Choice Morsels

 Actually getting this written on Wednesday this week! Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar on Parsley: It's not been a good year for butterfly caterpillars over-all. I've seen numerous eggs and tiny infant caterpillars, only to find them completely gone. I think wasps or spiders or something pick them them. But I managed to save this one---I covered the container with fine netting to keep away insect predators.  He or she is full size now, so I removed the netting today. Soon he'll wish to depart to cocoon and I didn't want the net to interfere. I love the striped and spotted pattern. A Flower Mix Out Front: I thought the Purple Shamrock leaves mingled with the Dusty Miller, plus a Shamrock flower and the orange buds from the Hen & Chicks was really pretty.  The Dusty Miller and Shamrocks surround a strawberry terra cotta pot of Hen & Chicks.

  The Garden Pic today is my Mexican Milkweed.  Monarch's have tried leaving eggs several times, but something snatched all the baby caterpillars away--probably wasps or Assassin bugs. (Though Assassin bugs are beneficial garden insects, they catch and eat anything.) It also attracts aphids. A couple stems have them, though a heavy rain washes them off easily. But with aphids come Lady Bugs that love to dine on them! So I now I see Lady Bugs a bit more often in my garden. Milkweed also attracts Spicebush Swallowtails. I saw one of these today! I was very excited. They are common throughout the Southeastern U.S. They like Zinnias, too. They are black and blue, though the female is the bluest blue on the lower wings. So it was a female I saw. This is my young fall Garden: Just mulched it with newspaper and grass clippings this week.  4 Broccoli plants down the middle; Cabbage on either side, 3 each side.   In the naked dirt are 3 half rows of seeds: Pad Choi, Sp...

The Garden Pic for today is a nice shot of sunset lit Chocolate Elephant Ears. I've had them for years and when the ones planted in the ground seemed to be dwindling, I rescued as many roots as I could and moved them to this pot where they've been doing well ever since.     Today, I also planted Broccoli & Cabbage plants in one of my raised garden beds for my winter garden.  I didn't do so well with my spring garden---my seeds were old and I wasn't properly prepared. The only thing that grew well was the pickle cucumbers that I dined on all summer and the self-seeded basil in the other raised bed, which is now a huge clump. So I'm going to try and do more for winter. I still have French lettuce & a spinach seed I plan on planting plus I still have two Bell Pepper plants that didn't really produce anything in the heat, but will probably make a ton as weather cools. Plus, I'm going to prepare better for next spring by picking out and ordering my seeds ...

Two Garden Pics today: First, my one Gardenia bush is blooming again! It seems to be a variety that blooms heavily in spring, then again less heavily during fall and winter. It's flowers are not as large as the other I have that strictly blooms just once a year, but I have  to give it kudos for enthusiasm! Next, New Garden Art: I kept back a few mugs from my purge in July for charity give-away that I thought would be nice additions to my garden. This one is a very large Cracker Barrel mug that I put in the front bed by the mailbox. I planted Chinese Stonecrop in it and planted sprigs of Golden Creeping Jenny nearby. Both are ground covers that like sun and both winter over. I like the red lava rocks and add them here and there as accents. In the shady spots, being porous, they become homes for moss.

The Garden Pic for today is my Pink Pampas Grass, which is just coming into bloom! On Answered Prayers this Past Week: #1)  If you recall in a previous post I told the tale of hiring a gutter company to redo my guttering and the sign I prayed for to choose the right one. The one I chose was busy, as they all are and wouldn't get to my project until at least July.  However July came and went. It was August---getting close to a more active period for tropical systems. My prayer about the gutters was, "that they'd be installed and finished before any heavy tropical rain started." I reached out to them about a week ago on when I might be getting on their work calendar? Eric, who I learned is the owner of AGS, called back that they'd come Thurs last week. By this point I knew Tropical Storm Fred was headed our general direction, though far away. They got the gutters completely done by Friday and by the following Monday Tropical Storm Fred arrived on the Panhandle---12...

This week's Garden Pic is a nice close-up shot of a Dusty Miller flower head: Dusty Miller is a common landscape plant around here in Northwest Florida. It's got a nice blue green color and winters over. I had a friend who expressed astonishment seeing this Dusty Miller bloom. She didn't realize they flowered!  

Today's Garden Pic is a shot of one of my Hardy Hibiscus blossoms: This was from the first bloom season in June; it's coming on with a fresh set of blooms right now for fall. I did save a couple of seed pods for next year.