Photographs and thoughts from Andrea Badgley's garden
Lots of stuff isn’t looking so great in the garden right now, but lots of stuff is. The zinnias are taking over, the sedums are pinking, and the goldenrod and monarch caterpillars are peaking. I counted more than a dozen caterpillars in the milkweed, and found a few swallowtail caterpillars on the rue as well.
The late summer flowers are in bloom — rudbeckia, echinacea, goldenrod — and zinnias are flowering where I let their seeds fall out back last year. The lavender in front never really recovered this year; I think I’ll replace it with mums.
This time of year is always fun for photography. The flowers are still fresh and most of the plants are still green; stuff hasn’t started getting leggy or dried out yet.
I’ve been checking the rue for swallowtail caterpillars, and I saw my first one of 2022 this morning.
I’ve been checking the swamp milkweeds to see if they’d come back. I was getting nervous because they seemed to take longer this year than in previous years. Three of the five have finally re-emerged; I’ll need to replace the other two so the monarch caterpillars don’t run out of food.
The fescue and scabiosa are blooming, and as is the norm these days, I saw a bunny in the bed, nibbling away at the goldenrod.
I killed grass back in February to create a new flower bed. I wanted to fill it with lots of nectar and host plants for butterflies, plus some herbs and peppers for eating. I mulched the bed in the end of March, and in May, I’ve planted it:
It doesn’t look like much for now, which is why I wanted to photograph it, as a before picture. The wire cages are to keep the rabbits away from the milkweed seedlings. The’ve eaten fresh milkweed in the past, and I don’t want them eating these seeds I’ve carefully cultivated for 10 weeks.
I saw motion outside my office window this morning, and when I walked over to look out, I saw bunnies dart every which way across the grass, chase each other up the flower bed hill, across the gravel right outside my floor level window, through the fence slats to the neighbor’s yard, and back down the grassy hill again. There were four or five of them, and they chased each other for at least an hour. I used my phone to take photos through my office window. I apparently also took this 1 second video, which was a total accident when I touched the wrong button on my phone, but the rabbits were so active, I happened to capture one on video during my fumble.
I went for a walk around the neighborhood today. Pink and magenta redbuds contrast with the chartreuses of fresh leaves. The earth is lush and coming back to life.
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