Fall Color on American Hornbeam

We had almost two inches of rain in the past few days, so the parched plants are starting to recover.  There is more fall color on the shrub border now.  The spice bush really grew tall this year and is starting to turn yellow now.  We bought two American Hornbeam trees last fall.  One of them is still quite green, while the other is shades of orange and pink.

American hornbeam between two lilac bushes.  The idea is that the hornbeam and small lilac would gradually grow and fill in this space in the shrub border.  On the left is solidago rugosa ‘fireworks” and on the right is chrysanthemum ‘overture.’

Close up of carpinus caroliniana – American hornbeam, also know as blue beech, ironwood, and musclewood.

Purple aster.  I think they are New England asters, but they could be purple dome asters.  I can’t exactly remember what I planted.

Potter wasp (or mason’s wasp) on aster.

Green metallic bee on aster.

Action shot of green metallic bee in flight.

Bumblebee on agastache – ‘blue fortune’ anise hyssop.  I am not that good at distinguishing between bumblebees and carpenter bees, but I think this is a bumblebee.  The agastache is still covered with these bees.  At night they hang on the underside of the flowers and as soon as dawn comes they come to life and start buzzing around these flowers.  The agastache has definitely been the most attractive plant for pollinators over a long time this summer.

I have had a ‘top hat’ blueberry in a container on the patio for the past two summers.  Yesterday I planted it in the patio border.  It is the little plant with red leaves on the left.  Just to the right of this border is the ‘duke’ blueberry, so the two are close enough to help in pollination in the spring.  I had to add some acidic soil to the ground for the blueberry, so we will see how it goes.

Just to the right of the last picture, the alyssum took over the sidewalk half-way through the summer, so that I have been walking on the lawn… Yesterday I put most of it in the yard waste bin, since October is the last month for yard waste pickup.  I have two large garbage cans, but they can fill up pretty quickly this time of year.  I don’t needs these alyssum seeds in my compost.

Cooking adventure:  Just roasted a butternut squash and green beans.  Yesterday we made the kale and potato soup again.  That freezes well, too, so it’s a winner.

Magnifying Grass

Turf grass is something we have to have in the suburbs in our front yard.  Unfortunately our organic grass does not look as great as the grass our neighbors meticulously care for.  So yesterday Dan rolled an aerator around the lawn and I spread some fertilizer and grass seed.  I watered a little and it rained some, so hopefully things will improve.

In the back yard I am much more interested in ornamental grasses and native grasses that are becoming more prominent this time of year, and will last through the winter.

The pink seed heads of Korean feather reed grass – calamagrostis brachytricha.  In the back are white boltonia flowers.

The zebra grass in the drought garden by the patio has its red seed heads this week.  The variegated, banded leaves are beautiful all summer, but the tall seed heads add something special in the fall.

A close up of the zebra grass show what looks like little yellow flowers, which I assume will become grass seed.

Miscanthus sinenesis ‘morning light’ at dawn.  I have two of these large grasses in the yard and this is where I often find praying mantis egg sacs hidden.

Cabbage moth rest on miscanthus ‘morning light.’  You can see that the stalks are just getting ready to produce the white seed heads. Damselflies like to rest on the leaves in the summer.

‘Little bunny’ dwarf fountain grass – pennisetum alopecuroides.  These grasses are very small, but I thought this one was cute in August.

In my mini-meadow I let turf grass go to seed.  The grasshoppers and crickets do well here.  I also planted two kinds of little bluestem grasses in this area, along with a giant sacaton grass.  In another area of the yard I have several varieties of panicum switch grass.  I like to try out these native grasses and cultivars of native grasses.  Some of these grasses act as fillers while I wait for shrubs to grow up.  Then I remove the grasses as the shrub border takes over.

In the same theme, the butterfly weed seed is getting ready to take flight.  I still have not seen any monarch caterpillars or butterflies this year.

I wondered what would happen to my four black swallowtail caterpillars in the parsley.  They all seem to be gone now.  One evening this week I saw one of the caterpillars taking a long crawl across the patio, where it disappeared behind a brick near some ground cover.  I guess it had a plan…

Prime Time for Predators and Prey

Part of the fun of encouraging biodiversity is seeing all the little critters this time of year.  I try to have something blooming from March through November, if possible, and that gives opportunities for many species to survive.

The sedum is even busier this weekend.  This praying mantis has been sitting on the sedum all weekend.  It did not actually snatch anything while I was watching.  The painted lady butterfly was on the sedum all weekend, too.

Side view of painted lady butterfly on sedum.

Also on the sedum were this little skipper butterfly and many kinds of bees and flies.  I can see why the praying mantis hangs out here.  There was also a little yellow sulphur butterfly, I am not exactly sure which kind of sulphur it was.  I can’t show pictures all the species that were on the sedum!

Praying mantis blends in on miscanthus “morning light” ornamental grass.  This one has a reddish brown color and looks a bit like a leaf or twig.

Last week I was cleaning up some leaves and scared out this brown paying mantis that has been hanging in the hostas and yew plants, where there are a lot of crickets and spiders.

I have seen clear-winged moths flying around the yard this week, so I decided to look for tomato hornworms.  I found one right away on the tomato plant, but the predator wasps had found it first and laid their eggs in it.  You can see the white babies hatching out of the hornworm and using it as nutrition to get their start in life.  It’s a wild world….

Last week I mentioned that I found a black swallowtail caterpillar and moved it to this bunch of parsley.

What a surprise later in the week to find I had not one but four black swallowtail caterpillars chewing on my parsley.  Can you see three in this picture?  I have a little less parsley to eat, but hope some of them make it to the butterfly stage.

These spiders make the really big webs all over the garden.  This week I found her in the vegetable garden with a web across the path between two huge kale plants.

It was beautiful weather on Saturday, so Dan and I bought some half-inch pvc pipe and put up hoops so we are ready to cover plastic over this part of the garden when the frosts come.  While we were getting started Dan saw the end of a snake slip into the kale behind us.  I have not seen the snake this year, but am glad it is there, even though I really don’t like to meet up with it!  I also have seen several little toads around the yard, so I know the visiting cats have not eliminated all the biodiversity.

Cooking:  Dan just cooked a delicious kale and potato soup to last us though the busy days of the week.

Sweet Autumn Clematis, Sedum, and More

It was  96 degrees on Tuesday and will only be 65 degrees today in the Chicago area.  It has been so dry, but today we have a light drizzle.  We could really use a soaking rain!

The sweet autumn clematis has been blooming on top of my laundry pole.  It is always difficult to get a good picture of these flowers, since they are up on a pole.  I had to climb on a wooden stool to get this picture.

I enjoy looking at the clematis from the kitchen window.  You can see how brown the lawn has become after so many dry, hot days.

I think this is an eastern carpenter bee on the sedum, which is getting very pink now.  There are so many different bees and flies visiting these flowers.  One day I saw a red admiral butterfly visiting, but did not get a picture.

This week I ate breakfast in the garden before work several days.  Then I would have to take a few pictures before brushing my teeth and getting in the car.

I enjoyed the sunrise while eating breakfast in the garden.

Rainbow Swiss Chard.  On the right the two little blue flowers are wonder of staffa asters.  Last year they were so prolific and this year they finally put out two tiny flowers.  As the days get shorter I have less time before and after work to take pictures in daylight.

Grasshopper on rhubarb leaves.  I love taking pictures of grasshoppers!

A few nasturtiums are stretching out around the garden.  The nasturtium seeds I planted two weeks ago sprouted some little leaves.  I wonder if they will grow enough to bloom before the frost.

Bird and moth story:  We went with some friends to the Morton Arboretum on Friday evening.  As sunset approached we were near the hedge garden where they had tall annuals between the trimmed hedges.  There were many clear-winged moths sipping nectar at the flowers as well as at least one hummingbird.  (No camera with me, though our friend took pictures.)  Our friends’ little girls were playing hide and seek in the hedges and it was a delightfully peaceful evening.

September Snapshots

Things are drying up in the garden, but if you wander around there are some interesting things happening.

Pink phlox.  These planted themselves in my yard a few years ago.

The pink turtlehead flowers continue to bloom.  Below, the yellow mums are getting ready to re-bloom and in the back are yellow nasturtium.  Yesterday morning I walked out with my camera and saw a hummingbird working over the turtlehead flowers.  My camera cannot capture the hummingbird, but I spent about 5 minutes watching this cute little green bird flying from plant to plant.  Finally it landed on big kale leaves where is took a bird bath in the dew-laden leaves.   Very cute!

Yucca plant in the agave family.  After the beautiful white flowers on this plant earlier this summer I just let the stalks go brown.  Finally the seed pods pop open and you can see the seeds inside.  Last year the woodpeckers pecked away at this plant seeking the grubs that sometimes live in this plant.

Speaking of seeds, I noticed these pumpkin seeds in an area of the vegetable garden.  Was it a squirrel?  Seeds are a good treat for the wildlife this time of year.

I have been eating a juicy strawberry every day or two.  The best ones are in this container on the patio these days.

This is the first time I have grown brussel sprouts.  The plant is getting pretty tall.  I hope the brussel sprouts don’t get eaten by the grubs from the cabbage moths.  They look pretty good so far.  We have a ton of collards and kale in the yard now…

This volunteer wax bean plant has been doing well as I have been watering some new seeds.  The lettuce plants, kale, and turnips are doing well.

I finally saw my first black swallowtail caterpillar, only because this parsley plant is dying and there is no food for it.  I moved the caterpillar over to my other parsley plant, the host food for these caterpillars.

I came back ten minutes later and could not find the caterpillar.  It is good at disguising itself!

Cooking discovery:  I have never really eaten pesto.  However, I am trying to find ways to use up some of my kale, and found this easy kale pesto recipe.

http://weelicious.com/2013/01/07/kale-pesto-the-easiest-kale-recipe/

After I started making it in the blender I realized it should have been in a food processor.  I eventually got a chunky blend.  Yesterday I mixed some of it with macaroni noodles.  Today I spread it on Wasa bread and then on toasted tortillas.  I love the lemony flavor!

Labor Day in the Garden

It was great to have the day off and to be able to get a few things done around the garden.  I actually got quite a bit of cleaning done this morning and some seeds planted.  What I really enjoy this time of year are the insects and wild life that is everywhere, from spiders to butterflies.  I tried to get a picture of a black swallowtail butterfly, but it was fluttering so quickly I could not get it in focus.  Here are a few little creatures I was able to get shots of….

At sunset a bee was resting for the night in a gaillardia flower.

Dragonfly, I think a widow skimmer, on penstemon digitalis – husker red seed head.

Grasshopper on green bean vines.

Three pollinators on Agastache.  The bee and the soldier beetle on the right are familiar.  A new one was the long orange looking bug on the left.  It turns our to be a Ailanthus webworm moth.  They are not native, but have migrated north for the summer, as they like the tree of heaven, which is an invasive tree that is common now in our neighborhood.

Now that it is September a few sedum flowers are turning pink and the soldier beetles are migrating over here and seem to be mating on the flower.  Bees and butterflies like these flowers, too.

Ant on fennel with pink zinnias.

Berries on viburnum arrowwood Chicago lustre.  This has been a good year for a lot of berries on the Chicago lustre and raspberry tart viburnum.

Today’s experiment:  On September 2nd I planted nasturtium and pea seeds that I harvested myself.  Are the seeds viable and will they germinate and sprout this late?  I also planted more lettuce, tatsoi, and onions, to keep it coming through the fall.

Late August Images

Other than some rain on Thursday, it has been very dry here.  Some plants die or dry up, some push out a few flowers, and others thrive when summer is hot.

Some of the morning glories are purple and some are pink.  The vines are crossing the Virginia creeper vines, which have produced the blue berries.  Once we get cooler weather the Virginia creeper turns bright red on the fence.

Coreopsis Moonbeam

I just have a few turtlehead flowers.  I think they like more water than I give them.

The russian sage is attracting a lot of pollinators these days.  This small brown moth or butterfly spent hours at this plant today, just flying from one flower to the next.  Unfortunately I was not able to identify it.  It was hard to get close enough for a good picture, but fun trying.

Soldier beetles on parsley.  There are many soldier beetles around the garden.  Here and on the thyme they do not seem to be pollinating anything, but they also seem to everywhere that the bees go for nectar.  From the little I read they are in the same family as fireflies, but do not produce light.  They are a predator of aphids, which I have seen quite a few of in the vicinity.

Today I noticed a couple more spears of broccoli have grown.  It’s not a big harvest, but a healthy one!

The winter garden I planted at the beginning of August is coming along well.  The beets are the one thing that I have not been able to grow.  I might plant some more pak choi, tatsoi, or lettuce if the weather cools down again soon.

We have a so many crab apples this year.  The birds don’t really start eating them until February or March, so the tree should be pretty this winter.

Bird sighting:  Yesterday we saw a yellow parrot or parakeet in our yard.  Did it escape?  The sparrows were chasing it.

Bees and Beans

No relation between bees and beans.  They just describe the action in the garden this week.

There are bees everywhere in the garden.  I wish I could identify all the different varieties, but I have not studied up on that yet.  They are sure busy on the flowers.

Bee on caryopteris bluebeard.  I noticed today that the caryopteris had started blooming.  The bees will soon be moving over here from the agastache.

A different type of bee on caryopteris bluebeard.  This plant was a volunteer that I moved to this location and it has done well here.

Bee sleeps on Agastache flower.  One morning I noticed that a lot of bees were sleeping under the agastache flowers.  It made it easy to take a picture.  This bee looks different from the two bees above.  This might be a great yellow bumblebee.

Pink bean flower from a volunteer green bean plant.

While picking pole beans I noticed this green stink bug.  It is the only one I have seen this year.

A bucket of green beans I picked Saturday morning.  I have been trying to pick beans every day so that I can get them when they are thin and tender.  Thursday and Friday I did not get out to the garden so by Saturday some of the beans had gotten a little bigger that I prefer to eat them.  Oh well, I picked them anyway and then cleaned and froze five meal-size bags to pull out and cook later.

Morning Glory.  I finally let a few morning glory vines grow on the fence this year.  I can’t resist.

Phlox are another volunteer plant that are blooming all over the garden now.

Neighborly visit:  I was wonder if my neighbors would ever notice my garden.  It makes sense that an immigrant was the first.  Yesterday an Arab grandmother rang our doorbell.  She had noticed the collards in the backyard and since it did not look like they were being eaten she wondered if she could have some.  Her English was poor, but she said something about a  “sick daughter,” “hospital,” and “no car.”  I was happy to lead her back in the garden and she started pulling off collard leaves as fast as she could to put in her plastic bag.  After a while I slowed her down and suggested that she visit again.  I gave her a couple of very ripe tomatoes and we discussed the plants as she tried to identify them.  We chatted as best we could for a bit and she gave me a big hug.  It was fun to share the garden with her.  And she was so appreciative.  Later she came back and brought a big plate of chocolates!

Into The Wild

This is not about Alaska.  If you go out almost anywhere these days you can find things are pretty wild in nature.  Dan and I went out to the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center in Palos Hills this morning.  We are fortunate to be so close to the forest preserve.

The Little Red Schoolhouse.  We used to go in here and look at live snakes and turtles, along with taxidermy animals.  Now they have built a modern center next door and this building seems to be closed.  We did see a live snake in the new center, but then headed out to explore on the trails.

A walk on the white oak trail led us by this spider working busily on his web.

We stopped at the pond to look for snakes and bull frogs.  We did not see any snakes but saw a dozen or more bull frogs either with just their eyes above water or sitting on lily pads.  If you look you can see three pairs of eyes sticking up in this picture.

We stopped to look at the little prairie meadow with tall grasses and flowers.  We noticed one blue flower blooming that I had seen blooming in my lettuce patch.  It seems to be some form of chicory.

Here it is growing in our garden.  Looking online radicchio is one form of chicory that is grown for lettuce.  It is pretty bitter so we don’t eat it, though maybe with some research we could find some way to eat it, as it looks really healthy.  Have you seen blue flowers like this growing as weeds near you this time of year?

We walked by a lake where we saw huge carp swimming around and a dark colored bird that looked like a loon, but was probably something else.  There were a lot of these pink flowers near the water.  They are called marsh mallows and I read that the roots were at one time used in making sweets.

Marsh mallow with tiny pollinator.

As we stood by the lake we noticed this little green frog at our feet.  Pretty coloring.

Back in our yard things are pretty wild on the fennel plant, which has started blooming.  A variety of wasps love the fennel, as do many other flying creatures and ants.

View from the Lawn Chair

You’ve got to appreciate summer while you have it!  My kids and I sat outside on the patio for a little this weekend and I spent time there eating, reading and napping.  Wonderful!

This is the view as I sit in my reclining, relaxing lawn chair.  The dominant tall flowers are Russian sage, heliopsis summer sun, and agastache – hyssop.  Last year we first started this garden to give us some privacy from the people who walk through the easement behind our yard.  The bees were so busy today, especially in the agastache.

Still on the patio and just to the left of the last picture is butterfly weed, zebra grass and more Russian sage.

To the right of the patio is the sidewalk to the garden that is now covered with white alyssum.  The weather has been dry recently and we could really use some rain.  The lawn is starting to look brown except for the patches that are covered by creeping charlie.  I have tried to fight creeping charlie each year, but it is a losing battle.  That is one reason we keep on digging up more of the lawn to plant new things….

Heirloom pepper – Jimmy Nardello.  This is a very sweet pepper that is good for a snack right off the plant.  There is always something to harvest in the garden these days.

On Friday I made a roasted ratatouille to use up more tomatoes and other vegetables, like zucchini, eggplant, pepper, and onion.

Cooking adventure:  I make kale chips on Saturday.  The kids did not go for them, so I ate them up.

These are a few of my favorite things:

• Searching for pole beans
• Finding a few ripe strawberries in August
• Watching bees go crazy on the agastache
• Taking pictures after the heat of the day and before the bugs get bothersome.
• Butterflies and dragonflies
• Watching birds in the bird bath.
• Looking at seeds that have just sprouted