Screech owlet makes a surprise June appearance
June 07, 2020 Screech owlet We’ve had a lot of screech owls nest in our owl box over the past 10 years. But after we lost our owl tree and had to relocate the box, it sat empty all last year, to our disappointment. And until two days ago, I ...
Beebalm, skullcap, and more wild creatures
May 27, 2020 The early summer flowers are strutting their stuff, so come along for a virtual tour! Here’s dazzling ‘Peter’s Purple’ monarda (Monarda fistulosa ‘Peter’s Purple’) in the driveway bed. It was a breezy day. Looking toward the neighbors’ house and their fast-growing Yucca rostrata In the shady island bed ...
Fawning over this baby
May 22, 2020 A young visitor dropped by my garden yesterday. Actually I think she was here a couple of days ago, although I didn’t see her that day. I was moving around the side of the house and heard a startled rustling in the sedge and thought I might ...
Wild kingdom in the backyard
April 28, 2020 Texas spiny lizards tend to be skittish, scuttling under the car or a potted plant when you walk by. But one very laid-back lizard has taken up residence on the shady upper patio in recent weeks. It calmly eyes me and holds its ground, even when I’m ...
Killdeer in the bluebonnets
March 25, 2020 Before Austin’s shelter-in-place (i.e., stay-at-home) order went out yesterday, I grabbed my camera and hopped in the car with our Italian high-school exchange student to find a nice field of bluebonnets a friend had told me about. We soon located a denim-blue field of dreams. As it ...
Burrowing owl makes a rocky home in Austin
January 29, 2020 I’m still hoping that a screech owl will move into our owl box this winter. Meanwhile, I got my owl fix yesterday with a different kind of bird — a burrowing owl, which I understand is rarely seen in Central Texas. Burrowing owls prefer West Texas and ...
Colorful fall at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
November 13, 2019 Before the big freeze I squeezed in a short visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, unintentionally joining throngs of families streaming in to explore Fortlandia on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I’d intended to photograph both the flowering gardens and Fortlandia but decided to save the ...
Help the Monarch Migration – Cut Back Tropical Milkweed
October 09, 2019 Guest post by Sheryl Williams of Yard Fanatic Monarchs are a beloved insect, and news of their declining numbers has caused alarm. Many homeowners have planted milkweed in an effort to supply larval food for the caterpillars. These good intentions mean that retail nurseries have rushed plant ...
Bat watching in Austin
August 29, 2019 Nightwing by Dale Whistler at the south end of the Congress Avenue Bridge represents Texas’s official flying mammal and looks great with Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). Austin goes extra batty in August, when the colony of Mexican free-tailed bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge swells with ...
Line dancing and Stickwork sculpture at Chatfield Farms: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 23, 2019 The Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019) wrapped up, after 3-1/2 days of touring Denver-area gardens, at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms. Chatfield Farms, a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm in Littleton, has a number of interesting gardens, including a prairie garden designed by Lauren ...
More melanistic deer and a Texas-sized slug
July 01, 2019 Driving at dusk through my northwest Austin neighborhood requires a sharp eye for unwary deer ambling or darting across the street. Last evening, my husband and I spotted the usual groups of does and fawns as well as a few rare melanistic deer too. Their dusky coats ...
Hoofed visitor
May 27, 2019 Stepping onto our front porch the other day, we spotted a shy visitor who wasn’t quite prepared to come all the way to the front door, although she was close. A doe was nosing around in the sedge lawnette, seemingly noshing on the cut “hay” from its ...
Cat’s pollinator garden with a canyon view
May 16, 2019 Three years ago my friend Cat Jones (check out her IG and blog) and her husband, Derrick, newly empty nesters, sold their house and Cat’s lovely garden and moved to a different home in their Steiner Ranch neighborhood, not to downsize but — fellow gardeners, can you ...
Fawn hiding in plain sight
May 08, 2019 Walking down the driveway to the mailbox yesterday, I passed not two feet from a tiny fawn curled up on the gravel garden path atop a cushion of green sedge. She didn’t move a muscle, holding completely still in hopes I wouldn’t see her, and I played ...
Spring marvels and cleanup
April 17, 2019 April unfurls new marvels to appreciate each day, like the glaucous berries of ‘Marvel’ mahonia that appeared after its yellow flowers faded in late winter. I’ve been trialing ‘Marvel’ mahonia from Southern Living Plant Collection since fall 2017. A handsome evergreen, it’s thriving in a tall container ...
Tarantula going for a swim
March 26, 2019 Walking past the pool yesterday, I caught sight of an unexpected swimmer dipping its toes from its perch on one of the pool vacuum’s floats. Who knew tarantulas could swim? I got a rake and poked the tines under its front legs, whereupon the tarantula reared up ...
