August in Our Garden

The update for July will get rolled into August’s look at our garden. It seems a fitting time to do it. Early August is about halfway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. In the distant past, this time was known as Lammas or Lughnasadh, a pagan celebration of the beginning of the harvest. I always feel that day in August when the sun starts to turn and the light feels heavier, slower almost, and I know the harvest months are upon us.

In the past, our garden has been primarily vegetables and our harvest season has begun in August with cucumbers and the first tomatoes. Then some of the root vegetables come in. The beets and carrots get pulled and we get to marvel over their colors.

This year, our garden has been scaled back and consists mostly of flowering perennials that we hope will attract a plethora of pollinators and other critters. I shared my wish list of garden critters in our previous garden update, in June.

Our July and early August were filled with many garden visitors, some from my list and others that I have written of before.

Here are some of the bumblebee pictures I managed to get. The first, with the red band, is on our prairie sunflower. The second, yellow and black, is on the purple coneflower, and the third, also yellow and black, takes a liking to our borage. In addition to these, I also caught a few glimpses of an all-black variety of bumblebee which moved far too quickly for photos. Maybe one day!

I cannot describe how happy it makes me to see bumblebees in our garden. In previous years, I have found them few and far between in garden visits and most of the bee sightings were regular honeybees on our salvia. Definitely not a bad thing to me, but bumblebees feel more magical and cartoonish. They are entertaining to watch and beautiful to study. 10/10

Here are pictures of an iridescent green bee, which I believe to be the metallic green sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus. These have also been showing up more frequently in our garden this year and I thought they were going to be scarce. These are beautiful bees to watch in person and they are amazingly fast. I had to sit still in front of these flowers for several minutes before they happened to land and I got these photos. Worth it.

Here are some other varieties of bee that seem to love our prairie sunflowers. They range in size from miniscule to about the size of a honeybee. From what I can assume, these may be carpenter or mason bees in addition to others I have yet to learn about. Several of them have made homes in the fenceposts by our garden (pictured below). I want to continue to build up the variety of insects that visit our garden but I feel this year has already been a success when compared to other years.

There have also been other critters visiting our garden, the birds! I got to strike another entry off my list, the beautiful goldfinch. In the evening, I heard something which I thought was a mouse squeaking furiously. When I turned the corner, I spotted a pair of goldfinches perched on our prairie sunflowers. Every year around this time, our sunflowers draw the goldfinches in and feed them as they pass through. It is always an honor to be a part of their migratory patterns and to see their little yellow bodies flit from the flowers to the nearby trees when you try to catch a glimpse. Like little phantoms in the corner of your eye. When you get to watch them in action, it really is special.

We have also been getting a red-tailed hawk in our area, perhaps drawn in by the mice that like to make a house in our garden shed. The hawk is sizeable and prominent wherever they decide to perch and getting close enough for a picture can be a practice in patience. In person, they are much more noble and majestic.

Our garden, which in June was just a collection of green in a bundle of tightly-wound leaves, has been bursting with colors. The yarrow, coneflowers, sunflowers, borage, and black-eyed susans have all bloomed and done their goodwork attracting pollinators. Morning glory and moonflowers open each morning supported by the tall sunflowers or drooping over our fence. Goldenrod has exploded in yellow — pictured here in our neighbor’s garden. But the salvia and the chamomile are on their way out, forming seedheads and turning brown. The sedum autumn joy is just about to begin its blooming, signalling the start of fall. Even in the midst of the summer heat, the next season is palpable and waiting.

The summer heat, the flowers, the garden, and the world of fascinating insects that arrives each year brings a flood of happiness and contentment for me. In the beginning of the harvest season, I get reflective on a time of unbridled enthusiasm and nonstop activity. Everyone is up and doing something, and you feel drawn into the life of these most open and inviting months. But there is also a soft spot in my heart for the fall, for the big harvests and cooler nights, for the slowing of time and the diminishing of the daylight. Things become quiet and thoughtful and you get to immerse yourself again in the joy of planning next year’s garden while still in the abundance and happiness of this year’s.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief tour of our garden during this, the beginning of the harvest season. Stay cool for the rest of August, and happy gardening. Thanks for reading!