What I Noticed While Watering This Week

Shot of Diana’s Black-eyed Susans. Photo: Diana Pierce

Every morning this past week began the same way.

Before finishing my first cup of coffee or checking my email, I headed outside to water before the day got too hot.

It starts with me dragging out 50 feet of hose (not my most glamorous look) housed next to our patio and listening to our aging outdoor spigot groan its familiar protest. It’s old. I recognize those kinds of groans.

Then, the watering starts.

Here’s the First Thing I Noticed

Yellow blooms and green baby tomatoes on the Sweet and Neat patio plant. Photo: Diana Pierce

My Sweet and Neat patio tomatoes aren’t done producing yet and are making another run at producing fruit. That means I’m watching a new round of yellow blossoms turn into tiny green tomatoes. You can see some of the baby tomatoes tucked right behind the blooms. Maybe at the end of August, they’ll be ready to pick a few at a time.

With the first round of production, Scott and I enjoyed about 60 mini-tomatoes, in ones and twos, by the end of June. So, here we go again and I have my fingers crossed for another mini-harvest.

Then, a few feet away…

My Parsley Became a Host Plant

Last remaining black swallowtail caterpillar on Diana’s parsley. Photo: Diana Pierce

I was looking to trim my curly parsley and saw two caterpillars. I knew they weren’t monarchs so I had to go look them up on my Picture Insect app as I didn’t know what I was looking at.

They were identified as Black swallowtail. They were oblivious to me lifting up the parsley stalks to check on them. Their job was to eat. What I saw was them stripping my parsley down to the stems. Turns out parsley is one of their favorite foods and they were first in line at the parsley buffet. When I first noticed them they were about an inch long. I value butterflies over the greenery so I gave them permission to stay and watched as they each took a corner of the container to call their own.

Then with some power eating happening, they grew to about two inches. When I’d check on them, all I had to do was look for bare stems, and lift up the green camouflage around them. Both moved on during the week and the photo you see was taken the day before that last caterpillar crawled to its next adventure.

Across the patio...

Patio, looking towards the street. Photo: Diana Pierce

As I stood there watering, it dawned on me that the patio had been changing color with each passing week. I planned each container one at a time. Pink tulips and purple pansies in the spring. Red tomatoes by the end of June. White Vincas throughout July. By August, as I looked around with new eyes I saw a sea of greens and yellows.

For my Green Bay Packer fans, I’d say the patio was saying, “Go, Pack, Go!”

Exhibit A: my black-eyed Susan. It survived an earlier rabbit chow-down to do exactly what I’d hoped for: bring a splash of yellow to the corner of my patio while also attracting pollinators. That was my goal from the start. I’ve already seen one monarch stop by.

My First Hummingbird of the Season

Next to the Black-eyed Susan container are my salvias. The two containers have been putting all their energy into growing the tallest salvia I’ve ever seen. Five feet tall. One morning, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fluttering by it. A hummingbird stopped by at 7:45am for a nectar-filled sip. I didn’t have my camera with me, but I’m hoping it comes back often enough that I’ll eventually earn the photograph.

Finally, Just When I Thought I Was Finished With Visitors

The damselflies arrived on my Switchgrass ‘Shenandoah.’ I grow them to block the road and to provide food for wintering neighborhood birds. I didn’t get a shot of the damselfly but we were almost eye to eye. So in return I said, “Hello, little one.” Yes, I talk to winged creatures and plants. So fun.

What this patio has turned into is a place where wildlife wants to visit. That’s exactly what I wanted to create and these visitors are the reward.

Life is good.

My emails can wait.

Diana

#bloomwithme