Back to earth

After yesterday's excitement, the rest of the garden seems rather blah. But there are pretty pictures of pretty flowers to show.

'Lucifer' crocosmia

Lemon yellow daylily of unknown origin

Volunteer sunflower

Blazing star

'Aphrodite' Rose of Sharon

'Black Beauty' zucchini

Those zucchini illustrate what happens when one turns one's back on the squash plants for a moment. I did a search on my blog for 'zucchini' and found lots of references for zuke recipes. Today it was zucchini and basil over pasta.

Around the yard

The weather is going to turn hot, hot, HOT for a few days. Even with AC, I get to feeling logy when it sizzles outside. I'm just glad it doesn't last long. Why do people move south when they retire? Beats me.

I think I did a blog post once bemoaning the views from my windows and deck and in general around the yard. While those views aren't necessarily a lot better, I find there are some that provide simple joy. Not something one would see in BH&G, but then the yard is for ME, not a general audience.

It also occurred to me that I usually take photos of plants and flowers head on, face to face. That strategy shows the plant but not the plant in its environs.

The tao of some views is more difficult to capture than others.

Anyway, back to the head on photos. I've come to the conclusion that one difference between tiger lilies and daylilies is the tiger lilies look down while the daylilies look up. Maybe they are looking at each other?

The hollyhocks are for dyeing with, but I wasn't sure about how to harvest the blossoms. Turns out that is not a problem, as the blossoms curl up and fall off. I just need to pick them up every day or two and put them on a screen in the garage to dry.

My container experiments this year are growing crocosmia and penstemon in pots. The crososmia grow from corms, so once they started to send up shoots, they took off.

The penstemon is a perennial, so this is its first year sleep. I had an extra hibiscus, so that has gone into a pot, too. I'll move the pots into the garage for the winter.

The pole beans are starting to blossom.

The dill is blooming, too. Looks like fireworks.

I couldn't decide which 'Luna Red' hibiscus photo to use, so I'm posting both of them. The blossom is almost bigger than the plant, which is about 15 inches tall.

I started the hibiscus plants from seed this past spring, so was not expecting to see any blooms this year. I am happy to be wrong!

This Japanese beetle is on an aster, although its favorite garden plant is the hollyhocks. What a pest!

Last night I mowed and tonight I watered selectively, so now I can hunker down for the weekend and let the heat pass on by. Stay cool!

Diabolical

Those bagworms are very clever but not too smart. The way they incorporate plant parts when spinning their cocoons makes them appear to be part of the plant. The way they decimate the plant they are infesting seems like a way to jeopardize their long term survival chances, especially since it really upsets the plant owner who then plucks every last cotton pickin' one of them off the plant and condemns them to the fiery depths of hell.

Anywaaaay.

As we head into the dog days of August, not much of interest is going on in the garden these days besides the usual. There is plenty to do in the Weeding and Watering Department. Summer feels like it is just slipping away.

I was trying to get a better photo of some of the finer blossoms in my backyard, so I used some white fiber board as a background.

The crocosmia:





... and the honeysuckle vine.



This sunflower is just perfect in situ.

In the Bag

Before leaving for vacation, I noticed that one of my arborvitae did not look very healthy, but I figured whatever was bothering it could wait until I got back.

Well, maybe not.



A little sleuthing on the Internet revealed the source of the problem: bagworms!



Besides being hard on the plant, these little critters are really gross. The bags look like part of the plant, but they sway and wriggle. My son helped me pick as many bags as possible from not only the stricken plant but its neighbors as well. Then we burned them in the fire bowl.



So add bagworm plucking to my daily chores. Ugh!

While we were doing bagworm duty, we got the chance to observe some wildlife. A clearwing hummingbird moth flitted about the catmint. Two real hummingbirds looked like they were either battling for territory or else executing a synchronized mating dance. Mama wren scolded us non-stop, as our presence was interrupting her babies' feeding schedule. Inside the pea fence (there is a gaping hole), a baby bunny huddled in fear while my son picked snap peas. And Betsy got her head stuck under the shed while investigating whatever it is that lives there.



I had to dig her out with a trowel.

A stroll around the yard reveals that the daylilies are still going strong.









The July-blooming hostas are in full-bloom, as one would expect.



These sunflowers are volunteers from scattered birdseed.



The butterfly bush is finally blooming, so I am looking forward to more butterflies.





This crocosmia adds a nice splash of red to the 3B garden.



I think of chrysanthemums as fall flowers, but these always start coming on early.



More surprise hollyhocks are blooming.



The purple fountain grass is already sending up a seed head.



The sea oats have had heads for a while, but they are difficult to photograph. In the course of the summer and fall, they change colors, from summer green to autumn bronze.



A few 'Moonbeam' coreopsis survived another winter. I really like their delicate flowers but they don't seem to be very hardy, which is why I have replaced them with 'Jethro Tull'.



It did not rain at all while we were on vacation. Some of my recent transplants looked a little parched, but I think they will all make it. It is raining this evening. I'm hoping for a good soaker so I can pull weeds tomorrow.

P.S. We ate the first tomatoes from the garden today, the so-called grape tomatoes - they look more like cherries to me.