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Jules in the Garden

@juliwils.bsky.social

460 followers 270 following 370 posts

Cat-less cat-lady 🐾 Alliteration aficionado ✒️ Mother of two littles ❤️ All-round nature lover 🐝🦋🪶 On a journey to grow/plant native species that support the pollinators 🌿🌻

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Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 2d

Yes! Not US but I agree, esp. w/ butterfly bushes. An ex-owner planted one in my yard but it's very close to the utility markings so I can't safely dig it up. I'll be sawing it down to the dirt and tarping over it to kill it. There are much better native options, I really don't get the popularity

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Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 2d

There's a stretch of trees outside of Woodstock, ON that always looks magical in the fall

For five years I've been trying to capture the full range of colour before the trees go bare

The other day I got my best shot

Even on a gray day, these colours seem to glow

#trees
#forest
#landscape

A forested area surrounds a railway line along the edge of a reservoir. Taken from the bridge that crosses the water, this image shows different species of trees whose leaves have turned different shades of red, orange, and yellow

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 3d

Some pretty asters, just because

#nativeplants

Tiny blue-tinged, spiky flowers with purple centers grow at the edge of park trail

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 3d

Peek-a-boo

#trees
#nature
#redWed

A tree with red leaves grows behind trees that either haven't turned yet (still very green!) or have turned yellow. In the background there is a large cedar hedge. A very small white speck in front of the cedars, to the right of the red tree, is a rabbit

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 4d

I found a place that I just have to visit next summer

This creek must be a pollinator's haven when it's in its full glory

#nativeplants
#thicktrunkTuesday
#feedthepollinators

A view of the opposite side of a creek that winds around a town in Ontario, where several tall trees and a patch of sumac grow. Many plants have died off with the change of seasons but some goldenrod and asters are still in bloom

A view from underneath a large willow tree, where several species of trees are growing around a large stand of Joe pye weed, which has gone to seed. These plants line the edge of a shallow spot in the creek

A large willow grows along the edge of the creek. Despite erosion around some of the roots, and part of the trunk splintering, the willow is full of leaves

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Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 4d

A clouded sulphur plopped down on the aster that was blowing in the wind right in front of me

I've decided that a blurry picture is better than none at all

#insects
#butterflies
#nativeplants

A yellow butterfly with dark markings briefly rests on a purple flower with spiky ray florets on a sunny but windy day

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Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 5d

Look at how much life swarms a single goldenrod

It's an excellent reminder that we plant as much for fall as we do for spring and summer

#nativeplants

Several different types of pollinators crawl across the deep yellow, fluffy looking bloom of one goldenrod

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 6d

I'm thinking one of my calico aster seeds bounced into a VMM slot undetected

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 6d

That's a good way of looking at it, luck, as I did want more asters for next year. Thank you for the reminder

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 6d

Oof, this is awkward

The plant I thought was V. mountain mint, and was labeled as such on the starter pot, is, well, something else (aster?)

Not sure what happened but it's a disappointing outcome when you're still building a familiarity with #nativeplants

It's something to learn from for 2026

A leafy green plant with small spiky white flowers is damp with water droplets. The plant has suffered damaged from an animal

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Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 7d

For anyone looking for a native plant with lots of visual interest, may I present this dotted mint?

#flowers
#nativeplants
#Canadiangardening

A close up of the flowers for a dotted mint. The tubular flowers are yellow with reddish purple dots. Fuzzy pale pink with green leaves, resembling petals, grow around the flowers.

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 8d

Yesterday's little green visitor, joyfully spotted in our yard by my 4yo

I took her off the side of his boot and placed her in the #nativeplant garden

Cute or creepy?

That's not for me to decide

A light green insect, with orange tinged eyes and long antennae, grasps onto the lance-shaped coreopsis leaf

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 8d

I lost my two cats, four months apart, during my last pregnancy almost three years ago. Between hormones and just regular grief, I had to push things down to get through until the baby arrived. That baby is now almost two and a half years old and I now follow cat accounts on Bsky as a way to grieve

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 9d

My blanket flower is slowly opening

When I looked at it yesterday (Wednesday), I saw more #YellowThu

Now today it looks more #RedWed

At least it isn't yet #BWFri, so close enough

#flowers
#nativeplants

1/2: An image of an opening blanket flower, which has yellow tipped ray florets and yellow disk florets surrounded by red ones. As the rays are still curled, the yellow appears more prominently

2/2: An image of the same flower a day later. The rays are more unfurled, and the red colour of the flower is more noticeable

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 9d

I'm so sorry about your beautiful Fergus 💔

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 9d

A day late because I was stumped by the prompt

Today, I found my inspiration: my TBR pile, gathering the proverbial dust

(Because I wasted a lot of time of this one, I finally had to impose a time limit to finish)

Day 4: Books

#art
#mixedmedia
#drawlloween

A quick marker and pen drawing of five colourful books coated in cobwebs

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 10d

Did I just watch this multiple times? Yes. Did I save this for later so that I might watch it multiple times again? Of course I did

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 10d

"Fungi make worlds. They also unmake them"
-- Merlin Sheldrake

#forest
#nature
#mushroom
#spookyseason

A black and white image of a shaggy capped mushroom rimmed with black. It was growing just off a trail in a wooded area

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 10d

🙌

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 10d

Me: Just gonna take a picture of the moon over the trees

The moon: 😂

My phone: The eff you are

#moon
#nightsky

A distorted picture of the moon. The trees that were underneath in the frame are obscured by shadows

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Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 11d

"Sometimes, far away in the night, a wolf howled. Then he came nearer, and howled again. It was a scary sound"
-- Laura Ingalls Wilder

#autumn
#halloween
#spookyseason

An image of a young child petting the head of a fake, snarling wolf skeleton used as decoration for a greenhouse's fall festival event. Also in the image are pumpkins, several bales of straw, planters of mums, and a fake skull. The child is not alarmed by the skeletons at all. In fact, he said "good puppy" as he patted its head.

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 11d

I'm having a hard time finding the words so I'll just say, as someone who also lost a friend to suicide, thank you for sharing Lori's story, and with such compassion. l wish empathy was a more common trait

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 11d

There's a remembrance garden in my city that's largely planted with #nativeplants

I meant to visit in the summer to see it at its peak but, as of yesterday, many flowers in the garden are still blooming

#flowers
#urbangardening

A large flower bed hosts several tall plants, including goldenrod, aster, fleabane and false sunflower

Large yellow flowers with protruding centers and loved rays (sneezeweed) grow in front of smaller, spiky purple flowers (aster)

A sleeping bee hangs from the underside of downward-facing sneezeweed flower

Magenta and purple asters, with plenty of green foliage, grow together in a smaller flower bed

Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 12d

I started many #nativeplants from seed indoors this year. Because we had a late last frost, it was June before the seedlings were safely in the ground

I didn't think I'd get bloom from most, if any, of these plants this year, but, after looking this morning, October looks promising?

#GardensHour

A tall blanket flower has several buds on it, one of which is showing yellow and red rays

A dotted mint, with pinkish green stems and fuzzy green leaves, has been wilted by the cold, but one bud has formed in the past couple of days

A Virginia mountain mint, which had been tall until done recent rabbit (?) damage took several chunks of budding stems away, has numerous buds that are beginning to show white

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Jules in the Garden @juliwils.bsky.social · 12d

Tried something new

Didn't really work

But art challenges allow you to experiment, and maybe fail, without the need to judge your art (or yourself) unfairly

Day 3: Bats

#art
#drawing
#mixedmedia
#drawlloween

A mixed media drawing (coloured pencil, highlighter, gel pen) of a bat made to resemble stained glass