Turning the corner to summer

The big bed is getting ready to turn the corner for summer; the foxglove is just beginning to seed out and the Brazilian Blue Sage is taking on size. The hummingbirds will be happy when the sage starts blooming. It's their very favorite. They spend all summer bickering over it.

The chickadee babies that were in the nestbox at the back of the garden fledged over a week ago; I hear them as they move about, as they never stop talking, a sped-up constant version of the chickadee call. They sound sort of like maniacal elves. A pair of Chipping Sparrows built a nest on a lower branch of one of the pines at the back of the garden and judging from how noisy the young are they will fledge some too. I see the parents foraging on the ground around the garden all of the time, looking very dapper.

There are Indigo Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, Summer Tanagers, Bluebirds, Kingbirds, Great Crested Flycatchers, Peewees, Ovenbirds and Wood Thrushes all around. Vireos, Indigo Buntings and Summer Tanagers sing all day no matter how hot the weather. I even heard a Yellow-Breasted Chat near the house the other day, and the past couple of years they have stayed down in the floodway fields. An understory border, including a lot of blackberries, has grown up around the edge of the woods and I think that's why the Indigo Buntings nest so close to the house now. Just yesterday one was singing in a tree opposite the kitchen window. The hollow created by dumping the water trough in the paddock back of the house is a very poplar spot for bird bathing. It's been kind of dry lately so I've been keeping the hollow filled with the hose. Last summer when we had a very hot dry spell even the bees drank from it.

Bobwhites call back and forth in distant fields. A pair spent the summer on our farm last year, foraging in the gardens and occasionally going up the driveway to the field up top. Once or twice a week we would flush them out from the garden as we walked to and from the horse pastures. I think they liked the gardens because there's a lot to eat in there, both seeds and bugs, there are short mowed paths they can walk on, and good cover.

The predominant color in the garden just now is green, with the exception of the spiderworts, late roses, and Carolina Bush Pea.

This Rosa palustris scandens got so big that it sort of fell over on itself, but it's still beautiful. The truck happens to be in the picture because I was moving the last of some fill dirt up the house in buckets. Later on I switched to using a wheelbarrow, which was actually easier.

Rosa carolina, Rosa virginiana, and Carolina Bush Pea.

Rosa carolina, growing together over what used to be the path through the back part of the garden. The path goes around the back of the Carolina roses now. I plan to fill the rest of the old path with more Carolina Bush Pea and Baptisias. No doubt the roses and Brazilian Blue Sage will find their own way in there too as they all spread by runners.

I have read some gardeners' complaints about the short bloom time of Carolina Bush Pea;
I have not noticed the bloom time being that short, and love it for the beauty of its
stately clear yellow spires. That shade of yellow seems to go with everything.

The Wax Myrtles next to the ditch that runs behind the garden have gotten big the last couple of years. I hope to remember to scatter larkspur seeds on the top part of the garden this fall; in the shallow ditch that runs in front of the garden I have added more Rosa palustris scandens, Amsonia hubrichtii, and Spiderwort.

In this low spot there's already Monarda 'Claire Grace', Crinum 'Royal White',
Iris virginica, Iris japonica, Swamp Milkweed, and lots of Bidens seedlings.

Yesterday we had our warmest day so far, at least 93 degrees, and it will probably reach 95 today. We're due a warm spell with May being so advanced. I will probably be hiding in the shade or the air conditioning from the afternoon sun but the butterflies will love it.