Who Says Foliage is Boring?

Remembering the Coming Back and Not Crying About the Leaving

Mesquite tree, Agua Dulce, Texas

Listening to one of your favorite songs today, momma, in honor of your birthday and hanging tight to remembering the coming back and not crying about the leaving.  ♥

Wordless Wednesday :: For the Love of Birds

That Weird Feeling of Being Watched...

Had that awkward feeling of being watched this morning while watering the pots on the patio...turned around and looked down and there he was!  I believe it's a ribbon snake.  Docile and makes meals of slugs, insects, and small mice.  He can stay ♥

I've Been Keeping a Secret...

The suspense has been killing me...

This project has been in the works since the beginning of June.  It's a project that I've been begging  asking my husband to build for a while as I'm not so handy with razor sharp blades.  Honestly, they scare the bejeebies out of me. 

I've pinned multiple styles for inspiration.  Dreamed about one, visualized one on my porch.  Imagined all the ways our family would love this.  I've obsessed actually. 

One perfect day my husband came home and said he was ready to build it.  I was beside myself GIDDY!

Now, it's not completely finished yet.  Which is my fault.  My husband finished up his part long ago and we've been using and loving  it for well over a month. 

But I wanted it to have a kind of grand introduction, you know?  I wanted it to be all fluffed and dressed pretty before I had the big reveal.

Then in one moment it happened and I just couldn't stand it any longer.  I had to share with you because you, dear readers and fellow gardeners, understand the joy when a garden dream becomes reality.

My youngest {who is now 6'1"} was in NYC for the week on a mission trip and he returned exhausted.

My husband and I were on our way out the back door when I saw this...

I grabbed a quick shot with my phone camera {he would kill me if he knew; fortunately 16 year old boys don't read their mom's gardening blogs}.  In that little moment my heart swelled.  We did it.  We created a sleeping porch!  And everyone in the family loves  it.  All the imagining and daydreaming and obsessing about this bed swing is now a reality.

This post isn't quite the big reveal I had hoped for.  The pillows aren't made and it's not quite dressed the way I see it in my mind's eye but the most important part is finished.  It's a porch that draws you in and welcomes you comfortably.  It's a porch where we will find respite.  A place to daydream, read, laugh, sleep, chat.  It's a place where memories will be made.

It's everything I imagined and more.  ♥ Thank you DJ ♥

A Serious Pest to Monarchs: The Tachinid Fly

Elation ensued when this monarch caterpillar was spotted last week on milkweed in the front yard.  Earlier in the month monarch butterflies were spotted visiting the milkweed and depositing their eggs.   

Imagine my delight when I discovered the caterpillar had situated itself in the window by the front door to transform itself into a chrysalis and then a butterfly.

What luck.  The perfect view of the transformation from inside and outside!  I was overjoyed.

Until I came back the next morning to photograph the process and found this...

There is a serious predator in the garden this spring.  The tachinid fly is a parasitic fly that uses the monarch caterpillar as a host.  This bristly, big eyed, slow moving fly stealthily approaches the unsuspecting caterpillar and injects it's fertilized and incubated egg into the caterpillar.  The egg then hatches inside the caterpillar and the first instar begins to feed on the monarch slowly killing it from the inside out.  Monarch caterpillars are not the only victims, other caterpillars fall prey to this fly as well.

Jenny of Rock Rose solved the mystery.  We were chatting Saturday at the monthly Austin bloggers Go-Go and I explained that when the caterpillar began to dry out a silky string was hanging from it's head.  She did a little research and forwarded a link to me about the tachinid fly.

What really bums me out is that I didn't dispose of the caterpillar the way I should have and will most likely have more of the pest in my garden.  I learned a valuable lesson.  When something strange happens, no matter how busy you are, investigate.

Sprucing Up With Succulents!

The front porch needed a little sprucing up.  The update needed to be extremely low maintenance, budget friendly and welcoming.

I started by freshening an existing planter with pea gravel and scattered, colored stones that I had on hand from past mosaic projects.  

An assortment of succulents (sedum, ghost plant, and squid agave), many of them pass-alongs or rescued from tired plantings, were arranged in an unused galvanized tub that was hanging around the back porch. 

Did you know that you can propagate succulents simply by sticking a broken piece into the soil.  You can see a new, tiny ghost plant coming up in the lower center of the photograph.  It's growing from a broken piece of the original plant. 

Together these containers make an interesting, easy care combination of texture and color to welcome visitors.

Before & After: Front Bed One Year Later

For several years I had dreamed of replanting the two beds at the front of the house. The shrubs had become overgrown and although they remained green and lush throughout the year, I longed for a more cottage style garden filled with flowering plants that would attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Last April I had the overgrown shrubs pulled out, {I salvaged three by replanting them in new locations}, which opened up a lot of space to the approach of the house.  {This post will focus on the bed to the left of the front door}.

You only see one yaupon holly shrub {to the right} in this shot.  There were six total; three flanking each side of the walkway to the front door.

Here you see the rest of the bed as it curves to the left revealing a Japanese holly fern and a couple Indian hawthorn shrubs.  The swing wasn't as welcoming as I would have liked since the shrubs were so tall and dense.  The limestone wall to the left helps create a nice, private space that feels cozy.  I wanted to design a seating area that was welcoming and reminiscent of a time when neighbors felt compelled to stop and chat.

Oklahoma flagstone was my choice for the patio.  We used decomposed granite to fill in the negative space between the stones.   A weeping Japanese maple adds a little height and drama with soft, beautifully textured leaves.  Oh yes, and I painted the swing black to match the shutters and rocking chairs on the opposite side of the porch.

By this time in April last year, it was already dry and beginning to get hot.  I decided to hold off planting most of the perennials until fall, with the exception of silver pony-foot, purple heart and elephant ear {along the limestone wall}.   Annuals were used for seasonal color and to buy me some time until I could plant when the weather cooled.

Green and purple sweet potato vine spills from a terra cotta pot, zinnia adds as splash of color and Thai basil {mid-right} is grown for culinary purposes as well as for it's late summer/early fall show of purple flowers {below}. Silver pony-foot peaks from behind the green sweet potato vine on the left.

Bee enjoying Thai basil bloom late last summer.

This is the bed today.  Starting at the top left of the photo, elephant ear, purple heart and Mexican honeysuckle (orange bloom).  Behind the maple and out of sight, is mountain sage (orange), lyre leaf sage (purple) and a few violets (purple).  Firespike (red) is found behind the pot on the right.  In front of the pot is daisy (white), I'm not sure of the variety, it was a pass along from a friend.  Purple heart is planted in the pot. Under the tree and left is silver pony-foot and in front of that is pineapple sage (red). 

Cat's whiskers (white) is a new plant I'm trying.  This bed sits in a low, semi-shady spot and stays wetter than any other area in my yard.  Cat's whiskers likes it more wet than dry and is a tender perennial.  If we have a mild winter like last winter, it should be fine.  If not, then it will be an annual.  It's sweet flowers were worth the chance to me.  I love how the delicate leaves of the maple and the delicate flowers of the cat's whiskers play on the breeze together. 

Moving forward from the cat's whiskers, the bed becomes sunnier and heat loving plants were used.  Ruby crystals grass (pinkish purple), milkweed (orange/yellow/red), cosmos (orange), (reseeded from last summer), Thai basil (purple), globe mallow (orange) and black-eyed Susan (yellow), (from a near-by bed) finish the planting.   

The season's first cosmos bloom.

I'm eager for everything to start filling in so my dream of a butterfly/hummingbird attracting garden can become a reality.  My desire to have neighbors feel welcome has been achieved...my neighbor and new friend Leroy has stopped by a couple of times and that makes all the hard work worth it!

What Do You Do When It Finally Rains?

Yes, it finally rained!  We are rejoicing for the rain that fell this past weekend.  Looks like about an inch and a half fell in my garden. 

As I walked this morning surveying the goings on I couldn't help but stop and pull the wayward Zoysia grass out of the flower beds and tidy up the perennials.  Suddenly this gardener felt invigorated to garden again! 

The columbine needed tending.  All the dead foliage begged to be pulled out along with the army of oak sprouts that had popped up among the foliage.  Barehanded I began to pull at the mess. 

You'll never believe what happened...The oak sprouts actually came free from the earth!  They didn't just rip at the stem leaving only leaves in my grip, they came up root and all!  Now if you don't have Live Oaks this may not seem like such a big deal.  But if you do have them, then you know what type of celebration ensued.

Oh yes, it was a happy day indeed.

To all of you wonderful friends out there, thank you so much for joining us in praying for rain.  Please continue to pray.   We will need many more slow, gentle rains like this one to end the drought that grips our state.

July GBBD ~ Hunkerin' Down with Annuals and What-Not

Meet What-Not.  He lives in the french drain in the perennial bed adjacent to the front sidewalk.  I nearly stepped on him last night as I walked a friend to her car.  You can see how well he blends in with the sidewalk...plus it was dark!  What you can't see is how big he is.  He's huge...softball size.   {Maybe.}

This is the time of year in Texas when we hunker down.   It's a good time to nest and catch up on things.  I was inspired by a blog post I read (sorry, can't remember where I saw it) about 10 Projects in 10 Days.  It sounded like a good idea and I tweaked it to 10 Projects/Chores in 10 Days.  Nothing huge, just a few things that have been neglected and needed tending to. 

One of the projects was to spiff up my front porch.   I planted some annuals in late spring and they've taken off in spite of the heat and lack of rainfall.  {Y'all tired of hearing me whine about this yet?}

These cosmos are so pretty in the morning light.   Their fiery hue boldly stands up to the bright light of mid-summer.   I've heard tales told of how certain varieties can be very tall and weedy.  This variety has remained small at 10" or so.  I've planted them in an area where they are free to reseed and will be welcome when they do.

The zinnias are tried and true.   I've planted different varieties all through the garden.   The oranges, pinks and greens of the annuals inspired my porch project.

The rockers were given a fresh coat of paint and new colorful cushions and pillows were added to brighten things up.  The table is an awesome gift from an Austin garden blogging friend, Pam who blogs over at Digging.  Austin garden bloggers meet up once a month or so and swap plants and garden treasures.  I felt like I won the lottery when I left Pam's garden with this sweet deal! 

The porch is welcoming and comfortable now thanks to the inspiration taken from the sturdy annuals close by.   Are you finding any inspiration in your garden lately?  If so, what has it prompted you to do?

Be sure and visit May Dreams Gardens.  Carol hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th of each month and it is always a treat to see what others have blooming!