Another lake in the center of the driveway.

And lots of puddles.

The fragrance from the garden phlox is heavenly.

The ribbon grass adds great texture to the garden. This is so pretty in the fading evening light.

Everything in the garden glistens with rain drops.

The color of the purple cone flowers ties the garden beds together as the daylily color begins to decline. Purple cone flowers reseed themselves with great abandon and have spread across the garden. Not a bad thing, if you have room for them. Otherwise, just pull them out and pass them on to someone else. They are native to the prairie and are great plants that require little care and no watering.

We are asked about this a lot, so I’ll tell you (in case you’ve wondered) that we do not water our garden. We do water plants when first planted, but other than that, they have to fend for themselves. If they can’t survive without watering, they won’t be in our garden. Of course, that’s not an issue this year with all the rain we’ve had! We do put down a lot of mulch and that helps tremendously. The soil condition improves with the mulching and that helps hold moisture. We use wood chips as mulch. A friend has a tree trimming business and he keeps us well supplied. Thanks, Paul!!

I can hear the barn swallows chattering like crazy on the front porch. Sounds like the babies are fledging!

I’ve worked on this post off and on all day. Now it’s after 6:00 and DH is on his way home from work. We’ll have a quick supper, then check on the barn swallows and take another walk around the yard.

~~Rhonda

To make a home for the caterpillar, we collected a plastic jar, a small container with a lid, dirt and water for the container, a rubber band and a bit of screen. We punched holes in the lid of the small container, put the dirt in the container, and filled it with water to hold the food.

This particular caterpillar was found on Virginia Creeper, so that is what we stocked the larder with, putting stems through the holes into the watery dirt. Putting dirt in the container, as well as water, helps to hold the stems upright.

Here you can see the caterpillar in question.

Species Alypia octomaculata – Eight-spotted Forester

After putting the small container into the jar (I used a large pair of tongs to put it in place), DD covered the jar with screen and fastened it with a large rubber band. In the past we’ve used fish bowls covered with screen and held in place with elastic. Those are much easier in which to place the food container than a narrow mouthed jar. Keep that in mind if you want to try something similar.

Home Sweet Home…now we wait while he eats and grows. I need to find out if this particular caterpillar will want some dirt to burrow in when it is time to cocoon.

~~Rhonda