Garden Show

The garden is filling out!  The first zinnia blossom finally came out sometime the middle of this month.  The bees are very attracted to the bright color.  Other flowers are starting to come out too.  The cosmos are budding, the black eyed peas are blossoming, tomatoes are blossoming and setting fruit, thyme is blossoming, squashes are bearing fruit, and the show stoppers are the sunflowers.  Take a look at the progression of these beauties...

These two above are at noon on July 16th.

July 16th at 5:30 pm.

And at 6:49 pm.

July 17th, 11:10 am.

Such happy new faces!

July 17th, at 5:00 pm.  The assassin bug on the left finally got a meal, he caught one of the bees!

Like the sunflowers, the kids caught some rays, cooling off in the little pool!

And like the assassin bug looking for food, Saddleshoes was trying to make a meal of my hat!

He couldn't figure out why I wouldn't let him!

Now, on another note, I like to consider myself somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to plants.  I have this volunteer plant growing where I had the butternut squash last year.

I thought to myself, well, that must be a butternut.  It looks like a squash, smells like a squash, and it feels sharp and poky like a squash.  Gotta be a butternut!

But, it isn't shaped like one, or even trailing along the ground like one!  Feeling a little foolish not knowing what it was that was growing here, but still enjoying the mystery, I decided to document its growth.  So, here it is on July 7th.  See if you can identify it before I did!  More clues to come....