Blog
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Native Grasses — Chapter Four: Torrential Rain Disruption
Previous posts: Planning, Preparation, Seeding I wanted to plant native grasses in the first year here to get them established while I later worked on other projects. So this was almost the first project I started, although it took three months of work to prepare the ground for planting. I was happy with the seeding,… Continue reading
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Native Grasses — Chapter Three: First Seeding
Previous posts: Planning, Preparation Finally in May 2023 it was time to seed my native grasses. The ground was as weed-free as I could get it and the ground was softened with recent rain. Thunder Turf is a mixture of Buffalograss, Blue Grama and Curly Mesquite. You can buy the seed as a mixture, but… Continue reading
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Native Grasses — Chapter Two: Preparation
Previous post: Planning To clear the area for planting native grass seeds, first I had to get rid of about 1,000 sq ft of Bermudagrass sod and I started doing this in February 2023. I literally tore it off the ground with my hands. That one task took about two months, but I learned a… Continue reading
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Native Grasses — Chapter One: Planning
The saga of replacing builder-installed Bermudagrass sod with seeded native grasses is a lengthy one, still ongoing, so I will use several posts to tell the story. My overall plan for the back yard is to have about one-quarter of it dedicated to native grasses. These grasses put down deep roots, so they should help… Continue reading
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Bees Feed On Grasses, Too
This little episode was a lot more fun to watch than photograph. There was a small bee collecting pollen at a patch of native grasses and with all of the bee and grass motion in the wind, I was having a hard time capturing everything in focus. Here’s my best attempt. Back in May I… Continue reading
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A Weary Clouded Skipper
This rather battered Clouded Skipper butterfly was resting on my Desert Willow tree in the morning sun. I didn’t see it feeding, although apparently its favorite flower colors are pink, purple, and white. The open blooms on this tree are a dark pink. Continue reading
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Texas Lantana
Seguin and Houston, although only 160 miles apart, represent different ecological environments. When selecting plants for Seguin, I need to be mindful of what is native or adapted here and not just assume that something that did well in Houston will thrive here. One resource that is helpful for this research is the plant database… Continue reading
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Wasp Nests
Now that the wasps here have finished raising their young, I’ve removed any nest that I could find. There were a couple in the front porch, one on the back patio, and several inside the garage near the door opening. I found two kinds of nest: one for Paper Wasps and several for Mud Dauber… Continue reading
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Hummingbird!
It is absolutely my goal to have Hummingbirds visit this garden without enticing them with feeders. I thought I’d have to wait a year or two for that, but I was delightfully astonished this week to see a Hummingbird feed at my Desert Willow tree for a minute or so. The photos aren’t great, but… Continue reading
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Giving The Live Oak Trees More Space
In general, I use the estimation that the critical part of a tree’s root system corresponds to the area defined by its drip line (the outer circumference of its branches). If I can, when a tree is situated within a lawn, I like to define a mulched non-turf circle that extends at least to the… 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 