Around The Garden

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything from around my yard. So, here's a fairly quiet look at some of the random wildlife I find interesting. On a day like this where we seem to take a bit more time to reflect, I have tried to dwell on how blessed I am to have a beautiful place to call home.

Mom, this is not a monarch, it is a queen. I had no idea.

Check out some other garden-y things over at Sidewalk Shoes Garden Tuesday.

Garden Tuesday - Millipede

I'm thinking you all must believe that I have the buggiest yard ever. I can't help it though, I find these creatures so very interesting. Well, there are some that are just gross, like the pile of slugs I found the other day, no worries I won't show that, but this one is interesting. This guy was in a overgrown shrub that had to be removed. They are normally nocturnal so I guess we disturbed his slumber.  

They are beneficial to the garden so we left him to find a new home.

I'm linking up this post with Garden Tuesday.

Garden Tuesday - Grasshoppers

Specifically, Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers. We had a hatching back near our vegie garden area. 

It was so interesting to see these little guys crawling up the fence. 

Micah found them very amusing.

He almost decided to touch one.

Then he thought it was better to show them to grampa instead.

 After Jessica did some research we found out that these can be considered pests. 

Oh dear......

Use the button to visit more gardens!

Garden Tuesday- Another Butterfly

Found this lovely one morning in the garden. It's beautiful wings were broken. 

I know this is kinda sad but the good news is, I am attracting more and more of these pretty creatures into the yard. This one was all nestled down in my parsley. A nice hiding place.

This parsley survived the winter and has gone insane. 

Monarch

First of all, these are not good pictures but when I saw these outside my window this evening, I just had to share. 

Way back this summer I bought three milkweed plants. 

Then I never planted them.

I have reasons.

Not really.

Lazy much?

The good news is, they survived. 

The heat.

The cold.

The neglect.

Then today I had my unjust reward.

This is the reason I chose milkweed in the first place.

No, not the shrivelled, dried remains of the flowers.... 

 This, this was what I found. 

 Three monarch caterpillars eating my plants. 

 It's why you need to plant them. They are all the caterpillars eat. If I'm lucky at least one will make it to be a butterfly. 

How cool is that?

I'm linking to Sidewalk Shoes for her Garden Tuesday. 

Something He Did

One of our trees died. 

I came home one day to You Know Who taking it down before it fell on someone. It's sad because it held up one side of our hammock. 

He decided that he would try to save part of it instead of cutting it all down right now. 

Then he got a bit clever and I came home to this...

They are called tree spirits. We don't actually believe they "do" anything, they're just cool

We have some in the house, we found these in Austria.

So it seems appropriate to us to have one in the yard.

You could say he's setting it free... he said it wasn't easy. This is an oak tree and that = hard wood.

What you can't see is how unbearably hot it was outside. 

I found it pretty amazing. 

We had some friends over Sunday night and waited to see who noticed.

 The young woman who did, was just a bit freaked out... asking if anyone else saw face on the tree.....

His looks change throughout the day. Nope we haven't named him...

Check out some amazing gardens @ Pam's Garden Tuesday!

Garden Tuesday

A couple of Saturdays ago while having dinner with my guy and his parents, I looked out the window and saw this. He/she? was on the fence out by my garden. I say this to excuse the not so hot photos..... window, rain, distance, moo. 

 I was trying not to squee (I am a bird nerd, I love them.... ) because when I looked again, I saw there were two.

 I have no idea of the exact type that they are. Hawks of some sort, I'm not knowledgeable, I just like them.

They are rather intimidating and I realized they were trying to intimidate the squirrels in our yard.

 They were either practicing their hunting skills or trying to have one for dinner, though I never saw them get close. There are three squirrels that hang out in our yard and they're pretty fast.

Now that I think about it, lately I've only seen two. 

Hmmm.....

Garden Tuesday is over at Sidewalk Shoes.

Go check it out!

Veggie Tales

Unfortunately my garden has been plagued by bugs. I'm not sure whether it's the weather here or what but it's gross. 

My eggplant keeps me from despair. 

It is absolutely lovely to look at, and has not stopped producing!

I walked out last week and saw I had broccoli! It's not prolific, but it is a bit picturesque.

This is my Garden Tuesday offering.

Thanks for stopping by!

Garden Tuesday

We had a storm last night. In light of all the other storms that hit other areas this one was mild but for me not so much. I am not as bad as the dog who hides under the desk and breathes so heavily he makes the house stink..... but I don't like storms, unless I can crawl in my bed and have covers to throw over my head at every lightening strike. Yes, I know that sounds like the dog but I've managed to keep my breathing fairly normal. 

The kids lost power early in the storm and when it wasn't fixed as they were told it would be, took refuge with us last night.

 Everyone's safe and sound, *sigh*.

Even though the entire bed flooded, my broccoli was the only thing left battered looking. I'll prop it up and it should be fine.

My last surviving zucchini plant is fine along with the three zucchini I hope to harvest tomorrow. They are not as big as they look. Wonky perspective.

My lovely eggplant, the tallest plant in the garden, fared well, which makes me happy, these things are yummy!


For more garden goodness, go to Sidewalk Shoes garden Tuesday!