Dried American Beautyberry Stalks Feed Wildlife

 

Hermit Thrush in American Beautyberry Bush

I've found that leaving my American Beautyberry bushes intact through the Fall and Winter provides food for wildlife. This is something my "neatnick" gardening friends would never consider. Dried up berries on stalks are untidy looking, but have brought in many birds. Carolina Wrens, Dark-eyed Juncos, Hermit Thrush, White-throated Sparrow, Eastern Bluebird, and Eastern Phoebes are species that I've observed in my backyard. 

By the way, I have about 20 Beautyberry bushes. These include the original 3 given to me by a friend and the other 17 that are spontaneous volunteers "planted" by wildlife. My rural street has the bushes coming up on the roadside as well.

Dark-eyed Junco under Beautyberry Bush

Eastern Phoebe in Beautyberry Bush

Eastern Bluebird in Beautyberry Bush

White-throated Sparrow in Beautyberry Bush

The American Beautyberry is a native plant of the United States.

A Big Tomato Harvest after a Wet August

Fresh Harvest of Cherry Tomatoes

We had a lot of rain in the last 30 days. 8-10 inches in fact. My gardening friend quoted "17 inches in 16 days" so results vary. The good or the bad part of it, depending on your perspective, is most of the rain would fall overnight. There was no progress made on indoor projects. I remained outdoors mucking around wet grass and picking over-plump tomatoes.

Eggplant with Garlic Sauce

Vegetables

Tomatoes were splitting with the excessive rain, but mostly edible. I harvested a nice bunch of eggplant to make my eggplant with garlic side dish. The eggplants are small, about 6 inches long, but I'm happy to have them. It looks like another group will be ready for a September harvest.

Tomato Harvest

Tomato and Eggplant Garden

Tomato Plants

The jalapeños are plentiful. My summer's first serving of jalapeno poppers were so intensely hot, however, it scared us away from one of our favorite dishes.

Pests

Hornworm Eating Green Tomato

There was an uptick in hornworm and other caterpillar activity on the tomatoes. This is a challenging game of trying to spot the very well-camouflaged worm on the plant. Clues are a stripped stem or a chewed green tomato (see photo) or waste material on leaves.

False Dragonhead Flower

Flowers in bloom

The late summer flowers are starting to bloom now. A couple of days ago, the first False Dragonhead bloomed. When several of these bloom together, the color impact of the purple is amazing.

Crape Myrtle Tree in Bloom

The flowers on the Crape Myrtle tree are a deep pink or fuchsia color. The tree has been allowed to grow tall so that the blooms are at the second story windows. Cleomes have finished blooming and I've collected seeds.

American Beautyberry

The American Beautyberry is known more for its purple berries than flowers. The green berries are starting to change to a dramatic purple.

Coming Up Everywhere

Wind and birds have reseeded several plants across the yard.  Lemon Balm, Crape Myrtle, and American Beautyberry plants are popping up everywhere.

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I hope you are having a great August! You can find rainfall totals for U.S. locations here.