From my own street

This is my community garden plot, and these are my first 2 strawberries.

Question mark butterfly. First time I saw its name, in a long list of butterfly species, I thought it was a typo that had left the publishing house unnoticed. 

Down the street in a windowsill on some pansies, this snowwhite moth with a beige stripe rested for almost 30 minutes. I would love to know its name, if anyone can tell. I wrote to some site on the net and sent a picture, but they have not replied yet.

An early Monarda, Beebalm, is planted outside the community garden plots in a section of native prairie plants.

There is also this amazing Golden Alexander, Zizi Aurea, a member of the Parsley and Dill family. As all of the members of that family, this is a host plant for the Black Swallowtail butterfly. Last year I saw a caterpillar munching on my curly parsley for a week, but then I went on vacation so I never saw what happened. I've read about people "ranching" butterflies - when they find eggs or caterpillars they bring the leaves inside in a vase protected under a net, and watch the caterpillar grow bigger and bigger. You will keep putting fresh leaves inside, and in this netted shelter the caterpillar eventually builds its cocoon. When it finally comes out, you will have some time to admire your butterfly until it has dried its wings and is ready to be released and fly away. If I find any caterpillars on my parsley this year I will definitively try it.

 

The Arrowwood is planted right next to a Sassafras tree. I love that word: sassafras, sassafras, sassafras

Look how gorgeous it is! Arrowwood has great blue berries that are timed to be ripe when the fall migrating birds are fattening up before their long trip. 

A delirious bumblebee

 Fringe tree or Old Man's beard. I wish I could show you the sweet lovely scent its flowers emit. One day I want one planted under my window so I can smell it during these warm summer evenings.

I really like Oakleaf Hydrangeas. They are native to the South east and I don't know how common they really are. But look at those buds! I'll report more from this one shortly.

Finally the view from my third floor porch - the Chinese dogwood is outdoing itself this year, despite all the years I've spent hacking away at it in my attempts to prune it.