Vibrant 4 o'clock flowers - seeds, anyone!??

When I was growing up in the sandhills of New Mexico (little town of Corrales - just north of Albuquerque), I remember that my mom grew some 4 o'clock flowers!  I don't remember them being very tall or even how many years we had them... I just remember that I've always wanted to have some of my own. 

A few years back, a friend of mine gave me a few seedlings from her yard.  And, now I have LOTS of these flowers growing and blooming in my garden!  They would take it over - given the opportunity.  However, they have the most beautiful fragrance and I am a sucker for anything that perfumes the air!  So... each year, they populate a new corner of my (already) small backyard garden.
This year, I am harvesting the seeds.  Perhaps that way I will avoid the little seedlings that pop up everywhere in the Spring??  If you are interested in me sending you a handful of the seeds, be sure to let me know.  Send me a comment and let me know if you want some.  You, too, can have these prolific plants growing and blooming and perfuming the air -- in just one season!

Butterflies are gone...

I am sad...  The butterflies have gone where?  Further south?  More than likely.  The winds have kicked up even more today and they definitely have a "northern" bite to them!  I absolutely love this weather!  My favorite holidays are all coming up and Mother Nature is getting ready to sleep for a period of time.

Just like us - there are parts of us that can lie dormant for awhile and then, re-emerge in all of their glory.  Nature teaches us that there are seasons to everything.

If I saw my butterflies every season of the year, they'd become a sort of ho-hum sort of thing.  But, since I see them just a few weeks in the Spring and sometimes in the Summer, and these glorious weeks in the Fall, it is like a gift that I know is on its way, but never sure just "when" it will get here! 

A lone honeybee was buzzing around my spider's wort this morning.  I wonder if he knows where home is.  I don't know where they come from to visit my garden or where they go -- but I've been delighted to provide them with nectar!  More flowers to plant next year to feed more honeybees!

Leaves beginning to fall

Well, it looks like the official "fall" is on its way!  My mulberry tree is dropping leaves with every strong gust of wind that comes through here this morning and early afternoon.  It's overcast with a temp about 73 degrees, and rain on its way.  If I'm going out in the yard to work on my compost pile, I'd better get it done soon!

My butterfly bush with the white blooms

When I bought my butterfly bushes about 5 years ago, they were just those little perennial plants that you could purchase for about $2.97 apiece.  There was no way to determine what color their blooms would eventually become.  They sat in their pots for several months before I could figure out where to plant them in my backyard. 

Here I am - 5 years later and my butterfly bushes all stand 6-8 feet tall!  However, the most desirable and magnificent one has large white blooms.  These seem to be a magnet for the swallowtail butterflies earlier in the summertime and especially, the monarchs when they migrate each September and October.  They choose this bush over the ones with the purple blooms.

I have not been able to find another "white" bush, since.  But, I plan to search diligently this winter for a nursery that offers them online.  I would like to provide my butterfly visitors with many more blooms to feast upon, come the summer and fall of 2011.

Beautiful Butterflies

Today, my garden was graced with not only the monarch butterflies who are migrating, but by my most favorite butterfly - the yellow and black swallowtail!  The reason I love this butterfly so much is because she is not camera-shy, at all!  I can get as close to her with my camera as I'd like and she just keeps crawling over the blooms!  And, if she does flit away, she is soon back.

Whereas the monarch butterflies are really skittish and I have to stand a considerable distance away and use the zoom function on the camera, in order to capture their beauty.

So, here are two of my favorite butterflies!

Weird tree fungus

I took a photo of this interesting fungus growing on the side of an upright dead tree at my girlfriend's home.

North to Whitesboro, TX

So, yesterday, I was gone from my blog because I was up in Whitesboro, TX visiting my best girlfriend and her family.

They live on 13 acres in a beautiful house that they designed and oversaw the construction of 5 years ago.  They are surrounded by about 11 acres of woods.  It is one of my favorite places to go "hang out".  I tell them that they are "living my dream"!

One of the advantages of living in Grayson County, Texas, is that there is this beautiful sandy loam soil that makes everything grow like it's on steroids!  I hadn't been up to see her since April.  We had transplanted domestic and wild strawberry plants from my garden to theirs, and, sure enough - they have become a beautiful ground cover for their yard on the north side of their home.

Additionally, the Knockout roses and the lantanas grow like there's no tomorrow! 

Every time I go to visit them I bring back a bucket or two of that sandy loam soil to mix in with my own black clay soil here in Collin County.  Next time, I'm bringing a U-Haul trailer...

Outside the garden

I took my camera out with me these past two days and went to see what else was blooming this time of year!  First - I found some beautiful morning glories blooming on my neighbor's fence, just a few houses down the alleyway.  Just a lone bee hovering over these beautiful blooms - unlike the native Texas "tall weed" growing on the south side of my house.  (I am trying to post a couple of photos of these, but I'm still trying to figure out this blog and exactly how to do this!)

My goal is to plant more of these larger morning glory seeds next year.  I have the little wild morning glories blooming profusely in my garden.  I've been cautioned about letting them get out of hand, but they are easily identified in the springtime and I can pluck all the ones that I don't want to continue growing. 

Another reason why I don't pull all the fledging morning glories in the Spring is because of the fact that in late September and the whole month of October, I welcome anything that blooms for the honey bees.

Assassin bug identified!

Well, okay, I found out what this beetle is that's sucking the life out of my honey bees! 

It's called the assassin bug or wheel bug.  This information came to me via a phone call to Dr. Mike Merchant of Texas A&M University.  And, since this is supposed to be a beneficial bug, I will leave him/her in the garden!  I just wish it weren't my bees that were the current victims... :o(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_bug

Do you know this bee-killing beetle?!

Day 1

This is the first day of my blog!  I am so excited!  I have always wanted to start a gardening blog and now, thanks to Tracy, my inspiration and mentor, I have begun this journey!

This is the final weekend of the Texas State Fair and it is perfect weather for this time of the year!  The temperatures have been in the 80's and the nightly lows are high 50's to low 60's.  We could have this weather all year long and I would be happy.  A friend of mine says that April and October are the perfect months for this North Texas area.  He is so right!

Yesterday, I created a few videos on my iPhone and hopefully, will be able to post them on this blog.  One shows the honey bee that was visiting and tasting the little purple/periwinkle blue fall asters. 

Now, on the south side of my house, I have some sort of a native Texas plant that I believe is milkweed.  My sister assures me that it is just a "tall weed"!  It's currently growing to about 7 feet tall!

However, I have had multiple visitors to this tall weed - in particular, many honey bees, wasps, green flies and this one particularly creepy beetle that I call the "Honey Bee Killer" or "Predator Beetle".  I will also post a photo of him, just in case someone has a clue of what he is!  I have seen him in the last two days devouring my honey bee visitors... (sad face here - honey bees are in such jeopardy, already, that I hate to think I might have to appreciate anything that kills them as easily as this beetle seems to do).

Well, it is getting a bit late, so I'll catch you tomorrow!