Posted on August 19, 2022August 19, 202208/19/2022 I tried cantaloupe in my oatmeal this morning, hoping it would be magical like peaches, but I think they’re best eaten cold and alone. The melon, not the person doing the eating. Gram is too tall to stretch under this chair. He came out from under the chair to stretch, then went back under the chair to continue observing his Doggie. Two new blooms on the two leaf senna!! I think one of the juniperleaf cuttings had some nearly ripe seeds on it and they sprouted!!! I kept them in standing water in the shade for the first few days as a cutting, then moved them to a dry spot but still in the shade, where they are now. Still watering every day. This is additionally interesting because the seeds I collected from the original juniperleaf in the winter have not sprouted anywhere I put them. I was reading today in Nokes’ germination book that sometimes fresher seeds don’t have such an impermeable seed coat. A few little grasses in the backyard where I sprinkled the native grass mix from Plants of the Southwest! The mix was blue grama and buffalograss.
Posted on August 17, 2022August 17, 202208/17/2022 The two leaf senna had a second new flower today! The three leaved legume around it is Strophostyles bean, a native volunteer. I’ve seen several Bell’s roadside skippers lately in the backyard.
Posted on August 6, 2022August 6, 202208/06/2022 tiny successes The fall obedient plant has some tiny flowers. One partridge pea has pods! This is important because it’s an annual. I have 2-3 individuals that were blooming at one time so hopefully the seeds make. Did some tomato pruning and found a lot of tomatoes, one Madhu ras cantaloupe melon, and Paula got an okra.
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 August 3, 2022August 3, 202208/03/2022 unexpected The greeneyes is starting to bloom in the backyard prairie! This grew from seeds that I put out a year, maybe two years, ago. Hmm… What is this brown lumpy thing on the butterfly milkweed? An exciting, dare I say unexpected, find by Paula… The Unexpected Cycnia moth caterpillar! I spotted this second Unexpected Cycnia caterpillar on a different plant a few inches away. Apparently they only eat milkweeds, so we are very pleased to find one in the orange butterfly milkweed section of the rainbow garden. It’s also our 150th yard species on inaturalist! A dead cicada. No fun buzzes but Briar hoped. Watermelon in the farm share this week. Yum!!
Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 202207/30/2022 pretty! Good thing I’ve planted the borer resistant cushaw squash! It is a native moth and it sure is pretty. A Madhu ras cantaloupe melon slipped its vine so we figured it was ready. The only red yucca that’s sprouted from Judy’s seeds is doing good in its new spot. It has a third leaf now. Briar found Shackleton. He was not as happy as she was about this. The dog corner of the prairie
Posted on July 31, 2022July 31, 202207/31/2022 garden and neighborhood A Texas dandelion was open in the backyard prairie after a refreshing 1/10th inch of rain! Waaaaalk plzzzzzz We stopped to look at the vegetables on the way out to walk and this magnificent little jumping spider was on guard! On our walk today, near the sidewalk there’s some unmowed area near a creek. Around this beautiful and native silver leaf nightshade you can see a lot of non native and invasive Johnson grass. An American bumblebee was visiting the nightshade. It has a lovely flower. Mom has one that volunteered in her garden area. The plant has pretty flowers as it crept onto the sidewalk, but turned out to be a non native invasive species called Tribulus terrestris.
Posted on July 17, 2022July 17, 202207/17/2022 straw bale sampling and other afternoon torture We appear to have some potatoes in the straw bales. The Granny Smith apple is having a hard time. The leaves are turning brittle and possibly sunscalded? We are on mandatory water conservation until the city pump is fixed Monday hopefully so the most I can do is hand water it. However, this apple tree is the most westward facing so maybe it’s just having problems. Native Texas dandelion in backyard earlier.
Posted on July 16, 2022July 16, 2022Ironweed time A view of the ironweed this morning. It has a very tall but tiny sunflower in the background. This morning I saw another fancy bee! Paula saw another of these, the two-spotted longhorn bee, on loofahs recently. Here are its distinctive two spots. Yesterday I saw a Bombus pennsylvanicus. Another Bombus pennsylvanicus, two days ago. These on the ironweeds have been the first ones I’ve seen this year.
Posted on July 9, 2022July 9, 202207/09/2022 afternoon Shackleton asking to go out. It’s too hot for him though. A single bloom of ironweed has opened. An American Snout was interested in the water spray as I watered the potted plants.