Striking Artichoke Flowers and Rain Visit the Garden

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Meredith

I was out working in the garden this afternoon when I was happily driven back inside by RAIN!

I stopped to do my happy rain dance, then I figured I might as well take a moment to finish the blog post I started yesterday. So…

I grew artichokes… again. I didn’t manage to eat them… again. I missed that window between “not ready to be harvested” and “you blew it, the ideal picking time is over.” I can’t remember what was going on– maybe Earth Week (busy at my son’s school) — but whatever it was, the artichokes declined to postpone their harvest date for me. However, sometimes such vegetable garden tragedies can lead to something good.

In this case, I discovered that artichokes left to flower produce a gigantic lavender bloom worthy of their prehistoric-looking foliage.

It’s giant, it’s purple, it’s spectacular, and it’s in my garden! The bees love it. They dig deep past the petals to reach the pollen, and their cute little bee butts stick out. I wish I’d caught a picture.

A lone male monarch stopped by — I was glad to be able to offer it nectar beverages, as its wings were not in the best of shape. It looked like the wings had been that way since emerging from the chrysalis. Poor thing, that must make flying long distances a challenge.

Above, the monarch rests on Purple Coneflower, which are the tallest they ever been, not that you can tell from the picture. But I know this to be true — third year’s a charm!

The hummingbirds are busy, busy. They are in full feisty mode, with the males going at each other to lay claim on the feeders, while the females sneak in for a drink.

We hung a new feeder on the patio — it’s so pleasant to sit and relax and have the hummers come hang out with us.

We’ve had numerous fledglings visiting the feeders. This young male cardinal is rather mottled-looking as it transitions to its bright red colors.

See its dark beak? Baby cardinals’ beaks start out dark, then become orange as they get a little older.

Our baby owl has fledged, by the way. We knew that Screech Owls fledge soon after they appear at a cavity’s entrance, but that didn’t stop us from hoping our little cutie would hang around for awhile. Here’s the last picture I took of it on the day it fledged.

Fly well, little Screech Owl!

Frogzilla Lurks

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Meredith

Any insects visiting our pond for a drink better best beware — if they choose their landing spot poorly, they’ll probably become lunch. Our pond, lovely though it is, is home to several amphibious lurkers, and these frogs are quite patient as they wait for their next meal.

Frogzilla is our largest bullfrog, and she’s clever, oh so clever. She decided that rather than attempt to catch insects by floating in the pond with the other frogs, she’d instead lay claim to the waterfall.

I wouldn’t mind this so much, except suddenly our songbirds are at risk for being on the menu. The waterfall is a favorite drinking and bathing spot for our birds.

Depending on where she chooses to rest, she is well camouflaged. Sometimes I don’t notice her myself, unless I venture too close and she suddenly jumps into the pond.

When she’s back in the hot-tub pond, she takes advantage of special observation spots.

Frogzilla might be a little scary in the aquatic world, but you can tell she’s been a favorite photographic subject of mine. Do you see the leopard frog with her in the photo above?

I’m so glad I’m not bite-sized.

Our Baby Owl

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Meredith

Like expectant grandparents, we’ve been eagerly keeping an eye on our owl house for two months or so. We’ve had an owl watching us almost every day, and I even went so far as to complain about how she didn’t ever do anything except watch us every day.

Because she never seemed to move, we couldn’t really predict whether she had a baby in the box with her. We also never noticed a second owl around, no matter how hard we tried to search for it. We were starting to think we’d built a bachelor(ette) pad instead of an owl nursery.

As it turns out, our resident owl was, in fact, taking care of her young. Today we got our first real glimpse of her baby.

The little one was definitely skittish, so I took my time approaching it for its first photo op.

It’s already sporting some tufts. From what I’ve read, we should expect it to fledge fairly quickly.

Could there be another baby or two in the nesting box? Whoooo knows? But we’ll be on the lookout!

Almost Entirely Not Garden-Related

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Meredith

Our puppy Grover (3 years old now) had a special reunion today with his (real) mother and brother. Mary, the black and white dog in the middle, gave birth to an astonishing 13 puppies in December 2008, all of which were utterly adorable and quite assorted in appearance. We were the lucky fosterers and then adopters of our delightful Grover, who clearly gets his build from his mama (the dog one). His brother Tank looks much different but is just as sweet as his mom and Grover.

How this post IS garden-related is that without Mary, we wouldn’t have Grover poop in our yard and our plants wouldn’t regularly get trampled by Grover wrestling in play with our two other dogs. Plus, clearly in the picture above, the dogs are on grass, and grass happens to be a plant type. Garden enough for me!

Gardens on Tour, 2011

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Meredith

This last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting the five homes highlighted on this year’s Gardens on Tour, an annual event sponsored by the Wildflower Center. Native plants and sustainability are always a primary factor in selecting the gardens for this tour, but I found myself as much inspired by the creative use of stone as I was by the different plants and other garden features.

Fellow Austin garden blogger Caroline of Shovel-Ready Garden joined me for the tour. Our first stop was at a Westlake Hills home that overlooks Austin’s green, rolling hills. The most notable feature was out front, a striking combination of the aptly-named Mexican Feathergrass, various agaves, and Salvia leucantha. Caroline remarked that she wanted to run through all that Feathergrass — I knew the feeling, loving the way the wispy grass caught both the breeze and the sunlight.

I was quite fond of the single clump growing out of a large boulder.

Our next stop proved to be a favorite for many a gardener. The homestyle offices of Tait Moring and their surrounding gardens top a mostly-natural 17-acre property. The landscaped areas offered so many clever and beautiful ideas that I’m certain I missed a lot. I liked that much of the cedar (Ashe Juniper) and rock used in the landscaping was collected directly from the larger property.

The unique stonework on the raised beds was just a taste of things to come.

This tank pond was a brilliant transition point from one level to another, and I love the combination of the stone exterior with the tank pond inside.

As you walk up to one of the lawn areas, two container-topped pedestals stand like sentries.

In selecting plants, the landscape designers used a combination of natives and non-natives, always experimenting to see what grows well.

Among the greenery, this stone bench really stands out, as far as seats go.

I have always wanted a bubbling rock and am ever on the lookout for a rock that seems “just right.” Of course, drilling equipment would be handy, too.

If I could line my whole yard with a stone wall like this one, I would. Masterful placement of large and small rocks, fossils, glass, and stone art create a handsome partition.

On the other side, a window of sorts adds fantastic interest.

To get from one side to the other, you must pass under a cedar arch that provides the perfect overhead framing to a simple but tall cedar gate.

Loved it. Want it.

Moving on to Stratford Drive, another arch, this one more horn-like, commands the attention of visitors as they approach the property.

The archway leads visitors to the front of a dreamy, modern multi-story LEED-certified home set on a very rocky and unforgiving hillside.

A native-lined stream flows along the front of the house. Near its end is a beautiful metal gate, the design of which is repeated in other areas of the complex architecture.

Here is a view of the back of the house, which gets a fantastic view of the Austin cityscape, as seen in the gate photo above.

Note the very long rain chain that hangs from the jutting balcony.

The homeowners hired two design companies for much of their work, requesting sustainable landscape practices and a majority of native plants.

Two giant tanks collect roof water at the Stratford home. This tank was so big, I kept envisioning the opening scene of that old TV show, Petticoat Junction, where three young ladies take a dip in the town’s water tank, hanging their petticoats off the side. No petticoats here, though.

The designers used different types of stone to create both formal and more naturalistic pathways. I loved the look of these stairs that descend the steep slope, but I’m curious what it’s like to walk on them fresh after a rain. My tuckus still aches after all these years since the last time I fell on stone steps.

Despite the obvious expense put toward the “natural elegance” of the property, I appreciated the presence of achievable touches that budget-bound folks like me can consider. This lovely container garden set upon a rock and wood pedestal is something I’m going to work on.

And though a pool isn’t something one can really call sustainable, I feel obligated to show a picture of the multi-tiered pool — a hot tub at the top feeds the waterfall which drips into the pool which flows into an additional level below (unseen in this picture). Wow.

Over at the Eanes Circle garden, visitors walked along river rock pathways that had the look but not the function of a dry streambed.

I found myself drawn to the Purple Coneflowers up front, along with the areas of Goldenrod, Buffalo Grass, and fading Bluebonnets, which had gone to seed but will be gorgeous again next year, I’m sure.

In the front, a rather large rock sat atop a tiled patio. As much as I love the use of rock in a garden, I confess that this one had me rather confused.

Below the center hole is a small pond of sorts, but you can only see it if you look down upon it from above. The pump in there wasn’t strong enough to send the water upward out of the boulder as a fountain, but perhaps the pump was on a low setting, or maybe that wasn’t the intention at all. The wildlife gardener in me feared for any animal that made any sort of attempt to get to the water, assuming it might actually discover it — without an escape route built into the pond, the animal would likely drown. So, great potential for the unique and interesting rock, but as is, it didn’t work for me.

The final garden on the tour, with the exception of the Wildflower Center itself, was the Monroe house. Its dry streambed aids in drainage from the house, with dual bridges to the side doors — a steel grate as one, the other of stone.

Stone steps lead down the slope to the backyard, where a custom light arches over an outdoor table.

Two large tanks stand ready to collect rainwater. That’s a lot of water for the lower shaded garden — since most of the garden is upslope from the tanks, I’m curious how much of the water actually gets used.

Up at the front, Berkeley Sedges provide a lovely mounding alternative to a lawn. I definitely want to figure out a way to use sedges in my front yard — I love how they look.

There’s that whimsy that always finds its way into Austin gardens! This one definitely qualifies as “different.”

Caroline, I’m so glad for your company on this tour, and to all the homeowners and the Wildflower Center, thanks for making this possible. I am much inspired!

Meet the Crimson Patch

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Meredith

We’ve been raising caterpillars again. With the severe lack of rain, I’m feeling concerned about Texas butterflies this year — we’ve had a definite drop in butterfly numbers, and it doesn’t help that wasps have been plentiful and on a very big caterpillar hunt lately. So the Caterpillar Hotel is back in business!

A Crimson Patch Caterpillar rests on a Flame Acanthus leaf.

At last month’s Austin Butterfly Forum meeting, the subject of the evening was the very same — raising caterpillars. Some members kindly brought caterpillars in for show and tell, and they offered to share the caterpillars with those who had the proper host plants at home. That’s how we came to have Crimson Patch caterpillars to raise — we have plenty of Flame Acanthus, their host plant. I don’t know whether these beautiful butterflies have visited our garden before — we often see the similar Bordered Patch butterflies (seen in the Caterpillar Hotel link above), but the Crimson Patch (Chlosyne janais) is recently extending its range into Central Texas. It is more commonly found in South Texas. Regardless, I hope these young ones will stay.

Crimson Patch caterpillars are relatively small; they are whitish-gray in color with black spines. As small as they are, they can quickly be lost as they wander off to form their chrysalis or to molt as they develop. Our first two caterpillars formed yellow chrysalises — the one above has a “clear” area on the chrysalis, but the butterfly emerged just fine. We have another chrysalis that is more white-gray in color — such variations are normal.

It only took about 8 days for our first Crimsons to emerge from their chrysalises. The shells left behind were just as beautiful as the newly formed ones.

And here is the adult Crimson Patch, still drying its wings after we moved it to a Texas Lantana for nearby nectar.

The dorsal hindwings sport the spots for which the Crimson Patch gets its name, though the patches are more red-orange than actual crimson in color (in contrast to the “spots,” the Bordered Patch’s red-orange color extends as a band across the upperside).

We’re looking forward to releasing the next set of Crimson Patch butterflies soon. Do stay tuned for some other very special caterpillars in our Caterpillar Hotel!

Wildlife Spotted… and Spotted Wildlife

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Meredith

Say what?!!

That owl up there is driving us crazy, though I’m sure it would say the same about us. All day long it sticks its head out of the nesting-box hole and does NOTHING. Nothing except occasionally stick its head out farther to see what we’re up to in the yard (which usually is us sticking our heads around trees to see what the owl is doing). Just go ahead and show us some baby owlets or bring in a rat or make an eerie screech owl noise or something, would you? We’re so happy our screech owl is here, but it’s just weird that it hangs out of the hole all day long.

That being said, I have a feeling I’ve been unnecessarily blaming our frogs for causing the odd shortage of our once-abundant toads. Most likely I should be blaming the screech owl. After all, we’ve apparently set up a rather nice buffet table for the owl, which watches over the pond from its vantage point up in the nesting box. The male toads come out at night, innocently croaking loudly to attract a potential mate, and it’s just possible that their call instead acts like a beacon to bring the silent predator from above right to them.

Check out who this green frog is watching — someone better be careful!

Of course, it’s entirely possible the pond frogs really are to blame — they are certainly not above cannibalizing (toads are actually frogs, you know, and frogs will eat frogs). It appears we have created the ultimate frog haven in our hot-tub pond. The frogs spread themselves out across the water (so as to not get too close to their hungry neighbor, I assume), and then they wait for whatever moving morsel dares to venture close. I’m still trying to determine the species we have — at the very least, we have both American Bullfrogs and Southern Leopard frogs, but the markings are odd on a couple of them.

And they are all getting big. The largest bullfrog is getting downright scary (cue “Jaws” music).

I still have to get in the pond to get acorns and such out of it — my spring cleaning is way overdue — don’t I look forward to it with Gigantic Freaka-Frogazoid there joining me! I’m just kidding — I love frogs.

Of course, also on the toad hunt might be this Checkered Garter Snake — it has a perfect waiting spot among the pond rocks. Our garden habitat is an ecosystem at work, that’s for sure. All the same, I suggest all toads immediately head to our front-yard pond. It’s smaller, but a little toad-safer for the time being.

Here’s one toad we found alive and well — hop and hide, little one! Hop and hide!

Nearby, a cardinal flew in for a seed and a close-up. Blue Jays splash in the birdbaths, hummingbirds dance in sync together, doves play follow-the-leader… and still our screech owl sits in its nesting-box hole.

All around town, the wildlife and native plants are doing their best to handle drought conditions. Check out this beauty seen at McKinney Roughs — it’s a Great Purple Hairstreak.

Don’t see any purple on it? That’s because there isn’t any. By the way, this little beauty’s host plant is Mistletoe — consider it a plus side to the parasitic plant.

This next image is of a beautiful little Southern Emerald Moth — however, its wings were up instead of laying flat, and it didn’t seem able to fly, poor thing. This is the second time I’ve seen this moth in the same condition at the same locale, Hornsby Bend.

The Retamas (also called Jerusalem Thorn) lining the ponds at Hornsby Bend are in full bloom right now. These airy-yet-thorny native Texas plants tend to spread when they get plenty of water, but the bees and birds sure love them. It’s understandable. Beautiful yellow blooms and thorns for protection — sounds great to me.

Bees, generally speaking, do love the color yellow. Bees visiting Prickly Pear blossoms go a little crazy with it — they act almost drunk.

But the winner of the bee-attracting flowers right now is the blooming century plant down at Natural Gardener.

I think several hives of honeybees came to visit.

Too bad I couldn’t climb up there to get a closer look. To put the height in perspective, take a look at this:

Time to get back out in the garden while the temperatures are still pleasant with our temporary cold front — hopefully more wildlife will join me!

Chirp If You Love Purple Martin Families

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Meredith

I have a newfound passion, and that’s Purple Martins.

Purple Martins are the largest North American swallow, and they share a special relationship with humans — those birds living east of the Rockies, for example, are completely dependent on humans for housing. This history starts long ago with Native Americans setting out gourds to attract the PMs, which in turn offered alerts to snakes and other dangers. Today, because invasive English House Sparrows and European Starlings aggressively compete for natural cavities, the Eastern Purple Martins fully shifted to human-made housing. However, House Sparrows and Starlings try to occupy these as well, so it’s important that humans actively manage the housing to keep out the aggressive species.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of participating in nest checks down at Hornsby Bend with Andy and Julia, the landlords of the Purple Martin gourds there. What all do PM landlords do? They help ensure the success of Purple Martin nests by evicting House Sparrows and Starlings, keeping the housing systems in shape, providing pine straw or other nesting material, monitoring egg and young counts, providing protection from predators, replacing mite-infested nests, closing housing after migration, and cleaning and reopening housing in late winter for the next PM season.

As you view these photos, remember that Purple Martins have a unique relationship with humans which enables landlords to keep a close eye on the health of the birds. Please don’t handle other bird species’ nests, eggs, hatchlings, or fledglings you have at home. However, if you find a fallen fledgling, it’s okay to try to put it back into or near the nest, disturbing the nest or family as little as possible.

The Purple Martin young at Hornsby Bend were in different stages of development, from egg to about 11-13 days old. Many were newly hatched.

Here are the eggs of one nest — their solid-looking appearance indicates that hatching time is near.

When the babies hatch, they are tiny and featherless, and they have closed eyes and a transparent belly.

You can the see the yolk sac here, which the baby will use for additional nutrients in addition to the insects the parents provide.

In just a few days, the babies’ skin darkens, and they start to grow feathers.

These babies are about 5 days old, with visible feather tracts , darkened skin, and pin feathers beginning to show. Their eyes are just hinting at starting to open — if you look closely, you can see the slits.

Over the next few days, the eyes will fully open and the pin feathers will emerge even farther.

Pretty soon they actually start to look like birds, though my first thought when I saw this picture was that someone had stuck a Lost-World Pteranadon in the nest. I guess that mouth gets big fast to take on bigger insects.

To determine the age of some of the babies, we compared them to a set of photo charts. The babies of this nest are likely 11 days old, based on this one’s feather development and size. Its tail feathers are just now emerging from their sheaths.

It was Hatching Day in one nest, and this was soooooo exciting.

This little baby is still wearing its egg “diaper.”

The other three eggs in the same nest were getting ready to hatch — we could feel movement inside the eggs, and the joy of it was beyond words.

As heart-thrilling as the whole experience was for me, the best part was watching my almost-eleven-year-old son help count and determine the age of the birds, as well as getting to feel the tiny movements of the soon-to-hatch eggs. He was clearly moved by the whole experience, and he’s eager to go back to help Andy and Julia. By the way, we’re actually PM managers ourselves — we’re helping to get the Purple Martin colony established in the new gourds at my son’s school. I can’t wait to have a full colony of Purple Martins there!

To find out how you can help protect Purple Martins and whether your site is a good place to set up PM housing, be sure to visit the Purple Martin Conservation Association for a tremendous amount of information.

Oh, and… chirp! (see title)

Quest for a Painted Bunting

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Meredith

This morning I headed south to join a group of birders at the Wildflower Center. Since I don’t have a dedicated set of binoculars (yet), I can’t officially call myself a “real” birder, based on my personal definition, but given that I got up at 6am to drive across town to trek along trails and into woods to find our avian friends, I guess I might as well stop fooling myself. Our guide Travis loaned me a set of binoculars, though — thank goodness, because my zoom lens only goes so far. Note to self: Add birding binoculars to my wish list. Might as well add a bigger zoom to that list, too.

Western Scrub-Jay

Today we hoped to see the Painted Buntings that have arrived at the Wildflower Center, but of course we took a full walk around to see as many birds as possible. The key to finding a bird on a wildlife walk among trees and shrubs is to keep a keen eye watching for movement and a careful ear listening and distinguishing bird calls. Even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll see what the person next to you caught a mere glimpse of, and there were several birds we never saw at all but only heard. There’s a whole trick to finding birds through binoculars, too.

Northern Cardinals and Northern Mockingbirds greeted us the most with song, though I suspect it had far less to do with us and far more to do with their mates.

Among the 30 species of birds we caught glimpses of or recognized the sounds of were White-Eyed Vireo, Bewick’s Wren, Downy and Ladder-Backed Woodpeckers, Brown-Headed Cowbird, Lesser Goldfinch, Cooper’s Hawk, Estern Phoebe, Bobwhite Quail, and oh so many more.

As hard as it was to find the birds, even with binoculars, it was even harder to get a picture with the camera. Here is the only evidence I have of the Black-Throated Green Warbler we saw — it moved just as I got into position to get a photo:

This next pitiful picture hides a Yellow Warbler. See it?

Alas. At least the nearby flowers cooperated. You know me, I couldn’t help but appreciate the beauty of the flowers while I listened to the birds.

Above, the ever-beautiful Purple Coneflowers commanded attention from their blue backdrop of Mealy Blue Sage, and below, a bee took a pollen bath in a Winecup.

A Carpenter Bee took a rest on Antelope Horn Milkweed.

But I digress.

The Great Horned Owlets continue to do well, and we took a few moments to visit them, being cautious not to linger too long.

There are three of them, but the prime hiding spot is behind the sotol, so capturing a picture of all three at once was a challenge. I felt lucky to get “the eye” of the third.

I’m cheating here — the above images and the one below I actually took two days ago during another visit to the Center — look how big the owls are growing. I think the one standing tall in the image below might actually be the youngest baby — see how the others are farther developed in their plumage? The Center’s staff is keeping an extra watch on it.

Now take a look at the owls this morning. With the cooler temperature, they were fluffed up, but what a difference in plumage two days can make.

We didn’t see Mama Owl (or Papa Owl, for that matter), but I’m sure she was watching us from afar. She no longer stays in the nest with her babies — they are so big! — but she continues to feed them during off hours.

As for Painted Buntings, we heard several but only saw a couple from quite far away. They just didn’t care to let us get close. This very-zoomed-in photo, my friends, is the best I have to show you.

But we saw them — that’s what counts!

Easter Rocks… And I Mean That Literally

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Meredith

This year my kids got rocks for Easter.

Lots and lots of rocks.

And furthermore, we made our kids work to get them. They had to help paint said rocks. And that’s why our Easter rocks didn’t always look so Easter-y.

Nonetheless, we painted our Easter rocks with gusto. See, the problem with traditional egg hunting is that it only happens once a year, unless you play “find the stinky rotten egg” in the summer after you couldn’t find all the hardboiled eggs in the spring. That’s why we decided to paint rocks instead, so that we could enjoy year-round colorful-object hunting. I know, I know — pure genius, right? Our friends brought their daughters over to join the fun.

The steps were simple: Get river rocks. Wash river rocks and let them dry. Paint a base color using acrylic paint, then let dry. Paint details using more acrylic paint, letting stages dry. Coat rocks with a sealant that provides some UV protection. As you might guess, this is a multi-day project.

Between our two families, we painted 77 rocks. That’s only a mere bucketful, mind you!

Here are some of our friends’ rocks. Note Stepan’s eyeball rock in the upper corner. Or rather, note that his rock is noting YOU.

Jennifer’s nose rock always had to stop to smell the flowers.

Young Magda was inspired by their resident cardinal fledglings to paint one.

My husband Michael’s rock was completely uncooperative, ducking out for a cool bath.

Don’t even get me started on all the tasteless jokes Michael’s beaver rock inspired. ><

It turns out that rocks can’t climb trees, but kids can.

Here’s what we learned:

Painting rocks is fun for the whole family, even for men who claim that they only sat back at the computer to “let a rock dry.”
Rocks have character — you won’t find any of them being conformists, like all those eggs out there.
Boys are less interested in painting traditional Easter art, like bunnies, chicks, and “pastels” — but ask for a dragon or camouflaged rock, and they are all over it! You might even get a couple of Pokemon balls.
Easter Rock Hunting is just as fun as Easter Egg Hunting, except that you can’t eat rocks or they’ll break your teeth.
Rocks make baskets very heavy or even useless. Thus, we invented Easter Rock Piles.
Kids don’t appreciate the humor of hiding an Easter Treasure Hunt clue in the dishwasher, making them empty the dishwasher to find it. But parents might appreciate the brilliance of it (for the record, my husband was the mean Easter Bunny clue-writer for that one!).
Rocks don’t melt like chocolate does. They also don’t taste as good.
Unlike eggs, rocks don’t break if they fall out of your basket — at least ours didn’t.
All our Easter rocks rock, but not all of them roll. That’s actually a really nice thing — you can hide rocks in more places than you can eggs, which all roll but not necessarily rock.
Easter Rock Hunting is fun to do with your kids, but it’s even more special with friends, too. Thank you for being a part of our holiday, S, J, M, S, P, E, J, K, and C!

One of the girls at our Easter gathering was concerned that the Easter Bunny really hadn’t come to our house. But we showed her proof, as E.B. left a note at our house:

As it turns out, the simplest of clues can completely confuse our too-smart-for-their-own-good children, who apparently read far too much into things. But eventually they found their baskets and were then prepared to participate in the real fun — hunting ROCKS.

Hope everyone had a weekend that rocked!