sidney - don't be modest there Ms. Coleus! You know that's something I miss in the mix this year. Petunias. Several years now I've been getting the Orchid Madness - verrry fragrant, robust and also doesn't care about getting wet which fits my modus-operandi as a Hose-Monster! I believe in overhead watering!!
thats nice sierra! I've thought about it many times but haven't had the epiphany yet where to set one up. That and I won't buy rocks so it means some serious rockhounding trips to new subdivisions under construction. Snagged 9 new ones the other day. Did my ritual hose and scrub in the driveway and they sit there for awhile until I get to know them and they tell me where they're supposed to go. Sometimes one at a time and sometimes all at once.
edited to add - I think it was 2 years ago about this time when the lazy susans were swarmed with painted ladies. I saw my first one yesterday mingling with the swallowtails and monarchs.
This message was edited Aug 9, 2005 3:13 PM
finally sticking around for groceries
Wow, I'm loving the photography on this thread!!! Blaine, you're getting really good at taking pics, I love them ALL!
Keep them coming....Wow, they are greattttttttttttttttttttt
Hugs
(((((J))))
FYI RedMaggie (peggy) told me she'd be without a computer for a week, so she hasn't bailed on us.
Thanks Julie but did you see the great butterfly and mantis shots in there!!
btw BECKY.. I really wanted to single out your little guy on the hosta. That is such a neat shot. Got any more?
8ft I understand what you mean about waiting for your rocks to tell you how they should be located. We have so much rock here that my DH thinks I'm crazy when I see a rock with a particularly interesting feature and want to use it somewhere. I'm planting the rock piles now to try to make them look a little more naturally occuring.
I agree with Brug, the photography is inspiring. Does anyone have more photos to share? Oh, I just remembered this photo.... not exactly a butterfly or hummer and not the best composition but it's cute.
I Like that. Is that Queen Anne's Lace about to bloom? The plants have depth to them but at first it looked like the house was painted onto the fence until you notice a little shadow on the bottom. Thats a fun pic.
I'll throw something else up here when I get home tonight.
I think that's a great picture myself, Sierra.
sidney
Ok.. some flash backs and suggestions
If you've got annuals and you get snow, start watching for the nureseries to put out ornamental kale and cabbage. Get them and pot them up. When the frost smokes the annuals, sink the kale pots or even pot them. They get prettier with frosts and look good till the deep freeze of Jan.
flutterby 9/03
pink delight gets a visitor.. I miss that buddleia
2003 was also the year of some monster 'Carmencita' castor beans.
May of 2004 this weeping Redbud was the male's official perch. He never sat right on top. That was her's. He just waited and escorted her around in her nest building (Austrian Pine to the left out of view) and shopping duties. Ain't love grand?
I've posted a cropped version of this in another forum before. May 04 and DA, DW, DM were having a bit too much fun.
The wonderful month of October is just around the corner....!
Oct_02
Hello again! I got busy for a day then the thread started to get away from me, but I'm caught up now.
Sidney, I love the coleus! (not sure what the plural of coleus is!) I used to have a lot of them, but haven't had any in a few years because they always got mealy bugs! They would end up just taking over and I got tired of fighting them.
sierramp, I love the waterfall! I have never thought of going to building sites and getting rocks! There is a huge new housing addition beside me so I might just be out there scouting around. I never found rocks under my grass, just cement! Enough that made a small patio in the front bed. I had to have them come remove it with a jackhammer. It took over an hr to get it apart!
Blaine, love those pics! The birds are so sweet, and those gals are looking like they are about to get into trouble! lol
What exactly do you do Blaine that has impressed Sidney so much? or maybe I should be asking Sidney. I'd love to know how long everyone has been gardening and/or working on their beds. Are you organic gardeners?
I have only been gardening for about 4 years. Before that I knew nothing about plants. It's my passion now, and mainly for the butterflies. I discovered them about 2 years ago. I try to be as organic as possible, only using some occassional fire ant killers (although the one I'm trying now is organic) and an occassional squirt of pyrethrum. I'm currently battling the Aphids From Hell!! I'm trying to keep my milkweed alive until the Monarchs get here. Today I had 3, which means they are coming! :))
Here is a pic of my back bed.
Konkreteblond, Your back garden is just gorgeous--it'll be full of butterflies before you know it! What are the pink flowers in the lower right corner? Cathy
Well KKB I don't know. Mutual admiration between gardeners I guess.
It's just been the last 7 years when I've gotten impassioned with gardening. The first time I'd owned a house and right after retiring from the Navy. So now I didn't have the 24/7 fishing to occupy my mind but did have a little suburban lot of backfill and rocks to either mow or do something with. Didn't have foreign ports and months away from home to kill in the bars so I was outside when possible and pouring over books, magazines, the internet and tv during the winter and at night. You just pick things up when you get tunnel vision like that. Did the same thing with fishing, computers, freshwater aquariums and crocheting for crying out loud. :) Don't be afraid to make mistakes so you can learn from your mistakes and pay attention so you can learn from OTHER's mistakes.
I wouldn't say I'm organic but for the last few years I've started hauling more and more bags of leaves home and shredding in the fall. I've found I get better and sustained growth and hardiness from compost and plenty of mulch with leaves, grass, etc. The only thing I really use blue water fertilizers for anymore are the containers. I'll shoot a nest of wasps out of the eaves and nuke ants when they take up residence in container. Some weedbegone here and there and a little roundup. Thats it for chemicals.
You're always going to have a few but with a myriad of plants scattered all over and inviting birds with water and fruiting and flowering plants, then the insect kind of find a balance of good and bad. There's a few holes here and there but there are checks and balances I guess that keeps any one variety from exploding and devastating a particular group of plants. If I really want to spend money on chemicals, I like the ones that are best kept 1/2 degree above freezing and sold in 'suitcase' quantities. :)
Thanks Cathy! I had 3 Monarchs and a Black Swallowtail yesterday. As I watched the Monarchs just swooping around enjoying their wings I felt a sense of accomplishment. I wait all year for them to come. :)
Those pink globes in the bottom right corner are Gomphrena. They are one of my FAVS this year! I got some seeds from the Botanic Gardens last year, on a seed snatching mission. :) They bushed out and were beautiful. Notice WERE. The next day after I took this pic, something had started eating them!!! I was hoping someone could identify my culprit, but so far no one knows. It's the strangest thing. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/536478/
I was in the back left corner (that you can't see) yesterday and someTHING noticed me and scurried under the fence to the neighbors. I think that's my beast. I set out a small live trap last night, but not sure it's big enough. Of course, the beast could be something very small. lol I am fixing to go out and see if I have any prisoners.
Loved the pictures and comments on this thread. For some reason I just don't see many butterflies here in my garden. As i said on another thread I have about 2 acres of garden and lots of what i thought should be butterfly attractors. I mostly irrigate with soaker hoses and drippers. I do have a couple of sprinklers going.
The fellow who works for me just finished the mister area yesterday, so they misted all afternoon and night, and I'm sure it was at least 10 degrees cooler in that area. Very windy all day yesterday, so the mist went everywhere.
thanks everyone for your great photos DonnaS
DonnaS, I quickly read thru some threads today and noticed you weren't getting many butterflies. I have no idea what is normally in your area tho. Do you grow any host plants for your area? That would increase your sightings some. What kind of plants do you have for nectar? (sorry to make you repeat yourself if you already said) Maybe you just need a group effort to try and get you some! :)
Konkreteblond, Gomphrena! You would think I would recognize it as I have some of the red variety in my garden. Yours are much fuller than mine so they looked a little different. . . either that or I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning! :) Cathy
I have the red Gomphrena, Strawberry Fields. I love it! It does grow a different shape than the other colors. My critter loves it just as well. I just went and checked and my cage was tripped but empty. Then I went to the other bed and checked on my S. Fields and out ran what I guess is a big mouse or a small rat. I turned on the hose to fill my fountain and either another one ran out or the same one was rather daring. So it's nothing exciting or cute, just a mouse. I sat the trap near that spot. Last year I carried off about 10 mice and rats to a field, away from my yard. I won't set out traps, but I might have to put out some type of rat poison if I can't catch these.
KKB, You are in the supergardener class too. I was glad my mouth was empty when I clicked you photograph. Those Butterflies will be swarming before long.
Blaine seeks out new and varied plants of everykind. He has a handful or different varieties of several kinds of plants.
I started gardening as a small child and ate so many cherry tomatoes off the plant I got a rash while a toddler.
I have long loved flowers and plants, and all critters that go with them. I do get butterflies, but the hummingbirds find my busy 4 lane road in front of the house a bit much. The squirrels take over any bird feeder, or hang around under one enough that they eat my green veg. So I encourage butterflies and have many natural hummer attractors, but no longer do the feeder thing.
I will put out seed again in the fall.
sidney
KKB! When I replied this morning, for some reason I didn't even realize a photo was attached. Wow! I really enjoy full blooming beds like that. Yeah, I know the end of the season you find out how many weeds muscled in but you just don't notice them in a riot of color like that. Great job and how come we're not seeing more? Hmmmm?
Oh yeah, I looked at the link and it looks like a rat to me.
This message was edited Aug 13, 2005 12:08 PM
I agree that Paige is a Super Gardener! Her enthusiasm and knowledge of butterfly gardening have inspired me to keep plugging away at that type of gardening. Now that I have a Mantis tiller maybe I can make some headway in that direction!
John
Thank you all so much! It's the most wonderful thing I've ever done and it's great to have people to show it to that will enjoy it also!! The neighbor's watch me and do like it all, but they really don't know how much joy it brings me. Thus the bond between all of us! :)
John, I am so glad to finally be an inspiration to someone! lol I'll be happy to tell you everything I know.
Blaine, what is the difference between a mouse and a rat? the size? These were pretty large, like Gerbils, rather than little mice. I still don't think I could kill them. They have such sweet little eyes.
The size of a gerbil? Great pics then because it looked like a rat! Size matters. :) I've seen some wharf rats with a butt like a dog. There was one monster that hung out in a favorite daytime watering hole in the Philippines that I'd almost swear pushed chairs out of the way when he waddled through.
Guess that was some kind of mouse or vole which are pretty close.
LOL...I must have confused everyone by using my macro on the mouse. Another person on my critter thread thought it looked huge too. I had 2 small ones, about the size of a gerbil and a larger one. They all live in another field now. Hopefully they won't come back for more Gomphrena. I don't even know what a vole is. I need to Google that since I keep seeing the name.
KKB, Is the reason you don't want to use traps for the mice, etc. because you don't want to have to empty the trap. I don't use poison because i am worried that someway it might get to my little dog whos is a very persistant mouser. I much prefer traps, then i know she won't get poisoned. I have so far this summer trapped and disposed of 8 packrats. They came up the hill from the place below where a man had stored a bunch of junk then left. They are such a stinking animal, I can't stand them. And for some reason there are a lot of mice, I guess coming up out of the canyon, so I keep traps set all the time.
I do have quite a lot of host plants. Have 6 different buddleias, 3 kinds of asclepias. I do have some flowers in bloom outside in the garden from Feb. to Nov. Here is a photo I took of some native cleome. The bees just love them. DonnaS
I installed the free Image Resizer that Garden Wife was talking about earlier, and chose the option of having all images resized smaller but for some reason I just didn't understand how it worked, and the photo was definitly not made small enough . Took 7 minutes to see the review. So i will have to study and practice more. Doing the resizing by using Image at 25% the picture will show up in 1 to 2 min. So here is another photo of the annual self seeding native cleome and a bee. DonnaS
DonnaS, that is a lovely flower! I got 3 of those just this summer. Mine weren't very big tho, then someone said mine were a dwarf kind. ? I just bought a pack of "Queen Cleome" seeds from Target. (I think that's what it said) I was hoping they would be tall ones.
I'm not sure what you are talking about with the resizing. It opened right up for me, but I'm on DSL. It wasn't too large either, but it might make a difference if someone is on dial-up. I wonder if people have trouble with my pics? I don't resize them.
You have buddleia's that are nectar sources and milkweed that is a host plant. But didn't you say you don't get any Monarchs? I wonder if they do come your way. Have you ever checked www.monarchwatch.org to see? What kind of milkweed are you growing?
I don't want to set out traps because I just feel like it's cruel. I guess if I hated them and were afraid of them I might not care, but I'm just one of those women who aren't afraid of mice. Now, if it were something to kill JUNE BUGS then I'd do it!! lol I don't really want to set out poison either. That would be my last resort, which I had to do in my garage the last year. They are clearing so much land near me and running them out of the fields.
Donna - are cleomes actually native to WA? Certainly they'll reseed and make themselves at home. Ha! I always have some cleome but I can't say I've ever seen a butterfly on them. Your first pic had a much higher resolution.
#1 95209 bytes 800 x 599 pixels,
#2 3512 bytes 100 x 75 pixels
Of the last string of photos I posted, the largest was 3321 bytes. Most were in the 2000 bytes.
Paige there are dwarf cleomes. The flower heads are smaller but sometimes they can still get over 2' tall depending on where they volunteer. Something I noticed about cleomes is that they'll definitely grow according to what resources are available. The 'Queen' series would've been a mix of white and rose most likely. By season end they can be 6' and remember they just keep blooming up and up. So if yours is kind of stunted this year, just make sure they get watered and fertilized. You might want to wear gloves when you pull them this fall or you'll be tweezing spines out of your fingers. :)
kkb, I am on dial-up, The resize thingy opened up but when i clicked on make all pictures smaller, I didn't see anything to click on as to actual size, and so didn't know how small they would be.
As to milkweed I have A. incarnata, A. tuberosa and the common to this area native milkweeds. I don't think the Monarchs come this far west, but didn't realize that when i planted the seeds.
I don't have good luck with Cleome when I plant the seeds outside, don't know why. The ones I call natives may not be actually natives but they came to me in some manure from up in the hills nearby, so I figured they were native. The plants grow about 3 feet tall in an area that I never water or fertilize or anything.
Was your photo posted Aug. 10 of the Chrysantemums taken in 2002 I think, one you posted using scanner image or was it from digital.
DonnaS
8ftbed, as you can easily tell I do not understand very well the sizing, pixels, etc. How can you tell what size, pixels that the ones I send are. Do you just click on the photo the same as when I do to send one.
If you want to see the resolution of a posted picture, right click on it and at the bottom of the pop-up menu you'll see 'properties'. Click on that and you'll see file size in bytes and it gives the resolution width x height.
Annuals like cleome, poppy, belles of ireland and larkspur I just flick the seeds where I want them. It just pays to know what the sprouts look like so you don't weed them out. I did that 2 years in a row trying to grow the Italian White sunflower. Never had anything. They say the 3rd time is charm. I threw them and some larkspur in this same spot, roughed it up and walked away. Sunflowers!! When the first sprout they remind me of thistle or something and I'd been weeding them out. :0 Another blainer goof.
The picture of mums was taken with my SLR (which I'm going back to). When I have the film developed I only get CD. Then at home I can pick the shots I want developed, crop and tweak if necessary then upload to Walmart or SAM's and have them printed in whatever size and quantity I want. You can pick them up in store near you or have them mailed. Last winter I started taking negatives back in and having them burned to a CD for archiving and also to have a digital image available.
Blaine, check this out....lol...I have no idea what kind of bug this is, if you know clue me in lol...but it had attached itself to this bee lol...and looks like it's sucking out the guts from it??? Anyhow, I was proud of this shot. I can't take the glory of it, my DH took it but now I've learned something that my camera does that I didn't know....lol :-) I don't think I'll be getting a new camera now so soon. lol :-)
GREAT pic and scary! Can you imagine if those things were the size of a goose?
That's one bad boy. You should post this over in pest or foes or whatever it's called. They'll nail it!
That is way cool
Wow, what the heck is that? Might try the id forum, too.
That's what I wanna know LOL...and he sat there for the photo session like he was used to it LOL...then finally he flew off like a bat outta.....%^$$ so fast, WITH the bee attached still, guess he wasn't in the mood! lololol Even bugs don't like to be disturbed while feasting on something yummy....just like a man! lol Just kidding!
Ok going to look for the place to find out this culprit that eats Bee's!
Thanks ya'll *ggg*
Ha! I resemble that remark.
Ha! *Huggles* lol I'm playin'
Blaine those sure are some beautiful pictures! Your yard looks like butterfly heaven!