A Weekend at the Farm August 10-12, 2012

 I was able to snap 4 butterflies in the Butterfly Garden landing at once on a single plant of Wild Onion:  two Gulf Fritillaries, a Queen, and a Pipevine Swallowtail.

In the above picture are a Giant Swallowtail, a Gulf Fritillary, and a Swallowtail.

I watched butterflies for hours this weekend.  I ate breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday sitting in a rocking chair facing the Star Garden and watching the beautiful creatures.  It's interesting how butterflies have somehow created a mystique for themselves that no other insect has done.  For example, if it was grasshoppers that had overtaken my garden (ignoring the fact that grasshoppers eat my plants) I would be really grossed out!  Grasshoppers are pretty icky.  A butterfly is, after all, a bug, but they are dearly loved by everyone.

My husband and I cut up and moved three trees that fell during the rain on Friday evening.  We got about an inch of rain - yes! - and I suppose the weight of the water on all the dead unstable trees causes them to fall, always in a path, never into the woods it seems.  One of the trees was completely covered in vines with vicious stickers.  It was an ordeal to cut away the vines so that we could get to the tree with the chain saw.  Hot work. 

I turned the soil and added compost to a bed in the Orchard so I could plant some green beans - a fall crop of green beans.  My plan was to sow the seeds on Sunday morning after the sprinklers had settled the soil.  The sprinklers in the Orchard never came on.  I fooled with them for about an hour, jiggling the wires, etc. but I couldn't get them to work.  Maddening.  I'll have to call the young man that installed them.  That is the second time that zone has stopped working, and another zone had to be repaired by him as well.  I am not pleased.  I didn't plant the green beans, they won't sprout without water or rain.

I planted 4 Australian Violet plants in one of the new beds in the Star Garden.  These Violets are perennials. And the flowers are edible.  They have very attractive, round dark green leaves.  They spread very quickly.

I watered a few places in the Orchard since the sprinkler is not working:  the Mayhaw, the Mexican Plum, and the okra.  The okra is at risk of dying if the sprinkler is not repaired quickly.  My husband says that's ok if the okra dies.  Smile. 

I moved some more Columbine into shady beds and around the potato vine that grows on an arbor over the Greenhouse door.

We are in the dog days of summer.  It is difficult to do much of anything after twelve except putter.  Even the pool is unpleasant.