(Be sure to click on the photos if you would like to see them enlarged).
Front yard, center island garden
At the top of the driveway, the side garden is filled with black-eyed susan, liatris, phlox, beebalm, agastache, coneflower, japanese anemone, and more.
The corner gardens, at the bottom of driveway on either side, are planted with various coneflowers, coreposis, salvia, veronica, euphorbia, russian sage, lavendar, and more.
The backyard gardens are planted with both shade and sun-loving plants, many of which are repeated from those in the front. I also have cucumbers and zucchini growing in pots. When we left home, there were 2 cukes on the vine, still small. I'm planning to pick them when I get home and pickle them.
The swallowtail cats were doing well before we left home. I wrote an earlier post about the eggs I found on my parsley. It's been exciting to watch them develop and grow. These are Black Swallowtail butterfly larvae.
I did get a little nervous when I watched a hornet suck the life out of one of them. We took some netting and covered the pot of parsley and a fairly good area surrounding the pot so that if the cats begin to leave the pot to form their pupa's, they will have a reasonable amount of room to crawl around in and find things to attach themselves to, yet will (hopefully) still be protected from the hornets and other predators.
Today I am thankful for a brief internet signal so I could publish this while on vacation in a remote area in Maine!
Words and photos ©Thanks For Today, by Jan Huston Doble
