Posted on June 6, 2023June 6, 202306/06/2023 more flowering! One of the cushaw squashes I put by the compost pile has sprouted! I am very curious to see what it does without watering. Paula put out our Wise Co TX source Datura wrightii. The one in the back in the shade was from central TX. The ‘Tango’ Agastache aurantica hybrid is blooming! Echinacea purpurea in the backyard is mostly open now!
Posted on September 10, 2022September 10, 202209/08/2022 nighttime only adventure The Chef wanted to see what was out this week so we took the UV flashlight and checked. Here’s a spider! It’s beige in regular light. I had no idea there were hairless bee flies. This one came to the porch light. We turned off the porch light once we went inside so all the critters could go back to their business. We found three glowing crab spiders. All of them were on insect pollinated flowers, so I wonder if they glow to blend in for pollinators who can see UV? Though on this Salvia greggii, presumably all the pollen is farther down the flower. But we found two on zinnias. The green striped cushaw squash looks melted! Escobaria missouriensis cactus spines glow! There’s a lot of sunflower pollen glowing. You can see how much has fallen off! This was my favorite picture of the glowing sunflower pollen: just the disk flowers glowing against the dark sky, leaves barely visible.
Posted on August 24, 2022August 24, 202208/24/2022 giant squash time and other things I thought I saw something in a firewood piece. It was a mason wasp! The Chef made a delicious dinner. BLT with farm share tomatoes and Paula’s sourdough bread. The okra and peppers side was breaded and pan fried, with both farm share and garden okra, topped with cholula hot sauce. These corrientes cowpea leaves seemed maybe diseased because they were covered in light yellow speckles, so I removed them. Some sort of fungus maybe on the basil? It is the round dark spot I’m pointing to with my snippers. I have been removing them. If anyone knows otherwise, I’d let a leaf miner live. Trimmed all the basil this evening for the Chef to do a pesto batch. This corrientes cowpea stem is flat like a ribbon. Side view of flat stem of cowpea. A mystery. Last but definitely not least, the giant green-striped cushaw squash. I’m not sure if Briar was concerned or unimpressed. We got out the bathroom scale for this magnificent beast. The squash weighed 14.5 lbs. Last year’s big squash was barely 7 lbs.
Posted on August 17, 2022August 17, 202208/16/2022 developments of interest Tuesday started off sleepy before work. On my way out I saw the two leaf senna blooming for the first time! I’m so happy it’s doing ok. There is a second plant too but it has no buds yet. The Chef and Briar picked me up from work. When we came back, we discovered Gram waiting. He was waiting for his Doggie. “Hello Big Sister!”. Once she came back in the house all was well again. Fajita salad by Paula and The Chef. I am informed there were garden onions and at least one garden tomato involved. The first cushaw squash just keeps growing. We think it is almost ready as the rind is getting pretty hard now. The purple beauty peppers are inexplicably red. I wonder if it’s too hot for the purple color. The mystery pumpkin vine made a second bit of Halloween. It’s the slightly more yellow one above. The vine itself seemed to be dying of squash vine borers so we went ahead and removed it.
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 July 27, 2022July 27, 202207/27/2022 All the basil, five varieties. The Chef has committed to pesto tonight. The green striped cushaw squash just gets noticeably bigger every day!
Posted on July 5, 2022July 5, 202207/05/2022 Baby cushaw squash! Recovering from removal of benign sebaceous cysts is more complicated than either of us expected. Purple hulled pinkeye cowpea. I really like the little signs Paula got me for Christmas. They stand out well. A gray hairstreak on a Madhu ras canteloupe flower. Paula’s Coryphantha sulcata is blooming! In fact, it has two. She says it had six earlier this year too. New tiny moth – a spotted thyris! Bee butt in loofah gourd. Paula made Thai green curry for dinner. It contains last year’s garden white currant tomatoes (from frozen, so that works well), garden onions, and garden walking onions. The Texas buckeye is very angry. I put a hose out to soak there. Jeanne has let me know the wild ones do this too, so maybe it will recover. Possibly purple prairie clover from free packet from prairiemoon.com? A second round of standing cypress flowers on a different plant. A volunteer Carolina snailseed in the front yard. Will Rogers Zinnias are looking good in the rainbow garden. Briar loves escorting Shackleton for a walk. Shackleton doesn’t know why we have to ruin a good thing by bringing the dog. We were about to go back inside, but she got up and scooted closer. He turned to glare while she got a treat for laying down. Shackleton says no eye contact. Here you can pretend there is no dog, only lush, succulent grass and corn.
Posted on September 14, 2021September 14, 2021Green striped cushaw squash The Chef roasted the squash so I can freeze it for later muffin/cakes or pie. A little over two pounds makes about two cups.
Posted on September 13, 2021September 13, 2021Squash slice Sunday Dividing yesterday squash into thirds. Trimming another mealy blue sage.