Tag: milkweed

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Strong plants and strong ants

Horsetail just shoves the hard soil out of the way!!
More Stark Surecrop Pie Cherries.
Soaker hose hard at work for the winecups and chamomile.
The hose has a leak so I put the leak over a pot of Maximilian sunflowers.
The Chef spotted ants carrying away this insect. Maybe a soldier fly??
He also spotted this milkweed bug. Hi milkweed bug! All three butterfly milkweeds in the front yard rainbow garden are up, plus the wild milkvines are pushing up everywhere too.
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Sunday garden check up

Blue flax seedlings are getting tiny new leaves.
Possibly a false gaura! It looks different from the common volunteers!
Two Datura wrightii seedlings!
A senna hopeful.
It is actually a bit rough, so maybe this is the rough leaf sunflower??
A redbud I potted up last year.
The Euphorbia from Mom and Dad’s house is perking back up.
Roman chamomile did well while I was gone!
Lettuce and bok choy doing good.
Two more fluttermill Missouri primrose seedlings up!
The horse crippler cactus transplanted from Mom’s garden.
I’ve put a drip on the ground plum (actually a legume) since yesterday, as it seems to be having a rough transplant. This is also into the rock garden.
In the rainbow garden, a mystery seedling. Maybe two leaf senna???
Butterfly milkweed is coming up in rainbow garden.
Maybe another butterfly milkweed? It’s in the right place.
A single cilantro seedling. The only one in the yard. In that crack.
A winecup from two years ago.
Purple prairie clover from two years ago.
Maybe Liatris leaves? It’s in the right spot.
Another mystery seedling.
Tall vervain is perking up a bit.
Ten petal anemone are perking up too!
Greeneyes getting bigger!
My blue stars are blooming!
Salvia azurea leaves.
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Wild times on a Friday night

I am extremely excited to report that we have the first baby moon and stars watermelon!!!
Same fruit. The other side is almost half yellow.
A wasp mimic robber fly! Love finding predators in the garden.
Butterfly milkweed in rainbow garden has grown quickly.
Dog and I came back inside. Briar promptly sat by her little brother.
I don’t think he minded, but her settling in seemed to remind him he could go places.
Abandoned for kitty snacks.
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A day off for errands

Bisbee cowpeas flowering more
I liked the contrast on this one.
“Stubby” variety of okra.
An okra flower with a little sweat bee flying by!
This is the first okra flower I’ve seen in person here since they seem to keep banker’s hours.
A little green-striped cushaw squash!
Leaf of the squash is looking a bit rough.
Found another Madhu Ras melon! This one is bigger.
Salvia greggii “Diane” purple cultivar has bloomed! Now only waiting on the orange part of rainbow garden to bloom.
Whoa. I did not realize this cushaw squash was here!
A male Sachem on a Peruvian ground cherry. There is a flower in the background so I hope it’ll start producing soon.
Two immature fruits on Amish Paste tomato.
I think this is one of my stratification butterfly milkweed that I planted directly! Very excited!
A doodlebug (also known as an ant lion) trap waiting for some little critter to walk by! I feel very good about the predators in the garden right now, keeping plant-eaters in check, as I also saw a little brown snake slither away. We had a Dekay’s Brown Snake last year so it was probably that. May it be fat and happy on earwigs!
One of the rosemary bushes is blooming!
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More from today

After their 30 days of cold stratification in the fridge, three butterfly milkweed are sprouting.
Female Sachem skipper on ironweed.
Briar is bored by garden examination. She likes the buffalograss to lay on though.
Bigger view of ironweed.
Briar was warm after the midday walk so I gave her an ice cube.
I pulled some Euphorbia from driveway and have put it in potato bag dirt over cardboard. See if it could work as a ground cover since it seems to be native.
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Potatoes and a butterfly

Emptied two potato growing bags and found four potatoes (fine, but not worth picturing) and a toad. Sorry for disturbing you, Toad. I stopped moving bags since it was afternoon and hot on Saturday. I will do more later in an evening for Toad movement safety.
This black widow spider was more productive than my potatoes with six round egg sacs generated vs my four potatoes. I put this bag back.
A butterfly on butterfly milkweed. (Pearl Crescent).
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Sunday field trip to Lexington WMA

Butterfly milkweed.
Wild heliotrope.
Had leaves like greenthread but a yellow center on flower.
Compass plants all facing what we think was east.
Bigger view of the compass plant valley.
A megachilid bee on butterfly milkweed!
A whole field of Echinacea!
Rosa sp.
I know this one. I’ll look it up. Edit: wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), thanks Mom 🙂
Happy!!!!
A Dun Skipper on prairie bluets.
Asclepias viridiflora (thanks Abby and Mom!)
Shade good for fluffy dog.
Another view of the Echinacea field.
Note the matching orange dog in background.
I remember this plant.
She tried to get humans to join her but we’re no fun.