Finally -- Ready for Planting!

My newly expanded front beds are ready for planting!  That was my number one goal for this weekend - and despite a rather reduced weekend time frame, Red and I got it done on Sunday.  Yay!!

Friday night we stayed up much much too late - and Saturday morning we set the alarm for 6 to be at Living Earth Technologies by the time they opened at 7:30 a.m.  Translation:  Great efforts were made to be there before a line formed (fail) and to get a jump start on supplies for the beds.  (Fail.)  I had called LIT on Friday about pricing for bagged compost and mulch.  The lady was very patient, giving me tons of prices, and very informative about what the types were.  Unfortunately, she failed to mention that they were sold out of all bagged product.  Yes - we got up early, drove, waited in line, only to be turned away.  I was unhappy.  Okay, I was really grumpy.  Should I have asked if they had it in stock?  Perhaps.  But in my defense, their website said it was available, and well -- if I were answering the phones, looking out the window at the supply yard -- I would have mentioned that the item the customer was inquiring about wasn't currently available.  But hey - that's just me.  I obviously do not work there.  : )

Anyway -- I did some competitor supplier research, and Sunday morning Red met me at Redenta's with his truck.  Redenta's carries the LIT products that I wanted to buy.  Now the prices are a little higher per bag, but I get a 10% neighborhood discount and if you buy more than 20 bags, the price drops $1 per bag.  And it's less than 2 miles from my house, not 12.  So in the spirit of really wanting to finish the project, and continuing my efforts to support local, independent businesses, I was happy enough to buy what I needed there.  And, they were able to sell me some soil amendments to fix my alkaline soil issue.  And so 32 bags later...

Soil Amendments

Almost immediately after unloading the truck we went to get lunch.  : )  (I have a bad habit of getting caught up in projects on Sundays and not eating.  Thank you to Red for reminding me that food really should be a priority - especially with the amount of labor we were facing...)

We tilled.  We sprinkled.  We raked.  We bagged. We tilled again.  We hoisted bags, emptied bags,trimmed trees and shrubs  We located elusive sprinkler heads (without damaging any!)  And, we did not encounter any snakes.  And finally, we mulched extensively.

I don't know how many hours that took... but it was several.  Then I edged and mowed... and...

Here's the left side:

It's difficult to see in this photo, and once again I neglected to take before and after photos, but I "raised the canopy" on that row of shrubs.  I also did sort of a poor pruning job on that big rosemary bush...

And then here is the right side:

I've since decided that I need to put the dark mulch around the tree base as well. I was going to leave it as is, but... no.

It's hard to describe how liberating it was to finally till and weed the back part of this bed.  I'd been wanting to spiff up this bed for many months, but I knew that there were lots of pieces and parts to the project and that it would require substantial time.  But it feels so. much. better.  And the trees and shrubs will be so. much. happier. with the soil around them aerated and fertilized!  There is still some hard work on this side remaining:  I have a couple of sprinkler heads that need to be unearthed (see those 2 red flags?) -- they are both almost a foot below dirt level!  And I still have the leak in the outdoor spigot pipe - that's under the window there.  And, some labor but a fun end result -- I need to dig a hole for the water resevoir for my fountain!  It will go somewhere in this bed.  Okay, so I bought the fountain in OCTOBER.  But I have changed my mind several times about where I want it -- backyard, frontyard, etc. -- so it's probably good that I didn't put it in place immediately!  (Queen of Rationalization Crown firmly affixed.)

I really wanted to get plants in the ground as well, but I just plain ran out of daylight.  And then I wanted to at least set them out in pots, staging them where I thought they might go, but honestly, I was worried someone would steal them.  I know... that's irrationally crazy... but it's true.  And really, I need to write down what plants I have, and their sun requirements, and how tall they will get so that I can give them their best placement.  I hope to do that list today, and plant tomorrow evening.  Theoretically the planting should go really fast because the soil is recently tilled and ready to go.  Just make a hole, and drop them in.  SO.  EXCITED.

I also bought some supplies to make some really cool plant markers that will LAST.  But that's another post.  : )

This morning dog and I set out for our morning walk, and I'll admit:  Stepping out into the front yard was akin to returning to the scene of the crime.  But it sure did look beautiful out there -- and smelled yummy like great soil.  : )   GEEK.  Happy.

Rain Barrel Details...

As my rain barrels empty I am trying to take advantage of the ability to move them (Fact:  50 gallons of water weighs approximately 417 pounds.  Lesson?  Put your barrels where you want them!) and get the proper footings under them.

I have custom steel tables under two of my barrels, courtesy of the steel company who built my back steps.   Oh how I wish I had asked for more!  (Those little yellow Blackfoot Daisies at the base?  They are 4 feet tall now!)

My other 3 barrels I have up on concrete blocks, and the blocks are just sitting on the ground; i.e. they aren't exactly level.  So, on my list of things to do is to pour a concrete pad for each of them to get them to sit level (and look better.) 

For the one that is on blocks that faces my neighbors' driveway, I'd also plan to build a wooden box (beadboard?) to hide the concrete blocks which are nothing pretty to look at, regardless of shrubs to hide them... but that's another day.

Looks precarious, doesn't it?  Considering the weight...

Yesterday I got one pad poured:

This is for the barrel that is on my garage, back by the alley.  I framed in a 24" x 24" square, leveled it, place 2 sticks of rebar in it, and poured concrete over the whole thing.  The leveling took me the longest... and then it took 3 - 60 pound bags of concrete!   That surprised me -- I was sure that I had done the math wrong on how much I would need, but indeed -- 3 bags.  Just the mixing of it made me glad that I had mentally committed to only doing one pad per day -- uff da.

I was going to stamp in the year like I did on the footings for my steps --

or some other funky design, but in the end I didn't.  Frankly it was really hot out and I got lazy.  And, only the little corners will show anyway -- the pad will mostly be covered up by the concrete blocks.  (Queen of Rationalization still reigns.)

I figure I'll let it set up for a few days and then I'll put it all back and snap another photo for your viewing pleasure.

I also plan to paint the barrels.  They are old food storage barrels, and being plastic I was told there is a special type of paint that they will take.  Of course the name escapes me... but I still have my paperwork from the rain barrel workshop so I'll look it up.  Bright blue isn't exactly in my backyard color wheel.  I mean, it could be... my gazing ball is that color, but ... it's a lot of bright blue.

On a totally unrelated note -- I was hand watering out front this morning, and eye-spied a fat and happy caterpillar on my 5 foot parsley plant.  Surprised I looked closer... and found another one.  And, another one.  And... yes another one!  Four.  Fat.  Happy.  Clearly I haven't been paying attention because they have to have been there for days.

The Joke is On Me

These weren't sunflowers after all!

This is the bed of mixed seeds for butterflies.  I was sure these were sunflowers... but I guess if I had thought about it, I would have realized that sunflowes and butterflies aren't necessarily an obvious match.  I guess I just wanted them to be sunflowers.  These look like gerber daisies or something similar.  They are as tall as I am!  (I had to stand on the yoga platforms to get the photos.)
I have tried so many different seeds to get the sunflowers with the heads the size of dinner plates -- and so far - FAIL.  Waaah.  I don't understand.  Unless the ones along my garden suddenly transform;  I haven't totally given up yet.

Weekend Update

Wow, this was a busy weekend...  here are the high points -- I will try to post some photos tomorrow.

1)  I volunteered at the butterfly plant sale on Saturday -- so much fun!  I spent the majority of the day chatting with two Master Naturalists while we tended to customers.  I picked their brains all day long about becoming and being a Master Naturalist, and a Naturalist vs. a Master Gardener.  I also bought more plants... although no, I hadn't yet planted the ones that I had bought on Tuesday at volunteer orientation. 

2)  Sunday morning I spent puttering around in the yard.  I removed pansies from an old bed and planted some of my new plants in it, and then put the pansies back in around them.  I set two areas of pavers as stepping stones -- part of my on-going battle against mud. I planted two new plants back by the fence, and while I was there did some weeding around the yoga platforms and raspberries.  It was a blissful day of playing the dirt.  Saturday night I watched the basketball game -- GO MAVS!!

3)  Sunday afternoon my neighbors helped me get a 1/2 yard of decomposed granite!  Much longer story there -- but for now, it's fab, and it was just in time for quite an unexpected rainstorm this morning.  Yay!  I'll probably need 2 more loads to have it cover the way I'd like. 

4)  A neighbor put out a big garbage can to catch rain overnight and emailed me this morning, thrilled and amazed at how much water she collected with so little rain -- and she's definitely committed to a rain barrel.  Love that.

Butterfly Plant Sale

This weekend -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- is the semi-annual butterfly plant sale at Texas Discovery Gardens at Fair Park in Dallas.  Through my volunteering at the Butterfly House there, I was included on an email last week asking for volunteers to work the plant sale.  I jumped at the offer -- and signed up for Saturday.  Last night was the volunteer orientation.  What I didn't know?  As volunteers we would have the opportunity to pre-shop.  Oh.  My.  Gosh. 

The evening began with an explanation of how the plant sale would operate -- customer traffic flow, different volunteer positions.  Then it moved on to what would be for sale:  16,000 plants.  Sixteen Thousand.  These are plants that a mere seven people started from seed since .... January.  You do the math.  We were asked to rank a list of volunteer positions as to which we preferred to do.

Next we were given a tour of the plants by Randy Johnson, Director of Horticulture, who of course is a Master Gardener (a life goal of mine) and who is the main man at Texas Discovery Gardens.   He had on old work boots, jeans, sported a pony tail and one of those straw pointy-topped Chinese hats that you see in rice paddy photographs.  I don't have to tell you that we all followed him around like ducklings behind the momma duck, slack-jawed.  I truly wished I had brought a dictaphone.  (And well yes, I have one, but just because it's an occupational hazard.  I have a laminating machine too, but that's probably another post.)  He would show us the seedling in a pot, and then take us to the garden area where that same plant was 2-3 years old.  Along the way he described the benefits of the plant (host or nectar) and if it was an annual, a perennial, or a native perennial.  All of them were caterpillar/butterfly friendly, obviously, and all of them were draught tolerant.  And the prices!  Rock bottom, baby.  And all organic.

Randy Johnson, Director of Horticulture, Texas Discovery Gardens

And then... we were turned loose with clipboards and plant lists to shop.  Not surprisingly, of the 20 or so volunteers, I was one of the last 2 people there.  If I could have spent the night I probably would have, despite the presence the purportedly very unfriendly black cat who has residence there.  When I left, the backseat of my little Mini was full of pots.  I don't know exactly where they will all be planted, but I'm betting that I'll bring more home after my shift on Saturday -- thank goodness I drive a small car.  More on the plants I bought in later posts...

Friday night is members only (but you can buy a membership!) and Saturday and Sunday the sale is open to the public.  Come on out!  http://www.texasdiscoverygardens.org/.  From the website:

Our annual Butterfly Plant Sale is back! Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 21, from 10 am to 2 pm. We have hundreds of herbs, perennials, host and nectar plants that will attract pollinators to your garden. We have gallon and 4-inch pots, as well as limited larger sizes. Members receive a ten percent discount and a chance to shop May 20, from 4 pm to 7 pm! You can buy your membership at the sale. Come early for a Plant Safari where you see established butterfly plants at Texas Discovery Gardens and learn about their light/water needs.

Backyard Butterfly Area

This year I started a second butterfly flower bed in the back, and I started it entirely from seed.  Nothing is blooming yet, but several plants have buds.

It will be fun to see what all is growing -- it was a huge packet of "butterfly mix" flowers, and I don't know what all was in it!  This bed is immediately adjacent to the front yoga platform -- I hope to see butterflies fluttering around me...

On a related note, the Texas Discovery Gardens is having their butterfly plant sale 21st.  I'll be volunteering at the sale, and likely coming home with a car full of plants... Uh-oh!  More details here:  http://texasdiscoverygardens.org/

Front Butterfly Garden

Everything in front is growing like mad.  I've had to cut back the artesmisia twice already so that it doesn't crowd the rest of the plants.  I also planted a couple of different types of thyme in that narrow area between the sidewalk and the stones.  That area always gets full of pecan shells, twigs, leaves, and mulch so I thought I'd try to prevent that.  I'm hoping that it will hang over onto my sidewalk...

I was so pleased to remember to get supports around the Russian Sage and butterfly bush early this year!
The little orange flowers are the seeds neighbor Judy gave me last year on a dog walk - remember?  There are a slew of seedlings behind it, about 4" tall.  Excellent....

These are the added caterpillar food plants I planted this year.  Left to right are fennel (mostly over shadowed by a volunteer pumpkin plant... rotted jack o'lantern...) parsley and dill.  I need to give the dill a support and it would be 2 feet tall.  The fennel and parsely are each about 12' across.  No caterpillars lately...

My faithful garden companion.  Despite her huge feet, she rarely tramples my plants...

Around the (Front) Butterfly Garden

Just a few photos of what's happening in the butterfly garden out front:

Russian sage and butterfly bush - got supports in early this year!

Echinacea/Purple Coneflower - didn't come up last year at all!

Daisy

Hmmm cannot recall name...

Caterpillar food plants - dill, parsley, fennel

"O-tay!"

Things have gone seriously downhill when I start quoting the Little Rascals.  But I couldn't resist, because last night I planted buckwheat seeds in the backyard.

I needed some type of cover crop to hold the dirt in place until I can get plants in everywhere.  Last Fall I planted Hairy Vetch which was pretty successful, but it didn't till in quite as easily as I had hoped.  It was sort of viney, and then the vines wrapped around the rototiller tines.  Sure, it came off easily, but it wasn't optimal.

I went to Redenta's and explained my conundrum and they suggested buckwheat as a cover crop.  They had 3 packages, and I bought all three.  I've planted one and a half packages so far.  The package says it likes sun, and I'm worried that my remaining areas aren't sunny enough.

I planted it in 2 areas, and then I staked them off.  The staking was partly to give the dog guidance and partly to give some guidance to a contractor who will be in my backyard on Thursday.  It turned out that I liked the look of having the yard sectioned off, so I also staked off my three flower beds where seeds are sprouting.  (It looks like all my sunflowers came up!!)  It has the benefit of breaking the yard up into manageable sections, it keeps the dog mostly out of areas where I don't want the seeds disturbed, and it also helps me remember what I have planted where, until the plants become identifiable.

Then I put down some rectangular pavers that I have on hand around the new plot of St. Augustine.   Mostly to contain it, partly to provide additional dirt cover, and partially because it looks nicer with a defined border.  I think I will make some type of concrete stones to edge it, but I haven't decided.  The pavers aren't my favorite, but I do have a heap of them on hand.  I also want/need to make some type of sign for the yoga platforms that says, "No Shoes, Please" as folks seem to be inclined to hop up on them with shoes on when I'm not looking.  One, you've probably learned that I think the bottoms of shoes are filthy; two, the soles leave prints on my beautiful surface; and three, hello, I lay up there, I'm trying to keep them clean...

Here's my yard this morning in the dappled sunshine.  Yes, the herbs are still sitting in their seedling pots... I still haven't gotten them planted in front.  Trust me, they are like an albatross around my neck... but they still look quite happy and healthy, so there's that...

The Beginning...

Here's a happy patch of Sweet Lavender, in the corner between two of the yoga platforms.  It should grow to be about 2 feet tall with fragrant blossoms.

Here is some purple Phlox that I planted tucked under a broken pot.  There is another one using the other half of the pot in another part of the yard.  It will grow into mounds, looking like it spilled out of the pot.

This morning I put in seeds in front of the two front yoga platforms.  On the left I put in a butterfly mix of seeds, and on the right I did a huge spread of orange California Poppy seeds.  I threw a light layer of mulch over it to help me remember where I have planted, and to help retain some moisture.  (I could take a photo for you, but it would be pretty boring:  "Here is the left patch of dirt, and here is the right patch of dirt!  Isn't it exciting?!"  The sad part of that is, I really do think it's exciting... LOL)

I also planted seeds on the back side of my raised garden beds:  a mix of butterfly attracting plants, (Compass Plant, Gaura, Fleabane) and then an entire packet of Mammoth Sunflower seeds.  It's fun to have space to sow entire packets of seeds and hope for huge patches of color.  It's also free fun, as they are all seeds that I had saved from last year.  Bonus.

We had quite storm on Monday night -- the day after all the backyard work was done -- and I was worried about how it would all hold up in its temporary state.  It was mostly fine -- a little mud slid over one of the pieces of flagstone, but I knew that was an area that would need more help.  I couldn't do it yet because I still have one more day of work coming on my wooden steps.  That's happening either Thursday or Friday.

The good news is, my rain barrels were replenished.  Once again they are all too heavy to rock on their stands -- yay!  In particular the one by my raspberries was getting low, so I am grateful for a free refill.  Even the smaller barrel on my porch that only collects via the rain chain from my porch roof has a fair amount of water in it.  What is really strange, however, is that the barrel that was relocated to my sideyard, and got the new downspout?  Totally empty.  I haven't had a chance to investigate that yet, but I need to.  So mysterious... 

So in the coming weeks I'll be choosing plants and shrubs and tucking them in here and there.  I went to buy some last night, but somehow I didn't see anything that I just had to have, and came home empty.  I secretly didn't really want to be out planting last night anyway -- it was SO windy!  I stayed in and did laundry instead.  I know -- I am a wild child.

I have several caterpillars on my fennel out front -- I'm actually worried that there isn't going to be enough fennel to feed them since the plants are not very mature yet... Not sure what I can do about that -- nothing I guess.  I have other fennel plants, guess I will just hope that they find them.

The first caterpillars are here!

I spent five hours yesterday, weeding and edging and mowing my front lawn.  If you know how tiny my front yard is, the number of hours probably surprises you.  It was the first time this year that I did all of those things, and it always takes longer the first time.  I also spent a considerable amount of time hand weeding huge patches of weeds out of my parkway.  With rubber palmed garden gloves, the weeds pull up easily, root and all.  You know how I hate pesticides... and although it was tedious, (theoretically) the weeds are gone for good.  My St. Augustine grass was happy to have its own share of the sunshine again.

This morning after my dog walk I stood in the front, admiring my hard work yesterday.  Some of my butterfly seeds that I planted last week are poking out -- excellent.  And then I did a double take at one of my bronze fennel plants -- caterpillars!  Four of them! 

There are 2 caterpillars in the photo - can you spot them both?

The photo is a little blurry because the dog on the leash was pulling on my arm; it was past her usual breakfast hour and she had other priorities...

At first I thought there were five on my little 6 inch plant, but I think one of them is a skin that one of the caterpillars had shed.  But also I think actually now that I look, I think there are two types of caterpillars -- I'll have to look again when I get home tonight.

I got out the book I bought at the Dallas Botanical Gardens Butterfly House last year, "The Life Cycles of Butterflies," by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards which is chock full of photos of all the various butterflies in all stages of their lives, and this caterpillar will become an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly.  It says that it likes fennel and dill -- and indeed they are on my fennel plant.  Go figure...

They will eat for a few weeks. "The more it eats, the faster it will grow, but a caterpillar's skin can stretch only a small amount.  Once it reaches its limit, stretch detectors in the joints between the body segments send signals to the brain to trigger the growth of a new, bigger skin underneath the old one.  This process is called molting.  A caterpillar may molt up to five times..."

"The coloration of some caterpillars allows them to avoid hungry predators:  The greens and browns blend in with the environment....Some caterpillars are brightly colored, as if to warn potential predators against eating them... Swallowtail caterpillars have a special defense organ called an osmeterium.  This is an orange or red forked gland that is hidden under the skin behind the head.  When the caterpillar feels threatened, it can shoot out the gland like a snake tongue and touch the predator with it.  If the sudden whiplash movement doesn't spook the intruder, the foul-smelling substance that the grand secretes will offend even a human nose at close range."

"Most caterpillars are solitary eaters, but a few species dine together in groups.  When they feel threatened, all the caterpillars may twitch at the same time, perhaps as a way to scare predators.

Digging in the Dirt

I planted some butterfly attracting flower seeds this morning.  Last year I bought more than I could sow, and had put them in a plastic bag in the freezer.  It is time -- and has been time for a few weeks now -- to pull them out and get them into the dirt.  Bonus -- that means that this year they are free.  I planted a handful of mixed butterfly garden seeds, and then these three:

Butterfly Gaura

Showy Fleabane

Yellow Coneflower

They take 14-21 days to germinate, so I'll need to be especially diligent about watering them during that time.  I planted these in 3 beds in the front where I know the soil is already adequate.  I have more seeds that I'll plant in other areas, but I'll need to do some soil amendments first.

Laying out the Buffet

One of my sisters -- the world traveler -- came for a visit last week.  We spent an afternoon doing Spring clean up on my front flower bed where I have my butterfly garden.  I had picked up some seedlings the week before that needed planting, and the beds needed a little clean up before new plants went in.  I recalled from past experience that parsley sells out quickly at the nursery so when it came in I went ahead a bought a couple.


We raked leaves out of the bed,  and mulched them, did a little weeding, trimmed back a few dead plant limbs, and gave one perennial (whose name escapes me at the moment) a major haircut to shape it up.

Butterfly/Hummingbird favorite perennials popping up!

Then we planted parsley, bronze fennel and dill plants -- two of each.  They are caterpillar favorites in the butterfly garden!  I had one parsley plant that came back from last year, so I did end up putting one of the parsleys in a garden box back -- permanent location TBD.
 
I plan to change up my front beds a little this year, and towards that end I put three of the new plants in a second bed nearby to expand my butterfly garden.  They are tiny plants now, but they should be well established by the time the caterpillars arrive to munch.  Last year all three of these plants grew well over 4 feet tall.  (Mutant parsley... it was a shrub!  Which makes me recall that I harvested about 1/4 cup of dill weed last year, and that I should start some of those indoors in pots...)

Front to back: Dill, Parsley, Bronze Fennel

Last year towards the end of the year I bought a book full of color photos that follows the life cycle of butterflies.  I'm looking forward to getting that out this year and being able to identify the caterpillars and the resulting butterflies.

I attended my volunteer orientation for the Texas Discovery Gardens in Fair Park on Tuesday evening.  I am SO excited!  (And it's just not because I got a t-shirt and passed a background check.  But yeah, really, I did.)  I will be volunteering in the entrance area, in the butterfly house, and in the butterfly gardens once or twice a month.  During the tour of the outdoor garden, I learned that this particular butterfly garden is a way station for monarch butterflies when they migrate.  How totally cool is that?

I can't wait to soak up knowledge from the master gardeners and the master naturalists that I will meet, learn more about butterflies, and to give back to my community in a small way.  December 4th they are having a master composting class -- I am so going to go to that!  Oh, admit it -- you want to go too.  ::::grin::::  Someday I would like to become one of those masters.  Since I have done zero research on any of them -- e.g. what education is required, and what their specialities are -- I don't know which one I want to become, but one of them is definintely on my list of life goals.  Maybe more than one, who knows?

Here's the link to the gardens: http://texasdiscoverygardens.org/.  If you've never been, you should go.  It's an amazing place.

Yesterday I went back to the gardens with a friend who is visiting me from Minnesota.  I wanted to show her where I would be volunteering; plus I knew she would be just as excited about it as I am.  While we were there we zipped through the gift shop, and I finally got that book I've been wanting that has color photos of the life stages of the butterfly so that I can identify caterpillars in my garden at home, and be able to determine what butterfly they become.  Yeehaw!  Let the games begin.

BATFACE!!

Don't take that personally.  It's the name of a new hummingbird plant that I bought.  The botanical name didn't fit on the plant label, so I used the common name, so now of course sitting here at my desk I can't recall the botanical name (label is in my garden journal though...which is another topic.)  Besides, it's a fun name isn't it?  It's the plant in the right front, with the red blossoms.

The other plant is Anise Hyssop, also a hummingbird attracting plant.  (Sorry the one photo is a little blurry.  I took it with my phone, one handed, with my arms full of stuff on the way to my car this morning!)

The pedestal is the repurposed base of a bird bath... gratis from bulky trash a few months ago.  My neighbors came to my door one Saturday morning, demanding that I get my wheelbarrow and gloves, that they had found my dining room table base.  And it did indeed live in the center of my dining room for a while, while I cogitated on how to affix a top to it.  In the end it was hoisted (and I do mean "hoist" --  or do I mean rolled?  -- it is a behemoth) into my backyard.  I may eventually stain it terra cotta color... and let's be honest, you know me:  It's quite unlikely that this is its final resting place!

I am hoping they both also feed butterflies.  This past weekend I saw a huge butterfly fluttering around the perimeter of my yard, systematically checking each plant for nectar.  I tried to tell him all the butterfly plants were in the front, but alas... apparently I don't speak butterfly.  I'll have to work on that.

In other news...

I planted my Texas Mountain Laurel seeds this morning.  Wow, the water I soaked them in had turned flourescent pink!  A little shocking.  I did some online research on planting them:  you need a deep pot as the first thing they do is send down a tap root 6-8 inches.  So instead of 4 cute little window sill pots I had to put them in one big pot.  And then it said they can take up to a YEAR to sprout.  A YEAR!  What are the odds that I even remember anything is planted in that pot after a few months?  I need to get a plant label in it asap.  (And perhaps put a date on it...)  It also said that depending on how you prune it (look at me, so optimistic, already reading about how to prune the little bugger) that it can be a shrub or a tree.  Good to know, because as mentioned before, I do not have room for 8 new trees... (or 8 of the same shrub for that matter!)

Update: Seeds from a Neighbor

You may remember me writing a few weeks ago that I had stopped and chatted with a neighbor while I was on a dog walk, and asked them about some great little orange flowers they had growing in their front beds.  Judy, the neighbor, didn't miss a beat and bent over, scooped up some seeds, wrapped them in a tissue and handed them to me.  Now I have the same happy little orange blossoms in my butterfly garden! 

This photo doesn't really do them justice -- in person they look very airy and light.  Just a couple of days after I took this photo, the number of blossoms had doubled.  They are perennials, and I am told they are prolific, so I am looking forward to their bright little bobbing heads all over my garden!

Project Updates, II

GARDEN:
I don't have any photos yet, but I did a little butterfly garden update this weekend.  I decided my parsley plant and my butterfly bush were past their prime and needed to come out.  They were 2 of my tallest plants (my parsley at one point this year was over 5 feet tall!) and couple that with the fennel plant that I took out a few weeks ago and you have a butterfly garden that had some major open spaces in it.

I finally let myself go to Redenta's Garden  (http://www.redentas.com/) for the first time in months -- SO FUN -- and picked up a few replacement plants.  Their selection this time of year wasn't over the top, but they did have a few things I liked.  One plant I've never had before -- it's called Lion's Ear.  Supposedly it blooms blossoms that are creamy white and apricot color that smell like honey.  I also got two butterfly weed plants that looked sort of sad but Carol at Redenta's said they would revive.  I got three little ground cover plants that have tiny fragrant yellow blossoms on them (can't recall the name) and two larger groundcover plants that bloom a purple-y blue.  (Also can't remember its name!)  I'll get names and photos posted when the rain relents.

I also bought 20 bags of cedar mulch (yes, I swapped vehicles with Red!) to spiff up my front and back beds.  It smells divine.  I had hoped to get them cut open and spread before the rain came, but I ran out of time.

DINING ROOM:
Last week I had brought home a ton of paint color sample cards.  My neighbor helped me choose one, and it's called Clove, and it's by Martha Stewart.  I tried to find an eco-friendly no VO2 paint in a similar color but was unsuccessful, so I guess when I paint it is going to stink.  I hope to start taping and painting this week.  It is a bold color, but I think it will work in there; there is a lot of light.  Plus, I do want my dining room to be sort of cozy.  I think it will look great with the chandelier, too.

Chillin'

I found 2 of these little guys on my zebra grass last night, just chillin' in the evenin breeze. So beautiful! If I had my butterfly book already, I would be able to identify what kind they are.

  I also literally have more Ruby Throat hummingbirds than I can count!  I need to try to get a photo of them -- they often land and just hang out as well -- something that I've never seen before.

Hungry Caterpillars

I thought that the time for caterpillars this summer was passed and that we were full on butterflies now. I am wrong! I give you Exhibits A and B who are happily munching on my parsley plant:




The day before that I saw one on my fennel and one on the parsley, but I guess either there is a third one roaming around somewhere, or one of them determined that the munching was greener over with his buddy.

I've been searching for a book or poster that contains color photos of caterpillars, and the corresponding butterflies that they become, but alas -- does not seem to exist. So how does one know what become what?