Spiders, bees and other things

Yesterday was an extra busy day for me. My main event was speaking about spiders at the Wings over the Hills Nature Festival in Fredericksburg. On the way, I stopped off at the Blanco County Master Gardeners' Plant Sale. I wanted to see their wildlife drip basins. Pretty cool! They sell both the basins (when they have them made) and drip basin kits for DIYers. I scanned and posted their how-to instructions (below). 

 

Then onward to the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park, where the festival was held. Vendors inside the Pioneer Pavilion sold all kinds of nature-related things, like native plants, binoculars, art, bird feeders and more. I went outside and toured the park's Pollinator Garden. Awesome!

 At 1 p.m., I gave my presentation, "Spiders of Central Texas," which went well. This Thurday, I'm giving the program again to the 2014 training class of Master Naturalists with the Highland Lakes chapter in Burnet.

On my way back home to Blanco, I noticed a bumper crop of antelope horns blooming, which is a huge plus for monarchs. I just had to stop and snap a few photos. Wheeling by on the highway, they look like golf balls. LOTS  of golf balls!  

Jeff's beetle

 

Our good friend Jeff from Houston made a quick stop by the Pink House yesterday. He and his family were in the area for his son's wedding in Dripping Springs. He loves nature and found this mystery critter among the roses at his hotel. At first glance, I thought it was a green June beetle because all I saw was the metallic green. Then I took another look...oh, yes, I'd found that one before! But I couldn't remember the common name until I found the post on my blog: fiery searcher. It is one beautiful beetle! I snapped a few photos, then I let it go in our gardens. It was ready to go! Thanks for sharing, Jeff, and for your gifts of cookies and the pig for James. :-) Come back soon!

More plant markers

We have a LOT of plants in our Wildscape! I know this because I just recently received my third order of 100 plant markers! This time, I ordered a larger size from Paw Paw Everlast Label Company. My first two orders were size M (miniature). [You can see the difference in the photo below.] They've worked well; however, accumulated leaves and other debris in some beds eventually covers them up, and I have to dig around to find them. Like this week when I almost couldn't find those for our coralberry, inland sea oats and Mexican oregano. So I decided I'd try a taller, larger size, which is E (rose labels). 

I really like these markers a lot. On the back, I mark where we bought/got the plants and the date planted. After several years, though, alas, they do fade and get beat up. Then I have to mark over them again (see photo below). Overall, I definitely recommend them. 

Cleaning out the stock tank pond

 

Yuck. Our stock tank pond had really gotten messy! Last night about 2 a.m., I woke up and thought about our water lily, how I needed to bring it up for spring. Last year, I forgot. Poor thing. It really had to work to send up leave and flowers. No wonder it wasn't as showy as in 2012. So this afternoon, I decided TODAY IS THE DAY! 

I scooped out our one lone surviving gambusia (mosquitofish). Poor thing–he's been alone for a while. Then I got to work. James joined me later. 

We scooped out the water using buckets and poured it on our plants. No point wasting it! Then we scrubbed out the inside with old Dobie pads. 

The cinder blocks, which serve as plant pedestals, were gunky, too. 

We put this stock tank pond together in May 2012. Last spring 2013, we didn't do a thing to it. Really, you're suppose to divide and repot your aquatic plants AND clean out your pond once a year. Not me. What I did do was pull and cut off all the roots on the horsetail rush (above) and trim off the dead stems on the lemon bacopa. The water lily needs dividing, but I didn't. Oh, well.

Finally, more than an hour later, we filled up the tank again. It holds about 100 gallons. Then I added a heavy-metal remover to the water (below). I won't put the fish back in the water until tomorrow sometime. 

TA DA!