…other little things pop up in the garden.
With 4 days of steady rain here in Austin, oodles of tiny little mushrooms are emerging from the water-soaked ground.
They almost look like tiny aliens in the garden.
Certainly the rain seems alien!
For several weeks now, we’ve had baby cliff swallows in this nest high above our front door under the eaves. At first we could only see the edge of their beaks, and couldn’t tell how many were up there as they would come to the edge and then go back.
But they soon grew and began jockeying for position in the ever-shrinking nest. Five abreast, pushing up, up, and up to the edge of nest – they waited for mom and dad to bring breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And then they learned how to turn around on the edge of the nest and leave me with presents that required pretty much daily clean-up of the front porch.
Then one afternoon last week, I watched the mama (or dad) fly all around the nest, chirping intently and landing all around the nest — clinging to the side of the walls and landing on the hanging light fixture.
I’m certain she was saying, “Come on out, you can do it, just flap your wings, come on now!” They kept opening their beaks for food, but mama wasn’t bringing them food, she was giving them a lesson.
And sure enough, the next day, one lone little swallow ventured out to the lamp. He sat there, looking very alone and a little forlorn, with all his siblings across the way, safely cocooned in the nest.
But soon he was joined by another sibling. And for the last 3-4 days, they’ve all be flying around and around our house – soaring in the blue sky, chirping happily to one another — 5 not-so-little babies and two proud parents.
What a sight it is to see and their song is full of joy. I feel blessed to have been able to be a part of it.
I set out to weed the unruly vegetable garden yesterday and was delighted to find a bountiful (work with me here!) harvest for our lunch!
I thought I’d planted the carrots much too late.
I’d given up all hope of having any this season.
I hadn’t planted any in years, and then they turned out to be stubby, dwarfed mutants.
But lo and behold, today I pulled out three perfect little carrots.
And to go along with them 4 little radishes, a cherry tomato and some strawberries.
Just enough to add to out lunch and put a smile on my face.
The blooms were all out there, waiting for their photo session…each of them thinking, pick me, pick me!
And there were so many of them from which to choose, each one eager to join in Carol of May Dreams Gardens‘ Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.
But it’s June here in Central Texas, and if I brought all the pretty girls to the dance I would have had to spend all day posting, instead of squeezing in quickly right under the wire tonight like I am!
So I decided today to only invite the newest or most interesting blooms. (Shhh – don’t tell them, but if you want to see the rest you can just look at June 1999!)
So, I lead with my White Echinacea, which just started blooming. I love its structure — it’s less formal-looking that the standard pink, rather ecclectic, don’t you think?
And no one can hold a candle to the Moy Grande Hibiscus. She bloomed on the 14th, but I’m sneaking her in anyway. This was her first bloom of the year. But there are many more to come soon.
To give you a sense of scale, the whole Hibiscus plant is 5 feet tall, so you can see how enormous this bloom really is.
The two Plumerias are happy as can be out on the back porch. And the Dessert Willow on the ground below them has just started to bloom, as well.
This little vignette by the cutting garden is so delicate-looking. The Crape Myrtle just started blooming, the Katy Road Rose is on bloom #2 and the Lambs Ears blooms are just finishing and peeking in from the bottom of the photo.
I think instead of Autumn Joy, this Sedum is Year-round Joy!
My new plantings in the giant pots by the pool are getting lush. In here I have Sapphire Showers Duranta, Silver Pony Foot, Bandana Cherry Lantana and Sharskin Agave. I know this will require pruning, but I was so enamored with the idea of these plants together that I decided I was willing to work at it. (Remind me of this in August, will you?!) P.S. See the dog tails in the background? Thought I’d throw in a hidden picture game along with the blooms!
This is the right side of the pool, with the lovely new Pindo Palm, flanked my Esperanza and white Datura.
The is the left side of the pool, with the other Pindo, a cluster of Echinacea, Taro Elephant Ears that are so relieved to have some shade so they will thrive this year, and in the foreground, some Tropicana Cannas (otherwise known as caterpillar food.)
The Plumeria blooms up close and personal. Wish you could smell their lemony goodness!
My replacement Bottle Brush tree seems to be thriving and is showing it with lots of wispy, yet spiky blooms.
Below the Bottle Brush, the cluster of Mai Nacht Salvia are looking particularly blue — and that’s a good thing!
Happy Garden Bloggers Blue-m Day. (I know, I know — it’s late & I’m punchy. But it’s only 10:330 p.m. CST, so it’s still bloom day and I made it!)
I’m just sayin’.
I like butterflies and moths as much as the next guy. I have planted a garden full of butterfly, bird and bee-friendly plants.
And now I am paying the price! The top photo used to a be a beautiful purple Datura, blooming just a few nights ago. Then one morning, Poof!
All gone.
Then there are the tomato hornworms that are making a stalk-y mess of my tomatoes. I am picking them off daily and just moving them elsewhere now.
All my veggies are under attack, as are many perennials throughout the garden. These are radishes being eaten alive.
My parsley is devoid of foliage, but full of swallowtail caterpillars and their remnants.
Someone likes the ruhbarb, too, though I haven’t harvested any for ME yet!
And the swiss chard must also be tasty to the caterpillars because it is full of holes, too.
Out in the rest of the garden, the cannas and the variegated shell ginger are being assaulted. I pruned some mangled canna leaves and found fuzzy white moth caterpillars on them — but I couldn’t determine which moths they will become. I relocated them and their leaves to the woods, too. Boy did those little buggers move fast! They knew I had a hold of their leaves and they were running for their lives, but I let them be…just somewhere ELSE!
I didn’t take pictures of the Moy Grande Hibiscus with little holes all over it from beetles or the Missouri Violets, Coneflowers and Silver Ponyfoot being eaten by the little baby bucks.
Sharing schmaring!
This week we were blessed with three quenching inches of rain. It came with a vengeance, bringing with it clashes of thunder and bolts of lightning too intense to ignore, even at 3 a.m.
Living in perpetual drought (Okay- I exaggerate just a smidge, but not much!), we welcomed the storm and the resulting drink. But today, I saw the flip side of all that rain at once. Just like our tomato skins will split with too much surprise moisture, my first crop of plums burst at the seams from the rain.
Let me tell you, though — it was like nectar of the Gods when I ate the rest of it! It’s a little small and a little too tart yet, but I LOVE that I have plums. I thought this was an ornamental tree until Dakota (the dog) ate her first fallen plums a few weeks ago.
Then I had to cut back the monstrous overgrowth of Wine Cups that have obliterated the rock pathway and begun taking over the lawn. All that rain just fed the monster!
So, THEN, I had to go through the beds and get some cutting flowers for make a lovely posey for the kitchen.
That makes me happy. Who said you can have too much of a good thing?