Squirrels Bearing Gifts

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Meredith

The saga of the pine cones continues. A few days ago, my last peanut-butter pine cone was nabbed by naughty squirrels, forcing me to resort to other means to put out high-protein winter bird treats. Then last night, a guerrilla squirrel left a package at our gate. The paper bag bore a note.

squirrel note 12-20-11.jpg

What tasty treats were hidden inside the bag? Why, Bur Oak acorns! Hurray!

If you aren’t familiar with Bur Oaks, I have to tell you they are one of my favorite tree species. They are gorgeous and oh so majestic, wth big lobed leaves that put other oak leaves to shame. They can get to be more than 100 feet tall AND wide. I’ve dreamed of having one. Of course, if I’m growing one from a baby seed, I can’t imagine it getting to its full size in my lifetime, but at least I know that it will be well on its way — assuming I can get one or more of these to germinate, that is! A new experience awaits me, and I love that.

Just to give you a size comparison on the acorns, I went scrounging in the backyard to find one of our “puny” live oak acorns (it was tough — the squirrels have pretty much devoured the acorn masses from last year). The Bur Oak is like the Hagrid of all acorns.

As pleasantly surprised as I am to learn that squirrels can write, I am rather suspicious of their motives. Let’s see… squirrels nest in Bur Oaks. Squirrels eat Bur Oak acorns. Hmmm. Yep, somehow me thinks the squirrels have a secret motive. It’s like when I make yummy cookies with nuts and coconut in them knowing full well that many people don’t like nuts and coconut — this means that there are more cookies for those of us that do! Even so…

Dear Squirrels,

If you promise not to dig up and eat these Bur Oak acorns, I promise to plant them. Maybe one day we will all have new trees to enjoy!

Hugs, Meredith

P.S. This does not mean it’s okay for you to steal any more peanut-butter pine cones. You are fat enough as it is.

To the wonderful drive-by Santa, I want to thank you properly for the acorns, but I’ve spoken to a couple of folks recently about Bur Oaks and I want to make sure I thank the correct person. Confess, confess! In the meantime, thank you SO MUCH for the acorns and the fun surprise! — Meredith

Support Your Local Nursery: Barton Springs Nursery

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Meredith

I always believe in supporting local businesses, but with the ongoing drought, our local nurseries are getting hit particularly hard right now. Pam Penick at Digging had a great idea to encourage us all to get out there and visit our favorite nurseries, declaring October to be “Support Your Local Nursery” month. This week’s focus for Austin is Barton Springs Nursery in southwest Austin — how could I resist a chance to spread the word about one of my favorite places to surround myself in green?

On Jenny Peterson’s post, she gave a top 10 list of why she loves Barton Springs Nursery — dang, now I can’t do that! But I do have to agree with everything in her list. From the great staff to the huge plant selection, this nursery is tops! Case in point, when I walked in today, a staff person remembered me from the week before, when I was on the look out for caterpillars on native host plants to show on Central Texas Gardener (yes, yes, I know, most people go to a nursery for “normal” plants, but I was particularly looking for ones getting munched on to show off my little wildlife buddies — alas, Barton Springs Nursery had not a caterpillar to offer me, but plants they had aplenty!). But all the staff have always been friendly and helpful to me — and believe me, I come in with weird questions all the time.

Native plants. They got’ em.

Shade, xeric, sun plants, trees, grasses. They got’em.

My favorite thing to do is wander all the different areas at the nursery — although to warn you, it can be a little too inspiring — I always come home with more plants than I intended. Always. They have the coolest carts, all individually named (“A La Carte” comes to mind) — rather than move the carts around, however, most people declare a cart theirs by putting a plant on it, then they leave the cart in place and periodically bring other plants back to “home base.”

One of the things that I love most about Barton Springs Nursery is that they have these:

–several greenhouses on the premises. This allows them to grow many of their plants themselves, from seed and/or cuttings. It also means that they regularly have a vast selection of plants available in a variety of sizes, from 4″ on up.

I always have to stop and talk in Parakeetese to the several birds BSN has in an outdoor aviary. Today the little birds didn’t stop to listen to me the way they usually do, however — they weren’t a big fan of my camera. So I snapped a picture (this little bird’s name is Sprite) and quickly moved on, but I hope they’ll have a good conversation with me next time I’m there just-a-shoppin’.

Whether you are looking for perennials, shrubs, vines, grasses, shade plants, sun plants, trees, pottery — oh gosh, anything — go see what Barton Springs Nursery has to offer. And if you live somewhere other than Austin, I’m sure your local nursery will appreciate a visit! Be sure to pick up a native caterpillar host plant while you are there! 🙂

And Suddenly I Want More Standing Cypress

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Meredith

Yesterday morning I joined a group of fellow Native Plant Society members to tour another member’s wildlife garden. Jackie has lived at her house since 1997, gardening from the start to make her yard a nature’s delight for humans and wildlife alike.

Goodbye Arizona Ash and a Chinese exotic tree, the name of which escapes me. Goodbye excessive lawn. Hello native plants. Hello blooms, birds, butterflies, and bees.

The sideyard grass path lead us to quite a surprise — a backyard rich in color, variety, and wildlife visitors. Pipevine swallowtails were constantly fluttering around, hummingbirds obsessed over the Standing Cypress blooms, and native bees ignored all the human visitors and went about gathering pollen like nobody’s bzzzzzness.

To achieve such a gathering of wildlife, Jackie plants native plants that serve as host plants for caterpillars and nectar-, pollen-, and seed-providing plants for other animals.

Of course, she also makes sure to include the very necessary habitat element of water. The above birdbath provides a drip to create water movement that birds appreciate.

But just beyond, Jackie also makes use of a simpler system, a jug of water with a pinhole at the bottom, allowing a very slow drip to add movement to the birdbath water below.

An avid birder, Jackie not only provides native plants that birds enjoy, but she also supplements with multiple birdfeeders strung along long cables.

Jackie commented that others might find the string of birdfeeders odd, but I found it quite clever. During our visit, it was clear that the birds utilized the line as a perch as much as they used the feeders themselves. Jackie hung the feeder line in such a way that sunflower seeds would fall onto the path rather than into her garden, so that she could easily control any seedlings that might crop up, so to speak.

The diversity of natives is the key to a successful wildlife garden. Jackie doesn’t aim for perfect patches of neatly-arranged plant species, but lets the plants gather in natural masses in the dense cover-providing style that is found in nature and that native animals prefer. This controlled but somewhat untamed appearance is sometimes a look that other gardeners have firm opinions about, but the success of such of garden in attracting wildlife speaks for itself.

Jackie’s garden exhibits a little of all lighting types — sun, shade, and in between — so she’s able to increase the native plant and subsequent wildlife diversity just by knowing the habits of the plants she selected. Though I didn’t get images of the more wooded areas in the back of the yard, the combination of trees and understory provided a peaceful habitat for those creatures more content in the shade.

I was jealous of all the Purple Coneflowers — clearly I need to increase the quantity in my own garden by a lot. But I went truly gaga for the Standing Cypress. Rather than being kept together in a single mass, these tall, Dr. Seuss plants were scattered among the rest of the garden.

Frankly, I loved the effect, and visiting hummingbirds and bees said the same thing. Two-dimensional images just can’t do it justice.

Back in the side yard, Jackie’s Trumpet Vine (also called Trumpet Creeper) was covered in seedpods, blooms, and nectar-loving ants.

Though Jackie’s Trumpet Vine appeared quite under her control, this aggressive spreader can sometimes become a gardener’s nightmare (it’s called a creeper for a reason), but its plentiful nectar makes it a wildlife favorite. Ants come with the package — I found it fascinating how they laid claim to the entire vine.

Across the path from the Trumpet Vine was a Devil’s Shoestring in bloom.

I fell in love with the creamy blooms. Why don’t I have this in my garden yet?

While Jackie has greatly reduced her lawn size, she does maintain some grass for pathway purposes. In the wildlife garden, however, she uses cedar mulch. The colorful garden, alive with happy creatures, certainly was a treat. Jackie, thank you for letting us visit.

After the garden tour, Nolan and I joined others for a walk through Brodie Wild, a habitat restoration and water quality protection project in South Austin, and then it was off to the Pond Tour. At this point, my ailing camera took a turn for the worst. We’ll see if I get to post photos or not.

New Garden Bed Does Well Despite Drought

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Meredith

The drought is hitting Texas hard — fires in West Texas, shriveled-up lakes, suffering wildlife, and many a plant succumbing to the lack of water. But my drought-hardy natives are doing relatively fine, all things considered. The garden has toughened up for the hot summer — it has had to, because I’m just not a person to water much. Sure, the plants would look more lush if we had rain, but lush doesn’t matter in a drought. Surviving does.

The butterflies have been relatively few this year so far, thanks to the drought, but the bees have been plentiful. We’ve seen more native bees than ever, and even our bee boxes are getting used — yippee. In particular, the wood ones in the shade are popular. The bamboo box is in the sun and to my knowledge has not been visited by any creature, bee or otherwise.

We’ve been adding plants around the raised hot-tub pond, bringing the dirt up in a sort of berm. I know it doesn’t look like much at the moment, but it will transform over time. As the plants grow, the pond will have a backdrop of taller evergreens, and the berm itself will be covered in wildlife-friendly plants of all shapes, colors, and sizes. The leaves you see are used as mulch — they are doing an excellent job of keeping any weeds under control and keeping the soil moist, and they are freeeeeeeee.

To build the berm, we used the dirt that had been dug out to form our still fantastic sun garden pathway. Amazingly, we still have at least half of the dirt left even after creating the berm — this will become additional contour somewhere else in the yard, most likely. Actually, I should back up in this story — first we dug out ugly Bermuda grass from around the pond, covered the area with cardboard and newspaper, and THEN built the berm. We also mixed in some well-needed compost.

Leftover flagstone from the patio project became a pathway across the berm.

Leftover flagstone was also used to create steps to the built-in pond bench. I plan to refine the steps, but they’re a start. You can see that we don’t water grass. Bit by bit the Bermuda grass is dying out, and the Buffalo Grass is naturally taking over, particularly in the back half of the yard. This patch is still mostly Bermuda, though — die, die, die.

I’ve been transplanting plants to the berm from around the garden, and amazingly they’ve done well despite the transplant (organic seaweed during planting helps). The Texas Lantana is happier than ever before, not doing well in its first location near the pond pre-berm. We’ve got Lindheimer’s Senna, Mealy Blue Sage, Gregg’s MIstflower, Chocolate Daisy, Blackfoot Daisy, Milkweed, Missouri Primrose, Basket Grass, Engelmann’s Crag Lily, Flame Acanthus, Rock Rose, the world’s tiniest Evergreen Sumac, and non-native Almond Verbena and Dutchman’s Pipevine, with lots more to come once fall rolls around.

Above is a young Soapbush, Guaiacum angustifolium. It was a treasured find at the last fall Wildflower Center sale, but I didn’t get it in the ground right away and I’d almost given it up for dead by the time we made it to spring. However, just look at it now. It seems quite happy in the berm. Someday it will have the most adorable purple flowers.

The wildlife moved in immediately — always a sign that we are doing something right. The sparrows flew in to see what seeds they could find in the freshly placed soil. Doves walked up the berm, and then they walked down the berm, almost like ducklings in a row. Skippers and hairstreaks and swallowtails and bees arrived to visit new blooms.The dogs love it, too. They’ve got a new obstacle to run laps around, and they’re actually using the flagstone path to cross the berm… most of the time.

And look, a little mining bee began to work on a nest in a patch of bare earth.

The drought is terrible, but there is hope for the garden. Given that the birdbaths and ponds have constant avian traffic, I know the drought is really rough on the wildlife right now. We even had a doe visit the front yard birdbath for the first time yesterday — I’ve never seen one venture this close to the house before, so she must have been really desperate.

You can see her ribs, poor little skinny thing. I don’t mind the deer, but I make sure to not directly feed them (I plant unpalatable plants in the front). Without natural predators, there also isn’t a natural balance to the ecosystem as would be found in the wild — no population check. But that doesn’t mean my heart doesn’t go out to them during times like these. She can drink water from the birdbath if she likes.

I do have to post a picture of my friend and neighbor Jan’s screech owl babies. I imagine they’ve fledged by now, but as soon as I heard about them, I zipped down for a picture. A-dor-a-ble!

That makes two successful nests in the neighborhood this year! My husband made the boxes for Jan and for our own backyard owls following the Audubon building plans. We’ll tweak the design a little next time for easier access for cleaning, but otherwise, they are obviously good nest box designs.

I leave you with a parting image of a House Finch watching a sunflower seed fall.

Oh, well, little finch, rest assured it won’t go to waste. There will be plenty of birds happy to collect it from below.

Around the Garden

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Meredith

The garden is shaping up nicely. You know you’ve been doing a good job when all your fingernails and toenails are caked with dirt and compost (at least, that’s my theory). Oh, I have gloves. But they are too bulky for some of the tasks in the garden, like feeling for the sneaky roots and little nuts of the annoyingly invasive nutsedge, or transplanting a tender young seedling of a desired plant. And so I often garden whole-heartily with all my uncovered digits, running my fingers and toes through the earth just the way nature intended. Keep in mind that my husband is the complete opposite — he won’t step foot into the garden without his gloves and mud shoes on! Heaven forbid dirt smear his leg or something. And he calls me a delicate flower?

The vines are all abloom, and those that aren’t yet are at least exhibiting major growth spurts. The Coral Honeysuckle is becoming a bit of an octopus — I keep trying to train it to go over the fence, and it keeps sending out more arms to reach for the pathway instead.

And though most of the Crossvine blooms have already come and gone for the season, the vines are taller than ever.

Even though it’s considered a hummingbird vine, I have yet to see one of our hummingbirds visit a crossvine bloom — they go to other plants or the feeders instead. But the bees sure went crazy for the Crossvine this year, so it must have plenty of nectar! Those finicky hummingbirds…

So far we’ve had male black-chinned hummingbirds this year — I’m sure they are awaiting the arrival of the females even more than we are. I wonder why I haven’t seen any Ruby-Throats yet — they are our usual visitors.

Each year I’m amazed at the differences between the Crossvine “Tangerine Beauty,” seen in the images above, and the wild one below, which is opposite in color, having yellow petal lips and a red throat. I really need to start collecting seeds or making cuttings from this native beauty.

The poppies have arrived, the first I’ve ever grown. Given that all I did was sprinkle seeds on the ground some unknown time last fall, I’m pleased that they did their thing without any help from me. A couple of blooms so far…

with more on the way…

We’ve got a ton of caterpillars — countless Gulf Fritillaries on Passionvine, with many already to chrysalis stage. Giant Swallowtail caterpillars are on the Wafer Ash. Here’s a grown-up taking a rest on the Coral Honeysuckle after puddling on damp ground below.

And we’ve seen a new caterpillar — Henry’s Elfin — on one of the Mexican Redbuds, shown in the picture below. Now I just need to see the butterfly…

This frog keeps staring at me whenever I walk by. Actually, we have at least 3 in the backyard pond, likely more based on the number of splashes when we approach. And the male toads have been croaking at night on the pond rocks. I still haven’t figured out whether the toads and frogs play nicely together. Hopefully the frogs are not eating the toads, but I have my concerns. The one in this picture is getting awfully big…

Don’t stare too long — it’s hypnotic.

The artichoke is about waist-high now and growing. I’m rather embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve never eaten an artichoke in my life. I’m growing them A) to actually see what they taste like, B) because this plant is so awesomely prehistoric in appearance, and C) because it’s actually a perennial veggie, which means I don’t have to do much. I’d thought I’d be trying to eat an artichoke last year, but the plant stayed small.

The Goldenball Leadtree is covered with little puffballs-to-be. I keep watching and waiting, as they are going to be amazing. Wow, I love this airy Central Texas native. I’m seriously considering getting a second one (in fact, I think I just decided for sure). Then today I discovered a sneaky golden puffball that had already opened. You can see that the little buds just go “poof” and get huge. Ohhh, I can’t wait. This is going to be the year of the Goldenballs!

Speaking of puffballs, the Fragrant Mimosa, also a Texas native, is putting on puffball displays daily. It turns out that Fragrant Mimosa is, in fact, quite fragrant. I carefully take a sniff each time I walk by, being quite cautious not to get a pointy prickle up my nose.

Nearby, the native White Honeysuckle has officially become a shrub, and it has more blooms than ever. The scent is divine.

We have wren babies and nesting squirrels and a screech owl hermit, too… but those posts will come another day. Loving being out in the garden again!

Early Blooms at the Wildflower Center

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Meredith

“My heart found its home long ago in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth.” — Lady Bird Johnson

Please enjoy these images of early spring blooms and wildlife at the Wildflower Center, along with some special quotes by Lady Bird herself. A week ago Friday, fellow blogger Carole Brown of Beautiful Wildlife Garden and Ecosystem Gardening joined me for a special tour given by our friend Kelley, who has volunteered at the WFC for many years. Thank you, Kelley. It was wonderful. And we followed up our visit with a delicious Tex-Mex lunch — mmmmm.

Carolina Jessamine…

Black Swallowtail…

Spiderwort, with Agave…

“Though the word beautification makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal, and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas. To me… beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future.” — Lady Bird Johnson

Red-Eared Slider…

Goldeneye Phlox…

Golden Groundsel…

Skulls in a West Texas desert bed…

Mexican Plum…

Texas Bluebonnets, of course…

“We have impressive and valid reasons for using our native plants — reasons of the soul and pocketbook.” — Lady Bird Johnson

Coral Honeysuckle, on a trellis I aim to copy…

The first winecup…

Possumhaw, still showing off its winter berries…

Plant sale preparation…

Redbud…

“My special cause, the one that alerts my interest and quickens the pace of my life, is to preserve the wildflowers and native plants that define the regions of our land — to encourage and promote their use in appropriate areas and thus help pass on to generation in waiting the quiet joys and satisfactions I have known since my childhood.” — Lady Bird Johnson

Lady Bird’s message and purpose continues to touch my heart and soul. What a gift she has given us, with a call for us to do more.

Nobody Panic

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Meredith

Breathe a sigh of relief — my Anacuas survived the killer freezes we had this winter. I want to hug them.

I know you were as worried as I was! But tiny rough-lined leaves are emerging as I type this.

Hurray for my little tactile-pleasing sandpaper delights!

One Texas Alligator Lizard, Rescued

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Meredith

Its name implies something much more frightening — something along the lines of a Komodo dragon — but the Texas Alligator Lizard (Gerrhonotus infernalis) only reaches about 2 feet long at its maximum. Even so, it’s the largest native lizard in Texas, and it’s one of the largest alligator lizards period. This one is about 14 inches long.

The lizard happened to be spotted during a native plant rescue at a construction site near Lake Travis — a lovely habitat that will sadly succumb to development soon, becoming a water treatment plant. Our local Native Plant Society and dedicated habitat volunteers organize plant rescues from such situations whenever possible — some plants are given back to the city for habitat restoration, and the rest go to the volunteers who dig them up. But today, plants weren’t all that were rescued — a City of Austin biologist will be bringing this lizard to a new home, I believe at the Balcones Preserve. It only seemed right — its original habitat is being destroyed.

The Texas Alligator Lizard likes rocky hillsides. It moves fairly slowly on its short little legs, making it relatively easy for the biologist to capture the one at the plant rescue. Its slow movement also made it easy for me take some, you know, 100 pictures (I’m not joking). You can see by this next expression that the lizard might possibly have been getting annoyed with my zealous image-snapping.

Though not the most colorful of lizards, it’s still handsome in its pale-scale armor.

It has a blue, quick-to-flick tongue, and the neatest little digits.

It breaks my heart to know that so many native plants and animal homes are going to be wiped out, but I’m grateful for all the plant volunteers and rescuers and happy that at least the lizard has a chance to survive.

As for me, I managed to rescue some Rusty Blackhaw Viburnums, Silk Tassel, Yellow Passionflower, and Flameleaf Sumac. The soil was incredibly rocky, making it difficult to get plants out without damage to the roots. We’ll see what survives — at least everything is in the ground, watered, and treated with seaweed! I’m particularly excited about the Flameleaf Sumac — I very much admire its fall colors.

We have a big cold front coming through, so I’ve begun the usual massive watering process. I also planted more than two flats worth of 4-inch plants I still hadn’t planted since I bought them in October (all my gardening has been at the school lately). I figure the little plants have a better chance of surviving in the ground than being stuck in my garage, where they would both freeze and suffer from my neglectful watering. In all I planted close to 60 plants this afternoon and evening, including the ones I rescued. What a day — plants rescued, plants planted, lizard saved. I hope you like your new home, little big lizard.

An Autumn Hike Through Walnut Creek Park

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Meredith

We regularly join up with friends of ours to take a weekend hike with our wolf pack (five dogs between us) and all our kids (as of this week, five kids between us — congrats, Stepan and Jen and family on your new baby!). Last weekend, a few days before baby came, we ventured to our very favorite Walnut Creek Park, a 300-acre wooded habitat in north Austin. A mockingbird greeted us along the way.

Not only is Walnut Creek Park beautiful in all seasons, it’s a leash-free zone, which means that all our dogs except our obnoxious husky get to run free (the husky gets to hike but must be attached to a human at all times). It’s also a great place for beginning to advanced mountain bikers, being covered in a maze of criss-crossing trails and creeks. In fact, there are so many trails that it’s easy to get somewhat lost if you are new to the park. Fortunately, there are usually plenty of visitors to point you in the direction you need to go.

Oh, and it’s a great place to break your arm, as two of the four people in my family have done, along with countless mountain bikers at the park, I’m sure. At least there’s a hospital close by, if you do manage to get hurt. 🙂

Right now, it’s autumn at its finest at Walnut Creek.

All around, the leaves of Red Oaks and other decidious trees are turning red among the evergreens.

I’ll admit that I was a bit slower than usual on the hike — there were a lot of other natural beauties that I just had to capture a picture of.

Along one trail, the branches of dead snags poked out among younger Ashe Junipers and created an ominous effect. I so wanted a group of vultures to fly down and let me take their picture.

Agaritas could be found among the understory plants. This sharp-leaved shrub offers protection to young fauna, earning it the nickname, “Babysitter Bush.”

The beautiful blue berries of the evergreen Ashe Juniper made a striking color combination with Red Oak leaves. The berries are a favorite of local birds.

I also love the exfoliated bark of old Ashe Juniper trees, as do birds for their nests (me, I just enjoy cool-looking bark). For more information on the wildlife value of Ashe Junipers, please enjoy a read of my most recent post at Beautiful Wildlife Garden.

The spiny Prickly Pear had a soft green look against the autumn foliage.

And the petal-less remains of spent flowers made dried-flower bouquets along pathways.

All around the woods, Flameleaf Sumac was changing from green to red foliage.

Its bright-red fall foliage proves that Flameleaf Sumac is very aptly named.

Will this be the year I give in and plant Flameleaf Sumac? I’ve been hesitant in the past, because I know it can make a thicket — but maybe it will be the key to preventing my neighbors’ nandinas and chinaberries from taking hold in my yard again. Plus the sumac berries are high in Vitamin C — might be worth a try! You know, I think I just convinced myself… if I can find it available at a local nursery.

The hollies were showing off their red berries, Yaupons and Possumhaws alike.

If there’s a downside to the park, other than the breaking of arms, it’s that there’s quite a lot of poison ivy around — vines and bushes alike. There unfortunately is also a serious invasion of invasives, such as evergreen Ligustrums, all the more noticeable in the fall. I tried to do my best to ignore them on our hike, but I pretty much failed, as they were everywhere. I’ll take poison ivy over Ligustrums any day, as long as I don’t have to roll in it.

And here’s one of our favorite areas of all — Walnut Creek itself. We call this particular spot along the creek “Broken Arm Crossing” because it’s where I broke my arm on one fateful dog walk. I hold the area no ill grudge, as it is such great gathering spot for water-loving doggies. The other spot in the park where my husband broke his arm during a bike ride is now nicknamed “Michael’s Folly,” or “Michael’s Fall-ee.”

My oldest son was particularly fond of the colorful moss along a section of the creek.

I don’t know what the name of these next plants are, but the seedheads made a gorgeous scene along a few prairie paths.

They might look soft, but don’t be fooled.

And one of my favorites, Wafer Ash (Hop Tree) is in full seed mode, as well.

I looked everywhere on the Wafer Ash trees for Giant Swallowtail caterpillars, but alas not a bird poop-looking cat was to be found.

Oh well, it was a wonderful hike all the same. One can’t always find bird poop caterpillars, you know.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Meredith

Well, haven’t I been the slacker, not posting anything on Great Stems for a few days? I’ve missed my blog. But I have an excuse. This past week I:

Took care of friends’ kids at a school carnival
Planted many plants in our fall garden
Organized two major habitat events at my son’s school, which also meant picking up loads of compost, plants, and other supplies, sending a gazillion e-mails, and putting out signs
Held a Kindergarten Seed Stomp for the school’s wildflower meadow
Led a volunteer workday at the school to remove photinias and nandinas and get native plants in the ground

Oh yeah, and I was sick with a cold in the middle of the week, too. Somehow I survived, recovering just in time for the big events. Phew! Thankfully, my garden does well on its own, but I must get out and water my veggie seedlings and new plants today. And this upcoming weekend, remarkably enough, we’re having another habitat workday at the school. Round 2!

So the picture above shows the results of some serious work by strong and determined volunteers. The pile shows why one should skip planting Red-Tip Photinia, because once you come to your senses, you’ll have a beast of a plant to deal with (or plants as the case may be, given that Photinias are typically planted in groups for screening purposes). Not only did it take lots of adult and kid volunteers, lots of muscles, and lots of tools — we still had to tie the monster plants to a trailer hitch just to yank them out of the ground. Ten of them. Whoever planted them years ago also stuck them right up against the foundation. That made it extra fun for the volunteers, let me tell you.

I didn’t get a picture of our Nandina crew, but about 30 of those plants were removed as well, by volunteers with Weed Wrenches — best tool ever, other than the power of a two-ton vehicle against a Photinia.

By the end of the workday, we had many native plants in the ground, with more still to be planted. Already the school looks so much better. Hurray for our volunteers!

Back on the home front, the Fall Asters are busy blooming like mad.

And my long-awaited bloom explosion of the Exotic Love Vine has finally arrived, making me just as passionate about the flowers as ever.

It’s easy to see why this pretty vine is also called Firecracker Vine and Spanish Flag.

And I’m excited to discover a new native in the yard. Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima) — it just popped up in the butterfly garden.

I’d seen the plant elsewhere in the yard but didn’t know what it was, so often I yanked it when I got nervous. This one managed to reach bloom stage, and now I happily know that it’s a keeper. I’d rather it be over by the cactus, though, than in the middle of my Lantana. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

I’m off to the garden to hunt for caterpillars. I went to an Austin Butterflies Forum meeting last night and brought home caterpillars in need of plants to munch on. It was too dark to set up a caterpillar hotel, so I just let them climb onto their respective host plants, hoping that I’d be able to find them again in the morning. One species in particular is new to me — Gold Rim (Polydamas) Swallowtail — so I want to keep them safe to adulthood. The others were Fritillaries, of which I already had plenty of caterpillars, but also plenty of Passionflower to support more. Wish me luck!