Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Aug. 19

Hi, everybody! Doing okay with the August weather? Any fires or hurricanes nearby? The flower above is impressive.

From: Lurker in the 321 I call it Night Blooming Death Blossom. Blooms once a year for one night only. What is it?

Beauty like that sometimes doesn't last long. Lurker in the 321 also photographed other stages of the flower's lifespan:

Gorgeous. I once had a neighbor with similar cacti. Does anyone know the species?

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From Martini Farmer:

Hello KT,

Here are a couple of photos taken around our place here in Kentucky over the last several weeks or so. We had a bit of a heatwave, no rain... then it rained about 3.15" overnight and has been more typical of our summer weather. So the garden has been doing well, as you can see in this haul from a couple days ago. The tomatoes are a bit of a disappointment in that they don't have a lot of taste. The cucumbers are a "burpless" variety, the typical summer zucchinis are doing great as are the green and jalapeno peppers. There are some black beans and potatoes still in the garden... waiting.

The veggies look WONDERFUL.

Critters:

More from Martini Farmer:

Next we've got some visitors. House/Barn Swallows checking out the bugs. My understanding is that these guys like to feed on flies and aphids, so they're beneficial to the garden. There are probably about 20 or 30 of them that seem to always be around. They like the open spaces and tend to stay away from woods or other congested areas as they swoop around.

The Gold Finches are pretty. We see them year-round if we keep the thistle seeds out for them.

And then there's Mr. P(ossum) who routinely joins the cats for the evening meal. He's particularly chill.

The cats do not seem to care about any of the visitors... they don't mess with the birds or the possum.

Nice set-up.

Lastly, the "bug." We had a literal infestation of these a couple weeks ago. They're "sweat bees" or what some people describe as "hover flies." What little digging around I've done on them they do seem to be members of the Halictidea family of bees. They don't sting but are attracted to moisture and sweat (thus their nickname) and can be annoying. Especially at the pool.

Well, that's quite a variety of wildlife!

Adventure

Historic Glamping:

Glamping might be more in vogue now, but it's certainly not new — an adventurous group of ladies was blazing the (well-cushioned) trail back in the 1880s. https://t.co/fMBsOkQhPv pic.twitter.com/iY7EVUhLft

— California Sun (@mmcphate) August 17, 2023

The article is interesting. Doing laundry in that washtub doesn't look all that luxurious to me. What would your dream glamping look like?

Gardens of The Horde

From Neal in Israel:

Attached are some photos from our visit to the US last month for my nephew's wedding.

From the Burlington VT area where the wedding was held: Gardens were full of colorful lilies?/day lilies?/whatever. Also, the big green lawns and giant willows made a major impression on my Israeli eyes. Included the family in the photo of the willow to show how massive it was.

Nice combo.

Some gorgeous daylilies there, with different flower forms.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, August 12

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:29 PM

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