Posted by wilde on July 20th, 2006 — Posted in Animal, Vegetable
Tending to the garden this morning, I couldn’t help see the frenzied cabbage butterflies as they flit about the place. We saw two cabbage butterflies mating on a tomato leaf.
Butterflies mating on a tomato leaf.
Then we saw two more butterflies mating on the same tomato leaf!
Two others using the same leaf!
Sunflowers are composite flowers of many blooms. See the individual blossoms near the center in the close up.
Individual blooms in the composite sunflower.
Beautiful symmetry in this sunny flower.
Blue giant hyssop is growing in the garden from seeds planted a few weeks ago. It is not yet giant, nor blue. The flowers will appear next month and should attract butterflies and bees. The leaves of giant hyssop have an anise-like taste and can be used in salads.
Giant blue hyssop will flower in the late summer.
Peppers are maturing in the vegetable garden. Summer salads await! Baby cucumbers are hiding under their canopy of cucumber leaves.
Baby cucumbers still attached to their yellow blossoms.
The Stevia plant that was purchased at a local greenhouse is doing quite well in the garden and now is about two feet tall. No visible signs of bugs eating this Sweet Leaf plant. Not a single chew! This member of the mint family can be used as a natural bug repellant by rubbing the leaves on your skin. Certainly worth a try as the smell of DEET is very offensive.
Stevia, or Sweet Leaf, growing in the garden.
Close-up of sweet leaf.
The Japanese beetles would probably like my girl’s pesto judging by their appetite for the basil blossoms and leaves. For fun around here we go around knocking beetles off the plants into a vessel of soapy water so they never to return to their nasty habit!
Basil leaves and flowers are devoured by Japanese beetles.
Basil flowers and holey leaves.
The Roma tomatoes are green and looking very delicious.
Roma tomatoes will soon be at the top of the dinner menu.
The greenery of the Canna Lilies is about two feet tall and it’s not quite immune to the culinary tastes of the Japanese beetles. The canna lily bright red blossoms should attract a few hummingbirds later in the summertime.
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Posted by wilde on July 18th, 2006 — Posted in Animal, Vegetable
Even though this blog concentrates on wildflowers, I can’t help but add some comments on the garden flowers and animals that we observe here in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
A small group of about a dozen turkeys were wandering around the edge of the woods around noontime today. The group appeared to be a couple mature females and some young ones. They were pecking at bugs and probably taking in a few stones from the gravel lane. At the slightest noise the turkeys scampered back into the woods.
The indoor plants are doing well in the warm conditions upstairs. The diffenbachia is blooming and showing off its pure white spathe.
Diffenbachia sporting a pure white blossom.
A mushroom appeared in the clay pot that holds a Norwegian pine. Never saw that before!
Norwegian pine pot with a yellow mushroom.
Driving along a country road we found a nice batch of Bee-Balm, Monarda didyma, growing near the edge of the road. The hummingbirds have to like this stuff — the blossoms are so red!
Bee balm by the roadside.
Monarda didyma flowers are brilliant red.
Identifying characters for Bee-Balm are that the blossoms are scarlet red and the bracts are red, too. Even some of the leaves have red coloration where they attach to the stems. Bee balm is a beautiful addition to any flower garden with the added benefit that it is a plant native to America.
Bee balm bracts are scarlet red.
Bee balm is also known as Oswego-Tea. A tea made from the leaves was used by Native Americans to treat colds, fevers, stomachaches, and colic, among other maladies.
Garden poppies have pretty much died out with the heat coming on in July, but they are being replaced by the zinnias, marigolds, dahlias and sunflowers.
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Posted by wilde on July 15th, 2006 — Posted in Animal, Vegetable
A black bear was our latest visitor on the Mountain Top! At first I thought it was the neighbor’s Newfoundland dog as I saw it from the kitchen window just before dusk. He was right at our front door sniffing around the portulaca and dahlias. Then I saw his little round ears — not to mention the size of him. We pushed the dog into a different room so he would not cause a racket, but I don’t think the bear would have cared. He was ambling along at his own pace.
I ran for the camera and got this shot through a dusty garage window as he had rounded the side of the house to the back yard.
A black bear in the backyard walking over a small tree.
Did you notice that he is deliberating walking over this little maple tree, which is about 6 feet tall? There is plenty of grass on either side of the tree, so we think he was either marking his territory or maybe just scratching his butt!
From the back door we watched the black bear take down a few sunflowers to check them out – not ripe yet! Then he ambled back into the woods by the way of the compost heap. As he slowly walked into the woods you could hear the leaves go shuush-shuush-shuush!
Black bear shuffling back into the woods.
The berries have been ripening and that probably drew him here, along with the neighbor’s dumpster. Now that the corn is ripe, he is probably stuffing himself with corn. The farmer said that you can tell when a bear has been in the corn fields. The black bear is so lazy he justs sits in one spot and grabs all the corn he can from that spot, and so, will leave a circle of destruction where he sat in the field!
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