Posted on August 17, 2022August 17, 202208/17/2022 The two leaf senna had a second new flower today! The three leaved legume around it is Strophostyles bean, a native volunteer. I’ve seen several Bell’s roadside skippers lately in the backyard.
Posted on August 13, 2022August 14, 202208/13/2022 walking around A mystery yellow composite flower along the sidewalk. Update: Mom and Abby have identified as camphorweed, probably Heterotheca subaxillaris. Camphorweeds are native. Leaves and stem of the yellow flowered plant. This picture is from yesterday (08/12/2022) but there are lots of Grindelia getting ready to bloom near the railroad tracks. A few had opened up by today. I was also pleased to find 2-3 Scarlet Pea plants along the sidewalk near the Grindelia yesterday. They were still blooming today. Downstream from the OU duck pond there is a somewhat hidden bridge and there was a native hibiscus blooming near it. A few tiny annual coreopsis were in the field near the creek. Before it got mowed this spring there were a lot more and taller. It was too hot. We gave Briar and ourselves some ice cubes upon returning. She has taken to resting her chin on her ice cubes after getting a drink from her water bowl.
Posted on August 4, 2022August 4, 202208/04/2022 Fall obedient plant is thinking about blooming! I think over the winter I’ll move it to closer to the bird bath to get more water. One of the two leaf sennas has buds!! The fluttermill primrose in the rock garden just keeps blooming!! This “live forever” from Judy is budding. I thought this was a plant hopper. It’s insect poop. Technically this is called frass. 😏 This fuzzy plant came with some wild onions I got at Mom and Dad’s. I am hoping it might be snow on the prairie! Paula said the mysterious pumpkin was ready. While we were outside, we checked out the cushaw squash. Already longer than Paula’s arm to the elbow!! Shackleton was neutral about the pumpkin. Tuqu was interested in the pumpkin and smelled it carefully. Shackleton was repelled by the fragrant Madhu ras cantaloupe. Tuqu tried to touch it. Today’s two harvests plus the watermelon from the farm share.
Posted on July 22, 2022July 22, 202207/22/2022 new and complicated tomato We realized we should think about when green vernissage tomatoes were ripe. They are supposed to have green flesh so this has turned out rather complicated. These ones are good. The green between the dark green stripes has a hint of yellow and translucency. They taste nice and the flesh isn’t mealy. These ones are too soft. They are darker (I don’t think the picture shows well) and have some very soft spots. I tried one and it was bland with a mealy texture. This tomato is too soft. These green vernissage are all ripe except the very bright pale green one that has a thumbs down on it. Bonus: Briar examines the topped up jar of bisbee gray cowpeas.
Posted on July 16, 2022July 16, 202207/16/2022 Two moon and stars watermelon babies! We picked two ears of glass gem popcorn and it’s so beautiful in the sunlight!! First crop of purple hull pinkeye cowpeas.
Posted on July 5, 2022July 5, 202207/05/2022 Baby cushaw squash! Recovering from removal of benign sebaceous cysts is more complicated than either of us expected. Purple hulled pinkeye cowpea. I really like the little signs Paula got me for Christmas. They stand out well. A gray hairstreak on a Madhu ras canteloupe flower. Paula’s Coryphantha sulcata is blooming! In fact, it has two. She says it had six earlier this year too. New tiny moth – a spotted thyris! Bee butt in loofah gourd. Paula made Thai green curry for dinner. It contains last year’s garden white currant tomatoes (from frozen, so that works well), garden onions, and garden walking onions. The Texas buckeye is very angry. I put a hose out to soak there. Jeanne has let me know the wild ones do this too, so maybe it will recover. Possibly purple prairie clover from free packet from prairiemoon.com? A second round of standing cypress flowers on a different plant. A volunteer Carolina snailseed in the front yard. Will Rogers Zinnias are looking good in the rainbow garden. Briar loves escorting Shackleton for a walk. Shackleton doesn’t know why we have to ruin a good thing by bringing the dog. We were about to go back inside, but she got up and scooted closer. He turned to glare while she got a treat for laying down. Shackleton says no eye contact. Here you can pretend there is no dog, only lush, succulent grass and corn.
Posted on June 26, 2022June 26, 202206/26/2022 sleepy yard day Partridge pea blooming. A big skipper caught my attention this morning. I think it may be a Confused Cloudywing or an Outis Skipper. The pale ish area below the antennal club is why I think maybe Outis Skipper, but I also get the impression that one is rarer, so I wonder if I’m missing something obvious that makes it a cloudywing. Both have been recorded in Cleveland county, Oklahoma though. Saw a two spotted bumblebee on mealy blue sage again! The juniperleaf cuttings have started to perk up and poke at the plastic wrap, so I am unsealing them a bit to see if they can handle less humidity yet. Silly sleep
Posted on June 23, 2022June 23, 202206/23/2022 The second Coryphantha sulcata seedling seems to have died, but the original is getting longer. Another two spotted bumblebee (Bombus bimaculatus) visited the mealy blue sage today! There was only one but I took a lot of angles. You can see the two spots if you zoom in. In flight you get the best view of spots. I liked the pollinating wasp zooming through in this picture. Baby mantis! I believe this is a baby red yucca, as that’s what I planted here, and it seems too sturdy to be grass. A big ol mydas fly in the backyard!! The native clematis likes its new sunnier spot about 20 ft to the west. It already has two or three new leaves! I weeded the strawberry/honey berry bed but got called in for dinner when there was still a patch left. Maybe tomorrow. I found a second pale zig zaggy spider in the backyard. Looking at it closer, I think it’s the wrong pattern and shape for Argiope aurantica, the usual banana spider. Filling up the bird bath intrigued the dog. African blue basil has flowers! One of the many marigolds in the raised beds (we mixed the old seedheads and plants in over the winter) is beginning to flower! The corn is going to town! A vaquero bean is flowering! A fine little bell pepper!! Cooling off after gardening with the mysterious Paper Protozoan. Note the hairy flagellum sticking out.
Posted on June 22, 2022June 23, 202206/22/2022 Pebblebrook Park Monarda fistulosa American germander Sumac berries Probably bluehearts White prairie clover Greenthread flower with a geometrid moth caterpillar Sensitive briar Annual coreopsis Big red eared slider lady digging a hole for her eggs above the pond.
Posted on June 12, 2022June 12, 202206/12/2022 a walk in the park Just a bit of prairie here at Ruby Grant Park in NW Norman. Oh wait! A box turtle!! It is good pollinator habitat and good prairie too. I heard one Eastern Meadowlark singing and at least one Dickcissel. A weevil on green milkweed pods. A family of baby milkweed bugs on green milkweed pods. We looked but didn’t find any Monarch butterfly caterpillars. Sideoats grama grass. Abby has suggested this is bottlebrush squirrel tail grass. It has very exciting seedheads! Thanks to Mom and Abby for identifying this as Apocynum cannabinum, or dogbane. There was a lot of it along the trail and we saw the dogbane beetle that eats it too! Possibly prairie acacia? A non native lady beetle on the acacia. Really great stands of Rudbeckia amplexicaulis here!