Glimpses of August

Fall, garlic, Grape Juice, Grapes, Hibiscus, Prayer Garrden, Reflections, Sunflowers, The Farm, Wild Flowers, Windmill, , , ,

Time flies, and before we know it September is more than half over and autumn is upon us. I admit I have been woefully neglectful about blogging this summer. I do hope you enjoy these glimpses of August.

I don’t like to play favorites and, in all honesty, I don’t think I could pick one flower that I like better than all others, but I do love hibiscus flowers.

They usually begin blooming in early August and continue to blossom well into September.

Pictures of these flowers are scattered throughout this post.

The plant in the above photo is one that started as a volunteer from seed from one of our original plants.

This plant in the above photo is the one I refer to as Mom’s hibiscus. I bought and planted it several years ago in honor my Mom’s birthday which is August 10th. It did not bloom that year.

The following year, and each year since, it begins blooming on or around August 10. This year it has been blooming for well over a month.

The Rose of Sharon are also a variety of hibiscas.

We have two varieties of Rose of Sharon.

It’s looking like we may have a decent grape crop this year.

The chickens have not managed to get them all yet.

(Note: the above pictures are from August. We have harvested some grapes this week and I’m making grape juice and jelly.)

Sun flowers are another flower that I love. This mammoth sunflower above grew as a volunterr in the middle of our squash patch.

Wildflowers

Goldenrod is beginning to bloom and while it would be near the top of my list of favorites, the bees are all over it.

These roses have blossomed continually throughout the summer.

One of my goals for the last week of August was getting the garlic cleaned.

I had about 300 bulbs to clip and clean so I spent a couple hours on Thursday and a couple hours on Friday cleaning garlic. I sat at the picnic table in the shade of the large oak tree and below are some of the views I enjoyed while I worked.

Chickens foraging in the area.

Blue skies littered with fluffy white clouds and dancing sunflowers.

Lush greenery and the windmill catching an occasional breeze.

Ranger hung out with me for a while.

While I was cleaning garlic my husband was cutting cattails and phragmites in the pond.

When he was finished, he brought me this red-winged black bird’s nest. It was still attached to a cattail that he had cut. Nesting season was over and I’m sure they will build new nests next year, so no harm was done.

Thanks for visiting.

17 thoughts on “Glimpses of August”

  1. So enjoyed visiting your farm today, Ruth, via this blog post! I don’t remember hibiscus at all, growing up in the Chicago suburbs. But when we moved to Florida, we saw them everywhere. Yours are lovely, Ruth! And what a crop of sunflowers–plenty of seeds for salads and such!

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  3. Your pictures are lovely. I felt like I was there under the tree with you. I didn’t know that the Rose of Sharon is a hibiscus. My mother had a beautiful one in the yard of the house I grew up in. Unfortunately, they don’t grow well where I am now. I miss you.

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  4. Hibiscus are so pretty and delicate and yours are massive. I see Swamp Roses which are wild Hibiscus at Lake Erie Metropark – they are light pink. I will have some photos of them coming up soon. I like how your Hibiscus is growing on your mom’s birthday – that is special. I guess it took the first year for them to get settled in. I planted Bleeding Heart several times for my mom as she liked them, but the rabbits always got them. I like your view while you are working – it is very peaceful. Have you grown grapes before Ruth? I don’t remember you showing us them if you did and you’ve already harvested enough for juice and jelly. Soon you’ll be picking pumpkins!

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    1. My mom liked Bleeding hearts too, but I have never tried to grow them. Probably best – our rabbits are already well fed. LOL.
      Grapes were one of the first thing we planted at the farm in 2012. Not all years are good. I have blogged about them a few times, but I think the last time was 2020. (Hard to believe that was 6 years ago.) SMH
      We have actually picked our pumpkins and squash and cleaned up the garden beds for the year. Getting ready for winter.

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      1. Bleeding hearts are so pretty. I see them over at Memorial Park (where I hope the volunteer garden was not taken apart in the tornado damage). Also white Bleeding heart plants at Heritage Park. They are so dainty and delicate. The rabbits enjoyed them … the squirrels preferred knocking down the Sunflowers and feasting on the seeds. Once I had planted a Mammoth Sunflower and it was very tall and bent in half as it was heavy with seeds and I went out in the morning to feed the birds and the squirrels had the “pan” of sunflower seeds between them feasting. 🙂

        I guess I forgot but lots was going on in 2020. My recent post I mentioned my grandmother’s neighbor who made wine with his grapes – they were over in my grandmother’s yard, but she didn’t care – they were friendly neighbors. They’d make wine with them.

        Really, your pumpkins and squash are done and cleared out – I thought that would be a few weeks yet … well, Fall is here, newly minted. Time goes by too fast.

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