Summer Yard

The lacewings have been at it again.

You might think the summer yard in a warm place like Pure Florida isn't that different from the winter yard, but it's a much busier place in summer.

Spiderwort buds.

Spiderwort may be a pretty plant ... at least for a few hours each morning, but it has become an herbaceous nemesis of mine. We are pretty relaxed on our landscaping, but we do attempt to keep a little bit of semi-manicured lawn surrounding the house and spiderwort forces me to mow more often than I would prefer.

It's spread into the grassy lawn and grows much faster than the drought stressed bahia grass. This results in a pretty messy looking lawn as the taller spidey's stick up over the slow growing grass.

Lucky us, nobody can see our "yard" from the distant county road.

I'm working here.

If I were a bug nerd like some of you and if I had a favorite butterfly, it would probably be this battered Gulf Frittttillllarrryyy. This one was crazy for that particular canna lily blossom.

Bucking the trend, a deer browses outside of my garden.

The young buck above is getting knobbier. I took this shot sitting on my my porch. He's just outside the "lawn" area and is probably debating whether he should wander over and browse the rest of my brown-eyed susans by the walkway.

Too late dude, your mom clipped them down to the roots yesterday.