Category: Native

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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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06/03/2022

Lyre leaf sage sprouting where I have sprinkled it in front yard.
Who’s this lurking in the buffalo grass?
Shackleton of course!  He persuaded the Chef to go outside.
The Chef decided it was so nice out we walked to Braum’s for dinner.
Then we walked to the duck pond and saw some geese and their baby goslings!
Close up of the babies.
There were a lot of winecups around the duck pond! Great to see.
Possibly smells nice too? The end.
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06/02/2022

New book in the mail! The Social Wasps of North America by Chris Alice Kratzer. It looks very useful.
Awards for bravery all around tonight. Shacks walked right past Briar and she stayed put.
Purple coneflower finally opening up!
Ironweed is budding, seems early??
This is one of two dill seedlings in the herb bed.
Pretty sure now that this is the Mexican sage from Judy.
Whoa, standing cypress about to bloom!
The just-planted two leaf senna doing okay.
The older two leaf senna seems to have gotten nibbled. I’ll have to consider if I should put some Vaseline around it against earwigs or a wire cage over it maybe for rabbits.
A non native moss rose (Portulaca). Dog behind.

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05/31/2022

Butterfly milkweed has finally opened!
Stubby okra seedling
Having walking onions as a garnish is an easy way to get a meal bloggable.
All dished up.
Glass gem popcorn seems very happy!
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05/30/2022 afternoon

A fleabane in the front yard.
Same fleabane, the leaves. This was in the lawn, so I need to decide if I will transplant or save seeds.

An Asian long bean from my aunt. Thanks to my aunt!!
Only one of many zucchini seeds has sprouted. I think they were too old. I will get new or save new next year.
Large leaf basil seedlings.
Purple beauty pepper has a flower bud!
Briar thought she was interested in my snack but it turns out broccoli isn’t her thing.
The swamp milkweed I just bought, receiving its afternoon sunlight.
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05/30/2022 holiday Monday

A megachilid bee on Gaillardia pulchella (blanket flower or firewheel).
I repotted the lemon balm into a clay pot so I could use its plastic one. In the upper left I also put one winecup in the very long tall head shaped pot. The root system was starting to escape the sprouting cells so I should probably plant its friends soon too.
I needed a lot of medium to large plastic pots to put showy evening primrose (here in middle) and Maximilian sunflower (next pic) in actual soil.
These are the Maximilian sunflowers I’ve been pulling from the prairie area, where the main plant we moved was last winter. I was storing them to give away in a tub of water and soil, but they were looking sad, so I figured it was time for potting. There’s so many they are crowded, but whoever takes them can separate them out. They seem very, very hardy.
While I had my hands dirty I repotted the ashy sunflower (Helianthus mollis). I figure it can get much bigger in this pot, and then we can plant it in late summer to overwinter in its final location (to be decided).
Someone (tail end pictured…) Kept wanting to bark at our fine feline friends in the plant window. So I made it less convenient.
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05/29/2022

Hard work entertaining and supervising the additional kitties!!
A very tiny buprestid beetle I haven’t seen before on Maximilian sunflower leaves.
Close up, a little blurry. It was windy.
No idea why she put her face in the dayflowers.
Very tiny bee on elderberry flowers.
Shackleton got a leash walk and likes my untidy and dusty staging ground for pots.
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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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05/27/2022 work picnic at Ruby Grant park

A beautiful little wasp on fleabane. I just ordered a field guide to social wasps of North America so I hope I can identify it soon!
Blister or soldier beetle on annual coreopsis (I think).
A tiny crab spider offering free hugs.
A little beetle. I have seen a lot of these in my backyard too.
Need to look this legume up.
Rudbeckia amplexicaulis!
Milkweed bug!
The green milkweed was everywhere in the park!! We saw an adult monarch butterfly too.
A legume.
Bumblebee!!
Flying view
I still need to look up the species.
More of this purple legume.
A blurry assassin bug on yarrow.
Another milkweed bug – maybe a different or smaller kind?
Legume. Edit: Mom suggests non-native Trifolium species, which looks about right. Thank you Mom!
The park’s picnic pavilion has lightning bug lights!!

It’s a great little prairie. I heard singing Dickcissel, Field Sparrow, and Painted Bunting, and an Eastern Meadowlark calling. Nice!!