Rain and Moonflowers

At long last we got measurable rain last night. We are still in an extreme drought condition, and it looks like that will not change any time soon, but the half an inch of rain that we got yesterday was extremely welcome.

The moonflowers were opening this evening just before sundown, and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the huge snow white blooms. I love the contrast of the white against the dark green foliage.

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Once again I have been graced by the visit of another beautiful swallowtail butterfly. As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, we haven’t had many butterflies this year, but the few that we have had have been large swallowtails.

Zen Shade Garden Expansion

It is during these really hot summer days that working in a shade garden is especially appealing. So with the help of my other half, Ron, doing most of the heavy lifting, I doubled the area of the Zen shade garden, built a higher retaining wall, and backed the bed with a bamboo curtain to hide the propane tank.

Texas Hill Country Garden Art

The previous owner of our house was a collector of many things, among them was old farm implements and tools. When we purchased the property we inherited these items. They have been scattered about and moved around over the years we have been here, but I just recently decided to use some of them as garden art. To be honest, my decision was prompted by a spot I saw a couple of weeks ago on Central Texas Gardener. They were featuring a Hill Country garden that included alot of garden art, some of which was old tools and farm implements. I got inspired and asked Ron to rustle up any artifacts that he could find laying around the property that looked interesting.

Austin Garden Blog Featured in “Texas Gardener” Mag

I received my copy of the Texas Gardener magazine today, and I noticed that there was a feature article on garden blogs included in it. I eagerly turned right to that article and was pleased to see that the article was written by an Austin garden blogger, Bonnie Martin, who I had the pleasure of meeting this past spring at the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling.

Watering and Weeding

It’s been five or six weeks since we have had a measurable rainfall. Add to that temperatures in the upper 90s and winds at 15-20 mph every day, and that equates to spending a whole lot of time watering just to keep everything alive. Even though almost everything I grow is either native to our area, or well adapted to the dry conditions and high temperatures, they still require a bit of water to keep going, especially when they are first getting established which many of my plants and trees are.

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Garden Roses

I spied a butterfly on a parsley plant this morning, but by the time I grabbed my camera and got out to the herb and vegetable gardens to take some pictures of it he was no where to be found. So I took the opportunity to take a few pix of the Caldwell Pink rose near the arbor in the front courtyard area. This rose is growing like gang busters and is blooming profusely.

More Roses – Featuring Caldwell Pink

I spied a butterfly on a parsley plant this morning, but by the time I grabbed my camera and got out to the herb and vegetable gardens to take some pictures of it he was no where to be found. So I took the opportunity to take a few pix of the Caldwell Pink rose […]

Another Positive Sign

Early morning rainbow sighting.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Although the wind was blowing steadily at about 25 mph when I was shooting these pictures, I couldn’t resist trying to get some photos of this beautiful Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. I had been bemoaning the fact that we haven’t had many butterflies in the garden yet this year, and then this guy showed up this morning.