Continuing Bloom, August 23, 2014

Wildflower Wednesday, August 27, 2014, hosted by Gail, join other bloggers to see their wild and native flowers!  For my wildflowers scroll down to the middle portion of this post.

In addition, I am linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman and Mystical Magical Teacher

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

A new flower blooming in my garden is the pink Persicaria (Polygonum) capitata, that I grew from seed.   I hope it will live through the winter.   The flower looks like an annual weed in my garden except the weed's flower is long instead of round.

Annual Persicaria weed-

Rozanne hardy geranium is amazing, growing into a very big plant and covered with blooms all summer, here with long-blooming ground cover rose Baby Blanket-

Wildflower Wednesday part of this post here-  As for wildflowers, a couple of native plants are blooming now, Monarda citriodora, which I grew from seed, and hope it will return next year, it seems to be listed as not very long-lived-

Another Wildflower-  Pearly Everlasting, which comes up by itself here, the flowers have a papery texture-

Surprise blooms on a new Vernonia fasciculata grown from seed and planted in 2013, and blooming for the first time, I hope it will do well.  It is with some post-bloom Liatris, and Yarrow-

Another surprise wildflower was this volunteer from out of the blue, now 7 feet tall, I guess an Oenothera, Evening Primrose-

I did find one of the adult Thistle Tortoise beetles on the same thistle plant the larvae were on last week.  These beetles are a biological control for the pesky thistles, isn't it cute?

One of my favorite butterflies, not for beauty but for friendliness, is a small Skipper, which has wings that remind me of jet fighter airplanes.   This one insisted on landing on my shoe, and peered at me over its antennae, kind of like over glasses, don't you love those big eyes-

And being something of a decorator in ambition, on my peach Dahlia, looking like a near match for color-

My peppermints are now blooming, they make great tea but also have a lot of appeal to the honeybees.   I usually have trouble with the plants flopping, but accidentally remedied this situation by putting an extra roll of welded wire fencing on the bed on its side to get it out of the way, the mint grew up through it, and Voila! no more flopping-

The problem with mint is that Crab spiders who prey on bees have been heavily infesting it with tiny baby spiders, but they have a gift for finding and climbing up on whatever flowers are in bloom.  The adults can kill bees, which for me makes them the bad guys, bees have enough problems, and are my friends.  Here on an Anemone japonica flower, predator and prey-

For a cheerier topic, one of my favorite vegetables, always on the grow list for its delightful buttery taste and texture, Crookneck squash.  Does it remind you of a mother penguin and her chick, aww-

This week I got my new cool season vegetable bed planted, last year it was lawn but we killed the grass (at the point the grass is laughing evilly, as its many stolons start to grow) with piles of leaves over winter and grass clippings this spring-

This week I had to clear the beds and mattock them to remove remaining grass roots and dig the rows, which I sprinkled with rough scratchy lava rock to hopefully repel moles and voles-

I planted seeds for cool crops- 4 kinds of Broccoli Raab, my favorite Round Black Spanish radishes, and mixed fall radishes, all from Gourmet Seeds, plus Collards and Giant Red Mustard.  I am actually a month past my cool season vegetable planting deadlines for getting the plants big enough to withstand frost, but can use some of my tunnels to keep them warm later.  Have you planted any vegetable crops for fall?

Another part of the quilt from the local fair for a dash of blue-

Summer is still hot and dry here, I'm trying to do a better job with watering, how is summer treating you?    -Hannah

                                                                  or cameras are macro

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