It’s been a while since I last posted about my garden-based explorations of my yard and its plant and insect life–the outdoor counterpart to close-reading literature. In part this is because since last July (2022) I have been living in a new place, about 2 hours out of Toronto. While I miss the city for many reasons (friends, food, a 15 minute commute to work by bike), here I have the benefit of a lot more land to work with.

Much of the property is wild, so apart from removing buckthorn and other highly aggressive invasive plants, I leave those parts alone. But about an ace or more was lawn when we moved here. I say was because I’m chipping away at it. There’s now a pretty large vegetable garden, and the rest is on its way to being a massive native plant area.

The last few days (August 2023) have been a potent mix of hot sunny weather and intense downpour, so the plants are growing madly. The bees are out in force, among other pollinators (a saw a ruby-throated hummingbird at the bee-balm the other day). So here’s a sampling of the view up close.

From top left, roughly clockwise: Bombus impatiens about to land on a fireweed flower (Chamaenerion angustifolium); backlit wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa); butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa); wild black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis), which are delicious; this year’s pride a joy, Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum), visited by an unidentified bumble bee; marsh milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), one of the most impressive native flowers around; a honey bee (Apis mellifera) on an enormous purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea); boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) about to burst into bloom; jewelweed (Impatiens capensis); a bumble bee feasting on wild bergamot nectar; and blue vervain (Verbena hastata).

I’ll try to post more plants, and especially more insects in the coming days and weeks. I will also feature some of the plants I’m trying to control, including the notorious Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) and the voracious goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria).