I harvested 70 red and white onions for long term storage. The yellow onions and shallots weren't ready yet. I've been harvesting onions and shallots for immediate kitchen use for a month. More info in ALT and in the comments thread. 🌱 #vegetablegardening

Pics from the sidewalk: Spotted Bee Balm, Best Bee Balm. I am growing 8' tall Big Bluestem in the front yard. The Hummingbird Mint isn't native to my Northern Piedmont ecoregion, but it's one of my favorite plants, and the hummingbirds don't know about ecoregions. Garden for joy. 🌱 #nativeplants

I took these photos of a beautiful Tiger Swallowtail visiting Dense Blazingstar a couple of days ago, before the wildfire smoke reached the Philly Burbs and took away the sun and breathable air. 🌱 #inverts #nativeplants

Recently, in the garden, I harvested the first eggplants. I captured two favorite insects in decent photos. I admired the beautiful Spotted Bee Balm flowers. 🌱 #inverts #vegetablegardening #nativeplants

I cleaned the cured garlic. I cut off the roots and stem, leaving a couple of inches to protect the bulb, and removed the outer layer of dirty paper. I placed the garlic in flat cardboard trays in a single layer. I marked the best bulbs for planting this fall. I stored the harvest in the basement. 🌱

Bumble Bees love Partridge Peas, and I love to hear them buzz pollinate en masse. Partridge Peas are a native, annual plant that self-sows easily. If you plant them once, you have them forever. They're also a host plant for Sulphur Butterflies. 🌱 #nativeplants Sound up to hear the buzz!

Pink Tickseed and Anise Hyssop are blooming in the Driveway Garden. The Big Bluestem is starting to bloom, too. You can see the grass behind the Anise Hyssop. 🌱 #nativeplants

Happy Caturday from Roast Beef, Feline Intern Gardener, who has been observing the tulsi trial very closely. This gardener might say he's been sitting on plants and pushing seeds too far into the soil with his paws. The Beef is passionate about the work, but his implementation lacks skill. 🌱🐱 #cats

Stop everything! Look who's back! It's the Longhorn Bee Boys, asleep together in the sunflowers. Finding bee dormitories every morning is my favorite activity. These are either Mellisodes agilis or Mellisodes trinodis. 🌱 #bugsky

This is the Garden Phlox I thought I was buying. The Jeana Garden Phlox is now starting to bloom. The puffy Garden Phlox that doesn't match the original Jeana is just too cutesy. 🌱

I'm still growing plenty of food, even though it's a lot less than previous years. Here's a photo update. More info in ALT. 🌱 #vegetablegardening

A Tiger Swallowtail visits Garden Phlox in the Philadelphia suburbs.

This weekend in garden life - strawberry cobbler, peppermint, za'atar oregano, purpletop verbena floating in mid-air. I love how the purple flowers look like they defy gravity. 🌱

It's now *peak* Scarlet Bee Balm time and I can't get enough. I've seen a hummingbird using them, too, which always makes my day. 🌱

The Garden Phlox around the patio is starting to bloom. None of it is the variety I expected it to be when I purchased tiny plugs two years ago from a plant sale. Some of the plants are different colors, too. Alas. By the time the plants bloom and you notice the mishap, it's much harder to fix. 🌱

Spots! 🐞🦋 🌱 The Monarchs are starting to show up in the garden. Ladybugs and my favorites, the Milkweed Beetles, are both multiplying. #bugsky

A Black-And-Yellow Lichen Moth, a first for me in my garden, visited Culvers Root. The Coneflowers look nice right now; the Japanese Beetles haven't shown up yet to eat all the petals. Woe betide the beetles when they do. The Catbirds and Robins who ate my entire blueberry harvest need new snacks. 🌱

An evening with Poppy Mallows and pollen covered bees.

The weirdo #nativeplants are starting to bloom now. Rattlesnake Master is alien, hard, spikey, even the flowers. Pearly Everlasting looks like eyeballs when the flowers open. I've raised a good crop of American Lady Caterpillars on them this year. Culvers Root is almost grassy in stem and bloom. 🌱

I've been harvesting a lot of these late June Bearing Malwina strawberries this week and I'm feeling pretty wealthy. A lot of the berries are getting eaten by Catbirds and Robins. I still haven't had a single ripe blueberry, because the birds eat them half ripe, but these strawberries are amazing. 🌱

The garlic harvest is in! I grow Music Hardneck Garlic. I save the 5 largest heads to plant in mid-November and the rest of the harvest will last into the new year. I harvest when the bottom 3 leaves are dead and brown. This year the yield was 48 heads grown in 12-15 sqft. 🌱 #vegetablegardening

The Coneflowers, Lavender, Dill, Rattlesnake Master, and Culvers Root are hitting their strides for #pollinatorweek 🌱 I garden for insects and birds, but also for my own joy. Yes, there are food plants and some cultivars with the straight species #nativeplants, and everyone is happy here.

The Borage is starting to flower and the bees have taken notice. 🌱

Scarlet Bee Balm and Mountain Mint, an effective partnership. 🤝🌱😍 #nativeplants

Happy solstice, everyone. Thank you, sun. These are Malwina, a late June bearing variety. They're so delicious. I am, of course, having to fight the birds for every ripe berry. 🌱 #vegetablegarden

Beets, peas, garlic scape butter, and pea soup made from the pea pods. There's always something good to eat when you have a #vegetablegarden 🌱 There's more information about the pea soup in the comments.

It's peak Milkweed bloom here. The Common Milkweed smells so good! 🌱 #nativeplants

These are the eggs of Spinach Leaf Miner Fly. They host on beets, chard, spinach, orach, amaranth, dock, sorrel, and other plants in the Amaranthaceae family. I grow my chard under insect netting and sacrifice the beet leaves. The larva mine between the upper and lower leaf of the plant. 🌱

Beauty multiplies in light and shadow. 🌱

Someone asked me how I dry herbs to preserve them. There are many ways! These are Syrian Oregano, Sage, and Winter Savory. Any of these methods will work well for any herb. More information in ALT. 🌱 #vegetablegardening #herbgardening

When I walked out of the patio door and looked right this morning, I gasped excitedly, "Wow," in delight to see the first poppies in flower. These are Lauren's Grape. Gardening allows me to experience this sort of wonder and appreciation every day. 🌱

Plant lots of flowers of different shapes with your vegetables to attract pollinators, predators, and parasitoids to your vegetable garden. Let the insects take care of the insects. The birds help, too. More information in Alt Text. 🌱 #bugsky

The Orange Butterfly Milkweed is starting to bloom here and it's looking particularly beautiful this year. 🌱 #nativeplants

Here are some updated photos of the #vegetablegarden 🌱 See the Alt Text for more information.

The garlic scape and French Tarragon harvest this year were abundant! The scapes have been made into compound butter and the tarragon is bunched and hanging to dry. 🌱 #vegetablegardening

This is what it looks like when American Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars wrap themselves in the leaves of Pearly Everlasting, one of their larval host plants, for protection. There are many wasps flying around, trying to get in! 🌱 #nativeplants

Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars enjoy the dill I grow for them in the Patio Bed. 🌱

Bee butts, bee tongues, and Penstemon digitalis (Foxglove Beardtongue) - a sight I look forward to all spring. 🌱 #nativeplants

This is the first time I've observed Small Carpenter Bee activity in an Oakleaf Hydrangea stem in my garden. I usually see their activity in Coneflower, Smooth Aster, and Bluestar stems. Neat! 🌱 #nativeplants #bugsky

If you're having trouble growing Love-in-a-Mist from seed, try sowing your seed directly in a patch in late summer and letting it overwinter. Learn from your plant volunteer teachers. 🌱

Penstemon appreciation thread! Is there anything better than bees jamming the front half of their bodies into these bell shaped flowers in the spring? 🌱 #nativeplants First up, Penstemon calycosus, Calico Beardtongue or Long Sepal Beardtongue

Happy Caturday, from Roast Beef, Feline Intern Gardener. He loves this spot next to Little Bluestem and Bush's Poppy Mallow. 🌱 #catsofbsky

Wind tossed Baptisia australis in the light of sunset a couple of days ago - including one with an odd white flower. I love an oddball. 🌱 #nativeplants

If you have chive blossoms, it's time to make infused vinegar. It's excellent in salad dressings and in composed salads like potato, bean, pasta, etc. 🌱

Do you think this sort of sign and certification encourages neighbors? Do you think they might be curious to learn more? 🌱 #nativeplants

Clematis rooguchi, Foamflower, Wild Red Columbine, and Love-in-a-Mist this week in the Philadelphia suburbs. 🌱 #gardening

Update from vegetable central. Life is extra busy this spring with lots of caretaking work. I'm still going to have a food garden, but it will be different this year. I won't grow as much and most crops will be directly sown. Potatoes, beets, peas, and alliums are all doing well. 🌱 #vegetablegarden

Wild False Blue Indigo is coming into full flower. Threadleaf Bluestar is in full flower. Golden Alexander is in peak bloom. 🌱 #nativeplants

Wild Red Columbine are magic. 🌱 #nativeplants

Roast Beef, Feline Intern Gardener, fell asleep this evening in his pot of catnip. 🌱 #catsofbsky