Garden Highlights July 7, 2013

Garden Highlights July 7, 2013

This is a Spinx Moth--you know that crazy (ugly) green caterpillars that eat your tomato plants--the ones with the hook on their ends?  Well, this beautiful moth is what they grow into!!!!  For 2 years I thought we had some kind of hummingbird at our Butterfly Bush---until I found out that the Bumblebee hummingbird doesn't come to America!  It was kind of hard to get a good picture of it with my camera--but you can kind of see it, here on my butterfly bush.

Isn't this just a cute little flower?  It is like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree!  It is it's second year with us--a Foxglove, I believe...but I need to fertilize it--or something...it just hasn't been happy since I planted it.  I was actually surprised it came back this year.  I bought two last year and it's sister died pretty quickly, but this one tried hard to stay with us.  I'm not sure what is wrong with it---she is awfully pretty and delicate.

Do you all like building up rocks?  I do!  It is just fun to do!

Part of our mulching job from this week---we put down 4 cubic yards of mulch in less than 2 days--on our backyard gardens, the sides of our house gardens, and our front yard gardens---it was a LOT of work!!! 

Dh put up a new contraption--it is going to get winter squash (acorn squash & spaghetti) and they can grow up and over the contraption, and then he will plant lettuce underneath--and the squash will be shading the lettuce from getting burnt by the sun.

I just love looking at sunflowers right before they open!  All the images preceding the opening and then the first days after they open, when they are sappy and beautiful. I guess it is hard to find an unattractive sunflower. 

Green peppers and sunflowers the birds planted!

You can see: onions, leeks, swiss chard, peppers, peppers, peppers, strawberries, "my" leeks, compost bin, tomatoes and then the neighbors yard.

A picture from the other side of the garden.  I love how the birds plant sunflowers in our garden!  It has taken over our Pea Garden! 

You know--we aren't "suppose" to let the leeks bloom like this, we are "suppose" to cut off the tops so the growth of the plant can focus under the soil---but my husband was kind enough to let me have these leeks for my own objects of beauty--the other leeks in the other areas of the garden, are for eating and won't be going to seed, like these were allowed to do.

Remember the 5 tomato plants that the rabbits ate--and were so small?  Now they are 3 feet tall!

 We planted new things here and they are all doing well---except the fennel--which didn't come up hardly at all--maybe 4 sprigs! So we need to replant that again.

 Can you see the big green pepper growing on this pepper in the center?

 Here is a close-up of the "training" of the tomato up the twine.

I just thought the asparagus with cone flower and lambs ear mix was pretty here---the black eyed susan's are about to open up to the left of the picture frame.

The Mocking Birds are already hitting the blackberry bushes! as in---eating our berries!  We put up a net; but I am not sure how much that will do to slow down the birds!  We will just have to keep planting more plants and buying black sunflower seeds to keep them happy so we can get a few for ourselves!

Can you see the bumble bee?  I took a lot of photo's of this bee on this sunflower---he could care less that I was there!

There was a much smaller bee on this daisy--maybe a "honey bee"  It was also not interested in me!

I tried to get a close up of the pistons on the Hibiscus bloom; but my camera isn't great, and I can't make it focus on what I want it to focus on!!!  Such a misery to me---but you can kind of see the pistons on the lower center of the frame....

This shot has my grape vine and our blueberry bush in it.  Our other blueberry bushes are beginning to do better.  I finally --oops, my HUSBAND finally looked up what vitamins they needed and we bought a specific fertilizer for them---I am hoping they will all get darker green soon and take off!

This beautiful little flower is a funny little flower---I bought this plant years back; after falling for it's lovely, light pink little blooms.  Then, it spread like wild fire all throughout my gardens!!!  It is a beast! it has taken over every plant!  So funny---it appears so delicate; and yet is a monster!

The two liliac bushes I planted in the back yard are doing well!  I hope they will adjust to their new home.  This has been a perfect spring and summer (SO FAR) for new plants---low heat and fairly good rain.

....