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,…

This summer we’ve been spending a lot of time on the front porch. It’s Forest’s go-to location to hang out and play, mostly because he likes to run around barefoot and we like him to wear shoes in the yard here because of snakes, so the porch is one place he be without shoes. I tend to wear minimal footwear around the yard as well but I’m (generally) more observant than he is when traipsing around the yard. So, he plays on the porch or if the cars are out of the carport he plays under the carport where he can more easily ride his bikes and trikes. When we…

I’ve been attempting to slow down a bit in the garden and just sit and be still and that has included sitting on the perimeter blocks to watch butterflies. It’s been a lesson in working my stealth mode photography skills as well as a lesson in not reaching out to pull weeds constantly. In my attempts to learn a bit more about what is using the garden and when, I’m getting my camera out and taking photos to document it all. The other day I was weeding out the strawberry bed and had this tiny insect on my hand that I couldn’t identify. It was possibly some sort of leaf-footed…

The Formosa lilies have finished blooming for the season. I noticed a few differences this year than in previous years. For starters, they didn’t grow nearly as tall. Usually they grow at least 6′ tall. This year they hovered between 4-5′ which made them the perfect height for deer chomping. I took a photo of two blooms at lunch and came home to find them devoured by the deer. The other thing I noticed was that I didn’t have as many plants as previous years, mostly from pulling too many seedlings (the plant is a prolific seeder) and I think some of the roots from the established plants got dug…

Long-tailed skipper, Urbanus proteus Long-tailed skipper larvae—aka: the bean leaf roller! Between the lull of monarch seasons—I’m awaiting their return but we did see one at the zoo the other day—there is plenty of other activity in the lepidopteran world. Here’s just a sample–I’m seeing plenty of others I just don’t have my camera on me lately. And these are all phone photos–I’m sad to admit I’m blogging with phone photos!!! Time to pick up the big camera or even the point and shoot a bit more than my phone. I noticed a beautiful butterfly bouncing along the agastache on the side yard garden last week. I took a few…