Yard Update

A vibrant green weed started popping up under our elephant ears so Jim let them grow wild creating a luscious backdrop!

In the spring, he planted purple heart and wandering jew in the flower boxes on a our front porch. With the height of the purple heart, they became gigantic and are still thriving! The purple heart flowered the entire season.

Formosa lilies started blooming randomly throughout our yard. This plant throws it seeds all over the place so we let them grow wherever they show up.

This orange visitor stopped by.

A monarch visited! Since these beauties are endangered, I took a bunch of photos.

Jim captured this bee with buck teeth. 

This clip is a hummingbird moth buffeting on our butterfly bushes. This unique creature appears and acts like a hummingbird but is quite smaller. I actually thought I was filming a baby hummingbird until I zoomed in on the video. Seeing its back close up, it is definitely a moth!

A couple of days later we noticed 5 of its caterpillars on our tomato plant which they are known to devour. Normally we let nature do its thing but this was our tomatoes. They were removed from the plant and most likely became a juicy meal for hungry birds.

Have a marvelous day/evening (wherever you are on the clock)! ~Val

Yard Update

 Our plants continue to grow. The ruffled satin rose of sharon began blooming.

Here are her phases.

Then she really shows herself!

This rose of sharon below has the same colors but with different petal shapes started blooming too.

 

The burst of red in the center is marvelous!

We have received visits from various swallowtails.

I love the underside of the wings and how they appear like stained glass.

When chasing this tiger swallowtail down trying to get a good photo, it ended up right in front of my face!

 

 The bees are also enjoying the butterfly bushes.

 

The stunning canna lilies started opening!

Purple heart is a plant that grows from cuttings so Jim planted some along the foundation and they have been growing like crazy! It may end up being an evergreen. If not, it will come back again next year.

Some photos of the overall garden.

There are 5 butterfly bushes for the pollinators to buffet on.

Have a marvelous day/evening (wherever you are on the clock)! ~Val

Yard Update

 Flowers are coming and going around the yard.

We believe this one is called the "carousel" rose of sharon.

She commands attention with her amazing leaves, cool buds and stunning, huge flowers.

 These orange Asiatic lilies bloomed like crazy but have since passed.

The butterfly milkweed is looking pretty.

Another beloved of the butterfly is the lantana. We have both yellow and white ones.

The butterfly bushes are blooming.

We have 4 different colors around. The buds are so interesting to look at as they come and go.

The canna lilies will bloom later in the season by the leaves put on an amazing show.

The leaves are so fabulous with the red edges.

The Japanese painted ferns keep getting bigger and bigger. This one had a pretty bug on her.

Our ornamental peach tree has been loving being planted in the ground!

We've noticed a lack of butterflies this year and learned there is about a 50% decline here due to the late frosts and other climate issues.

The elephant ears are growing bigger each week.

Overall the pollinating garden is growing.

Our grass looks like crap but we don't believe in watering it since that is such a waste of a precious resource.

This is a very picture heavy post but it is for our personal, future reference!

The new pineapple guavas have new growth!

Here is where we often sip cocktails and our morning coffee. We have 2 cool plants in the planters that will be growing over and down very soon!

We noticed a nest in the crepe myrtle out front. There has been a lot of purple martin activity around the tree so we think it had belonged to them. It is quite low for those birds to nest so we can't be sure. It is amazing to look at a strong crafted nest. Talented little guys!

We got a dog! Ok, Gizmo is made of concrete. This is because a cat has been pooping in our yard. This dog works as a repellent! 

It is funny since I always grew up with indoor/outdoor cats and never thought of them annoying neighbors because they were my cuties. It is unpleasant cleaning up another person's pet's poop.

Have a marvelous day/evening (wherever you are on the clock)! ~Val