Today's fun photo

Another great photo from Dave from our backyard. 

Fall is a beautiful time in the yard. The back porch is swamped by my twelve foot Esperanza.  It practically crawls with bugs, butterflies and bees.  We saw this amazing beauty on it today.  It must be at least 2 inches, maybe two and a half. By far, the biggest bee I have ever seen.

Fall Honey Extraction

Last year, our one hive did not have enough surplus to extract any honey. This spring we put in two additional hives, and they were started much earlier than last year's. 

Today's fun photo from our backyard

Another great photo from Dave from our backyard. 

Today's fun picture from our backyard is a red-shouldered hawk! We have had two mating pairs of these beauties in the neighborhood for the past year or so. One of the females likes to sit in a chinaberry tree just on the other side of the fence from my yard. I heard her calling this afternoon, mounted the longest lens I have (sadly, only 200mm) and went out for some photos. The backlighting was a bear, but I like this one reasonably well.
Now to get a photo of the bird in the air...they are strikingly beautiful.

White Mist Flowers and Monarchs!

The White Mist Flowers are in full bloom, and apparently they are a big favorite with our visiting monarchs.  We counted 12 monarchs on one shrub at one point.  I have always loved the white fall flower on this hardy plant, but now I have an even better reason to love it!

Some new plants

Two weeks ago, I planted a bunch of fall plants.  I was at a big store, and they had 12 packs of broccoli, cabbage and lettuce.  I didn't really want twelve, but the price was right.  Unfortunately, the seedlings were so small, that they didn't fare very well.  Cabbage worms ate most of the leaves on my cabbage and broccoli, and something, probably a rabbit, munched away all but two of my lettuce seedlings.

So I decided to pick up some new plants to supplement my previous plantings. You can see in the picture below how much bigger and healthier the new plants are then the two week old plants I previously put in the ground

October Plantings

I spent this morning putting in the last of my fall garden plants. I feel like the garden is now ready for autumn!  I have newly planted Radish, Carrot and Beet seeds. I have some broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants growing (though they have been attacked by caterpillars and may need to be repurchased and planted.)I also planted four Brussel Sprout plants - something I have never tried before. I have a whole pile of strawberry plants still growing from last year.  I have some lettuce plants as well as some seeds from last year. 

My new fave tool

Having recently dug up the sweet potatoes, I decided that I finally needed a garden fork.  I went to Home Depot and purchased a $35 tool. Bu then one of the outer tines bent the very first time I used it.

So, after returning the broken fork, I decided to go to Natural Gardener, and picked out this one.  It cost more, but it is way more solid.

What I love most about it, is how, when I dig into the ground with it to prepare the soil for new plants, it pulls up all the sedge, without breaking off at the root. I am hoping that I might actually get on top of my sedge problem with this new tool!!

Starting the winter garden

I haven't been gardening much.  With the hot winter, I kind of just let it all go. There wasn;'t much living anyway.

But as the temperatures dip below the hundreds, all of a sudden the soil calls again :o)