Monarch and others in my garden

“May I a small house and large garden have;
And a few friends,
And many books, both true.”
― Abraham Cowley

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It has been a magical few days out in the summer ravaged garden.  Doing my usual morning visit, pulling weeds, moving pots and other messy leftovers to a better hiding place, I stopped, looked up and there were butterflies coming in in a frenzy of feeding.  Amazing!
I rushed in the house, dirty boots and all, to find my camera.  So afraid they would be gone before I got back.

Not to worry, these amazing creatures and numerous bees had come to stay the day, and told their friends.

I had just finished a post about the nonblooming butterfly weed plants.  They have plenty of buds, just not opening.  Too bad.  The Monarchs drifted in and chose to feed on what was there.

There were so many other species fluttering, flitting, lighting, landing.... I struggled to get the camera ready.  

Then, just settled down to capture what pictures I could as long as they were there.

“The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds. If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte.”
―

 Sometimes, I catch myself with a
sore jaw from just grinning at the pure
joy of it!

 

 

Butterfly Weed

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. The rich colours of grass and earth were intensified by the mellow light of a sun almost warm enough for spring... ~P.D. James, A Taste for Death

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on picture to see
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Last year's butterfly weed

This year's butterfly weed

 We were gone from home for about 2 weeks, leaving plants unattended.  I fretted over this years butterfly weed the whole time.  It had lost all its leaves earlier in the year and with temperatures in the 90's and no rain the whole 2 weeks, I was concerned it would die.

Surprisingly, it is a beautiful plant and getting ready to bloom.
The flowers on this plant are all yellow.  Last year's plant is multi colored orange and yellow.

This is a good sign that it will make it through the winter.
This winter is forecast to be dry and not too cold.

Not good for wintering plants.

I have to comment again on the practicality of the black
pound in edging from Gardeners Supply catalog.  I have done this several times with this
edging. Making a sort of "pot" to hold water. Once it looks
settled, I will remove the edging.

I have another "pot" with a plant that I set out before we
left for our trip.  I forgot all about it.  Then, on closer
inspection, I remembered planting "something".
I watered it thoroughly and will watch for more leaves.
If we have a mild winter, I may actually figure out what
it is.

One last remark about the edging.  This picture
is of the only piece of edging to break. It still
comes in handy.

 

 I love garden surprises!  This is the Hyacinth Bean Vine.  I had attempted to grow this vine over my
metal arbor.  It never bloomed.  Plenty of leaves, no flowers.  I finally cut it all down.
Today, I was cleaning out this area and noticed the leaves first. Then the blossoms.  I don't even
remember planting seeds here.

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons. ~Jim Bishop

Fall! Finally!

 No spring nor summer’s beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face....
~John Donne, "Elegy IX: The Autumnal"

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Finally, cooler weather.   It may be in the 80's but nights are cooler.  I have peeked out from the summer doldrums and can smile again at the garden ruins.
Actually, this transformation mood wise has been sneaking up on me for a week or more with cooler nights and even one chilly day.
I am not even to be done in by the ragweed.  That pest problem will end when it freezes. So, I am resigned to daytime, non drowsy antihistamines.

I have been searching for several days for the Horse apple, Osage Orange, Hedge  Apple, Bois d'arc, bodark....ironwood (whatever) and hubby remembered seeing "a few" on a back road.  After confusing directions, a bit of sniping back and forth, found em.  This morning, I gathered several laundry baskets full of the lovely lime green balls. I have gathered them for several falls now and nearly missed this year.

The plan is to  fill several containers for color spots in ravaged gardens.  I have had a bunch on the porch for several years and enjoy them very much. They only cost a bit of gas to fill containers and thus don't mind them going bad and discarding.  I hate like anything to buy plants for pots that mostly die at the sight of frost.

Here is a link to more information; https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Horse-Apples-Bois-d-arc-fruit_vq537.htm


Another project in various stages of completion is the patches of garden I have cleared and am going to sow wildflower seeds and then hope nature won't mess up.  Here in north Texas (zone  8a) we can go from a week of temperatures in the mid to high 60's to a week of sunny 90's.

Rocks gathered from all over the yard and gardens area making a division between wild and path.

Nearly cleared. The space doesn't look so large from this angle.  It seemed huge when trying to clear weeds, grass and gravel.

This space used to be the high light of the gardens. This year, not so much. Finally ended up being the gathering place for stray pots, containers, tools and a determined watermelon and cantaloupe vine tangle that insists on creeping out of bordered area and reaching for the whole garden.  I was tempted to let them go and see just how far they would wander. I dumped rinds here for butterflies. They flock to the sweet meat.

Autumn repays the earth the leaves which summer lent it. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799), translated by

Norman Alliston, 1908

 Another idea from my newest obsession, Pintrest.  The creative minds out there is staggering to think about. Makes me wish I was still in my energetic 40's.
We have pine trees that drop cones in fall and a pain to rake up before hubby mows over them, leaving mangled cones to step on unsuspectingly while wandering the yard in the early AM.

I put pine cones in planters and containers to winter over so pots don't look so empty... Thought that was pretty creative. Never got around to tucking an odd tree ornament in them or, better yet, the ubiquitous tiny white lights.

Now, I find creative painting of these things, from dipping in a can of enamel to spray paint to carefully painting with craft paint petal by petal.  Ideas are endless.

These are painted with left over spray paint.  Obviously, a little cleaning and brushing should be done first.
 The best place to get an idea of painting pine cones is to go to Google home page and next to the gmail in right hand corner. Click on image and then type in diy painted pine cones.

Orange paint for experiment in discouraging aphids. Failure

Pink paint used on garden hand tool handles

Notice the devices for elevating cones to have better access and cleaner fingers

This is only a sample of what can be done.  If you cut off tip back to an inch or 2 from base, perfect zinnia type flower.  Some folks just clip off the scales and leave the center stalk thingy.
If you are lucky, you might find cones that have spread their scales and can make a rose.

Hmmmmm, I wonder what painted horse apples would look like?

Return from trip to Wyoming to Summer garden

Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 

Butterfly Weed remnant

Seeing plants in various stages of dying, this one actually is "promising".  I set this little plant out a week before I took off for Wyoming.  It had leaves and even flowers.  I choose to believe that a Monarch butterfly caterpillar had a feast.  There are other things that could have caused this, I am opting for the caterpillar. The hopeful sign is the sprout with leaves.  I will watch this plant and see how it does.

The 2 year old Butterfly Weed beside this plant is healthy.

Other plants that may look sad and hopeless to me are the promise of things to come.

This is a seedling zinnia from SPENT blossom that I dead headed several weeks ago

 “One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
― Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

I had Four O'clock's many years
ago and thought I'd try again.
They may be my summer staple
if I continue fighting summer
heat.
They benefit from deadheading
and will likely bloom all heat
long.

 Summer has set in with its usual severity. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones. ~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland’s Memoir

  I set out watermelon rinds a few weeks back for the butterflies. The seeds germinated and the vine(s) are huge.
I started cutting back and pulling out.
Then, I saw a bumblebee.

Plant stays!

Last but not least, 2 sweet potato vines.  These were set into the hole of concrete blocks.  Not a lot of soil, not much water....I have cut it back as it was creeping out to conquer the whole court yard.

In the end, hubby (not a gardener) would tell me when we talked on the phone that things looked so bad.
I said don't worry about it.
I came home to not a sad sight, a promise of fall and spring.

Trip to Devil's Tower, Wyoming

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picture for larger view

My niece and I finally made the trip to Devil's Tower. Plans were in the talking stage for a long time and due to my sister's injury (she is getting better) I was in Wyoming with time on my hands.

When we took off that morning, there was an over cast in Cheyenne and nothing unusual about that. Miles later, beautiful, ominous clouds were in our view for  miles and miles.  I took pictures because we had never seen this kind of cloud formation.

Things got a little wet and exciting about an hour later.
There is a picture of my niece and a lowered window.
We finally were rolling into the clouds and it was raining so hard the wipers could not keep up.
Fortunately, she had a beach towel in the back seat.  (You see, the window is stuck in that position) I rolled the towel into a thick roll and she stuffed it into the space.  Only a little damp before she got it settled.

The odd part about this adventure?  We were listening to an audio book called A Walk in the Woods. A story of two hikers and their attempt to walk the Appalachean Trail that runs from 2180 miles from Georgia to Maine.
The reader was at the point where the two trekkers were soaked to the skin and descriptions of being wet. It seemed apropos to our view out the window(s).

Arrived finally at the ubiquitous pull out area with this sign. It is the "perfect" beginning of a trip into history.
Tourists aside, a person cannot help but think of why this place is here. Pictures do not quite capture the size of this tower and immense rock fall surrounding it.  I am sure there is an explanation of how they chose the path they constructed. It is a bit steep at times but with perfect stopping places to take pictures and catch your breath.
I think my niece and I dawdled a bit more than necessary, but it really is a place to "think" of when it was discovered by the first Indians.  What must they have thought?
There are numerous trees with colorful ribbons tied to them. This is, after all, a sacred space.  I understand that the month of June has been deemed a time to honor the traditions of the various tribes that worship here by not walking the trail during the month.

Half way for this old gardener and darned proud of it!

This is a web site that explains the tower.

https://www.nps.gov/deto/planyourvisit/upload/american%20indians%20&%20the%20tower.pdf