Down To A Precious Few

Beautiful days spent in the garden are dwindling down to a precious few.  Mornings are cold and frosty.  Darkness comes earlier every single night,  But the hours in the middle of the day today were wonderful.  This year we have no shortage of big taller-than-me  weeds going to seed.  I get a great deal of personal satisfaction clearing a garden bed of weeds to rescue the plants intended to be there.  When I came in for a late lunch there was a huge pile of pulled weeds, a bed where you could see the soil, seeds in my hair dirt under my nails in spite of wearing gloves and pebbles in my garden shoes. It was fantastic!  After lunch I got the camera and went in search of flowers still blooming in the garden.  Flowers in the garden are also down to a precious few.  My Caprilands Sedum still had a couple of pink blossoms and the entire plant is turning pink from the cold.  It will die back to the ground and be return in the Spring.

My Butterfly bushes are all planted next to stone walls.  Insects are slow to leave the remaining flowers making a close-up photo a snap!

I am curious about this one.  I'm sure I have never seen this bug before.  It is big over an inch long.  It reminds me of ants, but it has a very long thin body  and antenna that makes me think of horns.  It certainly casts a big fat shadow.

This beautiful moss covered stone was under the hazelnut.  Now that the plants are dying back great stones become more noticeable.  I predict that this stone will be traveling very soon to a prominent spot in the wildflower garden down by the road.  Ed will see to that!

Chasing An Orange Dog Part 2

This beautiful fragrant Summer Sweet bush was the next stop for our big yellow and black butterfly.  Ed's quarry flitted off  very quickly.  It is
 a Monarch butterfly that we see in this picture.  This year there are enough Monarchs around that we see several in the garden every day. After several years with only a few it is delightful to see them often.  But what about the Orange Dog?  For the moment it seemed to be gone.  It looked like the chase was over.

Right before we headed inside for the day the Giant Swallowtail visited the butterfly bush next to Ed's stone wall.  At last we got our close-up. 

When the camera clicked again the Orange Dog took off.  You can see his wings beginning to move in this picture.  Neither the Orange Dog nor Ed's safety glasses have been seen since!

September Splendor

We have been having warm sunny days and walking around outside in the garden has been truly splendid!   For someone who has purposely loaded the garden with nectar plants preferred by butterflies and their caterpillars these are the best of times.  Most of the time butterflies take off when you walk by or even if your shadow passes over them.  Just one click of the camera  usually sends them off.  Sometimes they speed past directly in front of you.   The beautiful creature you see here is a Painted Lady butterfly, Cynthia Vanessa.  I have seen painted ladies here before, but never so many as this year.  Several years ago it was Red Admirals that were so plentiful.  Their caterpillars practically ate all the stinging nettles to the ground!

This Painted lady is enjoying the October Skies asters in front of the house.  All of the asters are having a magnificent year and these purple beauties are one of my favorites!

Many of the blooms on my butterfly bush have gone past, but the ones that are still blooming are fragrant and welcoming.  There are four Painted Ladies in this photo.   Each one sits on a plume of pink flowers except for the one that is flying and I think just about to land.

This amazing clump of  Malva sylvestris is in the same bed as the butterfly bush.  I am lot more accepting of the holes in their leaves now that I know mallows are a favorite food of painted lady caterpillars.  We still see some Monarchs, Sulfurs and others, but this year the Painted Ladies have made for a splendid September!

Flowers For Me?

Sometimes I forget what a lucky woman I am.  This very week I am celebrating my 73rd birthday.   There is no need for Ed to send me flowers.  The garden is filled with blooms and that is not all. The butterfly bush right in front of the house has beautiful plumes of flowers and attracts butterflies like this tiger swallowtail.

Liatris has taken  over now that the pinxter has finished blooming.  I could never have too many of these plush purple plumes.

Ed's magnificent Spiritual Corridor is so lovely you hardly notice the catnip and milkweed.  Looking out the window from the house even the spent blossoms look colorful.  It all depends on your point of view!

Lemon basil, red basil and nasturtium leaves and flowers all make their way into my salads.  The fragrance makes plant identification a snap.  Yes, there is more milkweed here.

Sea holly is a fascinating plant that draws all kinds of pollinators.  It's purple too!  It makes a great cut flower, but I like to frustrate myself trying to get good pictures of any new visitors that might show up.

I love Alliums! This one, purple again, reminds me of fireworks.  Except for the Clara Curtis mums  the lush green background consists of weeds.  I prefer to see the flowers.  The butterflies, birds, bees ... and weeds are extra.  Oh, I forgot!  I love to pull weeds too!

Two In One Shot

Butterfly photography can be a frustrating experience but watching beautiful newly hatched Monarch butterflies flitting around the garden was too much of a temptation for me.  The sun was low in the west and getting the light behind you means casting a long shadow.  When these newly hatched beautiful butterflies get touched by your shadow they take off in a flash.  But the fragrance of the butterfly bush was strong and they kept coming back for more nectar.  Finally I sneaked along the path pretending to ignore the butterflies and I got my picture of two Monarchs.  Yes two, you can just see the front of the second butterfly at the bottom edge of the picture.
 

I snapped again and this time both butterflies are almost in entirely in the picture.  No clues are needed .  I was delighted!

Wow!  There they are centered in the picture like I knew what I was doing.  I couldn't believe my fantastic luck. I was ecstatic!

I was so excited when I saw this picture I almost couldn't stand it!  Ever since we have been here it has been one of our greatest pleasures watching the Monarchs fly over the garden heading south.   There numbers had dwindled in the past couple of years.  It is a delight to see more of them again!

Today In The Garden

 This morning in the garden  started with frost and the uncovering of tender plant.  That was followed by sunshine and warm temperatures.  Carefully weeding out the dandelions and other unwanted plants from the shade garden is challenging.  When they are this close together it is nerve wracking.

Ed and I worked on the shade garden and the difference is stunning.  We just didn't have what it took to finish there.  Tired gardeners make mistakes.  We moved on to something else.  Ed did some mowing and watering.  I cut back many Clara Curtis chrysanthemums and a butterfly bush and pulled some weeds in the bed next to Ed's stone square.

I am pleased with the progress we are making.  However I can't help feeling that someone has pushed the fast forward button on the garden and our fast forward buttons are no longer working.  We had fun while it lasted anyway!

Clear Signs From The North

This week  signs of change in the garden have been clear.  The goldenrod and milkweed have gone to seed.   Butterflies and hummingbirds now gone  have been replaced with flocks of twittering birds.  A flock of starlings changing its undulating shape over a neighboring cornfield caught my eye.  My trips to the garden sent an explosion of  goldfinches and chickadees to the safety of the trees from the sunflowers where they were feasting on seeds.  They returned to their feeding as soon as the coast was clear.  For several mornings we  watched a fairly large bird sit atop the tallest beanpole in the garden.  At first we thought it was a kestrel, but close examination through the  binoculars revealed  a dark gray back and head, a rusty red chest with white spots, yellow feet and a red eye.  From the size of the bird Ed and I decided it must be a sharp shinned hawk.

Today the signs became stronger.  The small birds seem to have deserted the garden.  The distant sound of geese filled the air, but at first all we could see was the bottom of dark clouds.  The geese were flying  above them.  Later in the day more flocks of geese formed large Vs in the sky so high that they were hard to see.  It seems early in the year for serious migration.   Some geese remain on the river until the ice begins to form.  But today many were heading south.

This year some of the trees are beautifully colored, others are still green and many like this one have lost their leaves completely.  Where this has happened the leaves on the ground give off the unmistakable fragrance of late fall.   This tree that really got my attention.  Its leaves are totally gone while a nearby sugar maple still holds its green leaves.

When I finished my long chilly tractor ride, before I came in the house, I cut a few flowers from the garden.  I chose a sprig of butterfly bush, a moon flower bud, some of Ed's lovely mums, a sprig of heliotrope and the flowering jasmine starbright.  From the signs I'm getting, tomorrow might be too late!

Bee...autiful Garden Pictures, Photos By Ed

My sunflowers that come up from seed every year are currently one of the big attractions in the garden.  Their sunny yellow faces never fail to make me smile and the bees are delighted.

The heliotrope is putting out a second series of flowers.  I love these old fashioned flowers with their sweet vanilla cherry pie fragrance.  With the rain we have had the leaves looks great.  All this will be mine to enjoy until frost.
  

This bright orange butterfly weed has been gorgeous this year!   It seems to be very happy here and the butterflies find it so attractive.   I wouldn't say it clashes with the blue lobelia and the white phlox in the background, but it sure stands out!

The butterfly bush that grows at the base of Ed's stone wall is putting on a lovely display for a plant that I thought was dead earlier in the season.  Buddleia is always touch and go here.  I'm delighted to watch the butterflies and hummingbird moths enjoy this plant.  I love it's delicate fragrance myself.
  

After enjoying a perfect garden ripe tomato at lunch, I had to include Ed's photo of this beautiful set of tomatoes.

 To be sure there are some ugly garden pictures that could be taken here.  We have tons of weeds, squash with powdery mildew ... Perhaps I will post them sometime, but today I went with bee...autiful!

Precious November Days

These November days when the temperature warms in the middle of the day you can work outside comfortably unmolested by mosquitoes and other biters. Later in the late afternoon towards dark a few of them are still around taking advantage of their last chances for that free meal.
These fleeting days are precious. Ed spends some time cleaning up garden beds. Those he doesn't get to will wait till spring. Here the debate whether to clean the garden of all debris or leave it alone for the wildlife is settled by Mother Nature. She decides how much remains untouched.

Late fall always brings on Ed's stone wall fever. Once you find out you love to build stone walls there is always a new place to put one. Here the pile of wall stone grows at the site of the next project. Usually Ed's wall building is a solitary process, but based on the last few days it looks like building  this  wall will include a lot of socializing with our neighbors and others. In this area stone walls are plentiful but many of them are falling down. People are intrigued to see one being built.

With most of the garden looking brown black or gray in response to our freezing nights, I am amazed to see this butterfly bush still looking green. Planted on the south side of the stone wall is apparently a perfect location for it.

The garden appears to be finished with flowers except for Johnny jump ups. These little purple and yellow flowers are spread all through the garden. I have a weakness for these hardy flowers. I guess you could say they grow here as a cover crop. In some places they are weeds and have to be pulled. In other places I let them stay. Some winters I see them blooming under the snow. I can't imagine the garden without them and I won't have to. They are as sure to come up as the sun in the east.

Special Butterfly Bush

I know this is not an impressive butterfly bush. It is small. The flowers are a little sparse. It is special though, because it came up from seed. That means in its short life so far, it has never been pot bound. It is blooming its first year and its roots are free to expand at will. I have always had my very best luck wintering over a butterfly bush that came up from seed. This year I have two. Can you believe my luck?

Mother Buddleja is in the background. This plant winters over, but grows very low to the ground. We will see who does better next year. I'm betting on the new young plants.