Unidentified Flying Varmints

The critter cam is still set for the creatures of the night. I know what I see in daylight. I want to know what's out there when I am asleep.

There are the usual suspects. Deer.

Raccoons plural. I was hoping for bigger game.

Then the camera captured something completely unexpected. Flight.

Follow the white blur.

What is it? Bats are a good choice.

But I don't think this is a bat.

I am not alone out here.

A Little Bit Of Feral

It takes a certain amount of discipline to let go, to let nature be in charge of a lot of the decision making in a garden. That is not what I was trained for in horticulture, nor what I do in most of the gardens I tend. Total control is the preference for most.

It is rarely completely achieved. Nature has a mind of its own. Even in my roadside vegetable garden, a little bit of feral has remained.

I like it that way. Out of long ago planted and long time gone verbena on a stick, a surprise bumper crop of purple appeared in the vegetable garden this year. The parsnips growing with it are close to equally feral.

I have had to assert some authority with the Ironweed. Its height makes it a sun hog and shadow maker, not good for the production of fine produce. Trying to remove it gave me a good understanding of the origins of its common name. It is persistent in returning from bits of remaining root and its beauty prevents a push for total elimination.

I consider myself lucky to come home to a place, to land where I can let go, a place where nature is merely nudged in the direction of flowers. The illusion of being in control is allowed to be shown for the falsehood it is. The reward is a continuous and ever changing display of the beauty and bounty of the miracle of this planet called earth.

Something To Tide You Over

A post has been stuck in my craw all week. The theme keeps coming up. It will come out at some point most likely. In the mean time, the Tall Flower Meadow is coming into full late summer bloom. Day by day the color builds. Let's hope it doesn't get squashed by hurricane remnants this weekend. 

Go.

 

Miscanthus 'Morning Light' And Friends

 

Walkabout

After seeing the phenomenal growth of a pot of nursery grown small give away bulbs of my Voodoo Lily I decided to give mine more food than usual. They got bigger.

The pot of the smallest bulbs grew to medium in one season. I could get a good bulb crop this year. I'll have to have a chat with Ms. Mandy at the nursery and see what our plans for voodoo are.

It has been a busy week. Momma's car died. We went out and bought her a certified pre-owned, low mileage, 2018 Honda HR-V. 

With a bad check. I can not believe they let us drive that car off the lot with a check we told them was no good cause the real money was another check still in the mail. It is a most lovely Aegean Blue and came with a CD player. I thought that would be impossible to find on a newer car. Technology has moved on.

Now I need to dump the old car, a 2007 Mercury Grand Marquis. We opted not to use it as a trade in cause  .... Moma was in a hurry and wanted a new car now. That trade in would have bogged down the process. An interested buyer emerged when I called the metal recycle to inquire about processes of disposal. One way or another I will be getting a little pocket change out of that old boat.

Time moves in multiple speeds in all directions.

The Tall Flower Meadow beckons after endless and unfinished paper work.

Joe Pye blooms deepen their color.

 

I was not alone. Mama deer is left of center behind the firepit. Her still spotted fawn scooted back in to the forest behind her.

Get Off My Lawn!! It does not help that the utility company sprayed the easements for miles around a dreary dead brown. Our meadows are oases of green.

Joe Pye Weed

 

A Forgotten Bloom Day

Not only did I neglect to take pictures of flowers, I forgot about Bloom Day altogether. I was distracted. We can just look at some random pictures and hope that some flowers show up.

Here, right in the center of the picture, you can see the difference between two cultivars of Yucca filamentosa. 'Color Guard' has yellow in the middle of the leaf blade. 'Bright Edge' has the yellow on the margins.

Here is a nice flower, Downy Skullcap, Scutellaria incana. I have high hopes this native will self sow and spread itself about. 

The Black Eyed Susan, Rudbeckia fulgida has done that quite well.

Joe Pye Weed whose botanical name keeps changing has been another good competitor and self sower in the Tall Flower Meadow. 

It won't be long now. The end of August into late September is when the Tall Flower Meadow comes into massive full on bloom.*

* Weathers depending.

Elsewhere, someone has begun dining in this year's winter squash department in the dung piles. All the left over seedlings were planted here after the hail storm smashed and stunted the ones in the roadside vegetable garden. They are doing much better and setting more fruits in the dung piles. Then something decided it was time to eat them. I plan to find out who. If I am lucky I'll get a good shot of some damn varmint with a mouth full of hot pepper on tender squash leaves.

So it goes for a forgotten Bloom Day in the Land of the Crooked Shed, hot pepper water and voodoo lilies.

 

Fine Produce Has Arrived

Let's walk up to the roadside shall we.

What can one say about my roadside plantings? There is a lot going on.

Inside a wall of wild the fine produce can be found.

The okra is forming flower buds and there are beets big enough to eat. We should probably eat them. A good number of winter squashes have set

The hail late tomato department is setting fruit.

The carrots have big tops. Dill replaced parsnips in bloom.

Up by the roadside there is fine produce for the cozy cabin below.

We still need a chef. The gardener is lazy.

One big sack of sweet banana peppers was picked. Lots of those will be frozen. More cucumbers, yellow squash and Golden Gate Romano pole beans were harvested. We have been eating them.

There will be more fine produce of some kind at some point as the season moves along. I have already been asked when the tomatoes would be ready. The salt shaker has been cleaned and filled. She's ready.