This past week, I've either been too busy with grandchildren or too tired from being busy with grandchildren, to do any garden wanders. Too bad. Mushrooms are starting to emerge. Note to self: go every day now. It's mushroom season.
Mushrooms are artistic. Did you know that? I felt like I was given a little gift of beauty - from a mushroom.
Let's sign this mushroom up as today's sponsor. It needs some notoriety.
The frogs are still enjoying their pond.
And.... I had been blaming Japanese beetles for decimating my new dahlias. Maybe I was wrong. I had no idea that Dahlias were so difficult to grow. We've been sprinkling some diatomaceous earth on the leaves. Not sure it's helping. At least I now know who the culprit is.
The setting sun did a nice job of back-lighting the chaos of the perennial garden this evening.
One of the native wildflowers that we started last fall is blooming! Meet Fragrant Hyssop. I picked one around 5 days ago and it is still perfect in the vase. I think these will be a nice addition to this week's bouquets.
Not so much for the swamp milkweed. Meet the stems of what was a nice little swamp milkweed plant until it did what we planted it to do: it became food for a monarch caterpillar. I spotted two monarch caterpillars on two different tiny swamp milkweed plants earlier in the week. Today, I came back to photograph them and this is what was left. It's amazing how a butterfly can zero in on a 4" plant in our zoo of a garden. I just learned this week that monarch's "taste" milkweeds with their feet. I hope the plant survives.
This past week, Ted string-trimmed what we hope will be permanent paths in our little wooded area. He'd been putting down wood chips for 20 years, but is wanting something more permanent for in our older age. Wood chips only last a year before they deteriorate and then you have a tangled mess of whatever wants to grow there.
His string-trimming uncovered a limestone boulder covered in fossils that I'd forgotten about. It's the one thing on my trip around the garden that will still be the same even if I come back a week from now.
There is some comfort in that.
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