Six on Saturday, August 4, 2018

We have had rain all week! So much rain that there were flood warnings two evenings in a row. I’ve been working late though for two weeks and missed all the bad weather; we moved our office from one building to another and now are finally settled in. My first photo this week is of some gorgeous roses brought to my new office by a coworker.

My own garden is finally beginning to produce a few vegetables for me. I harvested some cucumbers this week, a couple of small eggplants, several hot peppers, and a handful of heirloom field peas. Even a couple of cherry and grape tomatoes. The cucumbers and field peas are totally volunteer self-seeders this year, which makes me pretty happy.

When the sun finally came through the clouds at the end of this week, I saw the first Gulf fritillary butterfly of the year in my yard. Ordinarily they are on my passion flower vines but this one was happily feeding from verbena bonariensis flowers.

I love these datura flowers. We always called them moonflowers but I don’t know if that is correct, since moonflower is usually a vine and these are not. These two pictures are the same flower – the second photo was taken about a half hour later, with the same camera/phone, as it was getting to be dusk. Maybe it’s just an optical illusion of some kind, but they turn purple! And then white again, when they are fully open. (I prefer the purple stage)

One of my favorite flowers is this little marigold. I love its deep orange color and, of course, the way it self-seeds so generously and reliably!

With all the rain, everything green has been happy and growing, even with no attention at all from me. This is one example – a columnar basil that ordinarily would be suffering by this time of year.

 

For more Saturday Sixes of other gardens around this world this week, visit The Propagator where it all begins.