August Garden Bloggers Bloom Day 2010

Welcome to my August Garden…
Part of the August Garden Bloggers Bloom Day event...

Chloe and I would love to show you around… 

If I can get her to slow down for a moment!

This year our garden is being called:
the butterfly garden!
Chloe will be telling you why in a bit…

Here is a shot of the main hill garden… 

Up at the top, past the Karl Forester Grass there are a few trees (an oak in particular) that need to come out so a vegetable garden can be built up there... (not to worry, only a little into the wooded area - plans to help the woodland habitat are always in mind as well).

That way we can grow more than just these:

The Ironweed has done quite well with avoiding deer grazing this year.

Must have had a few survivors in the last couple of years because I have baby Ironweed plants popping up all around the garden.

Red and yellow flower grown from seed from last years plant... A humming bird favorite!

Oh wait, here is Chloe…

Look mommy, purple flowers!

Oh, I see Chloe... Is that what you have been doing over there?

And look: a bumble bee is napping…
Chloe: "Shhh, don't wake him up!
Look! He has an Umbrella Too!!!"
(well that was loud enough to wake him…)

Look at that mommy butterfly Chloe, she is tasting the plant with her special butterfly feet.
If she lands on the right one for her babies, she will lay an egg there.

Look, look, look (in my Annie voice - Little Einsteins): a butterfly egg!

Chloe: "Oh wow! Hey mommy butterfly... come over here and lay more eggs!"

Chloe, look over here on this other milkweed plant.
Caterpillars!
These came out of that tiny egg (just like in the book) and they have gotten big from eating all the leafs.

Chloe: "Do their tummies hurt from eating too much?"
Me: No, these caterpillars don't eat cake and ice cream. Only plants.

I believe that this is (above) the tussock moth caterpillar…

And a humming bird moth hanging out in the grass.
Too cold today for a lot of our insect friends…

Let's put him somewhere safe so we don't step on him and so he can have a plant umbrella too. "Just like the bee, right mom?"

Right Chloe...

Thanks for stopping by and hanging out.
We also played with seed pods, squished some almost blooming day lilly flower heads (that was quite entertaining), planted some of the plants from a few weeks ago, looked at things with a magnifying glass, pruned the hydrangeas and played with the cuttings, and enjoyed a nice lunch together outback & threw the football around a bit (more laughing & running than catching) Oh, then filled the bird feeders.

Love these days with cooler weather!

- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone