Sunday, July 22, 2018

Courtyard Happenings


It is that time of year!  Blueberries for the freezer!



I had a couple butterflies visit my yard!  Monarch and Black Swallow Tail.  Would love to have lots of them.



Evidently she left some eggs behind!  They landed on the little bit of dill I had in the strawberry bed and ate that up so I carefully moved them to the parsley.  There is about a dozen of them.  I hope they make it to the butterfly stage!  My Master Gardener here says they are the black swallow tail.  The monarch has little black like antennas on their head and the black swallow tail doesn't.



Playing "peek" with precious little Nora!



Still harvesting strawberries.  They started out small and then got to a nice size and now are getting smaller again.  Very few raspberries.  Disappointed in them after the great harvest we had at the previous house.



One or two hummingbirds are still visiting.  I was surprised at how long this one set on the tomato cage over the green pepper plant.  He looked at the sliding doors quite a bit and I am wondering if he was trying to tell me to fill the feeder!  I made the sugar water three times and the first time I didn't screw the bottom on correctly so lost most of it and the feeder was low at this point.  I made the sugar water a second time and hubby threw it out.  He didn't know I was letting it cool for the hummingbirds.  So I made it three times and had success the last time.



My one sunflower will soon have three flowers!  Hoping to grow more next year.  Birds planted this one.



I had one ugly leaf on the sunflower.  I cut it off and they seem to be doing okay since then.



I think most of my flowers on my zucchini have been male flowers but it looks like I might get two or three zucchini off this plant.  I have it setting up on the potting table so Coco doesn't eat it.  You all know what a problem she is eating my veggies!



I found these on the underside of a bean leaf.  At first I was going to throw it away because I didn't know if they were good ladybugs or the bad ones.  I showed a couple Master Gardeners here and they both thought they were good ones so I laid it back under the bean plant.  I hope I haven't killed them.  Will be keeping my eye on to see.   This is the last picture and I hope that you have enjoyed your visit!  Have a lovely week!  Nancy   

23 comments:

Granny Marigold said...

Lucky you having such lovely butterflies visit your garden.
You got a great shot of the Hummingbird too.
My Zucchini are not doing well. They seem to start growing then die. We eat so few that from now on I won't even bother trying to grow them. I hope you have better luck.
Have a great week.

Betsy said...

I so enjoy visiting your garden. The strawberries look delicious. Yum! I’ve been enjoying watching the hummingbirds at the lake. Such sweet little birds.
Blessings,
Betsy

Connie said...

I love how you search your garden for bugs and eggs. I have just never taken the time to do that. I guess I've been very blessed in that way because the only problem with bugs have been on squash and when it happens I just pull the whole plant up and get rid of it. Maybe that's over kill, but I don't want them spreading to other things and I don't want chemicals in the garden. I love that you have butterflies and hummingbirds in your garden, how sweet is that :)
Hugs,
Connie :)

Mary Huey said...

How nice to have swallowtail caterpillars!! Those bugs in the last pick are the larval stage of the invasive stink bugs so it's okay to do them in -- I know they look like ladybugs, but I tracked them down last year and was disappointed to learn what they are. If you haven't encountered them, they damage fruit and work their way into your house!?!

Debbie - Mountain Mama said...

Lots going on in your little courtyard, Nancy! Did you get all those blueberries from your courtyard or did you buy them at a farmer's market? The birds always get mine, it's so frustrating!

Henny Penny said...

Oh, I did enjoy my visit. I am amazed how all the vegetables and fruits you grow in the courtyard. Little Nora is adorable! I really want to set out a few raspberry plants. Hope you are having a good week.

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Granny Marigold, I am hoping nothing will harm the butterfly caterpillars. Our son took the picture of the butterfly and my husband took the one of the hummingbird. I may give up on growing carrots but I haven't given up yet on zucchini. Nancy

Cheryl Kimbley said...

Lovely pictures. WOW - that's a lot of blueberries. Good eating.
Nora is too cute.
Love seeing your little garden.
Blessings

Pom Pom said...

Hi Nancy! Your flowers are looking beeeyooootiful!
Summer is so sweet. Thank you for sharing your pretties with us!

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Betsy, Strawberries and chocolate chips! Yum Glad you can enjoy the hummingbirds. I wish a couple more would visit me! Nancy

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Connie, I have a much smaller garden than you do so it is easier for me to search for bugs. Plus you accomplish many more crafts than I do. It is great that you don't have a lot of bugs! I thought maybe with a new garden I wouldn't but that is not the case! Nancy

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Mary Huey, Thanks for commenting! I sure don't need stink bugs! We did look on the internet and it showed a picture of one stage of the good ladybug that looked like mine. Two master gardeners told me they were the good ones so now I am not sure what to do! Nancy

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Debbie - Mountain Mama, We bought the blueberries. I don't have room in my little courtyard to grow them and I wasn't very successful at our previous house anyway. Sorry the birds eat yours! Put some tulle over them maybe. Nancy

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Henny Penny, I don't get as many veggies I like but enjoy having a few. Only one of my raspberry plants are producing berries this year. Something really shredded a lot of the leaves. I am going to try one in a 5 gallon pail next year and see how it does. Once you get your raspberry plants established you will love them! Nancy

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Cheryl Kimbley, I am glad you enjoyed your visit. In December we are looking forward to our second great grandchild. We do enjoy the Nora visits! We do love our blueberries but they are expensive to buy. Good for us though. Nancy

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Pom Pom, I am glad you could enjoy looking at our pretties as you call it! My little courtyard garden is my happy place! Nancy

Margaret said...

What a wonderful week in the garden! That is a whole lot of swallowtail caterpillars...you are obviously doing something VERY right for them to congregate in your garden like that - hurray!

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Margaret, Thank you! I don't know how to take care of the caterpillars so hope their natural instinct will take over! Nancy

Sue said...

Hi, my name is Sue, came by for a visit from Happy days blog, I so enjoyed my visit as I too enjoy gardening, and preserving food.
Blessings,
Sue

happyone said...

Thanks for visiting by blog and leaving a comment. Nice to meet you. I've enjoyed reading a bit of your blog. I'll be by again. : )

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Sue! Thanks! And thanks for visiting. I do hope you will come again. Gardening is one of my passions! Enjoy your garden! Nancy

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi happyone, I am glad you visited and do hope you will come back. Always fun to meet new bloggers! Have a great week-end! Nancy

Joy from Days Filled With Joy said...

Oooh yummy blueberries! How fun to be playing with Nora, she sure is a cutie!! Sorry I'm a bit behind on visiting blogs.. your strawberries look yum too! xx

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