Gardens-In-The-Sand

Dog Days in the Garden

Cardinal... gonna pick her own corn?

Naw, she's hunting caterpillars!

These hummingbirds are so sweet....

So cute!

A monarch! I'm seeing them a number of times this summer...

If the monarchs would only find the milkweed... being enjoyed by the black form tiger swallowtail.

Picked a 23 pound watermelon this morning for breakfast...

These watermelon are supposed to be new world melons...

In the early 1920s, Art Combe, a Southwestern plant expert and amateur prospector found a small woven pot filled with bright red watermelon seeds in an abandoned sandstone cave in Arizona’s Mogollon Rim. The red seeds are believed to be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old!

https://www.rareseeds.com/blog/post/art-combes-amazing-ancient-watermelon

I keep trying to find stuff that will tolerate the conditions out here... There is a bit of difference between drought tolerant and... humidity and drought tolerant...

Row of bean tepees, and a row of green striped cushaw.

4 squash!

I had a chicken problem... I was finding feathers on the ground, and seeing fewer birds... I think this raccoon was responsible...

Labels: cardinal, hummingbird, Monarch, raccoon, squash, watermelon

The End of July

Everybody likes this salvia coccinea...

The hummingbirds are busy at first light when I step outdoors with my first cup of coffee... the butterflies wait until it warms up a little.

The centrosema is putting on a nice show again...

Glass gem corn

Variegated corn... succession... planted the corn... as soon as the first planting matured...

Am trying to decide where to replant the glass gem... next.

showy crotalaria in bloom... seems early...

Commelina erecta... a native dayflower... very unlike that asiatic invasive

Couple more butterflies...

I dug this toad up while turning soil in the new vegetable section. He looks angry....

This one isn't so pissed...

Labels: hummingbird, salvia, toad

Sunflowerz n stuff

Hummingbird visiting tithonia...

I hadn't been seeing these guys... was happy to spot this one yesterday.

helianthus angustifolius

Be sure to enlarge pic to see the depth of this planting! Will post additional pics as the blooms continue to open...

Planted this patch of sunflowers from seed (well... sunflower tops scattered across the top of the soil) last Autumn.

Fence post lizard...

Checkerspot sex

Really liking these bluestem flowers...

Nother bluestem flower.

These eupatorium flowers don't look like much, and most people pull them for weeds.... but they certainly attract the pollinators, and one more thing... They're scented!

Was tryinna get a decent pic of the wasps recently, and noticed an unexpected fragrance in the air... nothing to account for it... xcept for the eupatorium!

I'd totally bottle the scent... if I could do so without harming the flowerz...

Even the dawg fennel is scented... not as nice as the eupatorium serotinum... but scented all the same.

Thai basil

ageratina altissima
Not quite fully opened...

Tassel flower (Emilia fosbergii)
Not especially an autumn flower... has bloomed most of the summer.

tibouchina semidecandra
Marginally hardy here, but easy to propagate...

I brought out some stems last winter when I cut it back in another garden in Macon... Shoved the stems into the soil... and walked away. Pretty much the same way that I propagate the brugmansias...

hemiboea subcapitata

I used to grow gloxinia in my previous personal garden, but they aren't winter hardy here in middle GA, and required replacing each year...
these hemiboea need protection from deer, but are otherwise perfectly suited to the climate.

gesneriads are some interesting plants, as seen here

Finally, how about a bit of autumn leaf colour?

popcorn tree (Sapium sebiferum)

Labels: algeratina, basil, butterfly, emilia, eupatorium, grass, hemiboea.sapium, hummingbird, lizard, sunflower, tibouchina

more july wildlife

I find that the hummingbirds prefer the small-flowered canna....

It may not have as spectacular of a flower as the large flowered types... but... who cares when the pay-off on the small-flowers is in attracting these sweeties?

And visiting the salvia...

I totally avoid feeders... I feel like they harm the critters... makes getting pics a bit more of a challenge, but I'm not putting out GMO products or poisoned bird food... or helping spread bird diseases...