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06/25/2022 mysterious new friend

Abby kindly identified this new sprawling but small plant as green carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata). It reminds me of bedstraw but is not sticky.
According to Wikipedia, it is a spreading annual, but has been found in North America for at least 3,000 years. So its status is a bit mysterious as native or invasive. So, for now I think I’ll let it grow and see if it suits this patch of the garden.
Two Sachems were resting on dayflower leaves. You can just barely see the back one’s face.
Three sharpshooter plant hoppers on a giant ragweed stem at night.
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06/17/2022

I had always assumed this plant, Dichondra, was introduced but apparently it’s not! The taxonomy is confusing but it’s at least probable that this is a native species.
That’s great because it was hard to get rid of haha.
Belly rub plz
Gram is so long but he still loves to sleep on this scratcher box.
Abby was right, this is Monarda fistulosa! It finally bloomed. I put these seeds out either in 2019 or 2020.
Rainbow garden continues to do mediocre on yellow and orange. But the others are fantastic!
I like that this plant hopper has a big spot on its underside.
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06/12/2022 yard

Maybe Phacelia?
I found at least four leaves full of my amazing tree hopper friends.
Each leaf had a different set of adults or immatures.
Adults get taken care of too.
Babies!!!
The leaf bends where the treehopper eggs were.
Lace bug
Frogfruit east of patio is doing well. Just moved a piece there this spring.
Nice true bug
Dog flower highly mobile.
Monarda future flower bud??
Baptisia and okra
Rudbeckia maxima from Abby has a new leaf.
A planthopper (Flatidae) on curly dock. First time for this family in the yard?? I used to see them regularly at home.
Rattlesnake master still lives.
Passionvine (seeds from Bartlesville) doing well in their second year.
Tiny bee on butterfly milkweed
Hedeoma in with Datura.
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06/11/2022

The Chef made no bake lemon curd/ cheesecake layered parfaits with homemade whipped cream, farm share blueberries, and homemade granola for a garden tour.
Prepared the night before in the fridge.
Perfect for the tropically humid day.
A wasp carrying a caterpillar
Spittlebug
Hello Tuqu
This young man.
Two Texas dandelions from home! White specks are elderberry petals.
Bee fly
Possibly a baby Grindelia leaf??
A second Coryphantha sulcata seedling came up!!!!!
Lace bug (Tineidae) on giant ragweed leaf.
Nobody home…
…except for this crab spider!
My keeled treehoppers have a big family!!
Soooo manyyyyyy
Shackleton and Briar disagree about social distancing.
A nice jumping spider.
It’s on a houseplant that is outside for the summer.
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06/10/2022 exciting friends

I wasn’t sure at first if this was a bit of debris on a bird seed sunflower stem.
But I saw it walk!! It’s a plant hopper!
I think it’s Entylia sp, possibly carinata if I understand bugguide saying there’s only one species and it’s quite variable. That’s the species shown in the new Abbott and Abbott Texas insects book.
Spittlebug adult!
The most special flower.
A beautiful white lined sphinx visiting the non native verbena.
I love the different wing angles the camera catches.
Side view.
Slime mold very happy after 3.46″ rain in the past seven days.
Blurry but you can see two seedlings: the winecup above with three leaves and the lyre leaf sage with two seed leaves. Working on my ground covers out front around the raised beds.
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06/04/2022 unexpected excitement

Saw a great little jumping spider on the ironweed leaves.
An interesting bee or velvet ant male or something, on white avens leaf. It was one of the nervous kinds who keeps flicking their wings constantly.
The rain of the last few days prompted the Missouri fluttermill primrose to bloom again!
The Chef and I cleared leaves off the patio. In several places they were up against the wood siding which is not great as they are essentially composting. Here Briar holds down a leaf pile for us. We leave the leaves in the rest of the yard as that is best for a healthy woodland environment!
The worst offending area of leaf collection next to the house. This is after I pulled out the bulk of leaves. Our compost pile should be happy now!
An extremely tiny planthopper that the Chef found on the outdoor work bench.
The last round of tepary beans I planted are coming up.
The big thrill of the day… The horse crippler cactus in the rock garden has bloomed!!!! I imagine this means it’s either happy here or thinks it’s about to die. Hopefully the former. Since I just planted it this spring I wasn’t expecting it, and its flower bud was not obvious, or grew in really fast the last few days when I wasn’t looking with the rain.
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05/28/2022 after planting

Plants I got from the “pop up” location of Prairie Wind Nursery: Copper canyon daisy, Pineapple sage, local genotype Baptisia australis (planted between roses near the trellis fence), Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, planted near the elderberry as apparently they like similar soils), rattlesnake master (planted on drier side of brush pile), chives (the round green type as only the flatter white edges kind survived the winter this year), and five kinds of basil in my ongoing attempt to find where they like in the yard. Varieties were African blue (in raised beds in front of tomatoes), mammoth (small plant but big crinkly leaves) in the herb bed (where I have not tried any basil before), and amethyst, Genovese, and large leaf in the front strawberry bed near porch.

Mystery sunflower in the “prairie”. Rough leaf sunflower, or a bird seed sunflower?? It’s much narrower, but not quite like the ones I dug from home yard.
A much better capture of the long true bug. I feel it’s very svelte. The Gram of true bugs. So long. It’s on the native poinsettia.
The mystery seedling by dividing fence is definitely a legume and not passionvine. So, tepary from last year? Butterfly pea? Or maybe trailing wild bean from Abby?? We’ll find out…
Stripey plant hopper on Texas mallow.
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05/27/2022 home

Stripey plant hoppers are still abundant. Often on ironweed.
Briar observes Shackleton from an enforced respectful distance.
Shackleton does not want to be observed from any distance by a Dog. Gross!!
The Chef has designed and had printed reusable vinyl labels for his brewing endeavors. Art deco cat, maybe?
I think this is a common oak moth, Phoebaria atomaris. It’s on coreopsis flowers. I don’t think I’d seen one in town before, only at home in the woods, so this was pleasing. Correction from Mom: this is Isogona tenuis, the thin-lined owlet. Thanks for the catch, Mom!! Matches the striping much better. Internet says a hackberry tree specialist, and happily I have a little hackberry tree in the backyard I keep trimmed so it won’t get into power lines, but it can still feed our neighbors like this friend.
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05/20/2022

Beautiful plant.
Rocky mountain bee plant
Geometrid moth among the dayflower leaves.
The striped planthopper on the elderberry.
Very tiny bees on the widow sedum. One sitting, one blurring through in flight.
One Missouri fluttermill primrose among the strawberries!
During weedeater repair we found a DAMN EARWIG.
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05/18/2022

A male velvet ant foraging on the widow sedum!
Milkvine are sprouting everywhere. Hope it’s a good year for milkweed tussock moths!
Yarrow from home is blooming.
The striped planthoppers are still out on ironweed today.
Greeneyes leaves are fuzzy and my watering spillage shows it off.
Rudbeckia lacinata from Abby is getting tall!
Texas buckeye has added some leaves and seems to be food for someone.
Carolina buckthorn from plant sale doing fine.
Mexican buckeye from plant sale doing fine.
Texas mallows are coming back up! At least three in the shade of the big red oak.
Thistle from home. Mom did a lovely post on these fine flowers recently. They are homes and food for many friends.
Mystery grass that came with the thistle soil. Possibly Canada wild rye. I have been asked to get better photos. Jeanne has kindly identified it as an annual native barley.
The beautyberry has perked up.
False garlic is going to seed! I took one pod across the patio to the “prairie” area and left the other here east of the patio.