Bulletproof rose, quickly outgrowing it’s space
Old blush rose – water it never, fertilize it every other year…
Loquat, an underappreciated fruit
I remember the loquat tree from when I was a kid. The sweet/sour memory of loquat makes my mouth water as I type this. Here is a picture of one of our Loquats flowering and beginning to fruit in December. Fruit will be about 2 1/2 inches long when mature. Looks like a good yield this year if the weather cooperates.
What’s happening in December?
We have fluctuating weather here in Texas. Highs in the 80’s some days and lows in the 20’s some days…Here are some blooms and berries.
Butterfly vine:
Evergreen Sumac Berries:
This plant is a native. It is evergreen and will be a dense shrub in full sun, growing up to 12 feet high. It attracts bees, butterflies and birds. It flowers in the summer and then produces these fuzzy, edible berries for the birds. Oh yeah, and it likes rocky soil! Plus ten points for that!
Passionflower vine – scary looking bug
This scary looking black spiny caterpillar (or is it a worm) will eat all of the leaves off of your passionflower vine. But have no fear, the plant can handle it. The caterpillar will turn into the gulf fritillary butterfly. It does not bother the plant until it has finished flowering for the year. It also will not harm the passion fruit. So I say let the bug have the leaves. The passion vine is pretty invasive and you will have less leaves to clean up in the winter. All creatures great and small.
Bad sign and then devastation…
So, I was walking toward the vegetable garden and saw a green worm in a zinnia flower. Kind of cute, huh? When I finally reached the broccoli and cauliflower plant, I saw more worms (or are they caterpillars). They devastated the two plants in one of the raised beds. Thank God, I still have four left. You know, it is hard to garden organically. I could spray a cloud of poison and be back in business tomorrow. Instead, I’m breaking out the hand vacuum now. lol.
Fruit in November?!?!?
It’s been a several weeks since we had any substantial rain, so I decided to give our plants some water…mostly the ones we planted this year. To my surprise, we had Pineapple Guavas laying on the ground underneath our tree. We have had this tree for several years, like six and this is the first year we have gotten flowers and fruit. I posted about the flowers earlier in the year. We are so happy! Oh and I included a picture of a Meyer Lemon. We planted this tree this year and it has already produced a fruit! Yay!
Pineapple guavas
Meyer lemon
Fall Veggie Garden
Fall garden in the new raised beds. Thank you to our neighbors who gave us their old water tanks.
Carrots – Nantes; Broccoli – Green Magic and Pacman; Romain lettuce and bush beans
Purple passion fruit
Planted this purple passion vine last year. This year it produced fruit!
More August blooms
Thyrallis and Firecracker Fern – Both love the heat and do not need a lot of water. It does not get much better than that.
Thyrallis gets very large. If we have a really hard freeze, the shrub will die to the ground, but will come back in the spring. It is beautiful, but I am not sure how it benefits wildlife. I have never seen a butterfly or a bee land on it.
Firecracker fern attracts hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. Love this plant. It is beautiful too.
Pineapple guava
Edible fruit. Planted under a red oak tree. The flower petals are edible too. They taste like honey. So good.
A frog’s maternal instinct
What’s blooming in March
Roses, blue bonnets, peach trees and pear trees…just to name a few
Something hiding in a bush
In a bush…near a birdhouse…
Leopard Frog
Found this little guy hanging out with my herbs in a shady spot.
April bluebonnets
First frog
This is where it all started. My husband brought home a tank that we were thinking about using to provide water for wildlife. He unloaded it from his truck and left it outside. A few hours later we got a pretty decent rain. The barrel was almost full the next morning when we got up and there was this little feller looking happy as a clam. Well, the rest is history. We positioned the tank, added rocks and then plants. Now it is a home to many frogs and at times, tadpoles. We have even seen dragon flies grow up in it. See posts in 2017 for current frog updates.
Great Grandma’s fig tree
I grew this fig tree from a cutting we took from my husband’s great grandmother’s fig tree. I has been in the ground one year and is already producing fruit.
Update: 2017 – I have taken two cuttings from this tree so far and grown them for a year and given them to my sister in law and my cousin. Great grandma is still feeding the family. I wish there were emoticons on this blog, because that statement definitely deserved a heart.
Surprise inside an outdoor sculpture
While walking outside, we found a little surprise inside our Giraffe sculpture, made by my talented husband…a nest!
Milkweed
Say it with me…Mow around the milkweed.
Hummingbird hawk-moth
This little guy scared me when I first saw it. It is the biggest moth that I have seen in my life. Not that there are not bigger ones. I once saw a fly in Kansas that was huuuuge!
Anyway, here he is:
