Heather's Garden

CALENDAR WORTHY

Slow weekend in the garden, which was exactly what VPH and I needed.  No real gardening being done, just harvesting and tidying up. 

First, as promised, a picture of the morning glory in bloom:

Which is difficult because all the blooms are above my head:

 Another climber that's making me happy these days is the purple hyacinth beans:

The dead cucumber was ripped out today and the other cucumber is not looking too good (after I took the photo I removed the bad leaves):

The zucchini still has beautiful male flowers, but no female flowers:

The volunteer tomato plant is blossoming:

The wildflower patch was so over-shadowing the dahlias in pots on the lily pad stepping stones that I decided to pull them out of there.  When VPH saw this micro-mini dahlia in the pretty pot sitting on the bar he said it was like we went out and bought a whole new plant.  I said just wait until it blooms:

Speaking of blooming...some of these guys are lagging behind:

Bet you're wondering where the calendar worthy shots are.  Wonder no more.  This one's good: 

This one's better: 

I think this one's the best: 

I was checking on the cherry tomato plants this morning when I spotted a really big bug on the sweet potato vine (aren't I nice to give you a box so you can see it?):

Is it a katydid?  It's really pretty: 

And this one is definitely calendar worthy:

Isn't it funny that I just said I haven't seen many butterflies and then poof there's a monarch on the zinnias.  I just love that last photo of the mystery bug.  I think I'll go make it my wallpaper now.

MIXED MESSAGE

I finally have a morning glory flower, but I haven't made it outside early enough yet to photograph it in bloom:

I have a Brandywine Pink tomato coloring up, but it's got some mystery holes:

The green ones on the other plant have something going on too:

And what is clearly a hole:

And I don't think the cucumber is going to bounce back:

But overall I'm pleased with the veggie garden:

A little white butterfly was loving the zinnias, so I present a series of nicely cropped photos for you to enjoy: 

I have not seen a lot of butterflies so far this summer, but I remember that last year they didn't start visiting my garden until late August/early September, so I have some time yet.

ARE YOU SURE IT'S OCTOBER?

I'm trying to remember the last time I wore a bathing suit in October and laid out to read in the sun.  I'm not sure if it has ever happened before.  It was 80 degrees on Saturday and wonderfully sunny. 

The afternoon sun filtered through the planter table so beautifully:

The mums are finally blooming and I really like the way they look -- and they are purple thank goodness:

I had a ball photographing from different angles:

Just a reminder of what this same planter looked like on September 4th:

Since it looks like a completely different grouping of plants now:

Then  I had a late afternoon visitor on the cosmos:

Considering I had about 45 seconds and poor light I did pretty well:

It was a lovely lazy day and I'm so happy to have a photographic reminder of it to carry me through the winter, which I imagine will be here before I know it.  80 degree days won't last forever, it was 80+ on Monday too, but today it's raining and might hit 70, but thank goodness for the rain!

A LOVELY GARDEN VISITOR

I was home for lunch on Wednesday eating my egg and cheese sandwich (also cooked by me, I do rock the breakfast food) on the patio when I looked over at the pentas and saw a Monarch butterfly hanging out.  I had my camera with me so I jumped up and starting creeping over to the planter.  I spooked the butterfly several times, but it kept coming back if I stood really still.  VPH laughed his butt off watching me chase the Monarch, but it was totally worth it.  Click any photo to enlarge:

I got one more excellent shot that is definitely heading the pack in the competition for Christmas card duty, so I think I'll keep it a surprise for now.

WE INTERRUPT THE PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED POST FOR THIS SPECIAL EVENT

On Sunday I went outside for a moment just to see what the weather was like.  The tomatoes were looking a little droopy, so I grabbed the hose and started watering the vegetable garden.  I looked over at the pink pentas and OMG there was a monarch butterfly on one of the flowers.  I dropped the hose (water still running) and tore inside.  "Where's my camera?" I shouted to VPH and younger step-son as I ran around the kitchen in a circle. 

Of course I found it on the table with the battery in the charger and then I remembered leaving the memory card in computer.  I reassembled the camera and ran out the side door.  Incredibly the monarch was still there.  It flew away and came back twice and I was able to get a bunch of photos before it left for good.

I haven't done anything to the following photos except crop them:

I think the first photo is now the front runner for the Christmas card.  I'm so happy. 

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

Gardeners, plant and nature lovers can join in Green Thumb Sunday every week. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

Even if I wasn't waiting all that patiently!  I finally had my camera handy when a monarch butterfly landed on the zinnias near me.

I would have been happy with this shot after all the chasing I've done:

I would have been excited by this shot:

So you can guess I'm ecstatic that I got this one:

Here are some other things that caught my eye on this cloudy day.

The bell pepper is almost red:

Let's hope that the other peppers on this plant ripen more quickly.  It's been a month that I've been watching these and waiting for them to change color.  Seriously, if they all take that long to turn red, I think there will be a lot of green peppers eaten at our house.

At the top of one of the tomato plants:

Now the question is to pinch or not to pinch.  Steven of Dirt Sun Rain writes about pinching back his tomatoes here and I'm tempted to follow suit.  I think for this, my first season growing tomatoes, I'm going to have to let them stay.  I'm sure Steven is right and next year I'll follow his advice, but if I pinched now I would always wonder if those tomatoes would have ripened before frost and how they would have tasted.  Let's hope that the title of this post is apt for those little blossoms.

Amazingly, these beans which look awful:

Have blossoms at last:

Strangely some are white like above and some are yellow like here:

I wonder if the beans will be the same?

Turns out the pentas do attract butterflies:

And bees:

And sometimes both at the same time:

Wondering who flew away when they got close to each other?  The butterfly fled, the bee chased, and then they flew off in separate directions.  I don't blame the butterfly, I run away when a bee buzzes me too!      

I NEED YOUR HELP IDENTIFYING THESE TOO

Yup, Mr. Brown Thumb, I'm talking to you.  Of course anyone who can help me identify these butterflies is encouraged, nay ordered, to comment.

This guy must have been tired, he was just sitting on a bean leaf:

The butterfly below sure is enjoying that cosmos.  Note the proboscis which I couldn't see with the naked eye.  Come to think of it, my eye was behind the camera most of the time so maybe you could see it with the naked eye.

Then I took about a zillion photos of this butterfly greatly enjoying my petunias.  See the brown spot on the right side of the plant?

Don't worry, I got a lot closer:

Sorry, this was the only shot I got of the top of the wings and the butterfly must have been in motion, but I think it's the same butterfly that I photgraphed on the bean leaf above:

I have to admit that after about 15 minutes I got bored and wandered away, but I glanced over and the butterfly hung around for a while.

   

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.  So far the Red Admiral is the only butterfly that I know by name.  Don't let the butterflies that visit my garden be strangers to me!

AND I USED TO BE AFRAID OF BUGS

I don't know what's going on with me.  I used to be petrified, I mean absolutely terrified, of touching a bug -- any bug.  Four months into this gardening thing and suddenly I'm touching all kinds of bugs.

Now keep in mind that I've been on a Monarch butterfly hunt.  I see 3 or 4 flying through my yard daily, but they won't land and give me a photo op.  I'm a little annoyed by this, but over I'm okay with it, I'm enjoying seeing them (and for about a week -- chasing them -- but now I've given up).  You're just going to have to take my word for it because despite my best efforts, I just can't capture one on "film."  What do we call it now that we no longer use film?

I feel dirty just looking at this let alone showing it to you:

VPH smashed them about 15 seconds after I snapped this pic.   We weren't a 100% sure what they were (can anyone identify these bugs?), but they looked mean.

Trying to capture an image of my ripening tomatoes (hurry up!) I came across this little guy:

Okay, spiders still freak me out.  Spiders will never be okay with me.

Wednesday evening I had the most amazing thing happen.  Remember those butterflies that are always chasing one another around the yard and buzzing us when we get too close to their favorite perches - -one landed right on my finger:

I couldn't believe how long it stayed there or how well I photographed it with my left hand.

I'm so glad I was able to get a photo of the top of the butterfly's wings.  Poor thing looks like it has had a rough life.

I love the ghost image of the wings above.  It was rather cloudy out that evening which probably led to the longer than normal exposure -- one of those lucky accidents.

Then this afternoon I was trying to capture the new growth on the sweet potato vine and this bug caught my eye:

Do you see it right in the middle?  Here, take a closer look:

Have any of you ever seen one of these before?  In the bright sun it's gold, but then in the shade, it's almost translucent.

Tune in next week for more close encounters of the bug kind.

Mating ritual?

Tuesday as I took some photos of the herb garden I was able to capture this beautiful butterfly on my African blue basil.

Then after I frightened the butterfly away and was admiring my mad photog skills, he/she came back.

Then a pal joined him/her.

 

I feel dirty. 

Updates:

I cut back the hot pink blooming impatiens severely and the plant is looking quite good on the shady side of the house:

As is the red blooming one:

No more yellow leaves and no wilting.  I think I'll start working on a post about the shady side of the house.  So you can see why we have a hill of dirt.

The wildflowers are doing much better.  We have cosmos now:

I have to admit that I ate cherry tomato #2 without washing it or offering VPH half -- and it was good.  It was very good.

Butterflies and Bees

I have to get better at coming up with titles to my posts.

I saw the digital thermometer hit 97 degrees on Sunday so we took it pretty easy outside.  I sat under an umbrella and VPH broiled in the sun.  A huge monarch butterfly buzzed me, but I couldn't get to my camera quickly enough.  I did catch this guy though.  We see a lot of these in the yard and they get very frisky at dusk flying around in circles with their buddies. 

The tops of their wings are mostly black with some orange spots.

I relocated this butterfly myself:

The chime was a gift from my mom last year and I blatantly stole the idea of putting a wind chime on a shepard's hook from my aunt's garden.  Stole/was inspired by -- same thing!

I'm not as freaked out by bees as I used to be which is good because there are tons of them around.  Seriously, this bee shortage that the NY Times keeps writing about is not evident in my yard.

   

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to put the wildflower patch next to the seating area?

Cherry tomato update:

Soooooo close!