Text here Painted Lady Vanessa carduis Starting to appear in the garden now the June heat is beginning to build up Text here Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Papillio canadensis Another garden visitor - also seen today, but not photographed, a Black Swallowtail (Papillio polyxenes) [...]
Desirable Weeds Continuing the experiment of seeing what comes up if the lawn is not mown ... this week we have Buttercups and we have Clover. Actually we have two species of Clover ... this is a tall clover (Trifolium hybridum* - the Alsike Clover) but we also have low [...]
Text here Guelder Rose Two varieties of Viburnum are in flower at the moment, the one to the front is Viburnum. opulus var. opulus (European Guelder Rose), the taller one behind, is a North American native - Viburnum. opulus var. americanum aka V. trilobium (High-bush Cranberry). Gorgeous complex flowers followed later by bunches [...]
Living with Wildlife Not infrequently after looking at a plant or bird picture that we have shared here or on Facebook people ask if they can see our "wildlife" garden ... not everyone lives close enough to book one of our guided tours so this is what (part of) it looks like on [...]
Moss - Fruiting Bodies One of the several mosses lining the sides of the waterfall in our garden - the elevated parts are the spore-containing reproductive capsules which together with their stalks form the sporophyte of the plant.
Although delayed this year, we thought migration was probably over now as June starts and the temperatures being to climb. But no ... stalking the garden this afternoon trying to catch shots of bumble bees on the flowers that are all over our so far uncut lawn I happened to catch site of [...]
It rained After a lengthy period of morning rain this flower stood out from the forget-me-not blue drifts surrounding it. Made the rain worthwhile. Sunshiny Sunday The last of this year's tulips going out on a high note in the morning sunshine. [...]
Spring migratory birds in the Garden I suspect that anyone reading this journal entry will already be aware of the pleasure we take in enticing birds to visit our garden. This week has proved to be the (slightly delayed) peak week for northwards migration soy can feast your eyes on some of the [...]
A better sort of lawn A corner of the garden, with cherry and Amelanchier blossom, in the warm evening light. You will observe that the "lawn" is not a striped green sward cut to within an inch its life but has been left to do what it wants to do. It is [...]
Text here Amelanchier canadensis A delayed spring that is cooler and wetter than normal is producing spectacular tree blossom everywhere. Text here Magnolia sp. We planted this tree twenty years ago in the "hope" that is would establish itself. As you can see, it had [...]