It's been a while since I've taken
a photographic walk through the garden
so here goes.
Please enjoy.
I'm glad I have plenty of parsley
all over the place,
because these little buggers
are going through entire parsley plants
like wildfire.

I learned from Animal Planet that the caterpillar has earned the title of top glutton in the animal kingdom. Strictly herbivores, caterpillars eat leaves voraciously, often consuming 1000 times their weight in only two months. Their reputation for being an "eating machine" is based on their biology. Their bodies are basically bags of blood with a huge gut running down the middle. The constant flow of food through their system helps them get through their first life cycle as quickly as possible so they can become butterflies.

I'm thinking this is some type of swallowtail caterpillar.

This is in the backyard,
west side of the house.

This is my ruellia.
I started with one small clump
and I've divided it numerous times over the years,
moving it to different places in the yard.
It's a perennial, dying back in winter,
but coming back in the spring.
I like the little purple petunia-like flowers.

Dear Maxine gave me this little rose bush years ago
and it has thrived.
It's next to the ruellia and I like the
red and purple contrast.

Red peppers from my garden.

This is
Colocasia Black Runner,
a black elephant ear from Plant Delights.
This is in my front yard garden bed
with some other green elephant ears.

I planted the cimicifuga and the fern
in the backyard under my willows.
It joins this little plant which I've forgotten the name of
so if anyone can identify it for me, please do.

This is
Fatsia Japonica.

The fatsia apparently likes it here
since I've got all these baby fatsias popping up,
which I'll need to transplant somewhere.

Here's another little fern
but I forget its name.

I think my Thelypteris kunthii
is liking its new home.

The Hawthorne children used to climb up
the willow trees when they were little.
We had a ladder leaning against one of the trees
and the tree kind of wrapped itself around the post.

This is the bed underneath the willows.
I have a bunch of hostas in there,
but they're not looking too spiffy right now.
Neither am I, by the way.
If you look at my shadow,
it appears I'm wearing a dress or skirt.
But NAY!
I had on shorts and no matter
what's going on with the rest of my body,
I always have skinny legs.
I don't know why I don't have legs here.
Crazy angle of the sun.
I had called Mr. Hawthorne over,
to please, please, look at some pictures,
and he went through these for me.
We got to this one
and he said,
"Look how big your ass is."
Ladies,
I restrained.

More elephant ears on the west side,
along with cosmos and zinnas.

Belles of Ireland.

Cosmos.

I always try to have herbs on the deck
as well as in the garden.
From left to right,
basil, dill, and cilantro.

Basil.

Dill.

Cilantro.

And this is the Bambusa multiplex 'Riviereorum'
I ordered online last year from Plant Delights.
As you can see, it likes it here.

Lantana.

This is
passion flower vine
which grows on the fence.
It puts out underground runners or something
so it comes up everywhere in the yard.

When the foliage dies back in cold weather,
I just pull it all up.
New shoots come up everywhere
in the spring.

Roses.

Pretty red zinnia.

Yellow marigolds.

Gerbera daisy.

I forget what this is.
It may be angelonia.

And I forget this too.

Close up of ruellia.

One of my favorite flowers is my
Lord Baltimore Hibiscus.
The blossoms are about 10 inches across.
And that's Russian sage next to it with
the light blue flowers.

Belles of Ireland.

Cosmos.

Geese.

Cosmos.

This is in the backyard,
on the west side.
Those are peppers still producing down there -
bells, jalapenoes, Anaheims.
The darker beds were just planted.
Front right is sugar snap peas.
Back right is beets.
Back left is arugula.

Back horizontal bed is the arugula.
The two vertical beds are spinach.
And I still have basil growing.

White radishes in the back bed.

Ahhhh.
Live and learn.
For the past 4-5 years every spring,
I've planted a Mandevilla vine
at the base of my steps going up
the side of my house.
And I intermingle the Mandevilla
with moon flowers.
And this year with Hyacinth Bean Vine.
Very pretty.

Mandevilla is tropical
so I would buy a new one every year
and dig up and throw away the clump of roots
that was last year's Mandevilla.

This past spring,
I didn't get around to buying a replacement Mandevilla.
Lo and behold,
at late spring
the Mandevilla was coming back to life.
It's climbing up my railing
and blooming now.
I'm excited about this
since I never thought a Mandevilla could last
through the winter here.

Mandevilla blooms.

This is the blossom of the hyacinth bean vine.
It's a purple-stemmed,
purple-leafed vine
with purple flowers
which turn into purple seed pods.
And the blossoms smell like hyacinths.

I've grown it several times in my garden.
I always harvested the seeds to sow the next season.
Somehow I misplaced/lost/rotted/whoknowswhat?
the last harvest.
Wanna guess where I got these seeds from?
They are from the pilfered pods
of the hyacinth bean vines
growing at Monticello.
Please go
HERE
to see my post of our visit to Thomas Jefferson's
beautiful home last year.

My hyacinth bean vine,
from seed pods I pocketed at Monticello.
I think they frown on that sort of thing
so please don't tell anyone.

It seems that the caterpillars
finished off the parsley and moved on to my fennel.

If any lepidopterists out there can identify
these little critters, please do.

I like this bit of whimsy.
My clay urn is spewing fulgurite.
Fulgurite is what happens when lightning
strikes quartz sand on the beach,
melts it, and fuses it together.
Sometimes just by itself.
Sometimes with shells in them.
Sometimes with bombs in them.
Mr. Hawthorne had one like that.
It was taken away from us
when the authorities found out about it.

Here's little froggie,
a gift from Daughter Hawthorne,
in his clay pot house.

These are spider plants planted on the north side
of the house. They come back every spring.
I never would have believed it.

This is a different one.

Painted lady butterfly.

Monarch butterfly.
Not to be confused with the Viceroy butterfly
which looks almost identical
except for a horizontal black line on
the lower part of the wings.
Monarch butterflies
feed on toxin-rich milkweeds
and predators do not like the taste of the Monarch.
The Viceroy butterfly has evolved to
look similar to the poisonous Monarch so
predators will avoid him too.


We've had a lot of wet weather lately
and I've had the biggest mushrooms ever pop up.

More of my roses.

More asparagus coming up from where
I cut the foliage down last week.

I finally got around to planting the
Oxalis from Plant Delights nursery.

Back in April,
I bought a cherimoya since I'd never eaten one.
I posted about it
here.
I saved the seeds to plant this summer,
then forgot where I put them.
Luckily, I'd given some to Xmaskatie
and she brought me this little cherimoya plant
which I finally got into the ground.

This is part of the garden on the south side.
My herb garden is in front.
I have rosemary, marjoram, different thymes,
oreganos, sage, and fennel.
The front bed covered in the brown peat moss
was replanted today with a mesclun mix
since an un-named dog ran through it
and tore up all the seedlings.
The vertical bed on the far right has turnips.
The other vertical bed on the right
has romaine just germinating.
The three horizontal beds in the middle have
from front to back,
turnip greens, collards, and Swiss chard.
The vertical bed on the left has
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
and Melody Hybrid Spinach.

The horizontal bed in front has mustard greens and kale.
Still producing tomatoes are in the middle
and radishes coming up in the back.

More heirloom tomatoes on our deck.
Sistah dear - those pics were beautiful. I loved the walk through your yard - and the info on the eating ability of caterpillars.
ReplyDeleteRosie...your garden is simply beautiful. I have been thinking of planting some Elephant Ears in my yard in SNH. Seeing how good yours look, I am going to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sistah deah.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you too, Anony #2.
If you ever need any gardening help,
please ask. I might be able to help since I've been gardening in sand for the past 23 years.
I think Anony meant to post his here:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
They're black swallowtail caterpillars -- ate several rounds of my fennel and parsley this year and last!
October 14, 2009 8:59 PM
Anony, you left it on this post:
"Pom Wonderful Is Wonderful.":