The blackberries have been ripening for a while but I’ve just snacked. Today I went out with a container to pick!The Chef added a cookie and Braum’s vanilla ice cream. Yum!
Paula’s Escobaria vivipara cactus continues to bloom beautifully in the daytime. It was cloudy. I’m not sure if that matters for it to bloom. A very frilly summer iris begins… I think this one is from Judy?The standing cypress is really going now with multiple plants in full bloom!The Chef made a delicious pizza with fresh basil and oregano from the yard. I believe this is a safflower that sprouted from the bird seed. I believe these are our two different sunflowers species. The one on the left has narrower and wavy edged leaves; we think/hope it’s Helianthus petiolaris (both Mom and another friend have given us seeds). The one on the right has big broad leaves and I think is an offspring of the Helianthus annuus that volunteered last year. Ironweed is starting to bud. Greeneyes is about to bloom!The blackberries are starting to ripen! These are wild volunteers dug from Mom and Dad’s house. Last but definitely not least, on Tuesday morning I woke up and emerged to find Gram happily snuggling the Doggie. Briar seemed to understand she could not move as is the cat rule. She was not unhappy though. Eventually he got up to look out the newly opened window so she was released so she could scratch an itch haha.
This one has some rusty color at the petal bases! Different individual plant— this one is over in what we are calling “Leon’s prairie” by his blackberry bushes.
Briar enjoys laying in the prairie among the primroses and englemann daisies. Some of the grass in the new prairie (we’re calling it Leon’s prairie since it’s by Leon’s blackberry bushes) has turned out to be the native wild rye we seeded! Yay!Yellow Coreopsis looking bright with the tiny purple Verbena halei and the starry pink widow’s cross sedum!Shackleton had some thoughts. Briar says “walkies please??” (We did go walkies.)The showy evening primroses are looking lovely with their pale pink between the purple winecups in the back and the magenta Salvia greggii in the front. We didn’t even plant them on purpose, they were just in the soil Paula brought from the backyard berm. Coreopsis provides a nice yellow contrast at the end of the Salvia greggii row. More seedling winecups are coming up in the newer soil where we put seeds. Gram says it’s hard to use a dichotomous key for plant identification when the only numbers you know are “hello?” And “Doggie”. Shackleton somehow turned the pages and now says “I leave the identification as a trivial exercise for the reader.”We planted one Winecup in a tall skinny planter. It has bloomed now.