I’m not sure if it’s midlife, or the fact that I’ve moved back to natural landscapes of my childhood, but I notice trees and plants far more than I used to. Each month here on Home Again I share a photo roundup of what’s growing around my home, neighborhood, and city. Glad you’re here!
Golly, August is packed full, isn’t it? Ours came in with a perfect day at Wrigley Field on a visit to Chicago and went out in a flurry of back-to-school emails and an epic garage cleanout. Plus, all around us every day, spectacular summer weather and gorgeous California sunshine:
Here’s what’s growing around my place in August. Head to the comments or hit reply to share what’s popping up around yours!
Way back in April when we planted our raised garden beds, my husband Bryan studded the center lines with orange and yellow marigold flowers. Some have been eaten by visiting critters and re-planted; others have stuck it out all summer. They like full sun and are bright and bold this month.
At the farmer’s market recently we came upon a table full of these pink, lily-like blooms, and I immediately realized I’d been seeing them pop up all around the neighborhood as well.
A cardboard sign on the market vendor’s table labeled them something that I don’t really want to type into my Google search bar, but thankfully they’re also known as amaryllis belladonna, or Belladonna Lilies.
Look, nectarine tree: if you want me to get excited about your fruit, you’ll need to show up earlier in the summer when the plums do. By August I’m honestly kind of over the fun game where I have to beat the birds to the harvest, plus I already made these plum crumble bars three times in July.
The nectarines this year were … fine.
Meagan Francis and I recently recorded a podcast episode for Midlife Lady Leisure Pursuits about her love of foraging, which is something about which I know nothing and loved learning about.
After our conversation I started looking differently at the dry, scrubby roadside weeds on my neighborhood walks. It turns out that erigeron bonariensis (above, left)
“has been used in traditional medicine for various conditions, including gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea and dysentery, skin ailments, respiratory tract infections, and as an anti-aging and anticancer agent. It possesses astringent properties, useful for stopping bleeding and treating inflammation, and has been explored for neuroprotective effects in relation to Alzheimer's disease.”
and also that taeniatherum caput-medesae (above, right), commonly known as medusahead
“has no recorded medicinal uses; instead, it is an invasive grass that is detrimental to rangelands, posing issues for livestock and vegetation management”
Win some / lose some, I guess?
Part of the fun of this series is noticing what I notice: I think artichoke agave have shown up at least thrice in the last nine months - but this time, with blood-red nail tips?
I did look up what the red spines mean for the plant, because I’ve been walking by these particular ones for years and have never clocked this bright a shade. The Internet seems divided as to whether it’s normal or a sign of stress, but I’m going with it’s fine, everything’s fine.
I rather like that some rose varieties look spectacular growing on the bush, but can’t bother themselves to look nice in a vase. Most of our front yard roses fall into this category. I’ve tried to pick them and fashion an indoor bouquet, but the stems are irregular and bendy, the blossoms fall apart easily, and the very process by which one might procure such a bouquet is … thorny.
So I enjoy them this way, in glorious aggregate on the shrubs. Aren’t they spectacular in August?
As we head into September, I expect things round here will continue to be awfully dry. It doesn’t cool down in my area until November, and we don’t usually get rain until even closer to the end of the year. Still, fall offers fallen acorns, ripe tomatoes from the garden, and the ongoing Avocado bounty we’re enjoying this year.
Talk to you next month!
More in the What’s Growing series:
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