Advent of summer evenings

It's not summer yet, but it's sounding like it; the warm evenings are bringing sounds of crickets and tree frogs.

There's a bullfrog calling from the small pond in the Terrace Garden near my office as I leave work, and other frogs in another pond near the parking lot.

The evenings have been delightful; maybe a little humid, but yesterday was downright cool for mid-May. Our garden is lush with green; it's a wonderful respite from the droughty springs of most of the last decade, especially last year, and the year before.

In the Satellite Garden, garlic, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and squash of all sorts are growing rapidly. The planted hay bales are an experiment -- they'll definitely need more watering than I'm used too, and more additional nutrients from slow-release organic fertilizer.


In the main vegetable garden (where the nematode experiment is still underway), a huge butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) has defied my rooting-out efforts, and is about to start flowering.

I had heeled it in there, just providing a (temporary) home for a young plant. Little did I know that it would become gigantic, thanks to abundant water and nutrients, crowding out whatever else I'd like to plant in that block.

Oh well, it's quite striking, and a great source of pollen and nectar for a wide range of flower visitors. In flower, it's remarkable.