This week in the garden - #25

This week in the garden saw the first of August's two full moons shining down at the first of the month. This was the Green Corn Moon, also sometimes called the Sturgeon Moon by those Native American tribes that relied on the big fish as a major part of their diet. The really interesting thing about this month, though, is that we will have another full moon on the 31st. This will be what is called a "Blue Moon" so you can look for those things that only happen "once in a Blue Moon" to happen this month!

All the berry shrubs are beginning to be weighted down with fruit as midsummer begins to wane into late summer. That includes the white beautyberry shrub which is as full of berries as I've ever seen.

This continues to be a summer of butterflies, which is the very best kind of summer, in my opinion.

Pipevine Swallowtails have again been plentiful in the garden this summer.

As have their lookalike Spicebush Swallowtail cousins. You can tell the two apart because the Pipevine has a single row of seven large orange dots on the hindwing, whereas the Spicebush has a double row of orange dots.

Of course, there is no mistaking the ubiquitous Gulf Fritillary as anything but a Gulf Fritillary.

It's not only butterflies that are visiting the garden in numbers this week.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are on the move already, heading south for the winter. This male stopped to visit my Hamelia patens.

My garden continues to suffer from my neglect. For most of the summer, I really have been concentrating on my house and getting some much-needed jobs done there to the detriment of the garden. It seems I don't have the energy for both. Even so, the garden rocks along, looking a bit overgrown and frowsy, not to mention weedy, but it's in a holding pattern until I can manage to get out there and take a hand in its development once again. Maybe next week...