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 7, 2022August 7, 202208/07/2022 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.
Posted on August 6, 2022August 6, 202208/06/2022 POPCORN Glass gem popcorn in all its glorious colors! One cob down, two to go. Paula just used her hands to remove the kernels. The kernels are such a beautiful mix of colors! Three ears of popcorn made 147 g of dried kernels. We let the ears dry on the stalk and then have been keeping them in the hot dry shade on the porch. About half of the kernels Paula tried did pop. According to this extension service article we found, this means they’re probably still too moist. More should pop and be fluffier too once they dry more. However, we’re still quite pleased!
Posted on August 6, 2022August 6, 202208/06/2022 tiny successes The fall obedient plant has some tiny flowers. One partridge pea has pods! This is important because it’s an annual. I have 2-3 individuals that were blooming at one time so hopefully the seeds make. Did some tomato pruning and found a lot of tomatoes, one Madhu ras cantaloupe melon, and Paula got an okra.
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 August 3, 2022August 3, 202208/03/2022 unexpected The greeneyes is starting to bloom in the backyard prairie! This grew from seeds that I put out a year, maybe two years, ago. Hmm… What is this brown lumpy thing on the butterfly milkweed? An exciting, dare I say unexpected, find by Paula… The Unexpected Cycnia moth caterpillar! I spotted this second Unexpected Cycnia caterpillar on a different plant a few inches away. Apparently they only eat milkweeds, so we are very pleased to find one in the orange butterfly milkweed section of the rainbow garden. It’s also our 150th yard species on inaturalist! A dead cicada. No fun buzzes but Briar hoped. Watermelon in the farm share this week. Yum!!
Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 202207/28/2022 baby cacti Paula’s Coryphantha sulcata babies from Montana are doing really well.
Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 202207/30/2022 pretty! Good thing I’ve planted the borer resistant cushaw squash! It is a native moth and it sure is pretty. A Madhu ras cantaloupe melon slipped its vine so we figured it was ready. The only red yucca that’s sprouted from Judy’s seeds is doing good in its new spot. It has a third leaf now. Briar found Shackleton. He was not as happy as she was about this. The dog corner of the prairie
Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 202207/31/2022 garden and neighborhood A Texas dandelion was open in the backyard prairie after a refreshing 1/10th inch of rain! Waaaaalk plzzzzzz We stopped to look at the vegetables on the way out to walk and this magnificent little jumping spider was on guard! On our walk today, near the sidewalk there’s some unmowed area near a creek. Around this beautiful and native silver leaf nightshade you can see a lot of non native and invasive Johnson grass. An American bumblebee was visiting the nightshade. It has a lovely flower. Mom has one that volunteered in her garden area. The plant has pretty flowers as it crept onto the sidewalk, but turned out to be a non native invasive species called Tribulus terrestris.