Everbearing is right

Today seemed like a good day to plant garlic in the strawberry bed. Believe it or not, those everbearing strawberries are still bearing. Not a lot, mind you, and we haven't had a killing frost yet (maybe tonight), but still at it.

Does this look like a good idea? (Photo from somewhere else.) I'm intrigued by the concrete block part, not so much the 2x4 bit. Not sure where I would locate such a planter, nor what I would put in it. Herbs?

This critter was my 17th Trick or Treater last night, the final one.

From Wiki: "The banded woolly bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form, by allowing most of its mass to freeze solid. First its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, then its blood, followed by the rest of the body. It survives being frozen by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues.[5] This freezing occurs outside of body cells, but not within. In the spring, it thaws."

Isn't nature amazing?

A bargain

I took a sample of the skeletonized leaves from my 'Perfect Purple' flowering crab to the Purdue County Extension office. To have a member of the Master Gardeners examine them cost nothing, but I coughed up $5 for an expert to take a look and provide advice. They confirmed that yes, it is the apple-and-thorn skeletonizer, a.k.a. Choreutis pariana and provided several choices for treatment. What a deal!

While we were at the extension office, we took a stroll through their gardens, which consist of the usual suspects. A bonus is many are labeled, so if we were stumped over the identification of a plant, we just had to find its tag. Very helpful.

This planter design was new to me.

The past few days have brought morning fog, which highlights spider webs. At least I think they are spider webs. They could be a fungus. If I see them tomorrow, I will take a closer look.

The photo above highlights one of the things I don't like about the Packera aurea (Golden ragwort): the stems that remain after pruning the flowering stalks. I'm at the age where I don't like to do a lot of bending over, so I cut these back the best I could. Pulling on the stems, even when they look done, frequently results in uprooting the whole plant. In the sunnier areas, I plan to interplant one bed with a short variety of coneflower, another bed with a short variety of rudbeckia. That should at least disguise the stems.

We were lucky to receive almost two inches of rain this past week, which of course brought out the mushrooms. Perhaps these are a variety of Gymnopus?

I noticed that one cell in the mason bee nest is occupied, hopefully with mason bees. To read about their life cycle, visit this site.

The dead tulip tree is now a "wildlife tree" or snag. The other day, I observed a pair of sparrows stripping bark from one if the limbs, presumably to expose insects for the two youngsters that were with them.

The nextdoor neighbors have been making good use of their above-ground pool this summer. I'm almost tempted to get one of my own. Almost. It would have to come with a "pool boy".

Returning snow birds

I recall the first time I heard the phrase "snow birds" - and it was in a derogatory manner as the speaker thought those who head south for the winter are weak - but I'm seeing the phenomonon in my backyard. This past week, a catbird landed on the safflower feeder, much to the consternation of the house finches, and a cowbird has been a regular visitor at the millet feeder. And I have at least one oriole who likes the grape jelly I put out for him!


I hung the wren houses, one in the backyard and one in front, but have yet so see or hear any wrens. I had to make an addition to one house, as last year a sparrow squeezed into it. I've seen the sparrows check out these houses this year, but so far, no one has moved in.

Still no progress on the front of the house. The one guy could be done in about an hour, just needs to install a railing on the porch and replace the shutters; the painter is supposed to show up tomorrow. Once the trellis is back up, I plan to make use of a new planter I purchased from Gardeners Supply. This is the first time I've ordered one of their "self-watering" planters. We'll see how well it works.


No takers on the "rainbow" shed yet. I may post it to Nextdoor, which is not one of my favorite sites. My daughter is getting a new shed, but I couldn't convince her to take this one. Something about it being plum ugly.