Garden Activity Log 01 : September 2025

We have some new coneflower blooms this month. Echinacea flowers are wonderful for many reasons; they are rich in antioxidants, soothe inflammation, and support the immune system. They are also well beloved by the pollinators, and are almost constantly visited throughout the day in our garden. They are also easy to grow, requiring very little care. One of the most exciting visitors they get are the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. You can tell it is a female if you see the vibrant blue on its backs - the males tend to only have the yellow and black. They are sometimes bigger than my hand, and often they will let you get close to examine them trolling for pollen.

I only recently figured out that these flowers were garlic chives, and I was deeply excited. I've grown chives before but they had small purple flowers, so I didn't recognize these at first. The carpenter bees seem to favor them, so I have to do some dodging if I want to take some flowers for myself. The flowers themselves are a beautiful garnish, and they taste exactly like garlic without the work of peeling and dealing with cloves.

I planted these tomatoes in March, and I thought they were doing terribly. They seemed to be dealing with disease and half the branches died, but late into the season they are delivering baskets of tomatoes. Apparently these are fantastic to sun dry, as they are dry tomatoes and do not hold a lot of moisture, but the flavor intensifies with dehydration. They seem to take a lot of abuse, so i'm grateful for the low effort reward.

If you didn't know, you can grow your own loofahs. It's the end of the harvest for the luffas, though the stubborn vine continues to pretend like it wants to keep going. I'll report back on the quality of my sponges once I process all the gourds, but as far as ease of growing is concerned, these have been utterly self sufficient, even without a trellis.

The Gulf Fritillary has been our most frequent butterfly visitor. The vibrant orange and black originally had me mistaking them for monarchs, but the coloring also signifies their poor taste to predators. This defense mechanism is known as aposematism, though I still often see some torn wings from past skirmishes. Their host plant is passionflower, which is native to Georgia and grows wild even around the city.

The zinnias have been the true star and boon for the wildlife this year, especially for the butterflies. I even see the goldfinches nibbling on the flowers sometimes. Since it has gotten warm, there has been a constant flow of bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies hopping between the blooms. I started the seeds in March and they exploded with very little effort on my part, probably due to the unusually long rainy season we had this year, but it was a gift. They have been fading for a bit and I fear the season will soon come to an end, but I have big plans for next year to grow different varieties all over the garden.

The sneezeweed only just started blooming, but it has burst forth with the first signs of Autumn in classic autumnal colors. The yellows, golds, and reds provide an anchor to the season, and they have asked very little from us in return. Apparently Sneezeweed gets its name from the historical use of its dried leaves in making snuff - the inhalation would cause sneezing that would supposedly rid the body of evil spirits. It was thought to be named by Linnaeus for Helen of Troy; legend tells that the flowers sprung up from the ground where her tears fell.

By this time of year, the nasturtiums have reseeded themselves and I am enjoying the continuous growth. The entire plant is is edible, both flowers and the leaves. They have a peppery taste, almost like a seasoning, not bitter like arugula. I would like to include them in my cooking more but I enjoy looking at their leaves so much that I have a hard time harvesting them.

These bees are actually a swarm that moved into our old failed hive. One day they appeared and exploded. We haven't done anything for the bees, like feeding them sugar water, and they're our most successful hive yet. Funny how things go.