Letting Go of the Bay Leaf: August 2022

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Mosaic Monday #188: Garden Gala 2

And there's more! If you enjoyed last week's post, you will be drooling over this one! July is the best month for the native plants, especially toward the end of it. I wish I could distill July into a genie's lamp, and poof it into existence when people come to visit at other times of the year. I want them to see the garden in all its July glory. Perhaps I will just show them this post ... although in my heart I know it is not the same as seeing the real thing.

To the left is Rocky Mountain Penstemon, with Paintbrush in the background.

Keeping with the purple theme, below is Walker's Low Catmint and Salvia May Night. Both have terrific symmetry and a compact nature that is pleasing to the eye. I have several Catmint "volunteers" - I am just waiting for them to get big enough to move to other spots in the garden. And I have been delighted this summer to find at least two Salvia "volunteers". Isn't Nature just the best propagator of them all?

The collage below has a better view of the Salvia, with Aspen Fleabane in the foreground. The other photo puts the Fleabane in the spotlight, with Paintbrush bringing up the rear.

Blanketflower.

The first year the native grass seed/flower seed blend sprouted, we had numerous orange and red poppies, plus some pink ones. We have seen very few since, except this one that came up within the "formal" flower beds. I will take it! The groundsel occurs naturally, and I saw it on one of my many walks.

In last week's post, I might have mentioned that I am obsessed with the blue of the Flax?

I am also enamored with the sea of Coreopsis that blankets the rock steps below our kitchen and dining room. It doesn't look like much now, but in mid-July it is nothing short of glorious.

As July marches on, the Prairie Coneflower and Bee Balm come into their own.

Harebell can be found throughout our property, but usually I only find one bloom per stem.

We have two Mock Orange bushes. One had barely bloomed until this year, and the one below had twice the blooms as previous years, which I attribute to the abundant spring rainfall.

Toward the end of July, the Goldenrod bursts into color. I remember, as a child, thinking of Goldenrod as quite ordinary, a plant found on abandoned parking lots, among broken glass and discarded beer cans. Now I know better. Like many things, a plant needs the proper environment to be at its best!

Mexican Hat first appeared in the prairie in the summer of 2019, and it is propagating across our property quite nicely!

Black-eyed Susans also arrived as part of the native grass/flower blend, and the simplicity has its own beauty.

And sometimes you find an interesting blend - two species cross-pollinating?

White daisies, another gift from the prairie blend, have long-lasting blooms.

Aster and Russian Sage are the last plants to bloom, and they do put on a show!

Meanwhile, the grasshoppers seem to be more prolific this year, and one of their favorite hang-outs is the Russian Sage, nipping off the top three to four inches of the majestic flower spikes. Another opportunity to remind myself that they, too, are part of the ecosystem!

*** I will be slow in commenting due to a backcountry camping trip!

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Mosaic Monday #187: Garden Gala

Well, you know it's been a hectic summer when you realize I have not penned a single post about my flower garden! So hold on tight - I am blitzing you with 2 months of photos, and I might throw in a critter or two along the way. The good news? Not a lot of words to read!!!

This is my only collage from May and all of these are naturally occurring plants; the lupine was a transplant from nearby.

I am not a fan of this bunny, but I sure like this Lamium that I plopped here out of one of my deck pots at the end of last summer.

We had a wet spring, and the apple trees responded accordingly. (Fast forward to present day - the Goodland has no apples - it produced its first year. But the Honeycrisp has at least 4, and this is the first year it has fruited since it was planted in 2018!!!)

Does anyone know the insect in the collage below?

And we had rainbows to accompany the rain!

Just tramping around the property, you can see amazing things if you keep your eyes open ... this collage has the Spotted Coralroot Orchid, which previously I had only seen on hikes. To think we have this orchid on our place!! Since this photo, I have seen one or two other specimens on our property. And no less beautiful is the dainty Blue-Eyed Grass.

One day I was weeding and heard the characteristic calls of a sapsucker or woodpecker. I looked up and saw this bird working over one of the skulls Spousal Unit has placed around the firepit. Can one of you birders make the identification? I suspect the bird was eating ants.

We are always concerned about forest fires in the summer, so we are methodically thinning our pines, and adding more deciduous trees. This spring, I planted 4 paper birches. To the right is just one of them.

Columbines are one of the first plants to bloom, and I have red, pink and purple. I love this plant, which is so easy to propagate with its miniscule black seeds!

We have seen Western Swallowtails periodically throughout the summer. Here is a video of one working over the Lantana in one of my pots.

And the bunnies are still around, too. If you doubt that there is more than one, check out the photo below with two in the same shot!

Roses grow naturally here, and I love the one in the shot below, with it's heart-shaped petals. It is joined by the first Blanketflower of the season, and a Paintbrush bloom.

I don't often wear my glasses when I am in the garden, so occasionally my pictures are not in focus. But sometimes, this means an "artistic" photo. This shot of Pussytoes is one of these, and I am delighted with the result.

The spikes of Yellow Penstemon are distinctive in their own right, but also when multiples grace a plant. A close-up shows the beauty of each individual, delicate flower. Flax is a plant that arrived as part of the native grass/flower blend that we planted our first fall here. Its blue blooms are radiant, and it is a shame they last less than a day - they are morning blooms that fade quickly. A good reason to get up in the morning! (and why it shows up in this blog post twice!!!)