Sleepy Bees

In late summer the number of pollinators in my garden grows exponentially. As we start to get cool mornings I often find bees tucked under leaves and flowers, sleeping until it's warm enough to be active.

Disturbingly I have a song about it. It's to the tune of Daydream Believer by the Monkees.

Wake up sleepy bee

It's that time of day

To-o pollinate flowers and gather nectar.

Of course I only "wrote" the chorus [aren't you glad?]

Oh and this skipper (butterfly) was asleep, too. They move so fast when they're awake that I seldom get photos of them.

Favorite Plant of the Week - Pycnathium muticum

My favorite plant in the garden during late summer is Pycnathium muticum, a type of mountain mint.

This plant is actually, really and truly native to my area (and most of the states east of the Mississippi, except Florida). I see lots of plants for sale locally that are called natives but really didn't used to occur here until the nursery trade brought them in on the wave of let's-plant-natives craze. That's why I like the PLANTS database. It's a good place to double check those sorts of things if they're important to you.

Pycnathium muticum gets to be about 3 foot tall and as wide as you will let it. You can control it by pulling, the new runners don't have deep roots, but it is quite an aggressive spreader. Perfect for that Hell Strip.

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder database this variety of Mt. Mint tolerates full sun to part shade and medium water.

I don't water mine, ever, and it's in relatively poor soil. I would suggest that natural rainfall is sufficient in areas except the extremely dry ones.

The flowers are pale and small and the bracts are a paler green than the foliage so not showy flowers. Not fragrant blooms, either. I'd like to see them in a photo that shows the ultraviolet range because the bees and wasps and occasional beetle pollinator have no problems finding the blooms so there must be something I can't detect that's attracting them.

This plant is Hymenoptera Heroin (Hymenoptera is the scientific name for the order that includes bees, wasps and ants).

Amazingly neither The Husband nor myself has been stung while admiring or working around this plant (knock wood) despite the fact that for over a month is it practically crawling with bees and wasps.

And that's why I love it and why it's my favorite plant of the season.

thanks to Danger Garden for this meme

Just Because

After four days of much needed rain the sun came out this morning.  The windows are open.  I'm between semesters and it seemed like a great day to be out in the garden.

When the weather allows I drink my first cup of coffee while wandering the garden.  This morning as I was looking for spaces to put some irises I spooked up a rabbit.  It was hiding in this area, under the spirea and liatris.  I would never have spotted it if it hadn't moved.

[Why irises?  I just heard about a place called Rainbow Iris Farm that has some really unusual colors.  I don't usually like bearded iris but these beauties looks really funky and I'm willing to try them out.]

Then I went out to weed.  I like weeding.  It's relaxing.  See plant.  Identify plant.  Weed or don't.  Here's a dragonfly that was sheltering in my Mexican Feather grass - probably still cold from the four days of 60 something weather.

I was also deadheading.  I like to deadhead.  See plant. Decide if I like the looks of the seedheads or if I want more of that plant.  Deadhead, or don't.

I'm leaving the seedheads on my Penstemon digitalis Mystica because I like the look of them.

These seedheads are staying because I want more of this plant.  Can you recognize it?  That's right.  It's parsley.  I'll get more if the Goldfinches leave me any seeds!

I was going to deadhead these snapdragons but I looked closer and saw...  caterpillars?  Red caterpillars?  I'm working on identifying these guys but I don't know what they are, yet.  The snapdragons they are feeding on bloomed with a dark, velvety red so the color may be deceptive.  

Deadheading requires a slow and steady hand when working in my garden.  I have a bountiful bee collection.

And butterflies!  I'm slowly building up this population. At least two American Ladies were flitting around the butterfly bush and I saw (but didn't photograph) cabbage white butterflies and one rough looking Monarch.  I bet there will be more once the day really heats up!

And none of these shows the sounds of the birds flitting around the garden (including a very fussy fledgling Robin being fed by busy parents) or the sight of a garter snake slipping into the bushes as I turn the corner.  Or the neighbor stopping to admire the gardens and comment on how much work I must put into them.

Work?  This is PLAY.  I'd rather be doing this than work any day!

Pest Control

If you've read my blog you probably realize that I'm anti-pesticide (please hold the sarcasm) but today I'm calling a pest control company.  Why?  We'll get to that.  First here some reasons why not.

Very rough looking American Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) on my Centaura Amethyst in snow.

Bee, NOID

Bee, NOID

Ants - look close

Damselfly on Basil

This year we finally started seeing grasshoppers in the yard

More bee, NOID

Dragonfly

I consider my garden a shared space.  I share the space with the local wildlife.  I exert control only over the plants and I try to make plant choices that are beneficial to my own personal ecosystem.  That means that I tolerate a great deal of insect "damage" on plants.

Like this spittlebug on Parsley (2nd year plant, you can see flower buds)

And the damage to this violet.

Unfortunately it also means that I will not be planting any more lilies (this damage is done by the Red Lilly Beetle, a non-native species that I apparently have in large numbers).  I could treat these plants yearly for the RLB but there would be collateral damage to some of the insects I want and up the food chain to the local birds.  I don't want lilies bad enough to justify poisoning My Own Personal Ecosystem.

Then there are the species that do even more damage.  Like this cute little rabbit (photographed through the window).  Fortunately the rabbits have not done a lot of damage in any one place.  She seems to nibble here, move on, nibble there.  My plants can handle that type of damage.

Then there are the deer.  Fortunately we don't have a lot of deer in our area.  They are one reason I encourage rampant growth of "wild" violets.  I've found deer will graze violets before most other garden plants and the violets will come back.

On the negative side the deer also found my garden peas.  I'll plant them inside the back yard fence next year where the deer fear to tread.

Why do the deer fear to tread into the backyard?  These garden pests.

Piper is a digger so backyard plants have to be pretty hardy - I protect the shrubs for one to two years and then they are on their own and I plant "aggressive" perennials like Monarda that should be able to take dog damage.

Here's the real predator.  Jasper used to be a feral dog and he can and will catch most types of animals that stray into the backyard (he's caught and killed birds!).  Doesn't look like a garden pest does he?

Ok.  So now back to the big question.  Why am I calling a pest control company?  Because I found this in the garage.

That's evidence of wood destroying insect, probably termites.  Sorry, guys but I need to keep my house.  Insects that hurt me or mine are subject to eviction with prejudice.  (that list is limited to yellow jacket nests, wasp nests near the front door and termites and the first two are because The Husband is allergic)

So I have to swallow my convictions and call.  And try to convice the pest control company to minimize the collateral damage to My Own Personal Ecosystem.  I hope they don't scare off the local garter snake population.

Then I have to control my urge to rant when they try to sell me on monthly applications of pesticide (doesn't THAT sound like a good idea for both the local ecosystem and the health of my family).  

I will NOT smack the pest control guy.

I will NOT smack the pest control guy.

I will NOT smack the pest control guy.

Wish me luck.