Playin' Outside

This coming Saturday, March 3rd, Edible Austin is launching its new Sustain Center with a day chock full of family friendly activities they're calling the Spring Chicken Fest.  (I'm assured that even though I'm no longer a spring chicken, they're not checking ages at the gate.)  Although we don't keep chickens (another story), it was inevitable that I'd be involved in this event as two of my volunteer "families", the Travis County Master Gardeners and the Wildlife Federation Habitat Stewards, are participating. Come on out from noon to 6:30pm.  The Sustain Center is located next to Callahan's at 443 South Bastrop Highway (Hwy 183), Austin.  Check out their  website for more event details.  How can you go wrong with kids and chickens and food trailers - well, let's not think about that. As another way to celebrate all things chicken and gardening, Timber Press is giving you a chance to win a copy of their newly published book called "F...

No, it isn't a typo - it's just  Iris germanica  'Summer Olympics' behaving as though it's already spring rather than January.  With the recent rains and mild temperatures, I'm afraid my entire garden will be seduced into this irrational behavior only to be smacked down by a late freeze or two.  Such is gardening in Central Texas. The foliage of this gaura has usually frozen to the ground by now. Not this year.  Instead it's putting on a show and feeding the occasional bee.  Only this single bloom has appeared recently on the coral honeysuckle, but the foliage has remained thick enough to provide a hiding place for anoles, opposum,  and neighborhood cats.  Normally the foliage thins out quite a bit over the winter, sometimes even dying back to the ground.  The local wildlife seem to appreciate the warmth generated by the sun heated water in the rainwater tank underneath it, even if they may not like the company they encounter. This milk...

It's one of those times you immediately want to tell everyone you know what just happened ... This afternoon, I came home from work and headed into the back yard with the dogs.  As they rushed out, a cloud of butterflies was flushed up into the air and surrounding yards.  I know that I'm capable of hyperbole, but this was truly a CLOUD of hundreds, maybe more than a thousand, butterflies. So why don't I have pictures of more than a few butterflies? Because I have two dogs with waterfowl retrieval in their DNA, and they didn't come packaged with a stealth setting.  They ran happily about, effectively scattering my little miracle to the winds while I dashed back into the house for the camera.  And the remaining few who were too tired to scatter still had enough adrenaline to dash off when I got close with the camera.  (Do butterflies have adrenaline?)  These guys must've flown the farthest because they were too tired to move. Anyway, I got to see it and ...

Just returned from 4 days at the Seattle Fling, each jam-packed with  garden blogger friendship and  tours of amazing gardens.  It'll take several days to sift through all those pixels!  So instead of photos and Fling memories, all I'm sharing today is a little gardening humor from my dad.   We all show love the best way we can.      An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey.  He wanted to plant his annual  tomato garden, but it was very difficult work as the ground was hard.  His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison.  The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament: Dear Vincent,    I am feeling pretty sad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here you'd be happy to dig the plot for me like in the old days.   Love, Papa A few days later he received a letter...

Seems like spring offers a gardener a lot of excuses.  Not only is there a long list of things to be done in our own gardens, for  master gardeners, there's a flood of teachable moments in a community under the influence of spring fever.  A surprisingly cool day, the first rain we've received in nearly 7 months, and Carol's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day gave me more excuses - simply to be still and focus on the details at home that make my heart smile.    These 'Bling Bling' zinnias and 'Music Box' kneehigh sunflowers are grown from Renee's Garden seeds.  This is the first year I've intentionally planted a "cutting garden" at the back of my vegetable bed.  Usually I grow sunflowers there for the Great Sunflower Project (a bee counting program), but these were selfishly planted just for me, me, me.  This is a terrible picture of a native butterfly bush.  It was started from a cutting snipped in San Antonio.  'Peter's Purple' mona...

I n Texas, we have something called the Texas Dip.  Google it for your entertainment, but basically it's a curtsy unique to Texas debutantes.  It's also a fairly accurate way to describe the central Texas relationship with freezing temperatures.  We flirt, approach, and occasionally "dip" into them, but rarely sink and stay down.  So, it is with increasing dismay that I watch the thermometer reach 17°F and fail to regain its footing on a cold but just above freezing norm.  I know a lot of our garden blogger friends are used to this - and that their experience over the past week of this winter's record breaking storm has been so much harsher than we've seen in Austin.  But we don't plan(t) for this.   I mean, does anyone in Austin think they're going to need a pond de-icer?   MSS at Zanthan Gardens tweeted earlier this week about her frozen pipes, and it's a good bet a lot more of us will find out we've joined her as the temperatures climb a...

This year’s 4th of July holiday included a welcome extra day off, giving me time for a few garden “chores”.  I just replaced a blade on one of my Felco pruners and was testing them out on the coral honeysuckle that grows around my rain tank.  An odd leaf attracted my attention … do you see it? It’s a Eumorpha pandorus , also known as a Pandora Sphinx moth or camouflage moth.  Here’s a peek at the underside, too.   In my garden, 2010’s been a great year for Lepidoptera, especially giant swallowtails.  But this?!!  WOW.  I have no idea where it came from or how I happened to see it, but it was certainly an honored guest.    Anyone see these regularly in their garden or know their migration route?