Strange Fruit
The wonders of the Accidental Naturalist's garden: an artichoke long past its peak for clarified butter.
And yet another artichoke.
Poppies gone to seed (above). Dried seed heads are full of tiny black seeds that can be shaken out and saved for planting later.
Echinacea blooms offer late-season feast to a variety of pollinators, including this one left out of my field guides.
Poppy seed heads make resting spots for this butterfly (a skipper, but one I would have to catch in order to identify more precisely.)
While most gardeners are harvesting beans, tomatoes potatoes, zucchini, and all sorts of edibles, my garden generated a handful of blueberries and not much else. Why? Deer, rabbits, and slugs. What's in my garden is the result of five years of planting and replanting. It's an odd mix--a little on the Addams Family side--but the one the bees and butterflies love.