Along The Pathway

Along one of our pathways I have used it as a test garden.  In this particular pathway there is a tree that has a hole at the bottom of its trunk.  Monarch caterpillars have found their way to it to make their chrysalis. 

The Spanish lavender has done well here and a perfect place for it.  It adds a lot of color this time of year.  I started off with two plants that I had sown from a seed packet.  Now, they self sow themselves.

The white pincushion flowers look amazing next to the lavender.

Super sweet to see them back in my yard.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for visiting my blog.

Pincushion Flowers

The Pincushion (Scabiosa) is great flower to grow.

Love the centers of these flowers.

A wonderful cut flower and I did not realize the different colors they came in.

Hubby and I bought a large seed packet from our local garden center that carries Botanical Interests, Inc.  This packet is called "Bring Home The Butterflies".
There is a mix of flower and herb seeds in this particular seed packet.

I thought we would see the usual lavender and white Pincushions.

But a few other colored Pincushions popped up.

They are prettier in person.

They attract a lot of butterflies and bees too.

Can you see the Praying Mantis in the Pinchusion?  It blends so well into the flowers. I have not seen it lately.  I think it went off to find its mate.  

This beauty is a container variety called "Mariposa Blue". I purchased this at my local garden center about two years ago.  It is a great container plant and it blooms a lot.  Just repot in early fall or spring. The last time I repotted the plant, the root clump was large enough to make two more new plants for the garden.

In a few weeks I will be repotting this one and I hope I can get another plant from it.  They are a beautiful plant to add to your garden or your container garden.

A New Month

Happy October 1st

 I have three Mexican Sunflower plants that self-sowed themselves in the garden.

A wonderful attractor  for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and finches.

Here are two of them.

The finches love the leaves.  It is like a salad to them.

So I will be seeing a lot of the leaves with holes in them.

On one of my Pincushion plants, praying mantis.  I have spotted three so far in the garden.

I do not know the name of this winged little one.  "Common Southern California butterfly" Was all I could find for now. If anyone knows, please let me know.  But it was enjoying the white Pincushion flowers along the parkway. 

Hubby and I scatted a couple of years ago a seed packet called, "Bring home the butterflies". 

The seed packet came from Botanical Interests 

Thank you for the visit.

Starting Over

It is time to start blogging again.  I deleted all my prior posts so I can make room for new photos. So, lets begin.

The 2017 summer garden was so so this time.  The beautiful orange tomato was the big winner.  It was our first time growing "Kellogg Breakfast".  It had the sweetest taste.   The bad thing was, the plant only produces 8 to 12 tomatoes, due to their enormous size.  If we do grow them again, more plants next time.

We also grew purple tomatillos.  I love their beautiful color.  It was great using them in my cooking.

The Pincushion flowers did well.

We also had our butterfly

sanctuary too.  It was amazing!

My little "elves blend" sunflowers.  They really did well.  I have a few more that I just added to the garden.  I hope they will do well.  I think we have some warm weeks ahead.