02/27/2024 daffodils came with the house, plus bonus fungus

Why is native plant Claire moving daffodils around? I wouldn’t go out and buy more daffodils as they’re not native and I never see anything use them. However, since they were here, I divided and spread them along the row of Salvia greggii out front of the veggie beds. they’re not taking up space from anything else at the moment. I feel like a few familiar plants shows people this is deliberate and if I need the room for something else bulbs are easy to move.

Finally, soap box moment, I know purchased tulip bulbs often come with dangerous antifungals on them when purchased. I assume other bulbs do too. So if you’re a bulb fan, definitely look into trading some from a neighbor or getting organic.

Continue reading “02/27/2024 daffodils came with the house, plus bonus fungus”

04/15/2023 spring at home in person

Mystery green bit in caliche planter. Looks suspiciously like a grass but we’ll find out! Maybe something good!
The yellow irises from Judy are in full bloom now!
One of the two Camassia scilloides has TWO flower buds!
The other Camassia scilloides has a much smaller flower bud. The angusta has a similar sized bud that is on a shorter stalk as of yet.
The two leaf senna is coming back! This one got big last year and made a lot of seeds.
The other smaller two leaf senna from last year is off to a great start this season!
I put a lot of Missouri fluttermill primrose seeds in the yellow area of the rainbow garden )near the two leaf senna) and one is coming up! Yay!
The dwarf spiderwort continues to bloom! This one has two flowers now! The other individual hasn’t flowered yet.
This mystery grass has appeared in many areas under the oak tree. It seems wrong for millet but I don’t remember wheat in the bird seed mix? Any ideas are welcome. iNaturalist suggests the wheat genus but I don’t think there are any native ones here.

04/15/2023 saffron city

My saffron bulbs in the prairie area were looking a bit crowded based on their leaves. This is my second time dividing them. I only did one clump last year in case I accidentally killed them by doing this.
I am experimenting by putting some of the bulbs in the shadier but still dry area under a yaupon holly. Briar finds this boring.
There were so many bulbs in these five clumps I was able to divide to share with nine people and still have more than enough leftover to spread more in our yard.

03/11/2023 Camassia (wild hyacinth) emergence

Camassia angusta was up a few weeks ago so I was worried about the C. scilloides bulbs we put out, but they are coming up now too!
Another C. scilloides bulb coming up. I am naming it based on its location.
This mystery plant with milky sap was kindly identified by Abby as salsify. It apparently has an edible root so we will contemplate its fate.

08/07/2022 bulb time

Wild Hyacinth bulbs arrived in the mail yesterday!
We planted the three bulbs in a little crescent along the edge of this drier strawberry/honeyberry bed, and reinforced the dirt berm to trap a little extra water. Prairie Moon Nursery says they like medium-dry at most, but will generally do okay if it’s wet during the bloom time (which is usually our rain times).
New earwig… We saw it moving around as we dug into the hard packed dry soil! It was somewhere between 2-6″ down. Just as bone dry the whole way. It swam across the water mud as we watered in the new bulbs. Hoping it might be a native one but waiting on what inaturalist or friends say.

06/18/2022 onion time

Oops. We disturbed this big beautiful toad.
The toad hopped over our onions to nestle down under some bean plants. We turned the soaker hose on after we were done harvesting to make sure any other plants we disturbed weren’t too upset, and hopefully that will keep the toad safely into the cooler night too.
Three kinds of onion!
The shadiest bed has Inca pea beans planted over Thomas Laxton sugar peas which we removed as they were getting mildewy. Now the pea beans have room to grow.
Our supervisor chose a shady, cool corner.
Left are the dried Thomas Laxton sugar peas for next season. To the right are Oregon sugar pod II (the original kind I had) from earlier this spring. I am going to bleach them to prevent transfer of the mildew to next season. We also put the plant waste in the city yard waste bins as their composting gets much hotter than ours.