Rosie's Garden.

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 one appears to be a Monarch 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.

Here are some of the plants I got from Plant Delights Nursery. Shamrocks. Specifically, Oxalis regnellii Francis, Oxalis regnellii Triangularis, Oxalis regnellii Silverado. And Amorphophallus dunnii.

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.

This is Cimicifuga racemosa from Plant Delights.

And this little fern is Thelypteris kunthii also from Plant Delights.

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.

This is my happy leopard plant.

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 planted my Amorphophallus interruptus and my Amorphophallus ochroleucus, both from Plant Delights, in pots on the deck. These will be coming inside this winter.

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.

This is a bamboo, Bambusa multiplex 'Riviereorum,' from Plant Delights, which I planted next to the fence between me and You-Know-Who.

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.

Youngest Hawthorne was most happy to find a glass lizard.

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.

The butterflies are everywhere in my garden. This is a black swallowtail.

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.