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Scarab Beetle
This shiny dark green beetle on an old sunflower head caught my eye as I was passing. It’s a Dark Flower Scarab (Euphoria sepulcralis). They are not known to eat seeds, but perhaps it was after pollen or nectar. Such a beautiful creature! Continue reading
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Phaon Crescent And Frogfuit
Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) is a native ground cover that loves to grow here. The flowers are tiny, visited by small bees and butterflies. Frogfruit is also the host plant for Phaon Crescent (Phyciodes phaon) butterflies, and I’m starting to see quite a few of them now. It’s hard to discern scale on these photos, but… Continue reading
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Baby Squash Plants
Just over a week ago, squash seeds were sown in my Three Sisters Garden, and now they’re growing. I only need two squash plants per mound but I planted four seeds for redundancy. I see 18 out of 20 growing, and once we get to the point where the beans are climbing the corn I’ll… Continue reading
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A Toad!
Our property is in the central part of a development, so to get to the development boundary, one would need to cross at least one street and one or more properties. Therefore I expected wildlife visitors here initially to be limited to things that fly, and insects/spiders that were already in the ground when we… Continue reading
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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
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 