Carolyn Hirning, in New Albany, Ohio, went via her photographs from the yr and is sharing a few of her favorites with us as we speak.
To start with, my neighbor’s chickens have been surprising (however welcome) guests to my entrance yard.
I planted a patch of widespread milkweed (Asclepias syriaca, Zones 3–9) in a small backyard mattress a few years in the past. Oh boy. I discovered the onerous approach that it’s finest to maintain this plant away from the manicured components of your backyard. The milkweed tunnels beneath the soil and comes up in every single place!
The milkweed is nice for the pollinators, although, which was my objective. I collected a pound of dried seedpods and donated them to the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation. That is the third yr the group has collected milkweed seedpods from the neighborhood. The seeds are distributed on conservation corridors alongside designated highways which were planted with native prairie perennials.
I needed to have a big backyard mattress repaired, which gave me a possibility to plant new issues. I targeted totally on native perennials, however these loopy cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus, annual) from only a few seeds have been far and wide. In late summer season, I let Mom Nature take over the remainder of the backyard, which you’ll see within the background.
There’s a very outdated apple tree within the far finish of our yard that at all times has one thing attention-grabbing happening. These holes appear to be injury from sapsuckers, that are woodpeckers that, as their title suggests, feed on the sap that oozes from the holes they make in bushes.
And one of many oak bushes I planted had a customer. (Editor’s word: I feel this can be a hickory tussock caterpillar.) Since I moved to this one acre 16 years in the past, I’ve planted over 25 bushes: oak, hickory, maple, tulip poplar, and basswood/linden.
The very best a part of my summer season was sitting on the deck watching the pollinators.
And at last, I didn’t harvest many greens this yr, however this goofy one made an look.
