The Passing of Summer

I must confess we have had a good summer. True – Missouri’s hot and humid days abound. But we have received more rain than usual, spread out evenly throughout the season. The grapes are maturing, the surprise lilies have emerged in the garden and my experiments in gardening are moving forward. Permaculture is not formal gardening. It’s an arrangement between you, the animals and pests and the climate. Jerusalem artichokes are doing well despite having to endure an occasional nibble from deer. The asparagus bed is strengthening in its second year. The flower gardens did well this spring. Irises were collected from the fringe of the woods and the pond and gathered in one place. They are doing well. Our three strawberry beds have produced and are filling in the space. The fruit trees are going strong, having been fortified from the deer (especially their preference for apple trees). The tree farm I started last year is showing good results (growing trees in pots).

Failures? It’s no surprise. Rabbits love bush beans and kale. So slated for future development is an enclosure for vulnerable plants, a modest 12 x 20 foot garden reserved for those plants favored by rabbits and deer. The rest survives.

Returning to Missouri in the summer of 2023, this is really the first year we have spent actually living here. The previous two years focused on upgrading the infrastructure of the old place. I never got into rhythm, having to navigate over trenches, new sewer lines, new underground electrical, new extended propane lines and a new water hydrant. Significant remodel of the house was completed.

But this year has been different. I have had the opportunity to really enjoy the place. The result has been regular walks through the two prairie projects and more attention to life around the pond. Countless hours have been spent in editing photographs, experimenting with techniques of web presentation, and learning more about all the life I observe.

If anything demonstrates the passing of summer it is the pattern of avian activity. I spent most of the past three months updating observations on birds. The place explodes with them, with over a hundred different species observed. But this past month? Nothing to add. It can get rather quiet out there on hot days. The bluebirds have been busy. Sadly, one set of phoebes have moved on. The goldfinches are feasting on the sunflowers – and they are quite vocal about it. Hummingbirds pass by me as I work in the garden. The red shoulder hawks are nearby, as two rabbits cautiously graze in the yard and hide in the tall grass of the nearby prairies. The blue jays seem to enjoy imitating the hawks. The cuckoos cluck away atop the tall hardwood trees.

The website was extensively updated with new entries and improved photos, focusing on flowers and animals. My camera gear is best suited for them. The flowers have largely been from Rachel’s Prairie, a project that was started in 2014. Yet I have been fascinated by the evolution of Prairie #2, or what I call Kaitlin’s Prairie (my other daughter). This project was started in 2023. It’s DNA was a bit different from Rachel’s Prairie, mostly consisting of disturbed ground deposited when the pond was built in the 1950s. It is terrible soil. It is interesting to see which plants take over the job of transforming a scraggly yard into a rich prairie. Last year, it was the fleabane, which returned again this spring, growing ever more across Kaitlin’s prairie. Then, one by one, black-eyed susans appeared, alongside partridge pea. Not much else at the moment except one oddity – a wild cosmos.

• Whorled Mountain Mint

• Wild Cosmos

• Woodland Sunflower

• Hairy Sunflower

• Bare Stemmed Tick-Trefoil

• Panicledleaf Tick-Trefoil

• Prairie Coneflower

  

• Slender Lespedeza

• Spotted St. John’s Wort

• Rose Pink

• Diamond Flowers

• Bergamot

• Rattlesnake Master

• Thistles

• Common Buckeye

• Western Honeybee

• Eastern Tailed-Blue Moth

• Eastern Amberwing

• False Milkweed Bug

• Delta Flower Scarab

• Slaty Skimmer

• Japanese Beetle

  

The finer points of distinguishing a young walnut from a sumac and an illustration of “leaves of three, let them be.” But my newest discoveries are the insects, the creatures that I have seen flying and crawling about me all my life, never taking the time to even know their names.

Now, if only I could cure the problem of duckweed in my pond – that’s another story.

Feel free to browse through all the discoveries around Rachel’s Prairie. Visit .A God Thing.

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