10/09/2022 Saxon park

Schinia gaurae moth (the clouded crimson) caterpillar on false gaura! We counted nine around our 1.75 mi loop.
The tall rosettes of the false gaura were nice to see since they look just like my garden one.
A Schinia moth I haven’t identified feeding on aster flowers.
This bumblebee loved the Salvia azurea.
Back of two spotted bumblebee where you can see the spots!
Funnel web spider says no pictures, please.
A tree cricket hiding on Liatris.
The seed pod of a Baptisia. Mom said possibly B. australis var. minor
Paula found two big beautiful lynx spider mommas! Wow! This is one guarding its egg sac.
A tiny caterpillar on false gaura.
The first Solomon’s seal I’ve seen in the wild! We have several in the yard but no idea if they’re volunteers or planted.
Probably a buckwheat, the botany consulting committee says.
Abby, Mom, and Jeanne also agreed this was probably a dwarf lead plant.
Paula found a magnificent sumac leaf turning yellow to red.
The Sumac is really turning beautiful reds all over!

05/04/2022

Home from doggie daycare.
I need to look this one up again but we have a lot. It’s native. It’s Solanaceae. Edit: Mom says Solanum ptycanthum.
Yellow flax (Linum rigidum) and showy evening primrose.
The sadly too common Canis bordum
A winecup seedling!!
More winecup seedlings!!
A few leaves have stayed green on the fragrant sumac. I’ve been using the terracotta pot to dribble out more water to it.
Desert blue curls!! (Phacelia campanularia). I was really baffled about the little purple spotted seedlings but this is it. Yay!!
Cactus planter prickly pears doing well.
Asian long bean from my aunt are growing well.
Knock on not-rotting wood, the Roman chamomile hasn’t been eaten by earwigs unlike the last batch.
Pink buckwheat blooming.
Mom, is this the Liatris from home? (Also some pretty Dicanthelium grass)
Widow sedum about to bloom!

Afternoon harvest and repotting

Buckwheat is blooming.
Peruvian ground cherries are having a few potential fruits!
Paula and I repotted all the winter babies.
More babies.
The Missouri Yellow Watermelon weighs almost 12 lbs!
It’s so ripe that when I started to slice, it cracked open more on its own.
It was very tasty and sweet and crisp.
In the evening, I sliced some peppers for freezing. Green ones are jalapeños from our garden and red ones are serranos from a friend.
I made a small batch of salsa verde. Too little to can, so I froze it.

Evening harvest and bean test

Tomatoes have started producing again a bit.
Checking to see if my guess that ugly ones are bad is correct. Seems generally so, if the idea that floating beans are no good is true.
Buckwheat flowers.
The Chef found a third egg case today. Our spider is working hard! Here she has a grasshopper.

Getting there on post-geothermal landscaping and other Wednesday news

You can see where I plan to put Peruvian ground cherries (the tomato cages) and honeyberries (white flags) on the last raised bed in the side yard. Those four plants were dug up when the geothermal HVAC was put in.
Ready to be planted! The buckwheat seeds I planted around them. I’ll take another pic in a day or two as it got too dark by the time I got done planting and watering them.
Earlier in the day I noticed the bisbee gray cowpeas are producing nicely in backyard.
One lone seedling of a Texas mallow is coming up!
A native cucurbit with a very tiny gourd. Not edible or at least not good according to various sources. But it’s an adorable vine and quite pretty when a bunch grows in one spot.