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.