Bouncing back from the summer heat

It has finally cooled down a bit and the plants are definitely looking happier (at least until it starts getting too cold for them soon). I have cleared nearly everything out of the raised bed, including a number of rotten tomatoes and nasty tomato horn worms - ick! For better or worse, I was able to see beneficial insects in action on the tomato horn worms. I do believe a parasitic wasp or two laid her eggs on a couple of the worms and nature took its course. I did not bother taking picture as I would like to forget the sight, myself.

On to more enjoyable topics - I am trying something new this year and have thrown a large number of flower seeds into the raised bed. These plants are supposed to perform better next year if their seeds are started in the fall of the previous year (fingers crossed). I went a little wild at the seed store and the variety of plants include sweet peas, scabiosa, cerinthe pride of gibraltar, butterfly bush, butterfly weed, and many more. With any luck (or a lot of it), the raised bed will be exploding with butterfly friendly and stunningly gorgeous flowers next year.

Here are some pics of one of my favorites from this year:

I still can't believe how well these begonias did this year (and from seed!). They never stopped blooming from early summer through now (beginning of fall). I will definitely need to propagate these for next year.

Next up are some fall goodies. This is the second year I have grown Mexican Sage bush and it was quite a bit taller than I was expecting. Ideally, I would like to move this to a better spot in the raised bed, but we'll see on that. The mums I bought for 88 cents each at Lowe's last year came back in a very large and vigorous fashion. I even cut them back midway through the season. Great investment.

Butterflies and Babies!

Well, even though half the people I know are either pregnant or new parents; the babies referenced for this blog are actually caterpillars that eventually grow into beautiful swallowtail butterflies. Now that I finally figured out what the little fellas are, it has been great fun watching them grow through their multiple instars (different stages in development). We were only lucky enough to see the chrysalis for one or two of the first group of cats (caterpillars) and the butterflies have been super sneaky and fly away before we get around to welcoming them. It's still great knowing that they're out there somewhere. Below are a few pics of the babies and one of the actual butterflies that did hang out for a day or two (I think she's the mom ;) ). You'll notice that their preference leans heavily to parsley plants which I was slow in growing this year. After an emergency run to a nursery in Durham (the only one around that still had herbs in the middle of the summer), we should be set on food for the little ones for awhile. Phew.

You'll notice they faintly resemble bird droppings in this stage. This is not a mistake. Mother Nature is just trying to protect her little ones from birds and other predators.

Super close to forming a chrysalis and turning into a butterfly!

Look closely at the green stem about the red coleus leaf. The chrysalis is green with a little yellow on the body and blends exceptionally well with the surrounding plants. If you look at the 'head' it almost seems to have little horns. Now that you know what the chrysalis looks like, see if you can spot it in the next picture. (Hint: it's between the brown stick and the green stem.)

Okay, so now it's time to see the actual butterfly. I'm glad the cosmos seeds I planted finally bloomed as they seemed to be a favorite of the lone swallowtail in our garden.

Recent Happenings ...

It's been a while, so I'll run through a brief recap of the past few weeks ...

First off, we found the most precious baby bunny in the front yard (actually, the family across the street saw it first, but we didn't believe them :) ). He managed to tear through the hollyhock in the first week and every single one of my marigold seedlings mysteriously disappeared one day. Not even a stem left behind as evidence. I've started supplementing his diet with some carrots in hopes of protecting the surviving plants. It's also fun to watch him scarf down a carrot in less than a minute flat. Yes, yes, I know I'm probably breaking all the rules of real gardening, but he's just so darn cute!

Next, we started harvesting some cherry and heirloom tomatoes in the back. Umm, I love those little bite size morsels of goodness. This was my first go at heirlooms and they aren't too bad. We definitely have lots of fruit on the plants, but I might prefer to go back to the small (less mushy) varieties next year. Unfortunately, the tomato plants ended up overwhelming the poor bell pepper plants so I will need to rethink the garden layout next year. The jalapeno plant, on the other hand, is getting more than enough sun and we have way too many of those to eat or give away this year.

Last, but not least, a gentleman in our neighborhood was nice enough to take some pictures of our flowers and pass them along. I definitely need to get a digital SLR at some point!

Color Combinations

So, I will say that while looking through the seed catalogs all winter, I had decided on a shades of pink color scheme for this year. It seems I forgot about the perennials I grew last year that came back better than expected this year. The end result is a great mix of just about any color out there, but I think it turned out quite well (completely unbiased opinion there ...).

Here is one container that has some Night and Day Snapdragons I grew last year as well as some Calla Lilies I planted about two years ago. I threw in a dahlia tuber this year (not knowing what color it would bloom) and got lucky that everything came up in reds and pinks.

Kris actually said he liked how the blue balloon flowers looked with the leftover yellow snapdragons, so I thought I would include a pic. There are a few small pink dahlias (one of my favorite flowers if you hadn't guessed already) on the right and some red bee balm blooms speckled in the middle. The balloon flowers came back so much bigger than they were last year and are just exploding (quite literally) with blooms this year.

Last, but not least, the blueberries are finally ripening! After a month or two of watching the little berries grow, it's nice to sample the sweet rewards. We still need to supplement our berry supply from the Farmer's market, but this is definitely one of the few shrubs I don't mind having in the yard. We have two Sunshine Blue plants in one large container (their leaves turn a lovely red in the fall) and one miscellaneous variety I picked up from the Farmer's market a year or two ago. I probably need to amend the soil a bit this year to make sure it is acidic enough.

Arg! It's that time of year ...

So, it has been a bit since my last post and this is largely due to the ridiculous amount of time I have spent outside hand-picking and killing the Japanese Beetles that are trying to decimate my plant collection. First the slugs, then the grasshoppers, now the beetles - my patience is definitely being tried this year. Unfortunately, the only safe way to control the beetle problem seems to be the grab and squish method that makes me really happy I bought extra gloves this year. They come across a bit blurry in the picture, but I figured I would spare you the detailed before and after view. They seem to favor the hollyhock, dahlia, and (as of today) blueberry plants. And here I thought we only had to worry about the birds stealing our ripening berries.

As for the slugs, we finally put out some beer for them as they seem to prefer this to Sluggo any day of the week. I'd say a dozen or so decide to drown their sorrows (and mine) each night. I'm sure there are dozens more hanging out elsewhere, but every little bit helps :)

Picture Time ...

The first tulips of the year ... over-stuffing the container really worked well. I can't wait to pick the bulbs for next year.

Our little patch of grass in the back - now stuffed with tomatoes, pepper, hollyhock, some squash (hopefully), and more (all grown from seed).

Still making the most of that 'backyard' with one of my new favorite flowers - Blue Butterfly Delphinium; one of my old favorites - Dahlias; and some gerber daisies (the last two not only look pretty, but support the Susan Komen fund as well).

Hanging basket with double petunias and begonia (with a little coleus and portulaca hiding there somewhere). All of these plants were grown from seed - I'm still thrilled about the begonia.

A better shot of the begonia - what a beauty.

First Post ...

Just got back from an extended Memorial Day weekend away and am happy the plants made it through relatively unscathed. It seems the grasshoppers or something are munching holes in the bougainvillea and aster leaves, but hopefully I can find some kind of remedy for the problem. The first Begonia Non-stop Mocca flower bloomed and boy was it impressive. This was my first begonia grown from seed and I am pretty happy so far. The first balloon flower blossom is growing through the bird netting over the blueberry plants and the lupine is setting seed (which I can hopefully collect for next year) :) Pics to come soon.