My Goodness What A Day In The Garden!

I headed out to the garden pretty early to pick squash blossoms to stuff for lunch.  It would have been a bit less exciting if I had gotten outside earlier.  As it was I had to shake bees out of the blossoms before I could place them in the plastic bag.  On my way out I noticed this milk snake curled up in the stone wall.  I promised myself I would take a picture if it was still there on my return.  There it was right at my eye level.  It looked like a fancy bracelet.  Ed and I did a couple rounds of "You touch it! " "No you touch it!"  In the end even though snakes give the the willies, I did touch it lightly.  It barely moved and was soft and dry to the touch.  Maybe someday I won't shriek when a snake surprises me, but I doubt it.

Woo Hoo!  I present to you the first Monarch caterpillar I have seen in the garden this summer.  In this picture it's a little hard to tell which end is up.  We watched it for some time and decided that the end with the shorter horns has the mouth.

I noticed him sitting on an immature seed pod.  Usually I find them chomping on the leaves.  I was delighted to see him!  I hope there will be more!  Our mowed area is looking a little strange as Ed avoids mowing the young milkweed now growing in our lawn.  He is unwilling to take the chance of cutting down a caterpillar food source.

We have left milkweed growing in the garden in places we would normally weed it out.  Here we have a lovely planting of Black-eyed Susans with three milkweed plants.  All of these plants are invasive and have displaced what we planted there.  In time we may see the winner here but perhaps both plants will survive.

We had a busy day in the garden.  We harvested onions, picked and processed Tavera green beans, picked some tomatoes, pulled lots of weeds and Ed mowed some the hay field that we pretend is our lawn.

We also discovered that a ground hog has dug a tunnel under one of Ed's stone walls in the square.  A huge pile of stones and yellowish subsoil was piled in the corner.  No end of the tunnel could be seen.  The ground gave way under foot revealing a six foot tunnel running parallel to the wall.  That critter doesn't know it yet, but he has crossed a line and war has been declared.  I gave up one of my heads of broccoli to bait the trap.

I also discovered an active hornet's nest under the ramp into the kitchen.  In the past a neighborhood skunk took care of a nest of ill tempered bees for me.  I'm afraid where this one is hanging Ed will have to come to the rescue like he so often does.  Tonight a big yellow moon shines on the garden. Tomorrow looks like another wonderful day to spend in the garden.  What will it be relaxing or infuriating?

Second Snake of the Season

It is common here for the first snake sighting of the season to be announced with a piercing scream when Becky nearly steps on a wild wiggler.  That was not the case today.  An Eastern Milksnake was soaking up some warmth from the sun while stretched out across the driveway.  One of their defensive moves is to remain motionless but that is not effective when exposed.  After a good long look, I backed the tractor  away so that I could drive around the snake.  When I returned with the camera the snake was long gone.

Another favorite place to gain some heat from the sun is under my wheelbarrows.  Sure enough when the wheelbarrow was raised a snake was exposed.  The bale of old hay under the stored wheelbarrow is there for the snakes.  Mice and voles are high on the list of food for these snakes so we encourage their presence.  Later in the day I needed my wheelbarrow and found two milksnakes under it.  This time one showed me its vibrating tail.  Impressive but not scary, I found the display some what comical since these snakes pose no threat to people.

Trout lily, Erthronium americanum, commonly occurs here as single leafed nonflowering plants.  This double leafed plant flowered but no flower or seed capsule is present.  I have always suspected that the wild turkeys were eating the flowers.  The flower that opened here was clearly eaten.

When I dug this pinxter azalea, Rhododendron nudiflorum, from the wild, it was replanted in the woods rather than at the edge of the woods.  Located with insufficient light it never flowered.  It would have been easier on the plant if I had relocated it before leaf out but I always seem to be a little late.  The tool of choice for tasks like this is a five foot steel pry bar.  If the plant is levered out with a sizable dirt ball, the move will likely be successful.

A good sized clump of forest soil is coming with the plant.  A pail of forest soil was also taken to line the planting hole.  Overnight rain added to what we hope will be a successful move.

Wild Neighbors

When we decided to live in a rural setting we knew that many other inhabitants were already here.  For the most part we enjoy an occasional glimpse of the wild life that calls this place home.  Plant loss is part of the equation and we accept that consequence.  A partial bucket of crushed oyster shell is stored under an inverted trash can.  Snakes were discovered between the two containers.  On this day I asked Becky if she wanted to try for snake photos.  Lifting the outer covering can revealed a mouse nest in the bucket.  One quick jump to the rim was followed by a drop to the ground.  The mouse ran over the snake and disappeared into the weeds.

That bulge in the center of the Eastern Garter snake's body may well be an earlier mouse meal.  Only one mouse was in the nest where there should have been two.  If the snake is digesting a mouse, that is fine with us.  We never molest a snake when we encounter one because we want them working on rodent control.

Clearly, there are two snakes in the picture and a shed skin.  The scale pattern on the shed skin matches the stripes on the garter snake.  Scales on the milk snake are more regular in shape.  A cloudy blue eye can be seen on the milk snake indicating that it is about to shed its skin.  We will look for this snake again soon.  The bright colors on new skin are worth seeing.

It would be less than honest to fail to mention our standard response when we happen across a snake. Becky always screams with a sharp volume only heard when a snake is unexpectedly underfoot.  I always leap into the air where I remain for a really long time.  My airborne gyrations defy the laws of physics while sending me away from the snake.  You would think we would get over it, but our response is still the same whenever the unexpected slither is underfoot.