Little Yellow

It rained quite a bit this week and the temperature dropped. Since the rain stopped, the weather has been great for working in the garden. We went to the farm yesterday and I pulled weeds for a long time. My boyfriend bought me three more plants this week because there was a Labor Day sale at the local nursery. I got the Black Diamond Mystic Magenta Crepe Myrtle, a Little Miss Sunshine goldenrod, and a Purple Pillar Rose of Sharon. We also got three small rosemary from Walmart to plant near the pawpaws. We planted all of them yesterday. We also planted the milkweed yesterday. We saw a fire near our farm while we were working. I saw many spiders and mushrooms yesterday at the farm. I also saw lots of bees and butterflies there. I am learning more about different species and finding it very fun to be able to photograph some of them. I saw a few new species yesterday, including the little yellow. The host plants of the little yellow are in the pea family. I got a pretty good photo of it. I saw a giant swallowtail and it was pretty big. I read that the giant swallowtail is the largest butterfly in America. It was impressive but I didn’t get the best photo of it. The giant swallowtail’s host plants are rue and plants in the citrus family. I will try to add more plants for pollinators next year. I also saw the Great Purple Hairstreak on the late boneset. Its host plant is mistletoe. I could only take a closed wing photo. It has a brilliant blue on the inside of its wings. I think that most butterflies may move on from Oklahoma after this month. There was little that was still blooming but the sunflowers and zinnias were still looking good. I saw the four o’clocks blooming as well the hyacinth bean vine. The lantana and scarlet sage are still blooming. The sacred datura is about to bloom. The hardy banana is looking happy in its new home. The two hydrangeas also seem to be doing ok since transplanting them last week. My balcony garden is also still doing good. I made some banana nut muffins this week and my boyfriend loves them. I also made some great red beans and rice. I have been busy with work and so I didn’t read much this week. I am very sore from pulling up weeds yesterday. We will be planting more fruit trees the next time we go back to the farm. I think we will not be going next week to the farm. I’m planning to make chicken with herbs and bake pasta with pesto next week to use up the herbs I harvested yesterday.