Night Shades are stealing the show this week

Enjoying these little orange sweet ones!

As I collect my food, I noticed this hard working little butterfly with her tattered wings.

I found this beautiful red Nardello ready to eat today!

The nightshade vegetable section is filling in and many of them we are enjoying this week.

Jimmy Nardelo Sweet Italian Pepper

I started this Nardello pepper from seed this past spring! I have been waiting all summer for a red Jimmy Nardello pepper. Where I planted my peppers this summer is a bit too shady, therefore, it is taking a bit longer for my peppers to ripen ! This is the beautiful red color a Jimmy Nardello pepper should have before eating. Here, is a site with information on the history of this pepper.

http://www.iowasource.com/food/cooks_0807.html

Here, are the peppers I picked since I have been waiting forever to taste this sweet pepper!
I have a family of raccoons that grab my food in my yard. I tend to gather items before they ripen, so I did not see the red one till I picked the semi red. I dreamed of these sweet red peppers as I sowed the seed in my warming mats this past spring.
Yes, I'm an impatient person!

Look at them, I can hardly wait!

Vertical Growing Winter Squash 2011

The Japanese Beetles have left their destruction for 2011. I turn around, and there in my summer and winter squash area are the following enemy! The squash bug, however, this year he did not appear as early. I 've been searching and killing the first ones as I found them to be crawling amongst vines. This year I notice a remarkable flying moth, Squash Vine Borer Adult Moth! Okay, game on next year since I now know what he looks like in his flying stage! I noticed tiny red/brown eggs on my squash leaves and started throwing them away since I found they hatch into those terrible squash bugs! So I will do my daily rounds for the squash bug eggs, and I even found a Squash Vine Borer Larvae and pulled him out from my vine! Each year I learn in my potager who the beneficial insects are, and they can be misleading if they are pretty flying moths!

Table Gold Acorn Winter Squash and summer scallop

We have been eating our scallop and early Golden Ace for several weeks. It can be eaten just like a summer squash. It turns a beautiful
golden color in the fall if you leave it on the vine, but why wait when you can enjoy it in a summer squash casserole, too!

A bee working inside my squash bloom. There is a lot of texture in this flower!

Bees!

Love to watch bees working in my yard. By midsummer, I find them to be meandering throughout my yard in groups. It amazes me that there are so many types of bees in the world. They are individuals, too, just like us!

If I am aware of a native/annual flower they like, I make the effort to obtain that flower every summer.

I've talked to a few garden friends, and they all agree, we regret it when we hurt a bee in the garden. For example, when we are searching for Japanese beetles we may lose a bumblebee in a bucket of soapy water! When this happens I panic and try to retrieve the little guy because they are garden helpers. It seems to be a general feeling, we killed a worker bee! I just want more people to provide food and places to nest for native bees. It is so easy to do all one needs to do is sow seeds in spring or increase native plants, in their landscape. So I will continue to pull up my water guzzling lawn and plant more flowers for bees!

This little guy was resting, I touched the cosmos gently and he woke up and moved on.

This guy posed for me while visiting a Hyssop in my yard

This beauty decided to rest on my tattered cone flower that is surviving the 2011 onslaught of Japanese beetles!

Royal Catchfly

This is Royal Catchfly, I ordered this plant from  http://www.prairienursery.com/store/ a few years ago.  Today while I was enjoying my morning coffee , I noticed this vibrant red off in the distance. I had not seen it since last year and was worried it was lost in my Potager. According to Prairie Nursery this plant is found only in a few locations in the Midwest. I hope it stays in my yard, I just love it! It is a butterfly and hummingbird favorite.

Red Bee Balm in July

 Bee Balm running through my garden in the middle of summer makes me smile!

Dragon Tongue Bush Bean

I tried several bush beans this summer. This one was sold out at Baker Creek Heirloom, and I was lucky to get a pack of seed in April  before they were sold out. There were 15 comments all positive about these bush beans. Well, I mostly grow pole beans I thought I will try a few since they usually are a few weeks earlier than my pole beans. Out of the four beans I tried these were the best! They are tender and not stringy!

They are very pretty in the bean patch, too.