Garden Photography

There are a lot of ladybug larvae out and about right now here in early October (Oct. 8th). They’re all over the yard, making their tiny metamorphoses on my front door, my plants, the vines, my car. I was wondering why they would undergo their metamorphosis now, as winter is right around the corner (although we still have 2 months before then, and that is plenty of time to do stuff in the bug world). I read that ladybugs can live for several years and that they stay alive through the winter by hibernating. I had no idea about that.

I told my discerning sister that I had some photos of ladybugs and she said, “Are you sure they aren’t Chinese ladybeetles?” I wasn’t sure. And just now, looking at some photos of the Chinese ladybeetles, or, Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis, they certainly look similar. The internet says that the Asian lady beetle is now in some parts of the US the most common ladybug around, and so these photos probably are of the Asian lady beetle.

There is no difference between a lady beetle and ladybug, they are all in the same family, Coccinellidae, which is a family in the order Coleoptera (the beetles). According to Wikipedia, “Entomologists use the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles to avoid confusion with true bugs.”

(The true bugs are the Hemipterans, another order.) I like saying ladybug, though, personally.

This Persian speedwell has been one of the main plants to dominate the bare dirt of my garden. I’ve just let it go and cover the ground. In the below picture you can also see the Three-seeded mercury, the taller, larger dark green plants. It recently put up some flowers, extremely tiny flowers. They must be some of the tiniest flowers you can find.

I’ve been seeing this Smartweed pop up, which has some interesting flowers/seeds. Are those pink things tiny little flower buds? Apparently the Smartweeds are edible. We’ll have to try some. (We as in me and whoever else I can get to eat it.)

*Mostly Veronica persica, Persian Speedwell*

We also have crazy amounts of a fluffy white bug flying around and covering everything with sticky sap. Those are wooly aphids, and probably an invasive kind (from Asia), the Wooly hackberry aphid. According to the internet if you live in the Southeastern US, that’s probably what you’re seeing right now. And I have I think five hackberries in my yard, and a lotttttt of wooly aphids, so it would make sense.

Cosmos Are Popping Off [Garden Post]

The cosmos are popping off now. They add an amazing pop of color to the landscape. It’s actually shocking how much pop they add. Right now things are looking generally brown and crispy, a bit dull, and/or just green. These cosmos are breaking through.

The first one was yellow, and all the rest have been a light yellow-orange. I wonder what’s going to happen to all these flowers with the first frost, which is supposed to be around Oct. 15th.

The bees seem to like them more than zinneas. Every time I’ve looked I’ve seen bees at the cosmos. The butterflies like the zinneas but they have a tough time because of the cars. Every time a car drives by the butterflies abandon the flower, and if two or three drive by they seem to give up on the patch altogether. I feel like the flowers are a bit of a trap for them in this way. But if they can get in when there aren’t any cars driving by they can have a nice feast.

I saw this butterfly on the zinnea this morning, I see this one often around here. Maybe a Pipevine swallowtail? Looking at the pictures online, looks likely.

The marigold has a bud that has grown massively in the last two days. It will bloom any day now. I’m ready. Come on!!!!

My zinneas now have powdery mildew. They must just get it no matter what, because it hasn’t been humid here at all. Hasn’t been rainy. Been dry as a bone. I don’t know how you’re supposed to keep this from happening.

This second patch isn’t having as much trouble with the alternaria though.

Apparently this is the Pipevine swallowtail caterpillar. Look at this crazy thing! And apparently their host plants are pipevines (makes sense), or the dutchman’s pipe, which are also wild-looking as heck. I ain’t never seen one’a these.

I spent more time yesterday pulling up Japanese honeysuckle. Cannot believe how entrenched it is. I start pulling, and there’s more, more coming up, more coming up. It’s hiding, it’s sneaky, in the grass, in the dirt. There’s so much Japanese honeysuckle in the yard, buried, wrapped around stuff. Feels like I’ve pulled up 50 pounds of it.

That’s what I got for ya today folks!

East Nashville Ecology: Frost Aster, Ichneumonid Cocoon, and more!

My eyes are twitching right now, as I begin to type this up, because they’re so tired.

I think they’re irritated from the chalk. Lots of chalk in the air, at a climbing gym. So much chalk, actually, that we have machines called “chalk eaters”, and their entire job is to filter chalk out of the atmosphere. One of our daily tasks being to clean the filters.

I had a short shift today, (4 hours), and the funniest thing that happened today was my coworker educating me on what a GriGri was, a word that I had been hearing often recently at the gym. I thought it sounded like the name of some kind of monkey. I commented on this—initially, no laugh, maybe a small chuckle from Ashley or the big boss—but I couldn’t let it go, because it was such a funny word, captivating me. Ashley showed me the GriGri, which is a tool used in harnessing yourself to the rope in climbing, and I just kept thinking about this amazing word, and said “It’s like LaBuBu”. That was a money line, so juicy that it brought out a loud laugh from the big boss. He said he was going to be thinking about that all night. Labubu. GriGri. I then wrote on a sticky note, “Labubu + GriGri = LaGriGri”, “collab”, and stuck it to the counter, leaving it for the later shifts to think about.

On my previous shift at the gym, my biggest hit idea was the concept of a lazer nail cutting machine. Advantages, 1. Sanitary, therefore does not need to be disinfected (useful for medical purposes and at a place such as a hotel or climbing gym), and 2. perfect precision. Well, and 3. incredibly cool. Because “lasers”. We could have machines at CVS, Walgreens, the grocery store, etc., that would trim your hands, feet too, via the power of lazers, with perfect, machine guided precision and accuracy. I imagined that they could also etch designs into people’s nails, for aesthetic purposes and swag. People could even create and upload their own designs. We could call it, “LazerNails”.

This was million dollar idea. People who wanted a personal unit could shell out some dough and have their own LazerNail machine at home. Nail salons could have them. Possibly. Except does that put the nail salon people out of business? I don’t know what happens at a nail salon, I can’t say.

I have just done some photography for you all, and for myself, to document the local wildlife and greenery. There is an awesome plant that is once again blooming in my yard, and I’ve IDed it, and it’s incredible news. A large part of the front yard is covered with a plant that is inconspicuous and green for most of the year, that bides its time, before unleashing an enormous spread of flowers come Autumn. That is, now. And it is doing this again. Last fall I was shocked to see it. I had thought the plant was a useless weed, probably invasive, sprawling and certainly undesirable by any good homeowner’s standards. Boy was I glad to see it pop off. And this year, hungry for ecological knowledge, I actually have figured out what it is, and ladies and gentlemans, it is FROST ASTER.

The best news? NATIVE.

The bees love it. It’s a late bloomer, just starting to come online here at the end of September. And the bees are loving it.

In the back right of this photo is more frost aster that just isn’t blooming yet. It’s interesting that it’s blooming like this, and I think it happens because of sunlight. The back corner of the yard gets less sun, blocked by the house. That’s one hypothesis at least.

*Some frost aster on the other side of the fence in the neighbor’s yard*

I’m now seeing this frost aster blooming around the neighborhood. It’s not the most common plant but I see it around, in yards. A couple neighbors have some beautiful purple ones. As you can see, there are thousands of flowers on the plant, and they’re very tiny and dainty. Kind of special and unique. Frost aster is a member of the Asteraceae family, which includes daisies and sunflowers.

*Purple frost aster in the neighborhood*

So there you go. New plant knowledge acquired. The internet says they bloom for around six weeks, which is amazing. That’s a long time. I hope it’s true!

Now, there was also something I spotted in the yard yesterday that I wanted to photograph for you. This is a very interesting sighting. I will show you a picture.

As you can see, this mystery cocoon is very small. Extremely tiny. This is why we need a macro lens, because it would be impossible to photograph clearly without macro capabilities. I thought it was some miniature moth caterpillar cocoon, but no—not true. It’s turns out that this tiny cocoon is the cocoon of a parasitic wasp, a member of the Ichneumonid family (which are a bunch of parasitic wasps). The species is Charops annulipes.

Ichneumonid wasps are some of the smallest bugs out there. There are some (such as this one) that are only a few millimeters long. This Charops annulipes is 4-5 millimeters in length.

*Charops annulipes, Ichneumonid wasp cocoon*

I was also greeted an extraordinary caterpillar when I opened my door yesterday. It was crawling manically up the side of the house, along the doorframe. I’ve never seen such a caterpillar before. It’s a Ruddy Dagger Moth caterpillar, which is an interesting name. How did it get such a name, you wonder? What does that even mean? A ruddy dagger? This guy was pretty huge. Probably 4 or 5 inches long. I was feeling lazy and didn’t get out the macro lens for this one, although I kind of wish I would have, now.

*Ruddy dagger moth caterpillar – Acronicta rubricoma*

*Adult Ruddy Dagger Moth (not my photo)*

I was walking back from photographing the purple frost asters down the street, and saw a few more interesting plants and flowers.

Here are some seed pods from a Magnolia tree. I had noticed these pods before because they’re so cool, and now they’re making the seeds, and they’re even cooler. They look so alien, to me.

I also saw this interesting plant, a small, non-descript green leafy plant with yellow flowers. It seems to be a Mirabillis jalapa, from Central and South America. It’s a common ornamental plant apparently, and is not considered invasive, although it is non-native to North America.

*Mirabillis jalapa – Four O’Clock / Beauty of the Night / Marvel of Peru*

This is something that I’m learning about our little East Nashville neighborhood ecology. There are plants here from every dang corner of the world. You think it would be shocking to find a random plant from Peru growing in the grass in the neighbor’s yard. Once upon a time it might be. But we have plants around here that are from every corner of the globe, and some of them are running wild and free. From what I know, we’ve got plants from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, South America, Central America, and Europe—western Europe and eastern Europe too. So there you go. That’s almost everywhere. Only Africa is yet to represented among plants I’ve discovered in the neighborhood.

My neighbor has a banana plant, a huge banana plant in his front yard. Another house further in the neighborhood has many of them. They probably planted them, and I bet my neighbor just let one grow in his yard.

You can actually see the banana plant in the background of this photo that I took, focusing on the frost asters. See the enormous green frond leaves sticking out from behind the trash can?

*Leaves of the Japanese banana tree, in the background*

That house that is surrounded by banana plants, it looks like it’s from Central America. It looks like the entire house was airlifted, yard and all, and dropped down in Nashville, TN. That’s what it looks like, because of those huge banana plants. Apparently that plant doesn’t even produce edible banana—it’s called a Musa basjoo. I’ll get some photos and show you guys in a future post. This plant is also called a Japanese banana plant, although it is originally from China, it has long been cultivated in Japan. And it seems to do great here in Nashville.

Right next to the “Marvel of Peru” (in the grass in my neighbor’s yard in Nashville), was the below, small, green, inconspicuous plant, with little blue and white flowers. This is apparently the Asiatic Dayflower, Commelina communis, native to East Asia. So there you go. Central America and East Asia hanging out in a patch of grass together, here in East Nashville. What an incredible thing. The internet says it blooms for only a single day. That’s pretty cool. I’ll keep an eye out for it. Perhaps just tomorrow it will be blooming? Clearly they’re ready, if these didn’t bloom already.

I also spied some goldenrod in an empty, overgrown lot. This is a good native flower right here.

That’s what I got for y’all today, folks. What an incredible treasure trove of natural wonders we have here, in little ol’ East Nashville!

Buckeye Caterpillar Farm [Garden Post]

Sept. 15, 2025

*Common buckeye feeding on plantain weed*

*Wooly bear caterpillar (Virginian Tiger Moth?) feeding on zinnia*

I was happy to see two butterflies this morning on my zinnias. They looked like fritillaries, large and beautiful. And I thought, I made that happen. There is something here now that wasn’t here before, this garden. These flowers.

Now, have I done a net good? Because I did unearth the soil and unhome many thousands of creatures that were living under the grass that I dug up. And I know there were little moths and creatures in there. But, I have done something for the aphids, the lacebugs, and the butterflies, at least. In the end, my flower garden (focusing on natives too, I’ll keep trying) surely will have more of a positive ecological benefit than what was there before.

The zinnias have been easy to grow. A lot of my other seeds are not sprouting at all, and I don’t know if they will. They could be biding their time, they may come up in the spring after overwintering. But the zinnias, they have done well.

I will say that I saw something amazing yesterday. I was walking home from the cafe and I noticed bees, hundreds of bees going crazy over a plant. I’m not sure what it was, it had blue flowers, long stems. I took a photo with my flip phone but that’s not useful for us here. I have to investigate that plant, because that was extremely popular and providing for the bees at an unprecedented level. (Update: it was Russian Sage, Salvia yangii.)

Only the mountain mint has rivaled that level of bee engagement, from what I’ve seen so far. And unfortunately I think my mountain mint is dead. 😢

I was hanging out in the garden yesterday and I had been thinking all day that I should do some macrophotography, but it was so hot and I was feeling lazy. Then, I was out there again, checking things out, and I saw that assassin bug nymph (1st photo) on a leaf, and I just had to get the camera out for that. That was a worthy target. I actually thought at first it was a praying mantis nymph, which I would love to photograph. But this nymph was cool too.

From the photos on the internet it looks a lot like a leafhopper assassin bug nymph. I also thought at first it could be a large aphid, but figured it was an assassin bug after looking at the closeup photos. They do look similar. Aphids and assassin bugs are both in the same order, which is Hemiptera. This order is also referred to as the true bugs.

There is one photo here that is not from the garden (below) — that is of the yellow aphids, Oleander aphids. There is a small story here, which is that, if you had read my emergency garden update, you know that I was shocked to see a small milkweed plant pop up in the garden, that I had not planted. That was Honeyvine milkweed, and I thought it was a milkweed because it was covered in these yellow aphids. Well, I was standing out in my driveway talking on the phone, when I noticed a vine across the way on our fence, that looked like Honeyvine milkweed. And this is how these things go. You train your eye, and then you start to see the thing.

Well, I went over to take a look, and I thought, if it was going to be honeyvine milkweed, it should have the yellow aphids on it, right? And low and behold, it did. It was covered in them. Now I wish I would have just taken a photo of the vine as well, for you to get a good look at it, but I am not a good photojournalist. I was simply concerned with the little aphids and not the whole story.

I think that photograph of the sunflower says something about desolation, and finding a way. About survival. That sunflower is clearly not thriving, beaten, bruised, crispy, wilted. It has survived two assaults by something large, having been chomped twice, and it is constantly being drained by aphids and lacewings. It has been thoroughly cooked by the sun for the entirety of its short life, two months. And yet, through all of that, it has been able to flower.

Traumatized, yes, abused, yes, but it flowered. It made it.

There are now five buckeye caterpillars that are chowing down on a patch of plantain weed in my garden. It’s like I have a caterpillar farm. I was wondering if they would eat the plantain weed faster than it grew, but that has not been the case. There is plenty of plantain weed to go around.

I was wondering what they were munching on, and I thought it could be a grass but it didn’t seem like it. Caterpillars don’t really eat grass, right? I didn’t think so, you don’t see it at least. Well, I looked up what buckeye caterpillars eat, and grass was not listed. So, I did some scouring, and found that these plants were plantain weed, and there are two kinds around here, buckhorn and broadleaf. And now I see them everywhere.

*Buckeye caterpillar taking shelter under buckhorn plantain leaf*

*Photo from just four days ago – same caterpillars on plantain weed*

This photo above shows clearly the buckeye caterpillars on their beloved plantain weed. This is how big they were just four days ago. They are now about fifteen times as big. I have watched their entire journey, from little tykes to the big beasties they are now. I wonder how big they will get. They’ve gotten so big that they’re starting to hang out on the ground.

They seem to go through phases of activity. They also have good camoflauge, somehow. It takes me several minutes to find all of them. They like to hide under leaves, or at least they did, as now they’re so big I don’t think they care. It probably protects them from the sun, too.

The fuzzy white caterpillar on the zinnea is a wooly bear of some kind. It looks like it is a Virginian Tiger Moth, called spilosoma virginica. It looks similar to what the pictures are on the internet. The below photo is the adult moth form.

I see these plantains everywhere now, in the grass by Ugly Mugs, on the side of the road. Apparently they are edible and good for medical purposes. I want to try eating one.

Emergency Garden Update (Of Extreme Importance)

The title says it all people. There simply must be an emergency update.

I was in my garden just now, weeding, looking over the state of affairs. Every time I do this, if I sit there for long enough, I make a discovery. Often many discoveries. Well, after about fifteen if not twenty minutes of squatting around and noticing things, I was just about to finish, when I spied something incredible.

There was a plant, of strange appearance, and it had what appeared to be, those yellow milkweed aphids on it.

Did that mean… It was a milkweed?

To remind you, here is one of my butterfly milkweed sprouts with the iconic yellow aphids on it. All of my butterfly milkweed sprouts have these vibrant yellow aphids, draining them of their vital life force. I should probably take them off because I think they actually are doing damage now.

These aphids… oh my god!!!! Non-native!!!!!!!

Y’all.

Nature is war.

I just went outside and killed them all.

They’re from the Mediterranean. Oleander aphid (Aphis nerii). I assumed they were from ‘round here because they were also called milkweed aphids. Nope. The omnipotent internet has just revealed to me: a foreign invader.

I did what I had to do. To protect my garden. I’m sorry, aphids. I’m sorry.

It’s for the greater good.

Where are your morals now?

Am I to say who lives and who dies?

Yes. I am. For the monarchs!!!!!!

*Honeyvine milkweed covered in Oleander aphids*

Here are the photos of the mystery plant, the Honeyvine milkweed. And you can see, totally covered in the aphids.

It seems that removing them is a tricky issue because you don’t want to damage monarch eggs. Internet says you could leave them alone if the plant is able to tolerate it. Best method is to remove them by hand if you can (I could). You know these guys aren’t going anywhere. They must be here in America for good. So, just managing the population and keeping your plant healthy is the main thing, it seems.

I am shocked to have a plant pop up in the garden that is A. native and B. something I actually want to have in the garden. Welcome to the family, small Honeyvine milkweed!!!!!!

The purpose of the post has been achieved.

Emergency update: complete.

Shelby Park Ecology/Botanical Report [Aug. 19th, 2025]

Alright y’all. You are in for a treat.

I busted out the old cameraroo for this one.

First of all, before we dive into this, I have to say — I had just written about my Japanese suit, and how proud I was that it was not made with synthetic materials, and oh my god. Are you ready for the great irony? How is life so perfect, like this?

I came home from this lengthy Shelby Park reconaissance, field-reporting photography mission, drenched in sweat. I had worn those wool pants to the part, belt and Dr. Martins. Those nice suit pants, although I wasn’t so stupid or insane to wear the jacket. Yes, in the sweltering, midday heat in the middle of August, I wore my nice suit pants to the park, for a photography mission. The park was as dead as it could ever be. I saw about ten humans in the two hour span that I was there, record lows. Most people were not willing to suffer that heat. Only the die-hards were out.

It was extremely gorgeous–ah, but I have to tell you the great irony. I came home then, eager to strip it all off, and now I felt like I had really earned the right to take off my suit, and I threw the pants down on the bed, when I noticed something. Sticking out of the back pocket was a white piece of paper.

I wondered if I put something that pocket, but it was just the tag of the pants. As I then had it in my hands, I thought I may as well read what was written on it, and see those wonderful words, 日本製, 毛, 100% (100% wool). I saw those words, yes, but then I also spied some words, directly below that. Some horrifying words.

Yes people. I kid you not.

ポリエスタ.

Polyester.

I’m telling you, the irony is unreal.

The 表地 (omoteji) of the pants were 100% wool, yes. But the 裏地 (uraji)? The lining?

100% polyester.

Unbelievable.

And shameful.

I have been going to Shelby Park frequently, as usual. Shelby Park is an incredible, wonderful resource for us East Nashvillians. And I have been studying it, and I have been studying the plants, more and more of late. Especially the wildflowers and the meadow. I have wanted to do some photography of it and write a bit about things for you, and I needed something to do today, and so I decided to just go for it. It turned into something of a tour and study of Shelby Park, a Shelby Park report, along with some new botanical discoveries… I’m just going to write it all up for you. I really enjoyed having the camera again, and doing photography. I realize that I miss that, but it also is a whole ordeal. It’s a serious undertaking, a photography trip. I decided in advance that I was not going to adjust or alter any of the photos at all, and would simply try and get the camera settings as correct as possible, get the framing right, and use whatever was usable. There are still some decently artistic shots in here. That was to save myself time, because the photo editing can take a really long time.

Let’s begin. The very reason I wanted to go to the park was to photograph this plant, which is now the main bloomer in the park. It’s Vernonia fasciculata, called prairie ironweed, a native wildflower. Ironweed has kept growing, and they are the tallest wildflowers at Shelby, and they are everywhere.

The really interesting thing here, and that I’ve learned studying the wildflowers, is that they stagger their blooming periods. The meadow at Shelby Park was completely covered in Common Milkweed’s blooming. They had their heyday, for about a month or two, and it has now totally passed. Not a single Common Milkweed blooms anymore. Now, in the middle of August, it’s the time of ironweed. The ironweed is reigning supreme. It was interesting to see it first popping up, little tufts of dark purple here and there, whereas now it’s literally everywhere. The deep purple is a really enchanting color. I imagine if I was a bee or butterfly I would be like, I need that right now.

This is what the Common Milkweeds are looking like, now. No more blooms, big seed pods. Pretty awesome seed pods.

The other flower that’s really booming right now, in full bloom and everywhere, are the Coreopsis, called Tickseed. Apparently the name comes from the fact that the seeds look like ticks. I like that name, Tickseed. Coreopsis is a nice name too. The Coreopsis is booming. It’s a favorite of mine, right now.

Mingled with the Coreopsis was this flower. You didn’t see nearly as much of this one, but it was there. Not sure what it is.

The Coreopsis was really dominating an area on the edge of the park, that seems to be newly converted to wildflower grassland. This was underneath the train tracks. It’s interesting that you did not see as much ironweed over here, and the ironweed seemed to stick more to the edges. The Coreopsis really seems to show up en masse. There was a large patch of Coreopsis in the interior, huge meadow of the park, but otherwise it wasn’t represented so much there.

Amongst the Coreopsis field was this relic. A coneflower, either Black-eyed Susan or Purple Coneflower. After a long run their time seems to have come and gone. My neighbor’s have all about died away now too. They are a perennial though, so I think it’s just this part of the plant that dies. The roots are still alive and this plant will grow back next year.

This flower right here was looking a little different. And now I’ve done just some investigations, and it seems we have a bit of a problem. Narrow-leaved sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius) and Coreopsis (of which there are many kinds) look a lot alike. And now I wonder which is which, and I realize that I have no idea what I’m talking about. Well, can any plant experts tell us? Do we have both in these photos? Just one or the other?

(Well, a few days later I went to a gardening event at the park, and the gardener and naturalist Hazel told me that most of this stuff is Coreopsis. I was starting to be convinced it was not. Not sure if any of this is the sunflower. They do look a lot alike.)

The artsy fartsy shots I took today would have to be these shots of the train tracks and trellises. I was extremely lucky and had a train drive over me during my flower photographing. 2000 tons of steel and iron flying at 50 miles an hour right over my head. How incredible.

I have wanted to photograph these trellises for a long time, now.

*This is something I would try making black and white (possibly tinted), IF I were editing (I’m not)*

I got so lucky with that train.

Continuing on our tour of the park… These areas of wildflower growth at the borders are here because they aren’t being mowed anymore. I wonder if they have just been allowed to grow freely, or if they were seeded. I feel like they had to have been seeded because otherwise you would get a lot of unwanted things. I don’t think if you just stop mowing your yard it fills with Tennessean native plants. I’ll have to ask about that.

Now I’ll do a few miscellaneous photos here and show you some of the sights.

Had to take some photos of the cars. Cars are just asking to be photographed. It’s like they’re posing all the time.

*Something in the planter here. Cute flowers. What is it?*

Shelby Park has recently create a Nature Play area. It has been very successful and gets a lot of use. It’s a great idea. There’s a section out in the open, and then there’s a section that’s in the woods, where the kids can walk on logs and go down a slide and be in the trees.

*Nature play, Nature Center in the background*

The above photo is the Shelby Park Nature Center building. As you can see, it’s totally awesome. The roof is covered with plants, which helps keep the building cool and also adds some greenery to the world. It’s cool to see that, and I wonder how difficult it is to create and maintain such a roof. I would love to have a roof like this.

The building is on stilts because it’s by the river, and the river floods. There’s a sign that says the highest the water’s ever gotten, at least since that building was up, and it was in 2010 or something. It went all the way up to the top of those posts. I had wondered why this building was on stilts until I saw that sign. Then it made sense.

Now I’m just going to show you a series of botanical photos of interest. There some interesting flowers and grasses, and again I saw the nemesis, Chinese privet.

*Gray’s (Morning Star) Sedge* — *Carex grayii*

This is a grass I’ve been seeing. I had it in my yard, when I let the grass grow. Easy to recognize when it has those iconic seed pods. The name is fitting, Morning Star. It is a Tennesee native, which is good to know because it’s cool and awesome.

*Northern sea oats — Chasmanthium latifolium*

This grass was also standing out because of the interesting seeds. I literally just Googled “grass with flat seeds” and it was the first thing that came up. Seems to be quite common and easily recognizable. Those seeds are interesting because they are totally flat, like wafers.

Here’s the privet, it took awhile to find any. We have been doing a good job of removing it, but I knew I was going to see it eventually. It’s easy to spot when you know what to look for, there’s nothing else that really looks like it. It also stays green when everything else has lost its leaves, and then you can see just how much there is of it. Privet grows in Tennessee insanely well, unfortunately. Non-native.

*Saw a little bit of this small purple flower. Lavender?*

*Small and unassuming flowering plant with dainty flowers*

It’s funny that I am becoming a plant person after a long time of not knowing anything about plants. I think part of the deal with botany is that it’s intimidating. There are just so many plants. So many. And most of the time, they’re all green. What’s this? What’s that? It’s a flower. It’s grass. It’s a tree. But, when you see the same things over and over, you can start to recognize what’s what. Then, things stand out to you, you notice the same flower, and you start to wonder, what is this thing? I see it everywhere.

I think that’s really how it’s happening for me. I walk through this park so many times, I start to wonder what things are. It’s also interesting to see the cycles of growth, the plants that come and go, the flowers that come and go, throughout the year. It’s more obvious to see this when you have a meadow. The native meadow plants provide a lot of action in the summer and fall. We think of spring as being the time where everything blooms, but there are things blooming all year long, some things even blooming in winter. You could actually know what time of the season it was by what was blooming, if you didn’t have a calendar. You also could tell by the weather, I’m sure. And the position of the moon and the night sky, right?

Something I’ve started to notice a lot is the growth of trees in the meadows. Apparently a meadow is the early stage of the development of a forest. First, you have meadow, then you have an interim stage, with small trees, and then eventually you have a full, mature forest. I think this is called succession.

It’s interesting that annuals come before perennials. I think perennials take more time to get established, that’s my guess as to why that is. You can see succession happening in real time at Shelby Park. I’ll show you some photos of trees popping up in the meadow, that are leading the charge into the further stages of succession at Shelby.

Succession is why they say you are supposed to mow your meadow, I think, if you want it to stay a meadow. You have to remove the trees, otherwise you will not have a meadow anymore. I wonder what they will do at Shelby, possibly this fall or winter, if they want to keep the meadow a meadow, or if they will just allow it to convert. The reason they might want to do that is because meadows/praries are rarer now, and also they might want to keep it for the variety. (I’m not sure if our field is considered a prarie or a meadow, I just realized. Maybe it’s neither.)

Below are some photos of trees popping up amongst the wildflowers.

*This tree is a standalone. I wonder how it got here, if they let this one get established.*

*A maple? getting established. I wonder how old it is. Just this season?*

The above photo is a bench in a cleared pathway in the meadow. How pleasant! Probably no on sitting there for most of the day these days, as it is extremely hot. In the background you can see the large oak, standing alone in the meadow.

*What the ground is looking like these days*

On either side of the meadow there are some marshy, wet areas. They are dry as a bone right now. I wondered if the pond would have been totally dried up yet. Beavers, deer, and herons are usually hanging around here.

There were some patches of the meadow where I was seeing a ton of this plant. Anybody know what it is? Trees? Shrub or bush? Don’t know, but there was a lot of it, dominating its area.

I’ve been spotting the plant below recently as well. It’s just starting to bloom. Very pretty, kind of a standout. My mind is going to “thistle”.

Internet says this is Cirsium altissimum, a Tall Thistle. Native to eastern and central United States. That’s good.

*Butterfly enjoying the giant thistle landing pad*

*Tall thistle now starting to make a debut*

There are many flowers blooming right now, Zinnias, some sunflowers still left, dogwoods (if that’s what they are)… lots of trees are in bloom right now, and the wildflowers. Lots of food for the pollinators. So, we are now seeing butterflies everywhere.

*Narrow-waisted wasp on some tiny flowers*

The below photo, the grass, was standing out. I snapped a quick pic. I wish I would have taken some more photos but this was in the meadow, at this point I was really getting cooked, and flowers are still more interesting for me than grasses.

Sorry grasses. I’m sure I will have a grasses era someday.

There’s an interesting bat box out in the meadow, only one of them. I assume it is a bat-box.

Well folks, this is about everything I’ve got for you here. But there was ONE more thing, and it was actually the most incredible thing I saw on this field trip. It was the only thing I really have no explanation for. As I walked through the shaded, covered tunnel trail on my way to the meadow, I happened across a large, black spot on the path. I looked down, wondering what it was, and saw that it was absolutely teeming with wriggling things. Some of you who are squeamish may not want to look at the following photo. Luckily it is relatively low quality, as my camera was struggling in the dark, and with the difficult subject matter.

*Mystery mass — extremely ecologically interesting*

This mass is extremely interesting. I squatted down and looked at it, poked at it (with a stick of course) for as long as I could handle, because it made me incredibly sweaty and the mosquitoes were immediately descending on me. I have to tell you that I still have no idea what this really was or is. It looked like dirt, but how did it get there? And if it was poop — what kind of poop is that? How did it get so flattened out? And what about the creatures inside?

I thought they might have been parasites, but looking at them now, and thinking about how they were moving, they seem like they could be black soldier fly larvae. We have those in our compost pile, they look and move similarly. If they are, that means they would have to had hatched in this pile, so it must have been here for awhile… If it is dung… Do the eggs hatch that quickly? And what kind of dung is this? Were the larvae worms keeping it moist?

I’m open to theories. If anybody knows please tell us all. I’m still thinking about it.

Jay and Bill

So I am fully obsessed with gardening. It’s not really an obsession — it’s a new hobby. But boy is it a strong one.

This morning, I would out doing my daily surveying, pulling the rhizome grass sprouts, examining the new sprouts and the general condition of things, and then watering. I have a bunch of new sprouts, Cosmos sprouts. Those seeds laid dormant for weeks, probably three weeks at least, before suddenly shooting up overnight, as tall as three or four inches tall. They came out of NOWHERE. And now they are booming, going to work. Two days ago they appeared out of nowhere. Now today, they’re already duplicating the leaves, and there are twice as many that have popped up. It’s a totally different method of sprouting than nearly everything else that has popped up in the garden, which come up quite meekly, with just two little baby green leaves, and develop slowly.

The marigold sprouts came up quick, as fast as the Zinneas. Within only three or four days, they were sprouting. They’ve stayed low to the ground, but the seedlings have rapidly developed in complexity. I like looking at them just because they have an interesting shape. They are a little crowded by Zinneas and I hope they don’t get consumed, but they are at least on the edge of the Zinnea patch.

My Butterfly Milkweed might be sprouting, but it would be early for them, according to the internet. I’m getting some sprouts in that patch. It’s probably something else.

I’m on a spree of meeting neighbors. This morning, Jay called over to me from across the street. “What are you raising?” He said. That’s all it took. I walked over to him and we talked gardening. He said he was interested in raising some native wildflowers, that his girlfriend had been growing herbs in pots. He had a little dog named Bill, a cute dog. When we walked over to the patch, so I could point some things out to him, Bill trampled the dirt area with my Butterfly Milkweed. I almost said something as I watched him walk all over the dirt, but I held back. They probably weren’t sprouting anyway.

Jay said he’d been watching my garden and saw that things were starting to pop up now. My gardening is starting to draw some attention, now that things are actually growing. It was pretty ugly when it was just a giant patch of dirt. It still mostly is a giant patch of dirt. We’re playing a long game, here. (Although, not even that long. It’s crazy how quickly some of these things grow, like the Zinneas.) I just wonder if I’m going to get any blooms this Fall, or if the plants will decide that it’s too close to the end of the season and that there aren’t any pollinators left… if there aren’t any left. But we’ll see. Maybe there will be?

The first frost for Nashville is approximately October 15. That will be a big date. What will happen with the first frost? Will things die? Will they die before that? Will I have any flowers? And then, what will happen to the perennials? Will they have grown enough to come back next year?

The Zinneas are annuals, I looked up this morning. That’s not a big deal. If everything died and I had to replant everything next season, it wouldn’t be a big deal. The planting is easy. But, apparently the plants take time to flourish, some of them not blooming until years later. I don’t think any of mine take that long for their first blooms—possibly the Butterfly Milkweed. I guess this is to say that it would be better if I didn’t have to replant the perennials, and the plants survived and kept going next year. I really don’t know what will happen.

It’s all an experiment. A very interesting experiment.

I’ve thought about what can go in the backyard. I’m intimidated by the backyard. It’s mostly shaded, with dappled sunlight. The ground is not moist, at least not right now, but it can be. Clover is growing well back there, the grass is not growing THAT vigorously. The front yard has been completely different, compared to the back.

It seems that the backyard, being mostly fully shaded, mimics a forested, woodland habitat. So whatever grows back there will be whatever does well in a forest, I think. One difference is that I feel like it’s cooler in the woods, and the backyard still gets hot. That probably won’t matter THAT much to these plants. The other thing they talk about is soil acidity, and I have no idea about that. I would like to know.

I want to plant buttonbush, really badly. I have a vision for a buttonbush in a space in the corner. It would be a perfect barrier between yards, and would fit the space perfectly. The thing is that they say buttonbush likes moist, wet conditions. That corner is not dry (except now in a drought), but I don’t know if it would be moist or wet enough. I would have to water it, and even then I wonder how well it would do. That could be another experiment.

I want to cover the fences with vines, like passionflower and coral honeysuckle. I wonder how to get those started. I talked with a lady at the nursery/gardening center. I asked about planting, if there were seeds, she wasn’t sure about the coral honeysuckle. Then I asked about passionflower, and she said, “Hold on a minute.” She went through a secret door in the back, and she came out a minute later holding two large green spheres, like perfectly spherical limes. She said, “”We have a passionflower plant growing wildly just outside. Here.” And she gave me those seed pods.

I felt like I acquired a special and rare item in a video game. Like a bonus quest. Ask the gardener at Bates about growing passionflower and you can score two free seed pods.

After the deer attack, I sometimes have a fear that I’m going to wake up one morning and find my entire garden decimated. It’s vulnerable out there, unfenced, by a busy street. But so far, no tragedies except for the horrendous deer attack. And the sunflower that was chomped by the deer and lived, it is still the most vigorous one I have. It’s doing great. It handled that assault without skipping a beat.

Experiment: Wild Lawn

It’s Saturday. We love that. Saturday is the greatest day of the week.

I already thought about breaking my 500 word cap but I’m going to stick to it. For the experiment.

I have been conducting various experiments that I want to share with you. They are all related to healthy living or healthy world. The first experiment is one that I have done for two years now: no mowing.

The first year I didn’t even know what would happen. This year I wondered if the same thing would happen, and it did in the back yard. The front yard we ended up cutting last year, but I think the same thing would have happened in the front yard as well. Let me show you the results.

Front yard

This part of the yard gets sunlight all day. A ton of sunlight. A lot of different things want to grow here. The large patch of brown plant here just went through a long period of blooming and attracted a ton of pollinators. I eventually looked up what it was and it turned out to be Poison Hemlock, so that was great. I’ll take it down soon now. The pollinators loved it though. It looked nice when blooming.

Quite a few random things are growing behind the Poison Hemlock here and I was able to successfully grow some Nasturtiums.

Back yard

As you can see the grass isn’t very tall. That was the most interesting thing for me. What happened both years is that the grass “bloomed” and that was the tallest it got, putting out stalks with seeds, and then that part of the grass dies and is flattened by a storm, and only clumps are left. So the grass stays low like this and you can easily walk through the yard. The dead brown grass you can see is the dead part of the grass, leftover from when it was blooming.

In the half of the yard with all the clover, no grass grows at all. It’s just clover, which doesn’t get very high, as you can see.

So there you go. That’s what happens when we let the lawn grow freely.

The point of this was mainly to see what would happen if you let a lawn grow. My neighbor let their lawn grow and they ended up having a huge clover patch with a lot of flowers. That was in their shaded backyard, similar to ours. Other neighbor let it grow for a month and they had a grassy situation similar to our backyard.

We haven’t used the lawn mower once. Saved ourself time and gas, good for the bugs and environment. Roommate has used the weedwhacker to trim the edges. Other roommate says once a year “we need to do something about the lawn” and then thank God doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t spend any time in the yard anyway. So it gets to be my project.