July blooms

When I first started gardening here, It seemed like the humming birds would look for humming bird feeders next to the structures, while ignoring the flowers that I was planting for them... They eventually figured it out...






The goldfinches had no problem finding the sunflowers...






I hate these 7 minute itch plants (Cnidoscolus stimulosus)
With all the butterflies pollinating them, I don't think I'll be rid of them any time soon.






These black grasshoppers are bigger than the plants they eat...






Wonder what the cat is hunting...







The verbesina is blooming.
I found this cool wildflower growing along the side of the road, being mowed. I pulled a coupla pieces, it came up like mint, and was as easy to transplant. The yellow variety hasn't started to bloom yet.




This is an interesting plant... The flowers resemble lavender. This guy is a natural sand-hill resident. I need to post it for identification at a plant forum.
I posted the flower, and got an immediate response... Field snakecotton
You really can't call something a weed when it only grows in sand where little else can grow.




Florida tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii) This plant showed up this year, I only have this one... Ima let it grow, in spite of it's close resemblance to a couple of rogue customers...






River oats are very pretty, but difficult to photograph.








Mint attracts some cool pollinators...
Meet the Double-banded Scoliid (Scolia bicinta).
When not pollinating mint, the double-banded scoliid catches beetle grubs for the next generation.

Tropical milkweed seeds.

As always, the pictures click for larger views.

summer colours

This fence post lizard is wearing his best finery, hanging out on top of a sassafras post... Hoping to attract a new lover.







The brugmansias have begun to bloom.











The honey bees seem to be very interested in the datura....












Gulf fritillary butterflies have found the zinnias.










These red sunflowers are attracting plenty of polinators.











Got some painted lady butterflies...


Silver-spotted skipper enjoys the 7-minute itch plant, even if I don't...








These little yellow cherry tomatoes are sweet!






Most of the squash are through... I still have some, because I replanted some of the thinned plants...




The columbine seedlings are coming along.

Wind Storm

We've had some record-breaking heat... I think it got up to 108° one day last week. My plants were suffering already in the dry sand, those triple digit temps pushed some stuff right over the edge.

Here's the patch of cukes... They were just starting to produce.
The green stuff isn't cucumber vines...

After the heat, God took pity and sent me some rain, but he wrapped it up in a buncha wind... And knocked down some of my garden trees.


I posted pics of the blooms on this china berry tree this Spring. Chinaberry is a junk tree, and there are plenty of babies, but it just won't be the same... That was a beauty...



While pine trees are unattractive, this one was very close to the house, and broke limbs on a beautiful oak next to the house... I was lucky that it hit the oak, rather than the house!

My garden fence had trees land on it in several places, but I was able to repair the damage before Bambi discovered the new entrances.


One more pic of the heat damage... Sun scalded tomatoes.


I am getting some good ones, though.


The kitten doesn't eat these big black grasshoppers, but she will play with the ones I catch for her...

Butterfly Jail

The wind missed a few of these sunflowers...

Summer colour

We Finally did get some rain. Too late for the corn, but the flowers and the critters they attract are all doing well.

hummingbird visiting Uruguayan firecracker plant. (dicliptera suberecta)


Coupla spice bush swallowtails performing mating rituals

Talinum patens berries

wild lettuce seed

Coral Red honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) berries

Apostle lily (crinum sp.)

Gourd flower

I see you...

What's for dinner?

Plate of fresh veggies...

Heating them up on an open fire.

While a pot of fresh veggies was probably healthier eating, the casserole made made with cheese and bacon & these veggies in the oven tasted really good too.

It may not look like much now... But it disappeared in a hurry.

With a bit of rain, (a half-inch or so) everything perked up...

Rudbeckia hirta and vitex...





The daylilies are still looking nice

Here's a new section of the vegetable garden...

I don't post many wide angle pics, because... I can't get much of the garden to show up.

Drought continued...

Click map for drought details.

I had hopes that we'd get a bit more rain than last year. But...
If it's more, it isn't much more, and droughts year after year aren't good for the plants, water table, or much of anything else.

The sweet corn is doing poorly in spite of efforts to water.

I've been looking at a coupla sites offering seed from the desert...
High country gardens and Native seed search
They talk about their seeds growing in arid alkaline soil... I have the arid soil...

It seems like landrace seeds from the desert should do better in the sand hills than the seeds that I've been planting...


The squash has done well.



Vitex bloom and sand wasp


Popcorn tree and sand wasp.

Neither of these are getting a drop of extra water...
As pretty as the popcorn tree is, it's considered an invasive exotic.
It's also supposed to be a potential source of petrol.

I have house wrens...
in the house...


Mother house wren is pretty funny, hopping around on the floor back and forth, when I'm in the same room as the nest.

The zebra and spicebush swallowtails have been spending a lot of time in the garden.





I have a lot of sassafras trees, and so have plenty of the black swallowtails (as a result), but I'm not sure where the zebras are coming from...