ‘little bunny’ pennisetum fountain grass and Russian sage.

Spike Speedwell Veronica spicata ‘Royal Candles.’   These plants are on the decline in my garden, but I enjoy them for a little while each year.

We have a little bit of leaf lettuce in the yard, but we are mostly eating romaine lettuce these days.  I love eating fresh lettuce in my daily salad.

Curly kale.  We just made some bean and vegetable soup.

Wild kale.  I bought the seeds for the wild kale from Seed Savers Exchange.  I don’t like the flavor of all the types of kale so I weeded out those and was left with the mild kale I like.  It is blooming now, since I planted it last fall, but I just keep taking off the flowers.

Pea flower.  I think these are sugar peas.

The pole beans are just starting to climb.  We should have flowers on those before long.  The compost pile in the back has shrunk way down.  It is probably soon ready to spread around the garden.

Blooming Flowers and Biting Mosquitoes

It has been a raining summer and the mosquitoes are winning the battle.  A lot of flowers are blooming in the garden now.  If some of the pictures are not the greatest it is because each picture comes with a mosquito bite!  The garden has a lot of places where mosquitoes can congregate under a lot of foliage.  It doesn’t seem so bad if we walk on a trail somewhere else.

The Joe Pye Weed – Eupatorium ‘Gateway’ – is starting to bloom.

A few pink hydrangea flowers are blooming on our small bush.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Incrediball.’  I wish I had gotten a hydrangea with smaller blooms that were not so heavy.  Last summer I had good luck with drying them, though.

Hydrangea close up.

We have had three Kniphofia – red hot poker flowers this year.  Maybe a few more will continue to come…  The blue flowers on the left are spike speedwell.  The Russian sage is starting to come on strong.  On the left is miscanthus ‘morning light’ ornamental grass.

The liatris spicata and the Shasta daisies are blooming at the same time.

Bee visiting liatris spicata – blazing star.

I spent a little time deadheading these mums today.  It has been too cold and wet to do it before, so it was a bit of a job.  The alyssum reseeds itself every year here and there in the garden.  It is easy to pull out wherever I don’t want it.

Swamp milkweed.  I tried planting regular milkweed from seed this year, but have not succeeded so far, though I am still trying.

This is the only picture I have of some bee balm that is getting going in our little meadow.

With the rabbits and all the mosquitoes we ended up cutting back some of our little meadow to give some room for a little hickory that a squirrel planted in a good place.  We will see if this hickory catches up to the taller bitternut hickory we planted in the front yard.

The first pink zinnia calls to the butterflies.

The dill is flowering.  Dill is good food for the black swallowtail caterpillars.

Native and non-native plants:  I planted a lot of flowers before thinking about incorporating more native plants into the garden.  So I have a mixture of both.  Often the native plants really attract the pollinators, though some non-native ornamentals do well, too.

Cooking:  My cooking this week included these ingredients from the garden: broccoli, cauliflower, collards, kale, bok choy, onions, red potatoes, small eggplant, parsley, oregano, thyme, a few strawberries and blueberries, and 5 wax beans that the rabbits missed.  With all the mosquitoes this year I have not been too upset to have the rabbits eat the pea and bean plants.

Cauliflower, Broccoli, and Strawberries

We have been eating lettuce for a while, but yesterday we cooked up some soup with our first head of cauliflower, and we need to harvest the first head of broccoli today.  We have been eating a lot of strawberries this week.  Actually Dan reached his limit of strawberries, but I still have room for more!

This cauliflower was a lot smaller than the ones last year, but probably about 7 inches across, so big enough.  The soup we made also had asparagus and mushrooms from the farmer’s market.

It looks like I need to pick this broccoli head for super.

Potato flowers.  I planted red potatoes this year, but these potatoes came up from whatever we missed getting out of the ground last year.

Backing up you can see the same potato plants on the left, next to some flowers  – Penstemon digitalis (foxglove beard tongue), a native plant.  In front are wax beans that are getting crowded out by the potatoes.  I can always plant some more wax beans, if I get around to it.

Tomato flower.  These are “Amish paste” tomatoes, that were so good last year.

I have been picking one to two pints of strawberries a day.  Rain and heat help.

Strawberry rhubarb sauce.  I have made three batches this year.  I realize how much rhubarb I threw in the compost pile the past years…  Of course, it requires a lot of sugar, but other than that there is no cost to me.  I have been enjoying it with some yummy ice cream.

Our neighbors cut down some weed trees, and with them the raspberry canes.  Raspberries come on second year canes, I believe, so they are growing back for raspberries next year.  And now we have some growing on our side of the fence, the right side, too!

I think this is oakleaf lettuce.  We pick leaves off and more grow back.  We have romaine lettuce and some baby kale for salads and smoothies, too.

A few flower pictures, too…  Blue hill salvia, max frei geraniums, and penstemon digitalis.

The alchemilla lady’s mantle plants have been big this year.  Behind them the catmint is blooming.  On the right in front is the caryopteris and the baptisia australis is in back.  I could get rid of some of these plants, but I don’t have to pick weeds here, or at least I don’t see them, when the plants are big like this.

Straight through the opening in the last picture – the spike speedwell royal candles are blooming and the gaillardia are getting going, too.

Geranium ‘rozanne’ with lady’s mantle in the background.

The joe pye weed on the right is starting to get tall.  Last year I pinched them back.  I think I will not pinch them back and leave them with some supports this year and see how tall they get.  In front are white foxgloves, liatris getting ready to bloom, and foliage of the turtlehead flowers.

Sightings:  A chipmunk that seems to be under the hostas or the irises.  The rabbit persists.  We are learning to live with it, but give it chase now and then.

Butterfly, Caterpillar, and a Mystery Bird

If you get out in the garden on a sunny day you can find sun loving insects and flying creatures if you can stand still for a while.

Little wood satyr – Megisto cymela.  I saw a number of these little butterflies on Saturday morning.  This one was in the unmowed meadow.  While I was standing there I saw what I think was an eastern comma butterfly sunning on the raspberry leaves, but it got away before a was able to focus, so I can’t verify what it was.

Pollinators on aruncus – goatsbeard, which is just going past prime now.  There were a lot of flies, but also small bees, wasps, and the tiny red creature at the top of the picture is either some kind of spider or tick.

Black swallowtail caterpillar on curly parsley.  This guy was chewing away one evening.  I did not see it the next morning, so it is either hiding, eaten by a bird, or off to make its cocoon.  I saw a black swallowtail butterfly a while ago apparently dropping eggs on this parsley, so I have been keeping my eyes open for the caterpillars.

Spike speedwell – veronica spicata ‘royal candles.’  Just throwing in something that is flowering this week.  In the background the black-eyed susan foliage is getting taller, and behind that is miscanthus ‘morning light.’  Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Little Bunny’ grass is on the right.

This little brown bird spent about 5 minutes on this spot this morning and I wondered if it was a juvenille version of a common bird from around here.  When I look at the pictures I took the one leg is holding all the weight in all the pictures and I wonder if there was an injury or if that is normal.  In the background sedum in blooming yellow.

Here is a side view.  If anyone recognizes this bird let me know.  On the right is what I think is a juvenile robin.  They were looking at each other for a while below the bird bath.

The first coreopsis (tickseed) bloomed.

The clover is blooming in the lawn, which makes a lot of bees happy.  It is also good for the lawn as it is a nitrogen fixer – that is it obtains nitrogen from the atmosphere and fixes it in nodules on its roots.  So it is a kind of fertilizer.  The Chicago lustre viburnum bushes are starting to bloom in the background.  And if you look closely you can see one of the clematis flowers on the back fence.

Clematis bloom on back fence.  We have two clematis vines and they are pretty wild right now.