Posted on June 12, 2022June 12, 202206/12/2022 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.
Posted on May 26, 2022May 29, 202205/26/2022 Thursday the 26th. A winecup from two summers ago came back. This true bug was relatively long and thin, and is standing on greeneyes. It flew away before I got a better picture. Bee fly at woodland edge! I’m hoping this could be inland sea oats that I seeded two years ago. Edit: Abby agrees. There’s a passionvine label here but this could also be butterfly pea?? We’ll find out!! Across the fence from mystery seedling is a known passionvine. Showy milkweed has survived its planting. I think these are the Mexican sage from Judy. A small bee on coreopsis. Mystery grass. I will note here when I hear back from the grass expert! (Then I can check here next year when I forget haha.). Edit: Mom says is the native little barley again. This one is a volunteer so I’m glad it does well here! Doesn’t get taller than the buffalo grass too so it can stay in the “lawn”. Close up. A small native legume whose name I’ve forgotten. There are quite a few growing in the rainbow beds and in the backyard at the edge of the patio. A lightning bug on a rain barrel. A leaf miner in the native coral honeysuckle! I think this dark spot is the larva, visible on underside of leaf. So tiny! Overall the coral honeysuckle is beginning to get going. This one was from Judy! Thanks Judy! A wild grape that we dug from the front to make room for strawberries. Joke’s on us because there was root left up front and it’s now taking over the rain barrel stand too. Another black nightshade. I think their tiny flowers are so pretty. Elderberry just starting. I think a mealy bug? On ironweed stem. Liatris mucronata from home from last summer. Dicanthelium grass that came along with Liatris. A tiny insect on ironweed. Purple coneflower working its way towards blooming. A mystery leaf. The mystery leaf above came along with the transplanted wedge leaf Euphorbia.
Posted on March 27, 2022March 27, 2022The finished projects from yesterday plus seeds today Four t posts. Wires go east to west on both, holding in the blackberry canes so we can walk through and harvest. There was one new sprout in the middle that grew up and we moved it into a line with another. Close up so you can see aluminum wire. We finished the compost pile area yesterday but I forgot to take a picture. Wes did a lovely job leveling it all and put rebar through several holes to keep it in place. I connected an old hose from one of the rain barrels to make sure the pile stays suitably damp for decomposition. See that big seedling on the lower right edge? I don’t recognize it, so there is a possibility it’s the native bush honeysuckle Lonicera albiflora which is what I planted in this pot and left out all winter. A pale but bright turquoise fungus growing on the showy milkweed seeds. The seeds felt plump though so maybe some will grow. Strophostyles helvula bean seeds. One has fungus but also a little root!! All the seeds we planted out of fridge stratification today. There’s still a few more left for late April that needed more time. A little mystery seedling in the old Maximilian sunflower area. Paula and I pulled and dug a lot of Maximilian sunflower shoots out of there. Hopefully we can find them new homes!
Posted on January 17, 2022January 17, 2022Field trip for indoor plants and tomato gets a new cage Roman chamomile and Peruvian ground cherry soak up sun and water. Left dwarf tomato is Audrey’s Love that has right. Right dwarf tomato is Bendigo Dawn which has flowers but no fruit. Paula suggested we add bone meal so we did. We also added a bigger cage for climbing for the Bendigo Dawn tomato. Lettuce, peppers, bok choy, and jagallo nero kale.
Posted on September 6, 2021September 7, 2021Holiday Sunday An outdoor dinner. Garden basil and oregano. Moved the chives and garlic chives that Judy gave me last year. Maybe they’ll like this spot better. Uzbek golden, little, and New Kuroda carrots. Gram helps me get seeds out. Fall seeds planted of cabbage, mizuna, greens, and cauliflower. Tomatoes and peppers for overwintering. And a few pots of Roman chamomile for the front yard ground cover. This is where I shall attempt peppers and tomatoes over the winter. This goldenrod was already here and is doing very nicely. A giant 1″+ horsefly on a backyard window sill. Never going outside again. I lied. Outside again. Chiltepin peppers. Frostweed doing alright after it died back earlier in summer. A little spider got this Eastern Tailed-Blue on the englemann daisy. Texas mallow blooming! The non native clematis. I’ll clean it out over the winter. Okra flower A bumblebee on the okra!
Posted on September 5, 2021September 5, 2021Tepary beans begin I’ve been getting worried about no tepary beans, but I looked in my spreadsheet and the big harvest last year didn’t start until late September and went into mid October until frost. So I think we’re doing fine. These are pinacate tepary beans.
Posted on September 5, 2021September 5, 2021Even wilder Saturday Okra flower keeping its banker’s hours. Taco week leftovers include garden potatoes and garden sweet peppers (a few mini bells and one Jimmy Nardallo sweet pepper) and tomatoes in cheese sauce. Wet dog helping me water. A kind friend who was moving gave me a string of solar lights which I put in the trellises today. They have a switch, so I can have them on only as needed, so we don’t distract the night bugs from their business.
Posted on August 21, 2021August 21, 2021Thursday (yesterday) Mom sent us seeds and Gracie hair from home!! Gram wants to know what it’s about. Briar focus on family smells again. Gram prefers dog ear. Dog pleased. Cat interested in dog interest, would like dog food to be served though. A geometrid moth sitting on passionvine leaf. Left to right: New Kuroda, little finger, and Uzbek golden carrots. I picked the tiny one too early but it had a good taste. Paula took her plants home so I decided to see if the basil from the plant window prefers this spot where her houseplants were so happy.
Posted on August 20, 2021August 20, 2021Rain yesterday Zinnias looking happy. Loofah gourds very happy too.
Posted on August 14, 2021August 14, 2021A day off for errands Bisbee cowpeas flowering more I liked the contrast on this one. “Stubby” variety of okra. An okra flower with a little sweat bee flying by! This is the first okra flower I’ve seen in person here since they seem to keep banker’s hours. A little green-striped cushaw squash! Leaf of the squash is looking a bit rough. Found another Madhu Ras melon! This one is bigger. Salvia greggii “Diane” purple cultivar has bloomed! Now only waiting on the orange part of rainbow garden to bloom. Whoa. I did not realize this cushaw squash was here! A male Sachem on a Peruvian ground cherry. There is a flower in the background so I hope it’ll start producing soon. Two immature fruits on Amish Paste tomato. I think this is one of my stratification butterfly milkweed that I planted directly! Very excited! A doodlebug (also known as an ant lion) trap waiting for some little critter to walk by! I feel very good about the predators in the garden right now, keeping plant-eaters in check, as I also saw a little brown snake slither away. We had a Dekay’s Brown Snake last year so it was probably that. May it be fat and happy on earwigs! One of the rosemary bushes is blooming!