Here it is the last day of January, 2020 already! This winter has been quite mild so far but still waiting to do much since February can bring some of the coldest days.
What's growing ~
Tomato & Pepper seeds sown on January 27th:
Tomatoes:
Brandy Sweet Plum, compact
Floradade - good for hot and humid
Green Zebra
KBX - the potato leaf version of Kellogg's Breakfast
Lucid Gem
Rutgers (good for this area & said to be better than Celebrity)
Peppers:
Aleppo (I last grew this variety in 2016)
Anaheim College 64
Santa Fe Grande hot
Sweet peppers: Aji Dulce; Jolene's Red Italian & Paradicsom Alaku Sarga Szentes
Plus - A favorite unknown variety from France that I haven't grown in years.
Others recently sown (outdoors):
Sugar Snap Peas - Sugar Daddy and Dukat Dill
Looking forward to spring.
In the meantime, the birds have been enjoying the suet and seeds and I've been enjoying watching them. Here's a few.
Female Cardinal ~
Male Cardinal ~
Chipping Sparrow
Dark Eyed Junco
Northern Flicker
Black-capped Chickadee
Rudbeckia hirta is one of my favorite cheery flowers. They stick around all summer long and they always have an interesting selection of various looks, even in a small patch. Here are some ~
The roots of Rudbeckia hirta were once used medicinally. Native American Indians used the roots for snake bites and ear aches, among other uses such as treating colds and worms. I enjoy learning the medicinal virtues of plants.
The flowers attract many butterflies and are a larva host for Checkerspot, Bordered Patch and I think I read Snout butterfly as well. We get Snouts here but I don't remember seeing the other two. I'll have to look out for them and their larva.
Butterflies
This is a Synchlora caterpillar. Can you see it? It adorns itself with the flower it feeds on as camouflage. How funny! If I look close, there always seems to be some of these around.
The rain continues! We've had some wild storms over the past couple of weeks. The ground is still saturated and there are areas where we still haven't been able to mow all year.
A few nights ago, lightning struck very close to the house and split the trunk of this oak! I'm guessing it's around 70 to 75 feet tall. The part that fell took out two small hickories on the way down.
One of the hickory trees
This was the morning of June 20th. We had one of those wind and hail storms overnight. The car was sitting near a giant willow oak that lost a branch. I laughed when I saw it because my husband was sure the car would be safe from hail damage under that tree. I couldn't help it! He laughed too.
I wonder how these tiny creatures manage in the storms! They're amazing little things! I have no idea how many hummingbirds are here now but I'm putting out nine cups of nectar every day.
The barn swallows fledged from under the front porch. BUT, they are going for round two! Mama has been sitting on the nest AGAIN for almost a week now. They were so cute all huddled together during one afternoon storm. I'm disappointed I couldn't get a descent picture of that. Once the parents tidied up, they must have run the fledglings off because I haven't seen them. But, I'm guessing they're still nearby.
There were six mouths to feed.
Phoebe that's sharing the front porch with the swallows has little ones in her nest now. I think she's starting to feed them.
It looks like she caught a mayfly.
And then there's Phoebe on the back porch where round two has also hatched (about the same time as the ones on the front porch)!! There's more in there but this one keeps poking its head out. How cute!
Mama pulled a pesky worm out of the garden. Thank you Phoebe!
This child is still palling around with the squirrels!
Great Blue Heron is a regular visitor at the pond.
Yesterday we watched a Red-tailed Hawk swoop down and grab a snake out of the pond! Thank you Red-tailed Hawk! There might be more snakes in the pond but there's no shortage of frogs. Last night the frog choir was so loud it was pretty much unbearable to be outside!
Flowers and butterflies ~
We have an abundance of garden tomatoes now!
It sure is hard to beat the flavor of Celebrity!! So good!
2 Bloody Butcher on the left and 2 Jaune Flammee' on the right with some Sungold cherry tomatoes for size comparison. All tasty tomatoes that will go on the "Grow again" list.
This is Brad's Atomic Grape tomato. They're plum sized. I haven't decided what I think of them yet, the skins are tough and it's hard to tell when they're ripe because they stay pretty firm. Once you cut them open, they are juicier inside than you would expect and they have a lot of good flavor! I may try using them to make some tomato fritters. But they're so pretty, I'd like to show them off. Maybe on a pizza... they're quite prolific so I'll probably get to try all kinds of things.
The Cherokee Purple is also prolific with many really big, beefsteak sized tomatoes!! One slice would easily cover a hamburger bun. They have that really good old fashioned flavor. Got a little bit of splitting on a few from all the rain. They're thin skinned. I'm really happy with these and sure to save seeds.
I made a Tomato Galette the other day. Too bad the crust covered up how beautiful and colorful the tomatoes looked. But it sure was yummy. The crust has cracked pepper and Parmesan cheese in it. With fresh Genovese basil sprinkled on after it's done baking.
More tomatoes ~
Five Muncher cucumber plants are putting out so many cucumbers we're even juicing them. They don't ferment well though, I guess because the skin is so thin? I don't know but they sure are good, sweet and crunchy for everything else.
Shishito peppers didn't disappoint. Very good on the grill! So are Ajvarski which got eaten before I could take a picture. It happens.
I'll try to save seeds of Desi squash. It's about a month ahead of the other squash I planted at the same time. Good summer food!
There's more going on but I'll save it for another day.
Happy Gardening!!
With all the April and May showers it looks like we should have plenty of June flowers. We've been having a lot of rain!! It's like a marsh around here.
Black-eyed Susan is starting to bloom. I didn't see the little katydid nymph until I uploaded the pictures. Katydids will eat any and every kind of plant!
Speaking of nymphs I've seen this guy on more than one occasion, the first time he was dining on a spider that was on a tomato plant. I thought yikes, what is that bug? It looks like a nymph of some kind. A few days later I saw the same kind of bug on another plant some distance from where I saw the first one. This time it looked like it was honing in on larvae. After a little searching on the net, I think I found its identity, a predatory stinkbug.
Predatory Stinkbug Nymph, Podisus. Maybe a Spined Soldier Beetle.
Here it is moving in on the larvae.
Chocolate Daisy, Berlandiera lyrata really does smell like chocolate in a weird way. I planted seeds two years ago and this is the first time flowering. It's native to Texas.
Echinacea angustifolia is another Texas native in bloom. It's an herb that can be made into a tea to support your immune system. E. angustifolia is actually the most potent of all the Echinaceas. It's pretty popular as a cold remedy. I haven't harvested any yet.
Zinnias self sow and show up on their own every year. And they always seem to look a little different!
This year's look ~
The birds need a mention this month since there are several of them nesting on our house! Yep, there's a nest of Barn Swallows under the front porch. And now, there's also a Phoebe's nest on the front porch!! I've never seen that happen before, not at the same time!! And then there's another Phoebe's nest on the back porch where she's nesting right now for the second time this year!!
Here's the little swallows from a few days ago. They're getting their little heads up higher now. I'll try to get another photo soon.
One of the parents sitting on the light fixture, while the other is at the nest.
I sometimes see the Black Bellied Whistling Ducks flying, whistling as they land in the trees.
The male was standing at the pond edge again the other day. I tried to spy the female but she must have been hiding in the reeds.
Hummingbirds have multiplied! I count at least twenty at any given time. They visit the feeders in the largest numbers during the morning and again in the evening.
There's a lot going on in the garden! Squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, beans and herbs... I might be forgetting something. Melons, I'm trying to grow melons, a variety called Kajari. So far it's looking iffy, the sprouts come up and a few days later they expire except one that's struggling. I added a few more seeds to the area a few days ago. Wait and see!
This is a poblano plant that overwintered in the garage. It's already pumping out fruit way ahead of any of the peppers that were planted from seed. Yay!
Shishitos and Ajvarski growing in pots are just starting to flower.
Cherokee Purple tomato ~ I counted 23 fruits on one plant! A far cry from the zero fruit last year's plant offered! Excited to finally try this one!
Muncher Cucumber growing for the second year. I like it that much!
Squash Desi looking a little tattered from all the rain ~
The peaches are gone. We got about eight fruit for ourselves. The squirrels got the rest! Now they've moved on to the plum trees. I've never eaten squirrel but I'm considering it! HAHA!
Squirrel gravy anyone?
Poor little girl, she was waiting patiently for the peaches to ripen. She loves them!! Sorry little one but you need to go ask the squirrels where they went!!
UPDATE ~ I was just outside and something smacked me on the head! I looked to see what it was and saw a bug flying away and land on the monarda. A closer look revealed the Spined Soldier Bug. How's that for irony?!
April was a rainy month and it's continuing into May!
We had a wild night of storms the night before last that seems to have brought in more hummingbirds. I counted twelve yesterday morning. I wonder if they catch the jet stream? Maybe. So anyway, I put out two more feeders, making it five. Hopefully that will be enough.
I hung the first hummingbird feeder out on March 28th, right on time since they usually show up around the first of April. The first sighting was on March 30th.
A female Ruby-throated hummingbird. There's another one on the back side.
The Coral Honeysuckle begins blooming just in time for the hummingbirds arrival. It's almost finished now but other things are blooming.
A few of the flowers blooming right now that they like to visit.
Nasturtium
Culinary Sage
Penstemon, Dark Towers
The Phoebes nesting on the back porch fledged about a week ago. I hadn't seen them until yesterday morning. There they were in a little tree sitting on the porch the morning after the storm. I think they were hungry because the parents came and they all flew to some logs where it looked like they were feeding the little ones. It was sweet to watch. I can hear them chirping in the nearby trees. Being flycatchers, they are my little garden friends.
I don't remember seeing so many squirrels before but there are a lot! I think the bird seed is part of the problem bringing them too close to the house for my liking. The dogs usually chase them off, or up a tree! But lately I've been seeing one of the dogs sitting about five feet away, watching the squirrels eat bird seed!!! When I open the door, he gets up and chases them up a tree. I think he might be buddies with the squirrels!! Funny but not funny! Now they're pulling the unripe peaches, eating them part way and then discarding them!! I'm not very happy about that.
Last year I watched the apples disappear from the apple trees one at a time, before they were ripe. I couldn't figure it out until I saw a squirrel run off with one! It was a funny sight as the squirrel tried to carry it in its mouth while running away. He kept dropping it and stopping to pick it back up which made me laugh to the point that I was amused instead of upset. They were completely gone before they had a chance to ripen.
So, this year we ordered some fruit protection bags. I put a few on some of the peaches too.
And, since the tomato plants aren't fenced in, I'm putting the bags on the low hanging tomatoes so the chickens won't bother them. Or those darn squirrels!!
Looking forward to ripe tomatoes. The Sungold surprised us with two little ripe fruits so far and lots more on the way. The first one got plucked right out of my glove while I tried to take its picture. He said it wasn't very sweet yet, too early I guess.
Cherokee Purple is this year's surprise so far, just from how many fruits have set! I lost count at twenty. I tried to grow this variety last year but the plant didn't give a single fruit!! I'm happy I tried again.
Bloody Butcher, a potato leaf variety is growing in a pot.
The kale and peas are done and they've been pulled up so the pots can be used for something else. They've been replaced with Shishito peppers and squash.
A recent backyard view ~ Finally, a sunny day.
An afternoon serenade by Mr. Cardinal
I also enjoy hearing the mockingbird sing.
