Another Positive Sign

Early morning rainbow sighting.

Just Another Day

There is so much to do in the gardens at this time of the year it is easy to get engrossed in the work and to forget to step back and observe the miracle of spring happening everywhere. The whole valley behind our house is literally turning green before our eyes. New wildflowers are sprouting [...]

More Fun With Photos

I took a walk around the property looking for signs of spring yesterday, and I found them everywhere I looked. Here are some samples. If you click on them you will link to larger versions of the photos on my Flickr page.
I found several nice clumps of bluebonnets near the green house. Ron has been [...]

iPhoto First Test

I continue to be impressed with the Mac’s functionality and ease of use. I was anxious to see how iPhoto’s functionality compared to Photoshop on my PC. iPhoto did not disappoint. I took the photo below with my digital camera, and when I plugged the camera into the Mac using a USB connection, iPhoto immediately [...]

More Condo Project Photos

These pictures show a bit more detail of the features that were installed at the condo project. All of the plant material is native or well adapted to this area. Much of it is deer resistant.

Lantana with Monarch

Bamboo Muhly and Crepe Myrtle on Side Yard Path

Front Steps

Variegated Ginger

Variegated Miscanthus

Desert Willow

More to come soon.
Happy Full Moon!

This and That

It’s finally Saturday, and I’ve been out in the vegetable garden all morning spreading mulch. The heat finally got to me though, and drove me inside. I’m really getting tired of this heat….
I pulled out my cosmos plants to make room for more greens and broccoli plants. The green beans are coming out next. I’ll [...]

Cosmos In a Vase

I haven’t used cosmos from my garden as cut flowers before, so I am not sure how long they will last, but the flowers were so large, and the stems so sturdy and long, I decided to cut some this morning. They are quite beautiful I think.

Cosmos in a Vase

Something has been munching on my [...]

Out on the Deck and South Side View

I’m playing with a web service called ustream. You are seeing a live stream of either our backyard, or our south yard, hosted through ustream. Pretty cool. I need to tweak all of this to make it more interesting, so consider this just a test at the moment.
Update: The video quality is not too great, [...]

Everything is Growing

We were adopted by a very cute kitten a couple of weeks ago. We call him Button.

Kitten Up Close

Our fennel and parsley plants were literally covered with swallowtail and monarch caterpillars this spring, and I have already begun seeing many butterflies in the gardens.

Swallowtails on Fennel

More Swallowtails on Fennel

There are lots of blooms in the [...]

Caterpillars and Roses

I took these pictures last week before the cold snap arrived. It is hard to believe that it was snowing just two days ago. All of my plants seem to have weathered the cold with little damage. I did cover the tomato plants with thermal row cover fabric, so they should be fine.
We planted this [...]

New Photos - Caterpillars, Butterflies and Bees

These are the last of my fall photos. I finally got a shot of a monarch (last of the photos). I am not sure what type of caterpillar the first photo is - I am still researching it. I thought the caterpillar in the third photo was a monarch, but after doing a little research, [...]

Favorite Photos

Ron has been scanning some of the photos we have taken with our Canon EOS Rebel camera. I have selected two of my favorites to share with you. The first one is of a painted bunting. It was taken through the window of our laundry room. We have painted buntings here regularly in the spring [...]

Garden Tour - Raised Beds

As promised, we continue our tour of the Lost Valley Gardens test and market gardens today. These gardens were built over the past two years to test different varieties of vegetables, herbs, and perennials growing in raised beds in our area (Central Texas - eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau). We tried growing vegetables in [...]

A Morning Stroll Through the Gardens

I decided that it was time to take some pictures of the late summer garden as it transitions into its fall phase. This is perhaps the most colorful season of the year on our property, or maybe it’s just that spring seems so far away. One thing is certain, summer is NOT a growing season [...]