The Lost Season

The weather this gardening season has not been conducive to gardening.  We had cold weather up through May.  Then the rains came and continued to come for weeks on end.  I watched helplessly as the weeds took over everything.  After the rain, the staggering, breath-stealing heat and humidity hit and it has been like that for a very long time.  The bugs are bad, the weeds out of control and the garden is a mess.  I can only think that fall may finally offer some relief and allow me to spend some time outside.  The weather is changing and not for the better.

On the bright side of things, I've had a bumper crop of monarchs this year.  The milkweed bloomed during the constant rains and I feared that there was no nectar to be had.  I guess the plants provided them with places to lay eggs because my front porch is decorated with the lovely little jade green jewels.

So far there have been 6 of them and one caterpillar that didn't make it, the spiders got him (which I also have a bumper crop of this year!)  However I did spy this guy last night and have been watching him to see the amazing process.

He's hanging off our handrail, a much safer place than the logs of the porch as the spiders love all the corners a bit too much.  

So far 4 of my wards have taken flight, one I rescued yesterday morning as it was sitting incredible close to a very large orb weavers web and since I could not find the spider I didn't want it getting any ideas.  This morning I was fortunate enough to spy another hatchling and nab a picture of it.

To me this is such a special gift, to know that my little patch of milkweed is providing what these beauties need to continue their life cycle.  So many humans do so much damage to this amazing world of ours, not realizing that each insect, animal, and plant has a part to play in the web of life.  All I can do is tread as lightly as I can and cause as little harm as possible.

While I was snapping the picture of the monarch, movement caught my eye and lo and behold the orb weaver appeared.  I suspect slightly chafed with me for stealing the meal yesterday!

I was very surprised to see how small this one was in comparison to the web it has.  The web (which I have no idea how to get a photo of) is about three foot by three foot around.  It's massive and is connected to the porch swing, the top of the porch and the birdhouse hanging from a hook as well as the lower rail!  This spider was not messing around when it made its home on my porch.  

For now, I sit inside and watch the weeds grow and flourish.  My mother laments on the critters that come to her yard and eat her plants.  I would love to have something that would eat the stiltgrass and whatever this noxious weed is that is taking over everything, however, Randy continues to say no to goats.

Happy sights..

 After working in the morning I was sort of just meandering around in the afternoon, pull a few weeds here, adjust a rock on the pond, watch the hummingbird zooming around.  I saw something that made me very happy and had to run back to the house to get my camera.

I have not seen or heard a peep from these two bullfrogs since we cleaned the pond and to be honest I was afraid they had left.  So I was delighted to see them perched in the grass on the side of the pond.

Up next was this

Apparently the Cicadas have decided, or at least some not to wait and are baffling scientist by coming out early.  I know a lot of people don’t like them but I loved it when they were last here.  Well except I refused to mow the grass because they were everywhere and I didn’t want to run them over.   A few minutes after seeing several of these I made friends with this cute little bugger.

Personally I think they are adorable and very friendly!

I went to check the hummingbird feeder and saw this.

My American Wisteria is getting ready to bloom!  I’ve waited a long time to see this.  When I bought it, it was just a stick!

Finally as I was headed back to the house I noticed something that a lot of people probably would never even see.

The tiny delicate bloom of the sedum that is growing in the pond wall.  It’s an adorable little flower.

Welcome to July…

It’s July.  Where is the summer going and why is it going so fast?  I need a way to slow things down, isn’t it supposed to be the lazy days of summer???

The rain took out my milkweed jungle, rather the torrents of rain and wind that came with some severe storms did.  I tried to prop it back up, but it just didn’t work.  Now it looks messy and the sweet smell has drifted away.

The bee balm continues to bloom and attract lots of hummingbirds, the pink bee balm has had bees and butterflies on it.  Out of the mess the Joe Pye Weed and Goldenrod have appeared and will hopefully get a chance to bloom without being eaten by the deer.  They are eating things fast this year, I spray it rains, they eat. 

Case in point.  I noticed that my yellow daylily and my Cherokee daylily were close to blooming so I sprayed them.

 

Today when I went to see if they were blooming or not…

That’s what I found, it’s so frustrating.  I’ve got to get the rest of my plants moved this fall.

So far they haven’t reached my daylily called Joan, if they do at least I got to see it bloom!

Oddly enough they are eating my bonset this year, I wouldn’t think they’d like that it has very fuzzy leaves but..

It is usually a good five feet tall by now.  Sad, I guess it will have to be moved as well.  I’m thinking that a lot of the stuff at the front of the driveway and at the porch is going to end up at the deck bed and the deck bed stuff is going to end up in the shade beds.  That deck area is about the only place that gets enough sun to support all these plants.  Well, the former bee garden gets sun too, but that may end up as something totally different in the coming years.

I went out to do some weeding the other day, taking Tucker and Cooper with me and was trying to decide where to start.  I settled on the deck bed, thinking that I really need to keep after the jewel weed.  So I kneeled down and

decided on another location after almost grabbing this lovely visitor!  At least five feet long, it wasn’t too bothered by my presence, just kept laying there, but I suspect had I grabbed it or stepped on it that would have been a different story!

There are so many insects which you know is fine by me as long as they aren’t munching on me! What I have seen a lot of this year are these lovely garden spiders.

I haven’t looked up what kind they are exactly but they are all over.  Being the kind of person that doesn’t want to wreck their homes I weed around them and do my best not to mess up their webs.  They are really very lovely!

The damselflies are back, I’ve not gotten a good picture but I’ve got dragonflies galore too!

Nature just never ceases to amaze and delight me, except the deer, they just really frustrate me!

That’s NOT a Mason Bee!

Ok so I had this wasp looking thing show up in my laundry room and it looked different so I took a picture before it flew away.

Well, today there was another one in there and I thought, hmmm wonder if they are coming out of the mason bee tubes?  So I took those to the garage and went to release the second one. Well there was one flying around the mason beehive.

Which worried me, are they eating the mason bees? Are they injuring the larva in some way?  I contacted Crown Bees to see if they knew what it was, but Dave didn’t. So it was time for some outreach to one of my trusted bug identification sites Bug Guide.  While the majority of the people on the site are just like me or you, I think there are some real bug gurus too!  In any event it didn’t take long for my ‘friend’ to be identified as a Potter Wasp, scientific name of Monobia quadridens.  This wasp is a ‘green’ wasp in that they believe in reusing old homes from other solitary wasp/bees like mud daubers and mason bees.  They are pollen eaters and they use caterpillars as food for their babies, so no harm to my mason bees.  Now my only concern, I don’t know how many of my mason bee reeds and tubes have mason bees versus potter wasp!  Time will tell….

Blooms, Bugs and Bees…

So not that it’s anything new but Mom Nature can’t seem to make up her mind if it’s Spring or Summer.  Temperatures around here have ranged from 30’s to 80’s, some sunny, a lot rainy so my days have varied in activity. I’m ready for the weather to maintain a steady 70ish so that I can do or at least try to do everything I’m designing in my head.
On those days when it’s warm especially after a rainy day, everything seems to green up further.  Most of what’s in bloom right now is yellow, daffodils, Japanese rose and woodland poppies.  Shots of pink from lungwort and the lovely purple blue of Virginia Bluebells.  My favorite though is this Redbud shrub that Randy’s grandmother gave me.

This is a picture looking down onto it from the deck off the sunroom.  On one of the sunny days I had my lunch out there and just loved watching all the bees that were all over it.  The entire shrub just vibrates with happy pollinators!  I have another that has never bloomed so I think it’s not happy in its current location.  I’ll be moving it on the next nice day, along with two yellow bushes!  My vision of those yellow bushes and this purple together is lovely!
While dinning that day on the deck this guy joined me.  I have no idea what he is, but he was quiet and pretty much just sat in the sun.

I’ve finally decided on my beehive!  I’ve gone the way of a top bar hive and am waiting for delivery.  I’ve also decided that my bees will either be a local swarm rescue or they will adopt me.  I’m not interested in selling honey or beeswax products, I’m actually far more interested in the bees and helping them.  I’ve chosen the location for the hive and this weekend I started the process of cleaning up the area.  I’ve got a grand plan for flowers that I want to plant in and around the area.  I also know that I will be planting them in multiples, not just one or two of one variety.  I’m going to do everything I can to make it a bee happy area!
Happy Spring!

For the bees and other pollinators!

Butterflies are easy to love, they make people happy, they make you smile and admittedly they are beautiful!

There isn’t much not to love about them, they don’t sting or buzz around your head and as guests in the garden they are some of the most polite ones around.  Butterflies also have loads of written material, there are volumes of books, magazine articles and websites dedicated to attracting, feeding and housing these winged beauties.  I’ve planted many plants based on butterflies and luring them into my gardens and it has paid off in having a wide variety of these wonderful creatures around.
 
 
What about the bees though?  What about those hardworking little pollinators that without, we would have fewer blooms, fewer fruits, fewer vegetables?  Where are the books written in favor of them?  Where are the websites dedicated to helping you plant flowers that will help to feed them or magazine articles telling you about the solitary ones that need a patch of dirt to make their home in?  Even when digging on the web looking for such information I can tell you it isn’t easy to find!


Bees are the silent hero’s of the gardeners world, without them our gardens would not be the same.  Bees are afterthoughts to a lot of people, or they are feared because they are believed to be aggressive.  Sadly lots of people mistake honeybees for yellow jackets (which are wasp) and kill them!  As gardeners that like to eat produce and stop to smell the flowers we need the bees, it is time they got a little more love, a little more respect and a lot more attention.  Take some time to watch the bees and be thankful for all they do for us!