Deerberries

When I cleared paths through the thicket, a lot of deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum) bushes came back.

People walking on my paths... ask me if these are blueberries... same family... but different.

After the berries colour up... I pick and eat by the handsfull...

When I search deerberry, to see what other people say about them... their assessment seems mostly negative... on the order of ... eaten by wildlife... and that's all their worth...

I beg to differ.

when The berries are ripe... very tasty...

But... they don't all ripen at once like blueberries... picking these is like picking mahonia berries... a few ripen at a time... gotta visit a buncha different bushes each day.

It's worth it, though.

Eaten fresh, it's like a burst of taste in your mouth... they're so fruity that it's almost like perfume...

I finally got around to making pancakes... tasted like blueberry pancakes... with an occasional burst of flavour.

Summer in the vegetable garden

Trail of tears beans and Swamp hibiscus (hibiscus coccineus).

Bucket of beans...

Ghost peppers

Freshly mulched veggies...

Jerusalem artichokes in bloom

Decorative Kale

What do you do about those wild and woolly cherry tomato plants... determined to grow through the cage and all over the wheelbarrow path?

Tie/bale them up with baling twine...

Beauty berry caterpillar (Manduca rustica)

Indigo bunting feasting on seeds from the large native grasses.

Hummingbird

ruellia elegans

And finally a selection of pollinators.