Something for everyone

 

Sedum plants are all over our property, in the front yard landscaping, in the back yard where there used to be a vegetable garden, and at the back of the property alongside the shed.  In the case of the latter, there are full-grown sedum on the mostly shady north side, and some little ones that began life as volunteers in the front yard landscaping and survived my amateur transplanting.

To one extent or another, they're all in the flowering mode that arrives in September.  The pink flowers attract pollinators from honeybees to bumblebees, from brown skippers and other small butterflies (all of which are visible at the top of the picture) to infrequent visits from a monarch.

Already the front yard plant, which gets abundant morning sunshine and attracts the most insects, has begun to lose color in the pink flowers.  All you can do is appreciate things while they're present.

Time for catching up

A cosmos and a pollinator in our back yard annual garden, taken about noon on the 11th.  More images to come; this has been a busy month.  The sedum in the front yard has had all kinds of pollinators, and it's also the season for coreopsis and asters, which you'll see in good time.

Afternoon Glory

Hedge bindweed, seen last Saturday afternoon while I was putting waiting time to good use, walking around an out-of-town park.    

 

At last

In spring this year, I scattered seeds from a packet labeled Wildflowers that I'd bought at Walmart.  The cornflowers were numerous, and other styles and colors showed up as weeks went on, but not until today did this orange flower make an appearance.  If Google's AI is to be believed, it's Calendula, or the pot marigold.  Two tiny insects found it just the thing.

Looking back

I knew it had been awhile, but nothing since mid-July?  And I've been taking pictures all along, I just haven't felt they were stuff I wanted to share right away.  Here's one from this past Sunday afternoon, so see if you don't agree.  It's something I wanted to have a memory of seeing, but not something I thought would be a post I couldn't wait to make.  

I'll go through the other snapshots and put up two or three of them. 

 "I don't fill every minute of every day with purpose and joy, but I do all right." - On retirement, July 2026.

A new volunteer

Here's a recent addition to our back yard.  Google Lens says this is Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria), an introduced biennial weed.  The Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension has it on their Noxious Weed Watch List, which doesn't surprise me in the least. 

The same, only different

It's another recent blossom of the same kind of flower shown in the previous post, except this time the image was taken late in the afternoon, and with a camera instead of a phone.  Definite improvement.

Not dead yet

Our next-door neighbors have a dogwood tree on their property, so I'll guess that this volunteer in our yard came from there.  It picked a good location, too, just inside the landscaping without interfering with any of the other greenery.  Something happened about five years ago that was a shock to its system, but it survived and each spring the blossoms appear as shown above.  

Lucky timing

We've lived here for decades, and I can count on one hand the times I've seen a snake.  Here's the one I saw today while appreciating the wildflowers and tree blossoms in the back yard.  

New appearance

Yesterday, this wasn't in our back yard.  Today, a few clumps of verbena appeared near the stump of a red maple.  I found images of the same kind of flower in the same area and dated July 2025, so if it's not a perennial, it self-seeded.

 

Only one

The back yard has a growing number of dandelions, to go with the speedwell and the violets.  Today, this yellow flower appeared for the first time, and was the only one of its kind in the yard.  A quick search reveals it to be mock strawberry, and likely more of its kind will follow throughout the spring and summer.

First the speedwell, then the violets

These are growing along the sidewalk and slightly over the property line, so not ours, but still the first wood violets I've seen this spring. 

Along the front sidewalk

Always glad to see the creeping speedwell emerge in our yard.  It's a sign of spring.

 

Waiting with faint hope

To begin with, I was pretty, pretty, pretty close to 40°33'56.9"N 75°35'07.2"W in the map screen shot immediately below.  

The next image gives you an idea of what I saw looking west from nearby Grange Road, April 21, 2024.  One white flower was visible in the middle of an open field, and I walked over for a closer look.   

Soon the flowers were gone and the field was planted in soybeans.  But next spring, April 29, 2025 to be exact, the same kind of white flowers reappeared, shown in the third image.  They're called ornithogalum nutans, or drooping star-of-Bethlehem, and evidently their bulbs are pretty hardy, if not always welcome.

Finally, a view of the same field looking south, January 6, 2026.  The area shown in the prior pictures hasn't yet been dug up or graded, but in my experience, there's not much reason to be optimistic.

Until the early part of the decade, the roadside was seldom tended, and wildflowers grew all along it, including chicory, hawkweed, red clover, and Queen Anne's lace.  A short distance away, purple asters thrived near the bypass.  All that has changed, and I'm glad I took pictures while I had the chance.

March 13:  Township appears to have scraped off all remaining topsoil and piled it up for transfer somewhere else.  And that's that.

May 3:  A recent township public meeting announced that a new police station will be built on the site. Late last year, the township bought the property from the estate of its former owner.  The house on the property would be razed, and several tall trees have already been cut down. That includes the biggest one in the center of the above photo, lined up roughly between the 2nd and 3rd orange cone.  

Not dead yet

Taken this morning.  Cold weather, even light frost has had no effect on the wild radish that showed up in our bird garden this year.  

Also today:  I went outside to refill the bird feeders in the bird garden and spooked a cottontail, which hurried under the shed.  

(Post No. 1,000)

Fall color

 A couple of hours at Tabby's Place this afternoon.  After signing out, I walked around the building to see if anything interesting was going on out there.  There were still flowering catnip plants, and pollinators flying above them.  I saw this growing in a landscaped area, and since it was the only one of its kind in there, I'm going to guess it's a volunteer.  Plant identifying app says it's tropical milkweed.

Poisonous, and in our back yard

Lobelia inflata is an "acrid poisonous annual is found in a variety of sites, often in poor soil. The American Indians were said to have smoked and chewed its leaves; hence the common name. Though once used as an emetic, the root should not be eaten, for if taken in quantity it can be fatal."

A lone slender stalk of Indian tobacco, growing on the east side of the shed in our back yard.  What bird was responsible for bringing that seed onto that ground?

Unexpected, but in a good way

I just checked, and found pictures of wood violets in my collection that date back to April 2008.  Spring is when they traditionally bloom, then they die back and only the leaves remain as low ground cover for the rest of the summer.  

What I didn't expect was to find photos that I took that are dated November 7, 2010 and October 27, 2012.  Here's one from today, October 16, 2025.  A useful reminder that there can be a small second batch in autumn.  

A walk in the park

Clematis terniflora (sweet autumn clematis)

40°35'39.7"N 75°30'03.2"W

Still growing

 Nasturtium has literally blossomed since being transplanted from the planter box to the soil of the small flower garden.  Three in full bloom, with one more at left about ready to join them.