Wordless Wednesday - Butterflies Too Numerous to Count

Wordless Wednesday

Today's Harvest

Just in from the garden.  I have an overflowing basket of mostly green stuff.

My grandmother would be proud.  Her photo overlooks my counter to keep an eye on me and my cooking.

Cucumbers including some monster lengths.  Must make refrigerator pickles.

Zucchini just the right size.

The last of the green beans.  Plants have been pulled.

And a basket of tomatoes.  Still awaiting the largest ones to ripen.

Naturalizing

When I've purchased daffodils in the past so often the key word in selecting my choice was "naturalize".  But it's not just daffodils that naturalize.  Any perennial that puts out its share of seeds is going to naturalize as I've learned in the pond garden.  The two clumps of yellow iris I purchased now completely surround the pond.

  I have black-eyed susans growing where I didn't plant them.


 

And now the Joe Pye weed is naturalizing.



This is the first year that its done it in earnest.



 Other years there have been a shoot here and there that I would purposely transplant with no luck.  This year, new clumps are forming in other spots around the pond.  It's decision time: do I let it naturalize?  I had no choice with the cattails which I didn't plant.

They did that all on their own despite my attempts to stop them.  A willow tree has appeared that I consistently cut down to no

avail.  Then there is the ajuga.



I planted it to be a ground cover along the edge of the pond long before the irises took off.  Friday I discovered it had spread quite a bit under its layer of Japanese stilt grass.  But then I had intended that it naturalize.

Here's one last plant growing in the glen garden.  I've left it there undisturbed because I like the looks of it. 

 I didn't plant it.  Who did?  Nature naturalized.

Butterfly Season

They are out in profusion now ... butterflies that is.  Enjoy!

A July Harvest

Just in from picking in the vegetable garden.  The thunder was rumbling while I was there so I hope some rain is in the clouds for us.

My first 2013 cucumber.  Many more smaller versions out there to be picked in the days ahead.

Basil doing okay.  Some of the leaves have been nibbled by something but this bunch will go with the cucumber tonight.

A fair sized tomato.  Haven't had one for awhile after the first from the patio and Rutgers plants produced one or two each.  This one is also a Rutgers but ... something else got to it first.  I'll see what I can salvage.

A mess of green beans.  We have been enjoying these for the last two weeks and now my second planting is producing as well.  Just in time because the first planting is about spent.

These olive tomatoes are producing like crazy.  I pop these in my mouth for a snack.

Here they joined the bowl I had picked earlier in the week.

Harvest Monday

Not Again! Grr!

Yes, the raccoons were back overnight.  Three nights in a row!  Is it the heat? The pot above has been attacked all three times.

I've taken a new tactic.  This one got repotted into the bigger pot and moved to the screen porch.

I have two pots of cacti and they did minimal damage to this one.  Maybe it was the spines.  I've left them out on the deck for now.

This pot they emptied so I've given up on two of these pots.  I moved the plants to an open bed in the vegetable garden.

The pot on the end above I moved to the porch.

This pot on the pond deck is too big to move so I repotted it and will have to try a mixture of cinnamon and ground pepper as well as a product someone recommended in a comment called Repels All.

Both planters under the swing were taken apart and I've replanted.  Next time?  I hope there won't be a next time.

This pot hadn't been touched before but its replanted and moved out of reach.

My amaryllis bulb was dumped and nibbled upon.  I put it in the garage for now.

Pots are now lining the edge of the screen porch.

And the deck is almost bare of pots.

I hope I can report good news tomorrow.