Choice Morsels

Today I've got a great shot of a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly on one of my red Zinnia's! You know it's fall when you see them flitting about the flowers in their seasonal orange & black colors!   Also worked on planting my winter Garden in one 4 x 8 raised bed yesterday:  12 broccoli plants, 1 tomato plant, 1 row of purple bush beans, 1 row of Spinach & 1 row of miniature red romaine. I also plan on planting radishes, garlic and another row of spinach in that bed. I looked up what various garden plants like to grow together with on Pinterest, which is called "Companion Planting." I found out tomato plants hate being next to broccoli plants, but love beans and broccoli plants hate being near tomatoes, but love growing with spinach. Lettuce and radishes are neutral; they can grow next to anything.  So I'm putting rows of spinach seed between rows of broccoli and I put the row of beans next to the tomato. Hopefully, everyone will be happy!

Two photos today of some of the Vinca flowers in my garden! Vinca are a common annual flower that comes in white and a range of pink from very dark to very like. They also self-seed readily, so once you have them, you generally can just transplant the seedlings wherever you want flowers when the come up in late spring. Here in the Deep South, Vinca can winter over, though it depends on location whether they are in shelter, sunny area or not. They are susceptible to freezing otherwise.  I have come from random seedlings that popped up in various places in my flower beds and I just transplant them here and there.   Most of my Vinca blooms have a style like this photo below: they usually have a "pink eye" at their center. Though, occasionally, I'll see all white without a pink center, but the pink center is the most common. However, one of the seedlings I transplanted to my front bed this year looks like this: Dark pink with a extended white center!   I've never seen on

I have two Garden pics today: my white & pink Pampas Grass just blooming!  August is they're bloom season! Also, the set of 5 fancy hybrid Daylilies I ordered in June from Springhill Nursery came in the mail yesterday, so I've spent time both yesterday & today planting the fresh roots. It was a special offer buy now, pay after delivery; 5 different daylilies for $30, which is good since usually buying a single hybrid daylily thru Spring

Today's photos & garden task was tying up the Blackberries. I have 2 rows of thornless blackberry plants, which have more or less an "upright habit," though by sheer weight they tend to flop over and get in the way of mowing. So, I tie them up with torn strips of old sheet to keep them generally upright and out of the way. Tying them also helps protect them from being broken by wind or by me bumping into them. They reproduce by root, popping up new shoots out to one side or another, generally more or less in line with the parent plants. Here's a "Before" Shot of Some Blackberry Canes Near the Rain Garden: It is actually 2 plants.  This is the "After" Shot of That Same Pair of Blackberries Now Tied Up There are actually two tall metal pole-stakes in amongst all that tall greenery.  The canes on the ground sprouted lots of new upright growth, which appears now to be sticking out every which way since I tied up the central canes, but, trust me, on