Wish list

Hey, I know it's not Christmas any more. But I've been wanting to start a "native plants wish list" for our Wildscape. Wish list meaning both tried-and-true species that we've got growing and also new-to-us plants. I've dug up and potted little turk's caps and rock roses that we can plant in the spring. Some inland sea oats, too. I've ordered a copy of Jill Nokes' copy of How to Grow Native Plants of Texas and the Southwest coming so I can learn how to propagate native grasses and plants from transplants and seeds.

Here goes...this is a post in progress, naturally.

I'd like more:

   Chile pequins

   Butterfly weed

   Cowpen daisy

   Goldenrod

   Texas betony

   Wedilia

New:

Pine muhly

Worms, worms, worms

Last year, my son gave "worm farming" a shot in his Waco apartment. Suffice it to say that the farm went south. But it's such a cool idea–growing and encouraging worms in your yard. On that note, I just read "Worming his way out of ugly lawn," Roy Bragg's column in Wednesday's San Antonio Express-News, which featured Kyle Harrell and his backyard worm farm. Naturally, Harrell's got a blog: Texas Red Worms. Very interesting venture!

Spring pretend

With days like yesterday and today, it's easy to wish even more than spring was TOMORROW! Even a pair of frisky red admirals (above) were flitting about this afternoon. With the recent rains, volunteer henbit and other nuisance natives (and nonnatives) are flourishing. Yesterday afternoon, I got out and pulled henbit from our front beds. For now, it can grow elsewhere for the benefit of bees, butterflies and other insects. When she visited Tuesday, my mother asked about henbit. Time to get out the books!

Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is the common name for a cool season weed, originally from Europe. It's also called dead nettle and is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae). Howard Garrett in Howard Garrett's Plants for Texas says he likes the plant, "but if you don't, mow it down." According to Delena Tull's Wildflowers, Trees and Shrubs of Texas, "the young tender plants of both species [Lamium purpureum, East Texas species] are edible raw or cooked; unlike most mints, these do not have aromatic leaves."

And with yet another new year already here, I've decided to wage war against invasives in our Wildscape. The lantana (pictured above) was here before I moved into the Pink House in 2002. It struggled to survive last summer's drought and wasn't as hearty as usual. Though not listed at Texas Invasives, many biologists, native enthusiasts and other experts frown on Lantana camara and consider it to be highly invasive. So out it goes.

Purple martin friend

Good morning! I just read on Facebook (thanks Louise Chambers!) about martin enthusiast Gardner Sumner in Austin. During last summer's horrific drought and heat, he spent hours, feeding birds and cooling houses at the Virginia Avenue Purple Martin Sanctuary in Travis County. For his dedication, the Austin American-Statesman recognized him as one of their Volunteers of the Year.

It won't be long before the scouts start returning!

Seeds for the new year

This afternoon, I took lunch out to James, who's working on our land northwest of town. After our peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, I ventured off alone and hiked some deer trails. Along the way, I picked three species of grass seed. I would LOVE to establish some native stands in our Wildscape. I also picked up some possumhaw berries in hopes of planting some of those, too. I tried last year with no luck. So I'm just gonna try again!

I've got my copy of Grasses of the Texas Hill Country in my lap (by Brian and Shirley Loflin), trying to ID the three species. I'm guessing the two "sideways" seedheads are a grama species (blue or tall). The long single seedhead may be Lindheimer muhly (Muhlenbergia lindheimeri). Hope so! The delicate, wispy seedheads came from seep muhly (Muhlenbergia reverchonii). 

On that note, last weekend I clipped a newspaper article, "150,000 seed balls bound for Bastrop," written by reporter Claire Osborn with the Austin American-Statesman.

"The seeds are from more than 50 varieties of plants found in the Bastrop area, such as little bluestem, black-eyed Susan and Indian blanket. Each ball has nine or 10 seeds and should grow with a little water," the article states. "They will be available to Bastrop residents whose land was damaged by the fires."

Members of the Capital Area Master Naturalists sponsored the project. According to the Statesman, "150,000 marble-size balls of clay, compost and native plant seeds were put together by about 300 groups of children at schools, churches and youth groups in Williamson, Travis, Hays, Caldwell, Milam and Bell counties."

The group raised $1,800 to buy compost, clay and a special seed mix from my friends, Bill and Jan Neiman, at the Native American Seed Co. in Junction. What a wonderful project!!

December 2011 in our Wildscape

I'm a bit late this month in posting a December visit around our Wildscape. As you can see, the yard is MUCH greener! Thanks to recent rains, the horseherb, assorted dandelion species and other volunteer natives have sprouted everywhere! We are VERY grateful for the moisture. Of course, many of the natives we planted on purpose are starting to freeze back and go dormant. I can't wait for spring!

I couldn't resist snapping a photo of some dandelions and henbit. 

 

 

Even after a freeze....

......there's still life to be found in our Wildscape!

Our inland sea oats barely went to seed this season....

 

 

Most of the purple hearts have frozen back but this shoot survived...

A recent hard freeze didn't faze our 'Purple' spiderwort.....

The coralberry has put on a little fruit....