Em's Garden

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Conditions: Sunny and 81 degrees

Observed From: the backyard

Notes: Spring arrived very early this year and as a result we are up to our ears in bugs. There are so many earwigs and Japanese Beetles munching on my flowers that I’ve given up fighting them. The cicadas are singing from dusk until dawn (I adore that sound, it screams summer) and I haven’t seen this many butterflies flitting about my yard in years.

Today’s Bird/Animal Count:

• 1 “herd” of 30 or so Common Grackles that arrived to raid my birdfeeders and pelt the roof with acorns

• 2 scolding House Wrens
• 1 birdhouse full of hungry wren babies
• 1 baby bunny that isn’t the slightest bit afraid of me and is hellbent on reducing my rudbeckias to stems

• 1 Downy Woodpecker
• 2 bathing House Sparrows
• 1 Black-capped Chickadee
• 1 moulting American Goldfinch
• 2 squirrels
• 1 pudgy vole that I didn’t see until I almost stepped on it
• 1 female Baltimore Oriole (I’ve never seen one in my yard in mid-summer before)
• 2 chipmunks vacuuming up acorns

Today’s Butterfly Count:

• 5 Monarchs
• 3 Yellow Swallowtails
• 3 Peck’s Skippers

• 1 Clouded Sulphur
• 2 Cabbage Whites
• 1 Gray Hairstreak

And the grand finale:

• 2 Mourning Doves with obnoxiously-bright pink feet (see photo at the top of this post).

Tags: Critter Count, Observations by Em
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If you want a daylily that will beckon you from across the yard with its cheery blooms, try ‘Yellow Explosion’. The flowers are bright yellow with ruffles and a wonderful thick texture.

‘Yellow Explosion’ has a tendency to produce proliferations. These baby plants grow from the scapes and can be rooted in the ground. They will bloom true to their mother plant. It’s an inexpensive way to add to your daylily collection. This year my plant produced 3 of them on just 2 scapes.

‘Yellow Explosion’ grows 27 inches tall with luscious, 6-inch flowers.

Tags: Daylilies by Em
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