Making the most

Drove past this zinnia patch in Stockdale this afternoon. It's a couple feet wide by at least 25 feet long of the healthiest, most vibrant zinnias I've ever seen. And it's less than 10 feet from the highway that cuts through town. What if everyone just packed in gardens where they could, sort of European style? How great would that be... Also, I need to get my zinnia seeds in the ground pronto.

Tropical blooms

I visited my parents in Corpus Christi this weekend, stayed in their newly renovated "guest cottage" (so serene), and got to see more gorgeous flowers than I could shake a camera at. These are all from their garden.
A new hanging basket with portulaca outside the cottage


Queen's crown vine

Bicycle as garden art

Bronze fennel in bloom

Pink turk's cap (I have one from a cutting started in my garden; hopefully it will be this healthy soon)

This creeping rangoon has climbed about twenty feet up the chinese tallow tree alongside my parents's house

A few feet away, this abandoned ficus totally outgrew its pot and is now taller than the house. Ah, the tropicals do love it in Corpus

Hummingbird moth

Saw this snowberry clearwing, a type of hummingbird moth, on the horsemint at Walnut Creek this morning. I noticed one last week on my chaste tree and had no idea what it was till I saw it identified on East Side Patch. This isn't the best shot of it, but it's the fuzzy bumblebee thing.

This morning at Shoal Creek

From the top: love this gone-to-seed thistle; a little fuzzy fellow walker; and this proposal (of sorts) has been chalked on the trail for the past several days...I'd love to know the story behind it.

Tobacco hornworm

Found this big ol' guy on one of my tomato plants this morning. Since I actually would like a few tomatoes, I cut the branch he was on and moved it near the bird bath. After a few minutes, knowing what hungry blue jays I have, I got guilty and moved him to the top of the compost heap. Far, far from the tomatoes.

Squirrel take-out

Step 1: survey new lunch option

Step 2: carry said lunch option up to a good picnic spot, preferably at least 15ft off the ground

Step 3: oops...retrieve and repeat

I put sunflower seeds in this little yellow feeder weeks ago, and they were ignored by everyone until I moved them onto this tree. Careful what you wish for.

This morning at Walnut Creek

From the top: Mexican hat (or prairie coneflower), horsemint, Texas parsley, primrose, some sort of shrub with berries, swallowtail in trail mud (the only butterfly that would stay still this morning), ultra-blue spiderwort, and some sort of sage-y plant. Below: one of my mountain laurels has a couple of mutant bud stalks that creep me out whenever I see them

Yucca blooms

at Shoal Creek this morning. Also stopped to take a picture of an oak with woodpecker holes in the trunk, and when I looked up from adjusting the camera, a snake was checking me out at about eye-level, less than two feet away. That will get your blood pumping. Below is a (not-very-good) picture of him hiding in his spot; you can just see the white underside of his chin a bit.

Horsemint en masse

at Shoal Creek yesterday

Cottonwood fallout

The cottonwood tree in the backyard is a lovely 35ft+ shade provider once it's gotten past the awkward spring phases: the dropping of sticky leaf buds and then the dropping of cotton. The past couple of days the cotton has been falling like crazy; it's in the car, my hair, the plants, on the pets. Hopefully last night's rain will mean the end of this craziness.

Lloyd imitating a cottontail

More cotton snow

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2010

We had quite a rain last night, and a lot of blooms got beaten down. Not great for photos, but oh so good for the plants.

Cut leaf chaste tree, a favorite with the bees. Got it in a quart size pot a few years ago, and now it's about 8 ft tall and wide; this version is much airier and more delicate-looking than the more traditional version most people have around town.

Texas and Mexican sage in the foreground, chaste tree in the back. The tall skinny guy is standing cypress (this one's over 6 ft). You can also see a hint of autumn sage and coreopsis.

Standing cypress getting ready to bloom

Oregano in bloom (need to take the hedge clippers to it this weekend)

Coreopsis

Diamond frost euphorbia with thyme and basil

Spanish lavender

Bush beans

Succulent

Kalanchoe

Also in bloom around the yard: parsley, evening primrose, purple verbena, honeysuckle

Front bed and more

Varied foliage in the front bed: Cut leaf chaste tree, Texas sage, flame acanthus, fall asters, artemesia, copper canyon daisy.

Artemesia, copper canyon, prickly pear, flame acanthus, and fall asters

Coreopsis (I've deadheaded over a hundred spent blooms in the past week and a half)

Russian sage and coreopsis

The tiniest bell peppers I've ever seen (I think I left the transplant unplanted for too long)

I've given my bolting parsley plants to the swallowtails.


Pulled up the other shallot set. These actually had bulbs.