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.

Assorted day off activities and observations

Several strawberry runners took root so I snipped the runners.
I set out a tray of dirt to try to capture more strawberry runners.
The Chef helped me cut down the yaupon holly that was planted in a bad spot. It kept hitting the garage roof and gutter. Nine of ten water barrels are now in place for use!
Dinner… I made it this time. It includes a few of the new tomatoes (as well as a store tomato) and fresh garden basil and oregano.
Got mail!!
Drying coriander (the cilantro seeds) for later harvest!
Tepary beans reaching up!
Wild poinsettia (A volunteer).
The prairie and its rain barrel.
Rudbeckia is looking great.
A true bug.
Standing cypress about to bloom!

First harvests and little friend

95 g of blackberries!!
A dinner’s worth of green beans! From Mbombo (more) and blue lake (fewer and smaller) beans.
A lightning bug sitting on the zucchini.
A’grappoli d’inverno tomatoes (larger ones) and white currant tomatoes (small yellow ones). I’m delighted the white currants grew true to seed since I collected them last year!
The Chef cooked the green beans with bacon and put walking onions chopped on baked potato.
A little gray treefrog guards the zucchini from a radish leaf!

Pleasant surprise

Mom gave me Rudbeckia amplexicaulis seeds last year and I hadn’t seen any seedling candidates, but apparently I missed some! Here are very small ones flowering!

Rainbow garden beds progress

Replanted coreopsis looking rather worse for the wear but still has some leaves, so I hope for its recovery.
Mealy blue sage for blue. Seedlings transplanted to pots from near the house ones, and now grown big enough for the ground.
Culinary sage for a light purple.
Waiting on other colors but you can see it’s starting to take shape! The peach tree will be part of the orange section. The butterfly weed seeds will probably take a while to get going, so I am also waiting on some marigold seeds for fast orange.