The garden in mid August

Hazelnut, still green. I recently observed a chipmunk defying gravity and climbing a hazelnut shrub to make off with the nuts. I don’t know if I’ll get any harvest this season.

American elderberries. Not sure which variety. The birds eat most. Some I feed to the chickens, and others I make elderberry syrup for when I’m under the weather.

Chicken tax.

Midsummer visitors

This unknown fungus species is what inspired this post. Emerging amidst sparse mock strawberry, decaying jewelweed stems, and decomposing woodchips, it draws wonder and curiosity. What does it look like below ground? Does it have a form, or is it form-less?

Black snake in the henhouse. I treat this uninvited guess roughly, and it frequently returns to prey on the eggs. I am grateful for its presence – one more black snake means one less copperhead, and many fewer mice, but I wish it would stick to the mice and leave the eggs (and sometimes young chickens) alone.

Can you spot the hidden visitor? Hint: look towards the center, amidst the green. This bee balm was gifted to me by an acquaintance about five years ago. It continues to spread and I have begun dividing and transplanting it. It grows to about five feet tall. Attracts all kinds of pollinators, including my favorites, hummingbirds and hummingbird moths.

Jewelweed is increasingly taking over the more humid, sunny spots of the garden. I welcome its presence, even as the colony pulses ever larger with each summer rain. Background is the rain catchment tank.

April 2022 catch-up

Smilax spp. (probably glauca) – greenbrier family

Erigeron spp. (most likely philadelphicus) – Philadelphia fleabane; about 14 inches (35.6 cm); growing in the sunny meadow. Looking at this photo, I just noticed that the undersides of the petals have a pink hue. In the Asteraceae family.

Uvularia perfoliata (perforated bellwort) – about ten inches tall; I’ve observed this small colony for the past 5 or so years.

May 2022 catch-up

Rosa rugosa, planted in 2021

Itea virginica; sweetspire, Virginia-willow

Thermopsis villosa; Carolina (false) lupine

Penstemon digitalis (tall white beardtongue) in foreground; Symphytum officinale (comfrey) in back; Solanum carolinense (horse nettle) bottom right (not flowering)

A fungus in our midst

This is to show a bit of its ecological context – Virgina creeper, Japanese honeysuckle, and poison ivy growing immediately beside it; a few feet away some young oaks, sweetgum, and wild cherry, and about twenty feet away, yellow pine.

Mature fruiting body

Recently emerged

Elephantopus tomentosus

Woolly elephant’s foot, or Devil’s Grandmother (I wonder how it got that name?) – these pictures were taken towards the end of its bloom, mid-August, 2022. The flower stem is about 10 inches tall, with leaves growing in a rosette at the base, flat on the ground (perhaps as if flattened by an elephant?).

Fowl Follies

Guinea showdown – the darker (pearl) male, recently snuck into the pen, in his first confrontation with a white male. The lavender guinea in slightly behind the white-plumaged male is the mate to the pearl.

After the first confrontation the lavender and pearl mated pair is reunited (guineas tend to mate for life)

Sweet Pea cannot hide her consternation when the guineas become combative.

Second confrontation – look closely at the two guinea fowl on the left. They have their wings raised in a defense/attack/intimidation posture. Whether or not it is their intention, this makes them appear much larger; it may also help launch them towards each other.

The pearl guinea was removed later that night. He resides outside of the pen, and to this day remains separated from his mate. Perhaps one day they will be reunited.

Iris in April 2020

Given to the garden by a friend, who may have found it growing on the homestead she moved into within the past decade.

Frog pond

September 15, 2018. Carpet pond. It was surrounded by boundless elderberries, and the shade they provided allowed frogs to breed all summer. We had tadpoles up through October!

October 1, 2018. American bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus. I counted, at any given time, an average of 8 frogs sunning on the stones.

Butterflies in August

…and one in October. Note all butterflies were spotted alighting on anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), which I shall hereafter refer to as the super-nectary.

August 10, 2018. This is a garden standby. Sorry for the focus – difficult to see the blue spot on the bottom part of the wing. Black swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes.

August 12, 2018. American painted lady, Vanessa virginiensis.

August 25, 2018. Giant swallowtail, P. cresphontes. This was the first time I had seen this type in the garden. I thought it was a cross between the black and tiger swallowtails. I’m still not sure, because it appears to lack a horizontal stripe across the forewings. Its larva is known to feed on Japanese honeysuckle, which is rampant on the farm.

September 7, 2018. Monarch, Danaus plexippus. I saw two or three of these at any given time in the garden throughout the summer. Note the light blue chicory flower in the midground. This was also a valuable nectary and edible for humans.