July House Log

Forgive Me; It's All About Hummingbirds

House Logs are an offshoot of my Nature Log and We Make a Home series, created with the intention to record the beauty and seasons during (at least) our first year living on our new piece of land! I’ll be sharing photo essays about each month, and all the photos will be taken at/in our home and on our land as a way to observe and appreciate this new-to-us place. It will cover explorations both wild and domestic.

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This month has shown so much growth and change outside that I can’t possibly cover it all here. I will certainly be sharing more about the garden as a whole—what went well and what didn’t and what we grew and everything in between. But, for now, today, let’s look at some highlights! At the top of that list are the hummingbirds.

Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

The hummingbirds started visiting the garden at the beginning of the month, or maybe at the end of June—always female Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds. While I do hope to see a male, the females have been so beautifully consistent, and, dare I say, friendly.

You hear them before you see them, the deep, whirring sound of their wings beating. And then, there they are, hovering in front of you. On many occasions, they get very, very close, hovering in front of your face to make some kind of judgement.

I don’t know what dahlia variety this is! I thought I did a good job labeling everything, and July taught me that I did not. This one has an aberrant double bloom!

Then, they head to the flowers: dahlias, borage, nasturtium, geranium, lavender, squash. They are less discriminating than I imagined them to be.

And so small! I think they are about the size of my pointer finger, which becomes apparent when they perch.

While I am certainly anthropomorphizing, I take a real pleasure when they sit in the garden. How safe they must feel! But actually, I think they are not very skittish birds. They can fly more precisely and faster than most predators.

And, they are territorial. Once, three visited the garden at the same time, and they chased each other off, defending the flowers with quite a lot of passion over 15 or 20 minutes.

I’m not sure if a variety of birds visit each day, or if it’s the same one(s). I do wonder why the males never stop by! It is possible, too, that some of these are juvenile males without their flashy throat feathers.

Okay, okay. What else is going on? Everything in the garden is so beautiful. Soon enough, I will get into the list of things that didn’t go our way with the plants. I thought those things would make me sad, and I guess they do, a little. But, mostly they make me endlessly excited about gardening every season and figuring things out.

Also, to quote my friend Jenny, “I understand the creators of Veggie Tales.” Vegetables are SO CUTE.

One of the things not going so well are our cut flowers. We planted them in a place that does not get enough sunlight. And yet, the cosmos are still beautiful at their tiny size (and echinacea in white). Their spot got fantastic sunlight in the early spring, but became too shaded once the trees got their leaves.

I finally made a sun map, which I’ve been thinking about doing all summer. This involves taking photos around every part of the property every hour for a day, and then tallying up the hours of sunlight each place is getting. Tedious, but very worth it for planning next year (and every year).

In the garden, all of the tea flowers are doing great. Calendula makes one of my favorite herbal teas, though it’s also one of the few plants that requires the dehydrator to fully dry out.

Borage has been a breakout favorite new plant this year. The star-shaped blue, pink, and purple flowers last only about a day or two. I actually haven’t been gathering them like I intended to. Instead, I am just admiring how beautiful and unique they are, and watching the pollinators flock to them.

And we’re harvesting vegetables, too. Lots of cucumbers, the beginnings of the tomatoes, squash, lots of radishes.

Maximally cute!!

What abundance to have a counter full of produce!! I’ll be missing this soon enough!

Stunningly gorgeous!!

And, I will end with a squash flower.

These also only flower for one day, opening at sunrise and closing at sunset. But, they are so beautiful, constant, and inviting! The bugs love crawling right into the lush center, disappearing from view. And the plants put out more and more and more. They’re also tasty!