Vacations are fun, and what is also fun is seeing what the garden did during my time away (without it being watered!). I was recently gone for two weeks in July 2025 and this is what caught my eye when I got back.
Sunflowers had grown A LOT. I will need to cut some of them back to reclaim pathways. They can be shredded to make mulch.
The Scarletfruit Passionflower (Passiflora lanuginosa) has already reached the top of its trellis. There is at least one fruit developing, and Gulf Fritillary butterflies have begun to visit (this is their host plant).
Less welcome are the Genista Broom Moth caterpillars that like to eat the growing points of my Texas Mountain Laurel (Dermatophyllum secundiflorum) tree. The tree will recover, but I’m sad to lose the new growth.
Low-lying plants in front of the pond — purple Prairie Verbena (Verbena bipinnatifida) in the foreground and white Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum) in the background — are filling in their assigned area well.
Rock Rose (Pavonia lasiopetala) is happily blooming. I don’t have a lot of pink flowers in the garden and so this shrub stands out.
American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is living up to its name. This plant is much bigger and stronger than it was last year, and I’m hoping that birds find and enjoy its berries.
The Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) is beginning to look like a real tree.
The mid-height prairie grasses are looking good. Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) have seed heads.
One of the Yellow Yuccas (Hesperaloe parviflora) made a whole new flower spike in just a couple of weeks while I was away.
Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) has taken a little too much territory near the wood pile and it’s beginning to climb over other things. I’ll need to pull some of that up (which is easy to do).
Rewilding My Lot 
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