Saturday, August 24, 2013

Summer Winding Down

Kids are heading back to school, and summer is coming to a close. In actuality, it will still feel like summer for weeks. Even when it begins to feel like fall, my garden will still look good for a few months yet. I often think how fun it would be to garden year round, but honestly, I enjoy the rest period during winter. And I do like the way everything sort of peaks at the end of summer.
We finally found a few hours to finish our herb garden project. It was pretty easy, the hardest part was planning out how we wanted to make it. The actual construction only took a few hours. Another difficult part was finding fresh herbs to plant at the end of the summer.  Before, I had some herbs scattered about the garden. Now I have easy access right outside the back door.
It hasn't been my best butterfly and moth year. I haven't seen a single monarch or buckeye yet, and very few swallowtails. My sedum Autumn Joy is about to bloom, and that's guaranteed to bring more butterflies. But what is interesting is the more uncommon species that have stopped by. I had to do some digging to find out this is a six spotted forester moth,
this is a false crocus geometer moth,
and this is a dogbane tiger moth.
 There were even some "fake" butterflies that turned out to be a Tiger Bee fly.
Silver spotted skippers, 
common skippers that I can never keep straight, 
and cabbage moth/butterflies are common visitors. Since I don't grow any cabbage crops, they don't bother me a bit.
 And the few swallowtails that do stop by are more than welcome here as summer winds down.


4 comments:

  1. Hello Robin girl !
    I love that grass picture .. you caught it beautifully.
    I bought more ornamental grasses yesterday because they were on sale .. miscanthus Gracilliums and panicum Shenandoah .. plus a Russian sage that needed a home (mine packed up a couple of years ago) ...
    Love the herb area .. it is a great idea to have them all in one place like that for you.
    I still like to scatter them around the garden like a potage garden (although I don't do veggies) .. we are stuck in hot humid weather .. the garden is dry and needs a good long watering .. but we are also busy with getting house renos sorted .. all a little too much at one time but we seem to get stuck in that rut some how.
    YES !! .. yesterday as I was working like a maniac for a few hours in the garden, I thought .. I am so glad to have a break when winter comes .. even though I know after the holidays I will be ready to garden !! haha
    Very pretty post .. all we see ? are those cabbage butterflies .. but lots of bees at least?
    Joy : )

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  2. Robin- wow those are such beautiful pictures! My husband and I love nature photography and love to capture butterflies like these. They are truly amazing..

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  3. You have so many beautiful insects...maybe a few will flutter by here. Although I do kind of recognize the tiger fly? Maybe...not too sure, I didn't want to get to close to what ever we have here, it looks scary.

    Jen

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  4. You will enjoy having your herbs close at hand! Your new herb bed looks great. Congrats on doing the research to ID your butterfly visitors!

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