Get certified!

I'm back to work on my book manuscript. Or at least, I'm trying to! Ask any writer, and they'll tell you the silly things they do to avoid writing. Like sharpening pencils. Answering emails. Visting the bathroom. Filling up birdbaths...You get the picture.

Anyway, I thought I'd post the application form for the Texas Wildscapes Backyard Habitat Program so you can get a sense of what's involved in the process. It's not hard at all. Make it your summer goal to get certified!

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Rubeckia

'Autumn Colors' Rubeckia hirta...Additions bought from the Arnosky Family Farm.

Tough greenthread

In April, an infestation of beetles (Phaedon desotonis) marched across the Meadow and wiped out our greenthread plants. Miraculously, they survived, regrew and have been blooming in profusion this past week or so. As I was shooting some blooms, I noticed how different each and every flower is. Take a look and see.....

"Look down, lady!"

Frogfruit

Yesterday morning, I had some free time before our monthly Texas Master Naturalist meeting in Kingsland. So I grabbed my camera and headed outside to shoot wildflowers. Frogfruit, lantana in the front yard. American beautyberry in the back.

Lantana

I was leaning over the beautyberry, trying to focus on a bee, when I heard a chickadee fussing behind me. I turned around and found the little bird, perched mid way down our chain-link fence. A titmouse showed up, too. They both seemed bothered about something. I glanced around but didn't see anything. So I went back to shooting the beautyberry.

However, the chickadee still fussed at me. A house finch landed on an oak branch over me. Maybe a baby bird's on the ground? I glanced around some more. Nothing.

Finally, I walked a ways down a flower bed that parallels the fence, still looking around. Nothing. As I stood there, perplexed, a juvenile robin landed atop the fence with its back to me. For several seconds, it looked straight down. And I mean STRAIGHT DOWN at the ground! 


FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, LOOK DOWN, LADY! LOOK DOWN!

"OK, OK!" I laughed. "I'll look some more!"

I walked over to our gate and leaned against the fence, looking hard all over the ground on both sides of the our fence. 

OH! NOW I GET IT!

American beautyberry

There on the ground, very still and well camouflaged, lay an eastern hognose snake! I snapped a quick photo and then hollered for James.

You can see why I kept missing this snake on the ground...

Don't get freaked out, but we were excited to find this guy! He (or she?) may be one and the same that a friend in our neighborhood gave us several years ago. This is the first time we've seen a hognose since releasing that one in September 2009.

He's flattening out....

 Eastern hognose snakes (Heterodon platirhinos) act deadly but are nonvenomous. Their defensive behavior includes: puffing up and hissing like an adder, lunging like an adder, convulsing and playing dead, and even pooping. 

I'm a deadly cobra...get away from me. Ha, we knew better!

After a brief visit, our hognose friend slithered into a nearby brush pile. I'm sure the birds aren't happy with me, but diversity's a good thing to have in a Texas Wildscape.

 

 

More plants!

We can't resist. We bought more plants in a sale room at an area nursery. In all, we came home with 19 new additions. Salvias, yarrow, rubeckia, ruellia, dwarf myrtle, purple skullcap, maybe coreopsis. By day's end, James had them all in the ground! I am WAY behind on labeling plants in our Wildscape.

At a roadside pottery/ironwork stand, I also bought a wooden table to set out by our hammock. A bargain at $2! We got it home, and I carried it out to the patio so I could wash off the mud and cobwebs. Uh oh. First, I saw the two egg sacs. Then I saw the shiny black legs and body. A black widow mama! She's not there any more, and that's all I'm gonna say. End of story.

Blooms blooms blooms

'Autumn Colors' Rudbeckia hirta

Trumpet vine flowering like crazy.

James is trimming it back because it's getting BIG.

 

Crepe myrtle so lovely. Previous owners planted it.

Santolina, four-nerve daisy, mealy sage.

Hard to tell in this photo how much the salvias are blooming...

Lots of queens and monarchs arriving to nectar on the blue mistflower.

Texas betony, mealy sage and gray shrub sage.

Fall aster is already blooming!

And our rock rocks are beautiful, too.

Landscape for Life

I'm behind as usual. But better late than never. The May 2012 issue of Wildflower Watch, a newsletter of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, highlighted Landscape for Life, a "go-to source for home gardeners who want to be more kind to the environment."

"Landscape For Life shows you how to work with nature in your garden, no matter where you live, whether you garden on a city or suburban lot, a 20–acre farm, or the common area of your condominium," states an intro on the website's homepage. "Conventional gardens often work against nature. They can damage the environment's ability to clean air and water, reduce flooding, combat climate change, and provide all the other natural benefits that support life on earth-including us. The good news is that even one home garden can begin to repair the web of life. It's possible to create a great–looking garden that's healthier for you, your family, your pets, and the environment-and that saves you time and money."

Looks like a great site. Check it out!