Once we’re past this drought, the garden should rebound and enter a really nice phase where everything looks refreshed and some things that didn’t like the heat bloom again, at the same time that some things bloom for the first time. There will be plenty to see until sometime in November — some of the flowers can even survive a hard frost or two. The monarchs are heading out early this year, but we should continue to see other butterflies and insects throughout the fall.
This is a male Monarch, fueling up one evening on a Mexican sunflower and showing off the extra-large wingspan that will help him get to Mexico.
Then another one joined him, while a bumblebee found the other kind of sunflower.
If you’re able to stop by, you might consider coming around 5 or 6 in the evening — there’s been a lot of activity around that time, lately, and eventually, we might start to see groups of monarchs gathering to spend the night before flying off together the next morning.