This is blooming all along our roads right now.  Not in Five Forks, but in Murphy, in Blairsville, and on the roads in between.  

 

It is Asclepias tuberosa, or Butterfly weed.  It is a member of the Milkweed family, and its brilliant orange flower clusters attract Monarch butterflies.  They use it for a host plant for their caterpillars.  The butterfly lays her eggs on the underside of the leaves, and when the caterpillars hatch, they feed on the leaves.  Monarchs love all kinds of milkweed.  

 

I have some growing in my wild garden, but for some unknown reason it didn't bloom this year.  

 

Oh well, I get to see it when we go for a drive.  I love its bright color.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

On Tuesday as we were walking up Stonebriar, we stopped to pick a few blackberries.  Jon picked a handful, then moved his foot a little to the left and we heard a bleat.  We turned to see a baby deer standing up in the ditch, not 20 feet away.  We had just walked right past her.  

 

Momma was way up the hill, but definitely within earshot.  She started stomping and huffing, and running around crazy.  We moved on to give her some peace, thinking she might come hustle the baby off to a safer spot.  

 

We got to the top of the road and turned around heading home, and the baby was settled back down in the same ditch.  I tried to take a video, but she was so well camouflaged that I took a video of some rocks just beside the fawn.  I did get this picture though, when I realized she was settled back down.  

 

Be sure to slow down and be on the lookout.  It is fawning season in Five Forks.

 

HAPPY JULY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure exactly what my aim was for this picture, but you can see lots of cool things.

 

Start down left with the red cabbage with her silver leaves, go left from there and you can see butternut squashes growing up the north side of the tomato cages.  Look up for delightful sunflowers.  Just beyond the cabbage is a good stand of kale:  this one grows purple leaves!!!  That tangle in the pathway is Salad Burnet.  Obviously it planted itself there, because I would have put it on the hill, not in the walk space.  It is too nice to remove.  We just step over it.

 

All the way at the end is our cucumber trellis.  The cucumbers grow vertically, not because I need more garden space, but because we grow Asian long cucumbers, and they do best when they hang down.  Otherwise they curl and are really hard to peel.  

 

Last in this picture, just across from the red cabbage you can see some tall marigolds.  They stand about 3-4 feet tall.  I got seeds from Rosalie's garden a couple years ago, and love how cheerful they are in the garden.  So I make sure I plant some in between other stuff.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

Nice afternoon's work:  6 jars of dilly beans.  

 

It took about 2 pounds of beans, some vinegar, salt, garlic and dill.  All of which we had plenty.  

 

Now we have dilly beans to look forward to.  :)

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I went out to look for some pictures of my garden to show you, and I saw a bit of chewage on the Lovage.  Then I saw these little ones.  

 

Not so little, actually;  they are about the size of my pinky finger.  And munching away!!!  

 

These are caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail butterfly.  They choose members of the parsley family for their host plants.  The butterflies lay eggs, and when the eggs hatch they feed on the plant on which they are planted.  :)

 

I never mind finding them on my plants, because I know they will be beautiful butterflies in the end.

 

Besides, I have enough to share.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

Photo from the Farmers Almanac 

 

Happy Fourth of July.  Here's a link to the Farmers Almanac for a bit of history.  Always interesting.

 

 

HAPPY EVERY DAY!!!

 

This is what they look like.  Not all of them are this color.  Some are more red, some have only a single blossom.  

 

But we have lots of sunflowers to make the birds and us happy.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Wow!!!  This isn't the best picture of the sunflowers, but it shows you how tall they are.  The tomato cages are 5 feet high, and you can see the sunflowers are WAY higher.  Some of them are 12 feet tall.  And the gold finches LOVE them.  We can see them flitting about in them all day long.  :)

 

We had a pretty good wind storm a couple weeks ago, so we got some stout stakes for the sunflowers, because they really sway in all that wind.  We got (30) 10 foot stakes, and tied up most of the sunflowers.  They are sprinkled all over the garden.  Most of them planted themselves from last year's seeds.  And then, of course, I had to go along the rows and add more!!  

 

I think we will leave the stakes in the ground, and just plant seeds next year next to the poles.  Hauling a ladder through the garden is a bit much.  

 

Maybe I'll send you a picture of the winter garden, with poles awaiting sunflowers.  For now, we are really enjoying the sunflowers.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The Rattlesnake beans are coming along well.  In the past, when I went out to pick beans for the first time of the season, I'd get about 3 or 4.  Happy, but it took a few days to get enough to cook for supper.  Well, this year when we went out to pick for the first time, we got about 60.  I didn't actually count them, but a gallon ziplock bag is about 1/2 full.  That's a lot of beans.  Enough for supper:  twice!!

 

The Rattlesnake beans are so cool;  they are green with purple stripes.  They are easy to see because of the purple.  How many times have we missed green beans because we just didn't see them?  AND they grow up a trellis.

 

I have a friend who only plants bush beans;  we plant pole beans because we don't have to bend over to pick them.  Hey, being older may be harder, but there is wisdom involved.  I'm running with that!!!

 

If you'd like, I will post my simple recipe for cooking green beans.  Look in the recipe section.  We love green beans, and don't mind eating them every day when we can pick our own.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The Sourwood all over the neighborhood is blooming now.  This one is on the corner when you turn onto Stonebriar from Five Forks Drive, just below Mark and Renee's.  It is so pretty!!!

 

Of course, you know when you are in the presence of Sourwood:  you can smell it before you see it.  When we smell it, we look up, and there is usually a Sourwood right there.  

 

Next time you are out for a walk, notice the sweet smell in the air, and look up.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!