grape vines
horse nettle, thorniest thing on the property, Solanum elaeagnifolium
yerba de la negrita, a wild mallow — it’s a weed, but we mostly let it grow, as it has no thorns, and produces this pretty flower.
my favorite groundcover in the whole world. i have no idea what this stuff is called, but i’m delighted it volunteered out back.
red yarrow and red amaranth
really red yarrow
coreopsis
the big yarrow, about to bloom
and the yellow yarrow
we just learned you can make an insect repellant out of yarrow. make a tincture of the flowers, then dilute with water and spray on skin to repell mosquitoes & black flies. i’m going to try this as soon as i have time. Jenny needs a reliable non-lavendar mosquito-proofing.
hollyhocks! a celebration of pink.
the hollyhocks and the Grandmother Cottonwood and the incoming monsoon storm
sunflower!
all the sunflowers in the garden are well over my head now, and several are nearly 10′ tall. They’re just starting to bloom. the corn is likewise taller than most folks, and getting thick. Squash are coming in — we picked our first yellow crookneck yesterday. i also picked off an entire jar-full of squash bugs, which the chickens and turkeys both refuse to eat. apparently they taste as bad as they smell. i’m unwilling to sample one and find out. when i dumped a handful in the chicken coop, the birds pecked at a couple of them and then shook their heads as if shaking off the bad taste, and didn’t go for any more bugs. so now i’m just picking the bugs off and putting them in a closed jar and letting them die, since i’m unwilling to personally squish every single one of them. i’m sure this is worse karma, dooming them to a slow horrible death, but it’s out of my sight and they’re out of my squash, the little demons. i did see a whole lot of spiders in among the squash as well, and some ants, which makes me happy; ants and spiders are both predator insects that eat other insects such as squash bug larvae. we saw a preying mantis the other night, too.
that’s yellow crookneck squash between the corn, and a tobacco plant to repell grasshoppers at the end of the row. amaranth in the foreground; probably a weed in this instance, though we have two amaranth cultivars in the garden this year as well.
and the sunset saturday after the rain — fire in the west.
i ran out to the field for a clear view.
good clouds with this storm.
and the herb garden in the first monsoon rain of the season, a few nights ago. slightly digitally enhanced so you can actually see the rain. and the arch.
