Turk's Cap

This is a wonderful, carefree bush.  I planted one in front of the bedroom window years ago and over time, I now have 5 large plants.  They just keep on keeping on.

                                      Click on picture and view all larger

                                                                                 

                                                                         

Bees At Last

My garden does not whet the appetite; it satisfies it. It does not provoke thirst through heedless indulgence, but slakes it by proffering its natural remedy. Amid such pleasures as these have I grown old.

gardening quote by Epicurus

My gardening goal has been from the beginning to have something blooming all spring through fall.

These bees have been on the white salvia for over a  month. They are welcome here and do not attempt to attack me when I get too close.

I have been trying to capture bee photos in my garden.  Trial and error (lots of errors), and nearly giving up several times, have been hard on this ole brain.  Hard on the ego.
One morning last week, I was again trying to get a clear picture.  The trick of clear is no movement with a small digital camera. Hence, this week I am going to find a light weight small tripod. There are some that have only one leg. (onepod?)  The movement has been the biggest problem.

I propped my camera on a stake holding the chicken wire  around my coneflower bed and held tightly. Seems to have worked for these.

This bee is the only one with pollen on his legs.  He has been at the search early. The other three pictures show that these bees are just getting started as they do not have the tell tale orange legs.

The bees are searching for nectar in the red autumn sage and turks cap blossoms. Red is difficult to "get right", more "learning" ahead.  I am seriously going to look for that tripod!

Wood Ants (Formica Rufa)

Oh, happy day!  Another problem!
Yesterday, I was taking pictures all over the garden and came across something I have never seen before.  Photography becomes an education in more ways than one.  I doubt I would ever have noticed this phenomenon otherwise.
Hubby and I had a discussion as to these being termites. Even reading the information on the web, I am not sure.  I don't intend to do a scientific paper on the ant vs termite. That is not the purpose of my blog. Just interesting nature happenings is my goal.

 

The yellow "beads" are obviously eggs.  Now, are they the ant egg or some other little surprise? 

 Take a good look at the brown leaf.  The end attached to the branch is green and the rest is brown.

Thanks to finally, finally figuring out how to use my Nikon optic zoom, I can get better closeups.

here is a link to a web site with pictures of the ant.
wood ant

Rabbits this July

This summer has been quite different from last year.  During a spate of 100+ degree weather, the pests started eating any young growth in my garden.  They prefer nice, young, sweet leaves to the older ones. That is when I put up the fence around the Cone flowers.

They are still around, making themselves to home even in the courtyard.  If I let the Black Oil Sunflower seeds that fall from the bird feeders germinate, they will find the sprouts and blatantly help themselves, stripping from the bottom up.  The trick is to pay attention and pull out any new growth from the bird feeding area.  The seedlings seem to sprout and grow 5 inches over night.  Then here come bunny scouts for the goodies.

I have watched the little pests stand on their hind legs to eat the seed heads from the Dallisgrass, which is a pest of another sort for lawns.  Nasty, obnoxious stuff.  However, if I could get the rabbits to eat ALL the seed heads, problem solved.  Not that that is going to happen.

Plants in my garden that don't seem to appeal to rabbits; Penta, Salvia, Obedient Plant, Chrysanthemums, Turks Cap, Lavender, Rosemary,mature Zinnias Moss Rose (Portulaca), Tickseed (Coreopsis), Phlox, Blackfoot Daisy, Plumbago and tomatoes.  Oh, yes, also mature Cone flowers .

My plan is to experiment with larger, space filling plants the rabbits don't like.

Rainy afternoon in July

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.  If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.  ~Author Unknown

 As I am hard of hearing, one of the things I miss most is not hearing the rain.  Hubby fetched me from my mystery book to come hear the rain.  A sudden downpour has the down spouts gushing rain water and filling the pathway with an almost stream of flowing water.  Heaven.  Sitting on the patio, I can hear the blessed rain. In July, quite a rarity.

This morning, I was out taking advantage of the overcast sky and shooting pictures.  I happened to point the camera up and caught a hummingbird on her morning rounds, searching for nectar. She zoomed in under the branches for the trumpet vine flower and changed her mind.                                                       

Though an old man, I am but a young gardener. ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

            

Pink Beauty not such a good thing?

I took some pictures of this moth Pyrausta inornatalis in early July this year.  Have never seen one before. It is tiny.

 

I was fascinated for nearly an hour with a "pink" moth.  Upon further investigation, it is not a good thing to see on the Salvias?

I found a web site that has discussions regarding the moth.  The moth is specific to Salvia. When you see it, it is looking for a place to lay eggs.  I will take their word for it and check for eggs on my Salvia.  So far, Haven't seen much damage from anything other than heat.  My lovely white Salvias have turned an odd, all be it, a wonderful plant to photograph, that may be affected by the larva??  I know nothing of the life cycle timing, so will just check the plant carefully.

Regardless of possible infestation, it is a lovely, delicate, tiny moth.


I was actually taking pictures
of bees when the moth flew in.

Early morning after rainy yesterday

Yesterday was a damp and sometimes sudden downpour kind of day.  I think I
have taken enough pictures of zinnias and then my obsession kicks in.
These are some I have edited to share here.



 The grasses are Ravenna grass
that looked so sad this spring. A little faith, fertilizer and rain and it is a good background!



Click on a picture to enlarge.
Enjoy!

Even dying, zinnias are so photogenic

I am not sure how I got this one. A combination of dew and a flash?

I had intended to pick "just a few", but why not an album of such beauty in MY GARDEN

A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. ~ May Sarton

 

.A garden never knows when its over. ~ Paula Deitz

RAIN

We have been having rain for over 50 hours. Soft, soaking rain! Temperatures in 70's.

 If you click on the photo,
you will be able to see enlarged.

So much hay for acres and acres

 

We have returned from a quick trip to South Dakota and with temps in the 100's, I expected to find mostly dead plants.  Not so!!  Thanks to a good neighbor, and now rain, it is not as bad as I expected. The only casualty is the cone flowers.  They are tough plants and even with die back, might come back with pruning.

I went out early this morning in a light rain and saw a bumble bee hanging on to a stem of the white Salvias.  Probably thinking about going home to hungry hive.  This kind of rain is pretty unusual in July.

I am happy to report that the rain has not been a "gully washer" and so no flooding. That can still happen, but not in my court yard.  Every year since I took out the wax myrtle bush, we have had flooded areas in the court yard.  My raised bed and raised dirt have done the job.  I wasn't too sure when I began that it would solve the flooding problem and am very grateful.

My brain is working with ideas for spring.  I think that is a sign of a true gardener. Even with devastation, flooding, drought, rabbits, moles, we persevere.

While in SD, we spotted some native cone flowers. I cut a few and brought them home.  I am hoping to be able to start the seeds in the winter.

It is still too wet to do anything in the yard, so will curl up with a book and rest.

Rain water mistake

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view.  ~H. Fred Dale (Thanks, Anne)

I have to confess...........................Made a Big, Big.................Mistake

We have two rain barrels that catch overflow from rain totes.  Being open, they will draw mosquitoes. Thus, I plunked the MosquitoDunk  disk in each barrel.

I DID NOT READ THE INGREDIENTS AND WARNINGS.

Sad to say, I have killed some of my cone flowers and 2 allysum plants.  KILLED THEM.

The label clearly states that the ingredient is Bacillus thuringiensis and some other baaad sounding stuff.
 The dunk also stays active for 30 days.

I am not even going to spend time researching. If it is not the bacillus thing, something in that water killed my precious cone flowers.  The only good thing?  I ONLY WATERED 4 PLANTS!!!

Tomatoes and new Nikon camera learning

 Don't wear perfume in the garden - unless you want to be pollinated by bees.  ~Anne Raver

First off, the netting seems to have saved the tomatoes from the birds.  They haven't figured out how to get inside yet.  Now, if the squirrels don't find them in the next day or so, I will count it a success. I gathered a bunch of the Porters and made a big pot of soup.  They are quite bland and had to spice it up a bit with some salsa.

If you click on the picture, you should be able to see enlarged

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.  ~Author Unknown

This morning when I wandered around the garden, I spotted no less than 7 bumble bees on the white salvia.  They seem to particularly like this plant above all others.

I headed inside to fetch my camera and take pictures.  I have been reading up on picture taking, particularly with a "point and shoot" camera.  I found a blog that strongly recommended to newbie photographers, to read, study, shoot and learn.

My first attempts at close up shooting resulted in blurry photos. So, I hooked the camera to a small tripod and seemed to be more steady.

Then the fun began.  What a morning.  Cool enough, and bees galore. Not to mention a humming bird that flew by my ear. Being hard of hearing, I didn't hear the hum, but still............

I never knew that white had so many hues! I have been dead heading these plants until the bees arrived.

                                                                    

                                                                                                           

 I have to admit, zinnias are my favorite flower to shoot so far. 

I started out shooting pictures of bees and the butterflies came in to visit.

Tomatoes saved (maybe)

 

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.  ~Lou Erickson

Click on picture to see larger viw

What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.  ~Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden, 1871

Two days later and I feel a little more optimistic. I found the bird netting I needed at Lowe's yesterday. It may have been there in past searches as I was looking for a roll and it comes in a clear cellophane envelope.
The sheet is quite a bit larger than I needed, but does the job. I managed to cover both surviving plants, the Bush and the Porter.  Even though the plants look bad, the fruit is turning color.  The birds obviously scout out likely gardens and make note of ripening fruit.  Every tomato I found that had turned had a big hole pecked in it.

The netting is draping all the way to the ground and I think will make it difficult for the little opportunists to get to the fruit.

We will see.

I am anxious to see if the flavor will be more intense vine ripened than the green ones I ripened in the kitchen. They were quite bland.