In the garden this weekend, and visitors

Click any photo for a larger version.

My huge crape myrtle tree is blooming, and although there are at least two more months of growing time, when it blooms it always feels as if summer is waning. Right now, the flowers are all at their peak bloom and size. I had to water everything in the yard this weekend, as the temps were in the mid to high 90s and we haven’t had rain in a long time.. everything is thirsty, even the trees.

 

We are harvesting plenty of tomatoes, peppers, and blueberries right now, those are the only ‘food’ stuff we are growing this year. The tomatoes are coming in so fast that hubby is having a hard time eating them all. :) The peppers have slowed down a little, but have lots of new blooms right now so I’m sure there will be plenty more of them over the next few weeks. We’ve already had two blueberry cobblers this month, and I have a freezer full of blueberries with plenty more to come, if the birds don’t get them all. :)

 

The rose of sharon bushes are all still in full bloom. Here’s a white one with maroon centers. I also have two pink ones and about 7 shades of purple. I like them, but they sure leave a mess with all their dropping flowers. I’m constantly having to pick them out of the yard and the other flower beds, and always having to pull the many seedlings they produce.

 

 

Walking throughout the yard yesterday, snipping and deadheading and clipping and doing all the everyday things here, I saw lots of garden visitors, including a blue tailed lizard sunning himself on a rock in one of the rock wall beds, and lots of bees and butterflies all over the flowers everywhere. A praying mantis, one of many, crawled up the porch steps railing. I know, they are good to have, and I don’t bother them, but I never fail to be startled when I reach into a plant to snip or deadhead and almost get a hold of one of the things. DH always knows when I’ve encountered one, no matter where he is in the yard. :)

 

 

My wave petunia (which is not exactly red and not exactly pink but somewhere in between) is doing so well in the window box planter on the porch rail, even though it’s in shade a lot of time during the day. It has grown so much that it is hanging over the edge of the porch and into the hibiscus growing on the ground below it. It’s a beautiful plant.. and it needs lots of deadheading and lots of water.

 

 

I have tons of old fashioned, hardy begonias. They spread so much I would almost consider them invasive. They are very shallow rooted though and it’s easy enough to pull up the mini bulbs and move them. They have large green leaves, with a bright red-veined underside to each leaf, and lots of wing-like pink flowers. They come back thicker year after year and I find them in crevices and corners throughout the yard and the edges of the woods. Here’s a patch I thought I had moved completely last year.

 

The bright red cheerful flower of a gerbera daisy, growing in a container. I love these little plants. Here’s a honeybee sipping at a pink penta flower in the rock wall bed.

 

Here’s a bumble bee enjoying a white coneflower, and a hummingbird moth and a butterfly sharing a cluster of flowers on the white butterfly bush. The butterfly bushes are absolutely covered with bees and butterflies every day now.

 

Various other bees and butterflies, seen throughout the yard:

Click any photo for a larger version.