It doesn’t take much to excite me in the garden.  Here we have a Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar, who likes to eat things in the wild carrot family (Queen Anne’s lace, parsley, dill, etc.), which I purposely keep letting go to seed to attract pollinators.  It’s working!  Now I’m just waiting to see if my native swamp milkweed will bloom and attract Monarchs.  Meanwhile my other butterfly and bee flowers are doing their job, which is always gratifying.  And I have hummer flowers to attract those elusive little guys as well.

The sunflowers and corn are towering and really busting out!  It’s just a matter of time to see which critters (other than us) get some use out of them!

I’m really excited about finally having some Echinacea (coneflower) to photograph.  It’s happy right next to its cousins the Rudbeckia (black-eyed susans).  Now I feel as complete as I can be, living in a temporary place until we can move to a more permanent garden.

Here are some other colorful specimens.