Blog
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Native Grass Reseeding
The project to seed a perimeter of short native grasses in the back yard was the one that I started first, a year ago, and is not yet complete. Some of the reasons for the partial success were out of my control (e.g., what the builder was doing here on neighboring lots, and weather), and… Continue reading
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Color Variation
I have so many Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) here that it doesn’t surprise me to find some mutations here and there. As an example, the pale flower in the center of the above photo was the only one on its plant with that coloration, which looks as if it’s missing some yellow pigment.… Continue reading
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Native Plant Sale
Twice a year, our local chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas holds a plant sale in the context of a city-wide festival so that there are plenty of people out and about. This year I was actually able to make some contributions to the sale. I had a total of 29 pots (photo… Continue reading
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Too Much Of A Good Thing
The Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) that I seeded last fall have grown so well that in some cases they’re crowding out other things. One of those was my valiant little Texas Mountain Laurel tree (photo above). I cut back some of the surrounding plants to give the tree more space, and to give me better access… Continue reading
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Butterflyweed
Recently, Home Depot had a giveaway of Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) plants and I was fortunate to be close to one of the participating stores in Houston on the day. So now I have three tiny Butterflyweeds that have joined my milkweed area. I already had four small Antelope-Horns (Asclepias asperula) plants and some seeds of Zizotes… Continue reading
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Common Buckeye
Here’s a Common Buckeye butterfly feeding on a Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella). If you look closely in these next photos, you’ll see a bee as well. They briefly shared the same flower, but I wasn’t able to capture that. Continue reading
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Three Sisters Garden #4: Squash
See this earlier post for a general summary of the Three Sisters Garden and preparation of the growing mounds. Each of my five Three Sisters mounds received four corn seeds of the variety Ambrosia (Zea mays hybrid) on March 17, 2024, and ten bean seeds of the variety Blue Lake FM-1K (Phaseolus vulgaris) on April 6, 2024. As of April 23,… Continue reading
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Improvising A New Pathway
In this second year of creating a nature garden, I’ve written before about using annual plants to fill unplanned space with native wildflowers as “green mulch”. These plants protect the ground from erosion, help to capture rain water, aerate the soil with their roots, introduce much-needed organic matter that will eventually decay, and are food… Continue reading
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New Plants For The Front Pollinator Garden
If you want to skip the preamble, I have a list of plants further down this post. Last year I planted several native plants in the flower bed in front of the house to make a small pollinator garden (replacing builder-installed plants that were not wildlife-friendly). I was pleased with the growth of the plants… Continue reading
barometer bush, beebalm, bluebonnet, cenizo, chile pequin, fall aster, flame acanthus, gregg salvia, gregg’s mistflower, gulf muhly, horseherb, lantana, lyreleaf sage, mealy blue sage, native plants, pink evening primrose, pollinator garden, prairie verbena, scarlet sage, silver ponyfoot, skeleton-leaf goldeneye, smallflower desert-chicory, straggler daisy, texas sage, texas toadflax, tickseed, volunteer plant, yarrow, zinnia -
I Was Away For A Week. What Did The Garden Do?
I was out of town for April 13-20, 2024. I had a helper to check on seedlings (to lightly water, and evict caterpillars), but other than that, the garden was left to fend for itself. What was different when I returned? Many of the back yard plants had grown several inches, including Firewheel aka Indian… Continue reading
About Me
Nature Lover.
Inquisitive Observer.
Student Gardener.
I invite you to join me on my journey to convert my sterile (from a nature point of view) new house lot to a healthy and diverse ecosystem, as I make discoveries, mistakes, and hopefully progress. I am not an expert or professional. The project started in February 2023 and the location is Seguin, Texas, USA.
Rewilding My Lot 