The timing came together perfectly last weekend, the blooming of the yellow lycoris and the moody autumnal skies. The lighting was perfect post afternoon rain, when after keeping an eye on the lycoris flower buds for several days, the blooms burst open. I always forget that we have these planted here, tossed into the location sometime after we moved here and before we renovated this bed and built the others. They’ve done well though, reminding us for a few weeks every year that they still exist.

The last in my summer garden series! Thanks for keeping up! I promise to be more prompt in my posting of garden photos from here on out—or well, I’ll try! 😉 And like that, August brought ripening beautyberries, signaling the approach of fall. The gulf fritillaries like to pupate on the front porch pole, blending in quite well until they do weird things like this, their chrysalis angled out an odd way. That’s what usually gets my attention that they are there. This one eclosed properly later on, which I was thankful about. This was the first year the flame acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii, in the front flower bed…

This has been the Summer Of Okra for me. I put it in the place that okra loves—full sun—and let it go to town. Being as I’m the only person in the house who enjoys okra, I planted three short rows from seed we had from several years ago. We’ve only ever grown three types: Eagle Pass, Hill Country Red, and Stewart’s Zeebest, so it is pretty easy to figure out which is which once they come up and fruit. Yes, the seed was from unlabeled bags in our seed catalog! This year it was Stewart’s Zeebest and Eagle Pass. I would like to try a new variety next year…

It’s been a good year for cicadas around here, lots of exoskeletons and dead full body cicadas can be found. As it is still quite warm here, they are producing their lovely sounds in the evenings, too. One of the last Formosa lily blooms. I’m going to save seed again this year so if you are interested in seeds let me know! Lacewing eggs. Compass plant, Silphium laciniatum and Ozark bluestar, Amsonia illustris seedlings on the potting bench. They have been the easiest of my native seed order from Prairie Moon that I received. The compass plant I tried to establish in the garden earlier this year failed to take…

I had goals this summer to write regularly about the garden instead of letting my photos languish in their folders on my computer without processing them. Instead those goals came and went and I only ever processed photos in large batches and then never made the time to write about the garden. The result is that there are far too many photos and things to share about the garden for one blog post so I’ve drafted up several posts to share the summer garden from July through the first of September. The last time I shared a post specifically on the garden as a whole was The June Garden. Obviously,…