Our Missouri Yard – June 2023

There are always things to photograph in our year. In June I decided to walk about with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e)….taking mostly macro looks at the plants.

Our lamb’s ear is blooming. It attracts pollinating insects. I have lamb’s ear plants coming up in the yard too….thinking maybe I should avoid mowing them and let them continue to spread…take over some areas where the grass is not growing so well anyway.

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This time of year it is possible to find all stages of flower development on a single plant. The color sometimes is deepest just as the flowers open.

I have pokeweed coming up in some of the same places it was last fall…probably from the roots that remained. I like the green leaves and will probably let it grow. Maybe this year the fruits will mature before the first hard frost…provide early winter food for birds.

There is a native grapevine near one of my bushes. The new leaves start out folded in half. I am pulling it away from the bush and allowing it to continue to grow. Something has already been nibbling on its leaves.

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I like that the yard has interesting plants…and is providing some food for wildlife. Hopefully the wildflowers I’ve planted this year will grow this season and then come back year after year…increase the yard value for pollinators!

Last of the Day Lilies

The last day lily opened a few days ago so I am savoring what is left of them today – the last of the day lilies for this year. I collected the spent flowers as they fell from the stalks and took them out to the glass topped table on my deck to photograph for the grand finale of their season. The orange ones were the most plentiful, the yellows were the largest and the dark red (purple when they dried) were few but spectacular.

I like the textures and shapes of the dried flowers. Many still have deep yellow pollen showing. The flower collection is back inside now…waiting to see if my husband wants to do some macro photography with them. Eventually they will go out to the compost bin.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Big cooking day. I like to fill the oven when I turn it on at all during the summer. This time I had it on for an hour with the salsa meatloaf going in first….then a zucchini squash custard (45 minutes)…then corn on the cob (30 minutes). I sautéed an onion to top the meatloaf. Good eating! It also felt good to clear the crisper of the last of the corn, onions, and zucchini since I have another CSA share to pick up today! I still have beets, leeks, fennel, carrots, and cauliflower….and not much freezer space.

Grapevine wreath. After a round of yard work back in June, I made a small grapevine wreath. Now – a little over a month later – it is thoroughly dry. I like the way it looks, particularly the little tendrils. I’ll add a festive ribbon and use it for indoor holiday decoration….or maybe I’ll use a ‘ribbon’ of orange or apple peel. Then the whole thing could go into the compost pile in the new year.

Grapevine Wreath

When I was working in the front flower bed, I found a wild grapevine growing up through one of the bushes. It’s native but not growing in a place I could let it continue. I pulled it out but instead of carrying it back to the brush pile with the blackberry vines and grass and weeds….I kept it…thinking I would make a small wreath. I’d learned how in some class I had taken over 30 years ago; simply coil the vine and then twist until it holds the coil.

I got busy with other things and didn’t remember my plan until the next day. It occurred to me that it would be its most flexible before it dried. When I examined it more closely, I realized that it had some small branches of the bush I had pulled it from; its tendrils were stronger than the twigs’ attachment to the bush. I untangled the twigs and then began the wreath making. I opted to make the wreath with the leaves intact – knowing they would dry up and be easily crumbled off before I would add a red bow or a sprig of holly next December. Of course – I might decide to put a red, white, and blue bow on it for the 4th of July.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Pretty fly. It seems like every time I take a quick look at the front flower bed there are different bugs to photograph. This one was on the milkweed. I only got one picture before it flew away. The black lattice of the wings and the red of the eyes are quite striking. I used my usual technique: taking the picture with my cell phone as close as I could focus then clipping the part of the image I wanted to show with more magnification.

Fallen day lily. Sometimes the color deepens as the flower ages. The day lilies I brought inside are on the second round of flowers. The flowers start out a robust yellow and then are almost orange when they are ‘spent.’ This dried one is from the first round. It detached itself as the second round started.

Cardinal nestlings. My sister sent me a picture from her house in Texas. The nest is in a boxwood by her front door! Now that we are all at home more, we have time to savor these natural events.

Magnolia blooming. I love to photograph the big white magnolia flowers, but we don’t have a tree in our yard. My sister in Texas has one…and took a picture!