An Accidental Butterfly Garden

I spent about 15 minutes this afternoon making good use of my zoom lens at the shop. I hesitate to even make this post, because it so obviously shows that my weeding duties have been neglected lately. But, on the bright side of things, letting the weeds run a bit wild this year in our tree line has attracted hoards of little butterflies. So, if anyone asks, I'll just say that I was intentionally creating habitat for natural wildlife. Yeah, that sounds legitimate.

Side note: it never seems like butterflies are moving very quickly until you attempt to photograph them. After snapping over 100 pictures, these are my best shots. After this little project, I have renewed appreciation for the patience that wildlife photographers must have.

Flower Garden Update

When I planted my flower garden this year (not all that long ago, by the way) I notice that an ornamental squash was growing in one of my front flower beds, most likely accidentally planted by my Halloween decorations from last year. Being the plant lover (or hoarder?) that I am, I couldn't bring myself to dig it up. Now, even though my impatiens refuse to grow, my squash is definitely doing well. However, it definitely does not belong in my flower bed. See for yourself:

Yuck, right? All you can see is the silly squash! But, I still can't pull it. I feel too invested in its growth now. Ok, now, take a few moments to get over the fact that it's obvious that I haven't pulled any weeds in a while, then check out a couple of my gardening *wins*.

For example, this lovely basket filled with impatiens that are cooporating with me:

And this small pot of gorgeous pink begonias:

 

See? I'm not a complete gardening klutz. Now, if I could only get over my weed hoarding tendencies, perhaps my large flower beds would look just as nice as my potted plants!