September Brings.....

Since I have not posted in a few days, I have a variety of things to share with you. I always thought the older you got the more life slowed down. I can remember when our girls were young and in school, we had ball games and girl scouts, 4-H and school activities almost every night of the week. Those were also the days when if I wasn't working 2 jobs, I was putting in 10 hour days. And on top of all of that, there were meals to fix, groceries to buy, laundry to do and the always present house to clean. I longingly thought of the days when the girls would be grown and time would be my friend giving me days on end to do what I wanted. It does not happen that way! Well, at least I haven't found that time or those days. Let's just say life seems to be getting busier and I seem to have little control over it. So bear with me dear bloggers, I am having a pity party for myself.

Now, back to gardens. Have any of you noticed these small mounds of dirt in your yards or along your foundations? They started appearing in our yard and along the front edge of our patio about a week ago.

It took me awhile to figure out what or who was doing the digging. I finally saw the culprit but had no idea what it was. After much Googling I found what I was looking for.

The picture is not mine-it's courtesy of the Internet as is the following article.

Ground-digger wasps (GDWs) are very large (slightly larger than a green hornet) passive-aggressive wasps that "build" their nests in dry, unfertilized earth. They are typically large and black-bodied with yellow stripes on their back-end. When fully grown, they measure about one and a half inches (or more) in length with about a one and a quarter-inch wide wing span.
You'll know you've got ground-digger wasp nests in your lawn or garden when you see small granular mounds of dirt piled up anywhere from two-to-five inches in height. At the base of the mound of granular dirt will be a finger-sized hole with a "path" of dirt leading out from it.
The nests will be sporadically built throughout your lawn or garden, but will typically be in the driest areas and/or under longer grass/weeds or under growing flowers. GDWs do not like, but can live in, moist soil.
In the Northeast US, the life-cycles of a ground-digger wasp is about one month beginning in mid-July and ending around mid-to-late August (depending on where you live, their life-cycle may start earlier or later). They go from young adults buzzing about play-attacking with each other, to full-size adults in about two-to-three weeks.
While VERY menacing looking, they are passive stingers---meaning only if VERY threatened will they attack and sting. You'd practically have to start digging into their nests while they're flying about for one to come at you and sting you (so, don't do that!). Otherwise, they tend to buzz about to check you out and to scare you away---AND they probably will the first time you encounter them. Know that they'd rather get on with their business of killing cicadas up in the trees than sting you.

I also read that because this is the year of the 7 year cicadas, we are seeing a lot more of them than usual. And while I don't want to harm them, I am afraid for the little girls when they are here. So not sure what we are going to do.

On a much more pleasant subject-dragonfly corners is a flutter with butterflies. We have Monarchs!

And still more larvae on the butterfly weed.

A beautiful 'Buckeye' posed just long enough for me to get a picture. They do like to flit around. Lisa showed one on her blog and I found out the name. I am learning so much from blogging.

So far this one is unknown to me, but I am sure someone out there knows it. (Rose and I still have not been to the book store to get our identification books!) (Hey, my birthday is coming up...hint hint!)


I told you I had lots to share...

On Saturday, Hubby and I drove to Greenup, IL and found a little winery. They were just starting to pick their grapes. We walked some in the vineyards among the vines that were hanging full of glorious, beautiful purple fruit. Oh and the wine was good too!

We had 2 visitors this weekend. Our youngest granddaughter and Thomas. Thomas is the cat who occasionally comes by our house for a petting and a bowl of cat food. He doesn't stay long and wouldn't dream of coming into the house even though we would like for him to be 'ours'. As for the granddaughter-she spent the night and kept us very entertained.

The foxglove I planted way last spring has finally decided to bloom. I actually thought it had died-I remembered planting it in a different spot! It's a wonder I didn't pull it out as a weed.

I thought I would show you the moonflower-morning glory again. Each day it seems to have more blooms than the day before! It has long since out grown the lightening rod and has spread through the sunflowers, over to the barrel and is now climbing the Sheppard hook several feet behind it. Aiyana was the first one to give me a name for this morning glory. She says it is called heavenly blue. Very appropriate name don't you think?! She also said that while she would love to have this bright blue in her dessert garden it is banned in Arizona. Oh my, I think that means this is very invasive! I will have to be very diligent next spring in pulling up all it's seedlings. And all of this because I wanted a moonflower!

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The rains have missed us all month and we are very dry. I remember telling you that about August I get really tired of watering containers. That is still true, but I made myself stick with it for the entire month. Now, however, I am more than ready for the plants in those containers to go on to the great beyond in plant heaven!

Hope you are enjoying your gardens!