05/05/2023 garden

Last year’s Datura is pushing up through the leaves!!
This Solomon’s seal is considering blooming.
The Strophostyles fuzzybeans are growing where I put them in compost pile wall blocks!
These wild yellow Oxalis volunteers are really looking good this year en masse.
This plantain came with the spike moss from Jeanne’s house in Nc TX.
Possibly green milkweed seedlings in that pot with the Baptisia.
In the cactus tiered planter, a mystery seedling.
Mystery seedlings in the rose/bluehearts planter. Still hoping for bluehearts!

05/04/2023 big long soaking rain

We got 2.75” in less than 24 hours!
Missouri Fluttermill primrose baby survived pouring rain even under the rain barrel!
Left seedling is Winecup and upper right seedling is Astragalus crassicarpus!
One of two Blackfoot daisy survived earwigs and is now growing flower buds and a few new leaves!
Perennial coreopsis begins!

The Mexican Sage from Judy is up!
The tomatoes have gotten a bit sunburnt from past rain with sunlight after, so this time I flicked water off and put them in a less intensely sunny spot. Trying to get them hardened off for planting.
Like Briar, Shacks was disappointed by rain and not being out. Paula brought him some favorite juicy grass and he loved it.

04/03/2023 fruit trees before we left

Williams pride apple is blooming.
Seckel pear has started to leaf out and the Liberty apple behind it too.
I think this one is the bud on the Arkansas Black Apple. Or maybe McIntosh. I forget already. Update: Paula checked and it’s McIntosh.
Butterfly milkweed coming up in the rainbow garden!

03/26/2023 field trip to Lexington WMA

I need to add captions and descriptions to the rest of the pics, but this Spiranthes sp was neat to see coming up!
Briar and Paula in safety hunter orange.
False garlic with tiny moths.
Paula caught a Little Brown Skink!
The skink did not want to stay for a visit.
A prairie verbena!
Armadillo!!! Briar ready, but actual briar vines kept her from following it far.
First Lomatium of the day. Briar helped by putting her nose by it.
Arnoglossum sp! Leaves
Bigger Arnoglossum species leaves!
The lovely valley we walked around. Had some damp spots.
Milkweed! Probably Asclepias verticillata??
Echinacea probably angustifolia? Leaf and last year’s seed head.
Thanks for laying down in the mud puddle, BRIAR.
Nostoc algae and scale lichens!
Paula found this great potter wasp nest!
Eventually found a big patch of Lomatium blooming.
Some Lomatium in light shade.
Some Lomatium almost done blooming.
Some Lomatium out in the sun.
Another prairie verbena.
A puccoon just opening!

03/25/2023 Saturday observations

Antennaria neglecta (prairie pussytoes) from Missouri Wildflower Nursery is doing well!
The second pussytoes is even putting out long shoots… maybe it will spread by runners??
Three germinating Asclepias viridiflora!!
A Datura wrightii from Wise Co TX that Mom gave me!
False garlic is blooming nicely!
These leaves are in the right place for Helianthus mollis, ashy sunflower, we planted last year as a seedling outside from seeds indoors.

06/12/2022 yard

Maybe Phacelia?
I found at least four leaves full of my amazing tree hopper friends.
Each leaf had a different set of adults or immatures.
Adults get taken care of too.
Babies!!!
The leaf bends where the treehopper eggs were.
Lace bug
Frogfruit east of patio is doing well. Just moved a piece there this spring.
Nice true bug
Dog flower highly mobile.
Monarda future flower bud??
Baptisia and okra
Rudbeckia maxima from Abby has a new leaf.
A planthopper (Flatidae) on curly dock. First time for this family in the yard?? I used to see them regularly at home.
Rattlesnake master still lives.
Passionvine (seeds from Bartlesville) doing well in their second year.
Tiny bee on butterfly milkweed
Hedeoma in with Datura.

06/12/2022 a walk in the park

Just a bit of prairie here at Ruby Grant Park in NW Norman.
Oh wait! A box turtle!!
It is good pollinator habitat and good prairie too. I heard one Eastern Meadowlark singing and at least one Dickcissel.
A weevil on green milkweed pods.
A family of baby milkweed bugs on green milkweed pods. We looked but didn’t find any Monarch butterfly caterpillars.
Sideoats grama grass.
Abby has suggested this is bottlebrush squirrel tail grass.
It has very exciting seedheads!
Thanks to Mom and Abby for identifying this as Apocynum cannabinum, or dogbane.
There was a lot of it along the trail and we saw the dogbane beetle that eats it too!
Possibly prairie acacia?
A non native lady beetle on the acacia.
Really great stands of Rudbeckia amplexicaulis here!

06/09/2022 last (almost) of season

Strawberries! Just a few left. They peaked back a while ago.
Lemon balm is blooming.
This salad contains garden radishes and garden lettuce.
Butterfly milkweed in backyard.
Verbena halei is leaning under the ironweed.
The yellow in the rainbow garden has stopped blooming but the rock garden primroses are blooming!
Standing cypress is looking magnificent after several days of tons of rain.