OfDragonflies

@abitofearth

Mom, knitter, nature lover, murderer of invasive plants. Happiest in a chaotic garden.

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OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 15

More denizens of the mountain mint. If you have the room, and love pollinators (and enjoy wasps) this is really a great plant to have around. And very low maintenance once it spreads and takes over 😂 🌱 #nativeplants 🐝 #bugsky

A yellow and black tiger swallowtail butterfly enjoying the flowers of mountain mint

A black sharp tailed bee on mountain mint flower

A black thread-waisted wasp on mountain mint flowers

A golden brown and black digger wasp comes in for a landing on a mountain mint flower

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 13

A leaf cutter bee!

A small black bee with a rounded bottom with pronounced rings around the abdomen nectar on tiny purple flowers atop minty green leaves.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 13

Buzzbuzzbuzz

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 13

For #showmeyourknits its texture week! Two of my favorites: 🧶

A green knitted baby blanket work in progress. Combination of knit and purl stitches with lines of brioche create textured fir trees and stars.

A hand knit glove in fuchsia yarn featuring twisted ribbing and cables to create a heavily textured look.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 13

The garden needs a weeding after being out of town, but butterflies don’t care. #nativeplants 🌱 #bugsky 🦋

A huge brown and orange Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly sips nectar from a purple coneflower.

A tiny orange-brown skipper butterfly nectaring on purple coneflower

A tiny yellow and black striped monarch butterfly caterpillar navigates the fuzzy underside of a common milkweed leaf

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 5

I’m really, really going to miss this tree :(

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 4

Better than sweltering and waiting for fireworks :) 🌱 #nativeplants #bugsky

Eastern Tiger swallowtail butterfly nectaring on the pale purple flowers of monarda fistulosa (bee balm)

A tiny little brown butterfly on a purple coneflower

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jul 1

I love the bugs in my garden. ❤️ Also, Culver’s Root is so great but man I wish it bloomed bigger and longer. Hoping these spread and bloom more (it’s only year 2) #nativeplants #bugsky

Native plant Culver’s Root blooming, with bumblebees all over the flowers

A teeny metallic green fly resting on a penstemon leaf

A red beetle with black spots (a milkweed beetle) crawling along a stick, with weeds underneath (invasive mulberry weed)

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 28

A few years ago we had to take out a huge dying oak tree next to our garage. It’s made a bit of difference in the amount of light reaching the ground and now we have a number of fantastic native understory trees that have appeared and thrived (pawpaw, serviceberry, redbud). 🌱 🌳 #nativeplahts

The full, broad leaves of a native pawpaw tree

The heart shaped leaves of a young redbud

(On the ground underneath unfortunately are many invasive plants- stiltgrass and winterberry among them. I’ll be pulling here later this summer)

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 28

Yeah this will take me forever to finish. But the time I spend on it feels so good, even if I’m only getting one row done at a time:) 🧶

A hand knit shawl in progress. The design combines two yarns, a gold lace and a wine colored mohair, to create an image of twisting vines with little leaves or berries in gold on the darker background.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 26

I love my kid’s art.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 26

I know there’s a lot of debate about cultivars of native plants but this one is so very pretty :) (Mercury rising tickseed). In the background: a coral honeysuckle, a later blooming penstemon, and some volunteer fleabane. 🌱 🌺 #nativeplants

A spray of purple-red coreopsis with feathery fine foliage blooms profusely while draping over a brick wall. Behind these flowers are some dainty white flowers belonging to fleabane, and behind that coral honeysuckle climbs a trellis and offers bright red flowers to passing hummingbirds.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 13

I spent all morning outside doing my least favorite garden task of spring. I’m tired and filthy. But at least I had good company :)

A brown and orange butterfly rests on pale pink milkweed flowers

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 11

I love the perfect, neat work of leaf cutter bees and ants. This year I’ve started setting perfect little circles even on tiny wood sorrel leaves. So cute! 🌺 🪴 🌱

A little wood sorrel leaf grouping (looking much like tiny shamrock) shows perfect little circles taken out of the center of each leaf.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 10

I only had to frog and redo the cast on for this five times 😆 I’m so happy to be working on something completely unnecessary just for me ❤️ The pattern is starting to look like something too. I will ignore the mistake still there near the beginning, it adds character. 🧶 #knitting #wildrosehips

A hand knit shawl in progress. Made with two lace weight yarns the project is about thirty rows in, and features an overall garter background with marled effect from holding red wine colored mohair with solid golden yarn. Standing out on the surface are slipped stitches in the smooth golden yarn. The pattern is reminiscent of vines with berries

Pattern: wild rosehips
Yarns: malabrigo silkpaca in sunset
and mohair silk in Cabernet, from a local dyer

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 6

Vinca removal project now at about 65% complete. For the first phase of this I planted golden ragwort and mountain mint, which have thrived. This side is getting royal ferns, sedge, fire pinks, and yarrow in the front. 🌺 #nativeplants

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 5

This project has been such a slog. Omg. Finally off the needles and I’m ready to start something frivolous and selfish. Of course I have to put buttons on this thing. I really hate buttons. It may not be totally done until Christmas. 🧶 #knitting

A mostly completed cardigan is pinned to blocking mats while it dries. It is a deep vibrant green and has lace panels running the length of the arms.

Pattern: Gaja cardigan
Yarn: Fiber Optics Kashmir in Kelly

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 5

It is almost time for the best aromatherapy nature offers. 🌺 #nativeplants

A stalk of common milkweed, with five clusters of flower buds. The lower two clusters are just starting to open into tiny star shaped pink flowers.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 4

I honestly really love what I call “chaos gardening” but do have to balance it with the desires of my other family members. I’m learning to group and repeat plants to make things slightly more “intentional” but it’s a work in progress. Either way the wildlife here seems to like it :)

A Mid-Atlantic, US native garden blooming in mid May. Foreground features common milkweed getting ready to bloom. Behind those are the pinkish-white flowers of penstemon, spreading across the whole space. In the background clumps of Culver’s root and obedient plant are getting ready to bloom, and coral honeysuckle climbs a trellis.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Jun 4

Garden friend! 🦎 #herps 🌺

A young skink clings to the side of a brick retaining wall. Its body is dark brown with pale yellow stripes, and it still has a blue tail.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· May 28

When you find your favorite kind of noodle baby while out and about ❤️ Finding these makes me way too happy. 🐍 #herps

A tiny Dekays brown snake periscopes with its head while curling the rest of its body. It’s about seven inches long and dwarfed even by the tiny plantain and grasses around it.

A tiny brown snake curls up in the dirt, head mostly underneath its body

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· May 19

My huge patch of penstemon has begun to bloom ❤️ I planted this two years ago, and last year only one of two plants has survived. I bought another. This year? Suddenly there are hundreds. The chaos garden is chaos-ing ❤️ I moved a number of coneflowers into this bed as well. #nativeplants 🌱

A spike of purplish-white trumpet shaped flowers opens up in the foreground. Behind a trellis with blooming coral honeysuckle.

Closeup of one of the first blooms on a penstemon plant. Bloom is purplish white and trumpet shaped. In the background are dozens of others.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· May 18

Meet Kevin. Kevin is a slightly smaller fellow compared with Fred the garage snake. Kevin likes to hang out closer to the house. Today Kevin was on the doorstep and unusually curious about me :) 🐍 #herps #snakes 🦎

A black rat snake curls around the legs of a decorative table and checks out my phone. His tongue is flicking out and he’s quite close to the camera. In the background is a decorative antiqued blue urn and some oak leaves that have built up behind it.

A black rat snake coils up his neck while resting atop a box that is leaned up against a brick wall.

A black rat snake explores the space behind a decorative urn that’s become filled with oak leaves.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· May 14

It’s in its native area, and extremely well tended/maintained. There are specimens like this in America too, but it requires very attentive maintenance and’s they are likely spreading out into wild areas via birds. From there it strangles trees and can destroy whole swaths of forest.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· May 13

Today sucked. Here are some cute baby bunnies. Hope they help you as much as they helped me! 🌺 🌱 🐰

A tiny fluffball baby bunny crouches in the mulch and leaf litter under some lily plants.

Two tiny little floofy bunnies cuddle together under the lacy leaves of a native bleeding heart plant.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· May 4

Wasn’t really in the proper #MDSW spirit but still managed to snag a few things :) It’s always such a nice weekend but I really have to work through my stash before next year :) 🧶 #knitting #mdsheepandwool

A pile of different yarns on top of grey and white and blue striped bedding. There’s a pile of warm toned coffee-ish colored worsted, along white a light blue worsted, and two skeins of sock yarn. One is a neat dark variegated dominated by blue and purple tones, and the other is a lighter teal.

A sheep with a grey nose and white locks covering its face looks at the camera while lying in a bed of straw

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Apr 18

The slow but steady removal of vinca continues… removed a large patch of the stuff and put in some ostrich ferns and sedges to hopefully spread into the space. This has been an ongoing project, and mountain mint and packera are spreading nicely through previous sections #nativeplants 🌺 #gardening

Area previously covered in periwinkle, mostly cleared, with some newly planted ferns placed in a line through the area.

A black lawn garbage bag packed full of b by vinca (and some bittersweet and other plants) sits next to a tree in the newly cleared area. A bright light purple periwinkle flower sticks out the top of the bag.

Behind the newly cleared area, a large patch of golden ragwort gets some evening sun. The yellow flowers tower well above the leaves. That area was previously covered in honeysuckle and multiflora rose, and packera is being used to crowd out invasives in that area.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Apr 18

Today was a fun day of cleaning up the garden and pulling invasives. Sadly found a lot of my mountain laurels have died. But also found this beauty :) #gardening #nativeplants 🌺

Pale pink native pinxter azalea blooms in the woods. The blooms have very long darker pink stamens extend far past the petals and curve upwards.

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Apr 15

PEEPERS!!! These are my favorite frog friends, but I hardly ever actually see them. 🐸 #herps

A tiny brown tree frog with enormous eyes clings to a dirty window. It is looking at the camera with its head tilted

A tiny brown frog with a pattern similar to a leaf sits perfectly still, blending in atop the leaf litter in the woods

OfDragonflies@abitofearth· Apr 15

The milkweed is up! 🌺 #nativeplants