Nothing like being wakened at 4:30 by a chorus of birds outside your bedroom window. I decided to suck it up and embrace the day. Other than traffic and the birds, it is a quiet morning.
The day-lilies are in their glory now.
This one is my favourite. Years ago, I treated myself to this one from Bonibrae day-lilies in Prince Edward County. How can you choose when there are so many beautiful colours and shapes? I love the spontaneity of this one's petals. It looks like they are saying, "Yay!"
Slowly, we are getting more purple coneflowers. In the spring, their leaves look a lot like rudbeckia leaves. Perennial rudbeckia are a bit exuberant around here, so I always dig some out and compost them. It's easy to accidentally dig out a coneflower. I guess I must have done something right because we have 5 or 6 coneflower plants now. Their seed heads are such a cool colour.
Pumpkin #1 is maturing nicely.
As I made my way to the vegetable garden (which looks a lot like a flower garden), the bird & bee-attracting flowers were brightening their space. Not sure what these are called, but isn't it interesting how they start out looking like sleek fish and open up into such a complex flowers?
I need to do some research. I don't recognize this lovely red one either. I probably need to spend more time just looking at these so I'll see which birds and bees and butterflies they attract. How else will I get to know them?
There are a few cosmos in the mix. They should bloom all summer if we get enough rain.
This afternoon, we will snack on blueberries with our tea.
Native plants seem to have a very long bloom time. Elderberries have been putting out blossoms for weeks.
I wonder if frogs also get woken up by early morning bird songs? He looks a little dazed. Maybe it's true. Darn birds.
It was good to see one of our smaller frogs still alive and doing well. Do you see the circular ripples around its head and leg? The water is not completely flat. If you squint, it looks like a pair of glasses. With one eye.
Soon, the Blue Jays and American Goldfinches will be feasting on the sunflowers. And, this week more vegetables will be harvested for our winter meals. I am happy with our mix of native and hybridized plants. When we farmed, we grew corn and barley. The land was totally dedicated to those crops. We grew a lot of two kinds of food, but there were very few birds, bees and butterflies there. Somehow we need to find a balance between intensive food production and preserving our native species of plants and insects and animals. This garden is our little contribution to that idea.
And, it looked like this morning the birds were thanking us.
Our sponsor?
All the birds that the Merlin Bird app heard in the garden this morning:
Black-capped Chickadee
American Crow
Red-eyed Vireo
European Starling
Northern Cardinal
Cedar Waxwing
American Robin
Red-winged Blackbird
Song Sparrow
Common Grackle
Chipping Sparrow
Mourning Dove
American Goldfinch
Red-bellied Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
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