Saturday Gardening and Puttering Thread, August 14 Travel Edition

Caught a nice little portrait of a juvenile, male Ruby-throated Hummingbird in my garden this week. He was very delighted with the butterfly bushes. Lizabth

Hi, everybody! Time is getting short for summer vacations. We have some photos from vacations so far this summer. Don't forget to have someone look after the garden while you're gone . . .

Love the hummingbird portrait. Wish I had one in my yard . . .

Last Week

We had some interesting discussions on tomato varieties in the comments. Allrecipes has a nice review on heirloom vs. hybrid tomatoes. And 35 fresh tomato recipes.

We also discussed harvest size for yellow summer squash. Here's a nice recipe. I might saute the squashes separately from the tomato mixture, maybe with some bacon. Sometimes squashes squeak on your teeth when cooked with tomato.

Zephyr squash, above, has some winter squash in its background. It keeps a long time in the fridge. A lot like yellow squash, a little firmer.

I.D.: We had some interesting discussion about caterpillar I.D.s in the comments. I don't think any of the suggested species were suitable for the Food Thread.

For plant and animal identifications, try iNaturalist. It's a free download. It's not always correct but is a great starting place.

Miked

Looks like an interesting site.

Our mystery plant may be one of the native hardy hibiscus species, or a hybrid. Maybe we will get a photo of an open flower. In the meantime, we got this:

Badgerwx here. I sent a few pictures to the garden thread the year before last. Last year I joined the trend of covid yard improvements & put up a privacy/deer fence. I had to dig up & move around 50 pots of plants & bulbs, so I wasn't able to take any decent plant pictures to send in.

But now I can send a few pictures of my hardy hibiscus plants. The smaller one is called Crown Jewels.

I took a close-up of Blue River II to show the buds, though the white flowers don't show up well against my new fence. I may need to move the plant again this fall. I might swap it with one of these other hibiscuses next to my house.

I lost the tag for the larger hibiscus next to the butterfly weed (asclepias). A friend of mine has a bunch of monarch caterpillars on her butterfly weed, chowing down & forming their chrysalises, but I haven't seen a single caterpillar on mine. Maybe I need a a bigger patch of butterfly weed.

Travel

From Neal in Israel, rice flowers are great for bouquets. Plant is attractive in bud:

or in blossom:

His hollyhocks can grow pretty tall:

And are attractive to bees. Nice catch on the one in the photo above. The pollen on the bee below demonstrates how hollyhocks are pollenized:

Travel Photos from the Family and Friends Network:

Where did they garden?

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at that g mail dot com place

Include the nic by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ,
unless you want to remain a lurker.

posted by K.T. at 01:25 PM

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