Good bug, bad bug!

Found a small army of these guys munching on my tomatoes.. They are tomato hornworms, which turn into Five Dotted Hawk moths. Pretty as they were, the ones I found got turned into chicken snacks..

Slurp!

This guy wasn't nearly as pretty, and at first I was concerned his spikes would sting. Instead, he's the good bug- the caterpillar form of the Gulf Frittilary butterflies that inhabit my garden. His spikes are harmless, though he'd make the chickens sick if they ate him. The fritillary caterpillars eat the passionflower vines, which makes me glad I've encouraged some of the volunteers in the garden.

Grown up Gulf Frittilary enjoying the zinnias.

Edibles!

Summer yummies..

Caprese salad with sweet basil, lemon boy tomatoes and and some red tomatoes I can't identify now!

Newly obsessed with shishito peppers.. I got them because they were the healthiest looking plant at Natural Gardener a month or two ago, and they've done well being ignored in the front bed (see the pic below). I picked a handful and sauteed them in olive oil with a pinch of sea salt until they had blistered skins, then set them aside and sauteed the green beans. Goodness- they were amazing- not spicy at all but complex/salty/peppery yummy. I've seen them at the local farmer's markets, too- will be buying more until my plant regenerates!

I did not eat the caterpillar..

But I have just sheepishly realized that I have a huge crop of wild Italian arugula (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) growing in the back back. They're the plants with yellow flowers I was trying to identify a few weeks back. They've sprawled everywhere and I noticed a very arugula-spicy smell when I stepped on them so I tasted them and had my "aha" moment. Edible but very spicy. I threw a packet of wild Italian arugula seeds back there in the fall while waiting for the contractors to finish the concrete retaining wall and fence- then forgot about them completely. Good to know they don't need much water!

Green and yummy..

Wide angle of the back back and front yard.. sorta

Coneflowers, yarrow, buffalo grass, bulbine, dianthus, ponyfoot on one side, Indian blanket and Black Eyed Susan masses amid massive sunflowers on the other. Nicely green, but the flagstones have become overgrown.. Will edit/define later, happy to have some growth for now!

12 foot tall sunflowers. They get scraggly, but shade the chickens well and do so well (and volunteer!) that I've decided to embrace them..

The plants in the front are rooting in, sending up flowers. Nothing is taking over yet, but I have about 5 volunteer Pride of Barbadoses that will need to be rehomed. 

Trial and error zone..

This poor butterfly weed is covered in aphids, and I've been too infrequent with hosing them off to keep the plant looking good. I'm waiting for the beneficials to come clean this guy up, but it may be too late..

Tomato thief...

So I've resorted to this (note the colored duct tape blocking the large tomato..)

Out west (a little ways)..

No pictures of the wildflowers (sleeping kids and all) on the way there, but the roads between Austin, Llano, Fredericksburg and Mason are blazing with Indian Blanket, yellow daisies (greenthread?) and white thistles.. Gorgeous to see mustard yellow fields and everything green again thanks to the rains..

A visit..

We visited my parent's weekend place on the James River, which has swelled with water after the recent rains, much to the delight of the wildlife that lives there..

We saw a late spring burst of color and energy, and it's inspiring to see how many plants manage to thrive there, even in the face of drought and beating down sunshine..

So many thorns (prickly pear and cat's claw), but such beautiful flowers!

Wedged in limestone cracks, claret cup cacti and daisies bloom along..

Sotol, or sawtooth yucca? They are rampant and bloom happily (my boys brandish the fallen bloom poles as swords and pikes..). This one found a crack in a limestone slab..

Salvia Texana or Englemann's sage, found near the river

These guys (horsenettle weed) are reliable, though toxic and spiny and widely regarded as noxious.. Not one to recommend, but the flowers were pretty..

Mossy cuteness..

These guys (need to ask my mother the species) are in a nest just outside my parent's bedroom. The nest has been used every year for a decade..

Fruits.

We even got to bring home native treats!

My eldest rediscovered agarita berries at a visit to the Wildflower Center this spring, and will eat them like candy. They have a sweet/tart flavor and apparently make delicious jellies. We put on thick gloves, laid tarps under the bushes and had a great time shaking the branches and whacking them with sticks to get them to fall onto the tarps. It took a while to sort through the spiders/beetles/spiny leaves and shriveled berries, but we got a good jar of them. I doubt we'll make jelly since he eats them by the handful..

The Mexican plum tree has put out a great crop this year. Many guides say the fruit is too tart, but these fruits have been consistently delicious for eating- firm, sweet (and not too sour!). We took home an armload full. My new tree in the back only has a few thumbnail sized fruits, but I only planted it a few months ago. I'm excited to see how it grows over the next few years..

Late spring soaks..

Gulp..

I can almost hear the Texas limestone soaking up the buckets of rain from the last few days. My rain barrels are overfilled, which means I should order a couple more for overflow. Superstitiously though I worry that would make the rain stop! My chickens have been foolish enough to stay out, huddled under sunflower plants looking bedraggled, but they dry off quickly enough.. The new plants look happy.

As I look at my pictures I realize my theme today is how nature chuckles at my attempts to corral plants into where I want them. She usually has other ideas...

My pride of Barbados lends a low-maintenance tropical vibe up front. I might end up with a thicket of these- I have three volunteers wedged up against the sidewalk steps (impervious to my attempts to dig them out) and three other seedlings tucked innocently in the rest of the bed. The seedlings are only 3 inches tall now, but the bushes can get 4 feet wide easily so I may need to move them to other places. One is squished against a new salvia- I can picture the salvia getting starved for sunlight in a year..

A St Johns Wort plant that has the happiest blooms. This guy grows on the edge of the gravel driveway, gets ignored, sprayed with fence stain, run over by the car and still bounces back..

Part one of my "use my husband's bent bike rims" trellis project to channel the unstoppable Carolina snailsneed into something pretty..

Every year this pale purple morning glory pops out and tries to take over the rosemary. Since the rosemary is 5 feet long by 3 feet wide I humor the morning glory.. Funny how when I try to plant other varieties from seed nothing happens..

What is this yellow flowered plant??? In the wildflower  patch in the back, 3 feet wide, half smothering an evening primrose. After an hour of searching plants databases (for wildflowers and weeds) I'm still not sure what it is.. maybe a Yellow Meadow Beauty Rhexia lutea? But those grow in marshy areas and the back back is anything but..

Go away bamboo! You are only 6 inches tall, but I'll hack away at you as soon as the rain stops..

Maximillian sunflowers? Or just annual local sunflowers that like my yard? Not sure, but the pretty store packaged seeds come out tiny, pale and weak while these volunteers grow to be 6 feet tall covered in blooms. This year I'll enjoy sharing the seeds with the chickens!

Society garlic looking great with the rain (notice the knocked-down by squirrel sunflowers blooming resolutely in the background). Bent stems? No worries, they thrive on!

The planned plants need more babying..

My veggies are requiring quite a bit more protection than those tough volunteers:

A sign I made for the driveway chicken fence..

The chard is coming back in the front, woo hoo!

How I have started cucumber seeds : large crate on top to keep the hens away. I'll need to make some chicken wire hoops next weekend once the plans grow taller. There's small zinnias and nasturdiums in there as well..

Lemon boy tomatoes... one with a hole munched out!! I cut off the chewed bit and ate the rest :)

Green bean plants finally producing! The hens have left these alone so far..

Speaking of the girls..

The three teenagers are getting big, definitely bigger than bantam Ruby by now. They happily prowl around eating everything, including this juicy caterpillar I found in the kids sandbox.. 

It was a feisty caterpillar, too, thrashing this way and that until Dottie stole it from Houdini and gobbled it up. I looked it up and various candidate species are all drab moths, so I don't feel bad about depriving nature of a rare butterfly..

Handsome girls Houdini and Dottie making their rounds in the weeds.

Silverwing's feather patterns are becoming more distinct as she grows up- Silver Laced Wyandotte's are beautiful!

Ruby in her oregano patch nest. She was almost broody this week- I hope that she doesn't go completely broody since she just started laying!

Ruby is laying!

Teeny. I looked regularly in the places I thought she'd nest in- the coop, the box I created, a couple of shady spots. I happened upon these three by chance at dusk, in a hollow she created in the oregano patch. She doesn't want herbs in the nesting box- she wants to nest in the herbs!