Important Native

While hunkered down under a piece of farm equipment I was supposed to repair, the rancher that owned it was bent over, looking into the grass. I thought he had lost something for a moment but he looked up and had a little smile on his face. He looked over at me and casually said that the wildlife would get through this winter OK. I asked him how he knew and he pointed down to the ground and said "Filleree, it's every where this year and doing right well".


Filleree, as the old rancher pointed out, is probably one of the most important plants in the hill country where wild life is concerned. I'm sure he also knew that his cattle as well as the neighbors Barbado sheep would make good use of it as well. The native plants in the hill country of Texas are notorious for having very low protein values with very few even over 10%, and that is when they are at their prime. In the winter time they are closer to zero. Filleree has a protein content of over 17%, even in the winter, as that is when it is young and growing. That protein will be utilized by deer, turkeys, rabbits and other wildlife to keep them healthy through the rigors of the winter when many other food sources for these animals are lacking or gone altogether.


Such an important plant and you would have to look closely to even see it, growing flat to the ground. It's really easy to see though, if you know what to look for. During the winter many of it's tiny leaves are crimson red instead of green, and show up easily.




While the old rancher knew and appreciated the filleree for it's benefit to the animals, he could have cared less about the show of violet blooms that all native plant people would recognize as Stork's Bill. It's not one of the big show natives, with the blooms only hanging around for less than a month, but while it's here, it's here with a bang.

All those blooms will make the very thing that Stork's Bill is named for, the seed pods. They look just like a stork's head and bill.


So, whether you call them Filleree or Stork's Bill, it's a very important plant to have. And just how many plants can be this important and be this beautiful as well?

Quality Tools

As the shank of the little garden trowel broke, my hand shoved the handle on down into the soil, my index finger sliding over the edge of the blade. I looked at the finger and just caught a glimpse of the bone before the blood flow hid it. I said a few choice words about what a blankity blank piece of crap it was and slung it into the cedars. After letting it bleed for a while I headed into the house to get the cellophane tape. Lyn is big on getting cuts stitched up. I on the other hand, am not. I was able to get it taped up tight and just hoped she wouldn't see it with cellophane tape on it. It had worked before.


I got out another trowel and noticed it had a big notch out of it. It was crap as well. There just had to be a better garden trowel out there but I had never seen it. I looked at my Corona pruning snips laying on the porch and thought about what a quality piece of equipment they were. They are just a joy to use as were my Mom's Felco snips. They cost more than the cheap ones but here it is nearly thirty years after buying them and they still work perfectly. The Coronas still snap a limb right off and they have never even needed the spring replaced. Buying quality is always worth the extra price in the long run.


In snips, Felco and Coronas have long been known to be of top quality. What about garden spades and trowels? Uhhhh, I don't know. You never see any good ones in the stores or nurseries. There had to be some available some where. Before I started looking, I thought about what I would require in a good garden trowel. A strong shank from handle to blade came right to mind as I looked at the cellophane tape hiding my wound. I didn't want any soft or pliable material on the handle. It seems that it always wears off or breaks over as you push on the handle in really tough soil. Stainless construction for no rust and last forever tool. Tough blade, no aluminum here. I've got trowels with aluminum blades with notches and broken blades. Lastly, did I mention a strong shank between the handle and the blade.


Every one knows that the English make the best gardening tools, so I started out looking at them. The best of these are Snow and Neely, Spear and Jackson, and Burgon and Bull. Why each brand has two names I don't know. [I'll have to ask my friend Philip at East Side Patch Blog about that, he's from over yonder] The English love wooden handles and I could get by with them, even though they can crack, splinter and flat out break. The steel in the blades is top notch and you shouldn't have to worry about it...ever. Then we get to the shank. On every one of these, the shank is very small and is riveted or spot welded to the blade. I kept looking.


I tried Japanese gardening tools next. While they have some great pruners, weeders, hoes and sickles they don't use trowels. They dig with a knife. Keep looking.


Finally, I looked at American made tools and there it was, the perfect trowel for me. The Wilcox All Pro. I was literally giddy with delight. It was just perfect. Stainless construction, solid built handle with a good grip. The best part.....there was no shank. It was a part of the blade, just blending right into the handle. Did I mention that it was just perfect, well perfect for me, you might not like it at all.


I figured I would try to find one in the spring before I started planting and promptly forgot about it. I did however tell my wife, you know, the one that likes stitching for woulds and never forgets anything. Well while opening my presents for Christmas, I got to the ones from my Mother in Law, the best Mother in Law in the world, and there they were, a pair of Wilcox All Pro trowels. And yes, they are just like I thought they would be, the perfect garden trowels. Thanks Mom, your the best.

Winter, Blahs

Winter, my least favorite time of the year. I look out at the barren emptiness of my gardens and grimace. How I miss the green tendrils of vines growing across pathways, making Bonnie's garden patrols that much more difficult.

I miss the rich greenness of Thalias.

I miss cantaloupes,

watermelons,

and cucumbers, looking good and tasting great.

Beautiful red tomatoes, ready to eat and so delicious but now gone.

Green beans, thick as hair on a dog's back, complete with a surprise that came up right in the middle. It was so pretty.


Deep reds,

delicate pinks,

and not so delicate pinks. Not there now.

There were vibrant yellows,

and orange.

Even blues and purples were there.

Even brown is nice when it's on a flower.

Now, nothing but the bare nakedness of the winter landscape.

I want my gardens back.

Year of The Caterpillar

This has certainly been the year of the caterpillar. I had more this year than any year I can remember. It certainly makes me wonder what causes over abundances of certain critters in certain years. While some years we have so many frogs of different varieties in the ponds that the evenings are deafening, this year we hardly had any. I must say I would rather have noisy evenings than caterpillars though. While they may turn into beautiful butterflies and moths, they can sure do some damage to the garden.



Tomatoes in the garden? Yep, you'll have these.

I don't know if there are little bitty Horn Worm Caterpillars or not but I had a bunch of tiny ones as well.
I much prefer the woolly ones as they are just more fun to play with.
They were on the Tall Rosen Weed.

They ate the Cleome.
They were on the Granite Gaura.

They even ate a lot of the Blue Bonnets. I didn't think anything would eat a Blue Bonnet.
Around the Welding shop was a type of horn worm that I haven't seen before. They were all similar but different as well.



And then there is the woolly bears. I think every one has these. But all summer long? I'm still seeing these around the garden and we've already had several light frosts.

My friend, Tom Nash, had caterpillars around his house by the thousands and they were not like any that I had. They were only feeding on one type of weed in his yard and really didn't bother any thing.

While most of the caterpillar species we have seen were in major abundance we only spotted one of each of these two varieties. This one looks like a south Austin artist painted it.

This one was on a lily pad in one of the ponds. And yes, it was eating it. The brilliant chartreuse color was absolutely stunning.

The side view revealed other colors I couldn't see from above. This was truly a stunning example of natures art work.


While they can be a pain in the butt to deal with sometimes, they are still a beautiful part of nature even before the beauty they eventually become.

Porter Weed

Last year, Pam, that has the blog Digginghttp://http//www.penick.net/digging/, let every one in the bloggersphere know about a great plant she had that was a real winner in our Texas heat. It bloomed all summer, looking great right up until frost. It was Seniorita Ma....., wait a minute, I'm not going to tell you. You need to look it up on her blog. If you haven't seen her blog , you need to. It's a dandy. Any how, this year I found one I would like to pass along.


In the spring I went to a Master Gardeners plant sale on the court house square in Georgetown, Texas. I was perusing the plants, picking out several, when a lady handed me another. With the selection I had picked out, she thought I would really like it and it was the only one they had there. You just know I bought it, even though I had never heard of it. I always buy plants when something special like this happens. It was very nice of her and she didn't lie either.


It's name is Porter Weed. I immediately looked it up on line and found it comes in red, blue, coral and pink. Mine was the red, thank goodness. I love red in the garden, and yes I have plenty, and no, I don't have enough. I didn't know any better at the time but the blue is native to the east coast and can be considered to be invasive. It's not a big showy bloomer but has a lot of long, very slender bloom stems that twist and curve for an interesting look. The info on line said it was a long lived perennial. Judging from the pictures on line, I think it should be much bushier than mine but I think the heat from our early summer might have kept it from that as the heat hit about the time I planted it. It did bloom all summer and didn't wilt from the heat even once, and this summer was another doozie.


Is Porter Weed for you? I'll let you decide after looking at the pictures.

Where Did The Frog Go?

It was right here a minute ago. Where did it go? Darnit, that was my favorite frog.

The Oxblood Mystery

The Oxblood Lilies that I grow have been in my family longer than I have. Oxbloods are the perfect pass-a-long and have been passed to every family member that is interested in plants. They have looked the same as long as my memory goes back. Red. Always red. Oxblood Lilies are red. Every one knows that.


I was walking to my back shop one morning and noticed a new crop of Oxbloods had popped up after the big rain. Nothing unusual in that. However I was shocked to see that some of them were pink. Not light red but pink, even light pink. I was wondering if it was because of all the rain, [that would be 14.7" of it] and it just washed all the color out as the plant took in too much water.

You can see some coming up in this picture that are almost white.
If any one has any ideas why then I would like to know. Has any one seen this before? Also does any one think they will come up this way next year? Is this natural hybridization?

Hermine

In the last 24 hours, here at Draco, we have had 14.7 inches of rain fall. It actually fell in about 18 hours as it has not been raining for a few hours now. I thought I had better walk around the gardens and check out the damage if any. I didn't expect much but better check any way.

It was obvious the 4 O'clocks in the front yard/new bed, didn't fare so well. They had been beat down badly but their neighbors, the big Petunias, looked perky. Lyn and I had decided to take out the yard and make a big flower bed in the hottest part of the summer so I decided to put something in that I knew would fill in quickly. They didn't disappoint but they sure look bad right now.


I walked around the house, noting all the places I would have to move gravel around in the pathways to cover the ground up. Bonnie was leading the way as she always does. She thinks I am incapable of going anywhere on my own. Good dog, Bonnie. You might note that she is looking back to see what is taking me so long. I'm coming, I'm coming!

Looking down the pond, every thing looks OK. In the back ground I can see the dead leaves on the roses by the fence. This rain has saved them.


The front ponds and the plants around them look good. I was worried about the shrimp plants getting crushed by the heavy rain fall as they are so thick leafed, but they look great.


Coming to the Red Bud that I grew from seed, I can see that the big perrenials that grow along the fence for a visual boundary are not too bad. The Skeleton Leaf Daisy and the Snow Cloud Artemisia are laying over a little but the big native Lantana and the two different Flame Acanthus are just fine. I really need to cut that one limb on the Red Bud so people don't have to duck to get by it, but I ain't gonna. Have I mentioned how much of a wuss I am about pruning?

Taking a left I looked back up the big pond and things appeared OK. I looked down and noticed only a sprig of Silver Ponyfoot left out of the mass that had been there. This is where the pond over flows and I never thought about the shallow rooted Ponyfoot getting washed away. The Chile Pequin Peppers were fine and the Duelbergs, Henry and Anna, were good. Looking at the pond again I could see that the water was up to the big stone slab bridge that crosses in the middle of the pond.
Got to stop and ogle the beauty Berries. They just look so good right now.

I come upon the raised beds and notice the Cosmos has been pushed down by the rain. Even though I know you shouldn't, I plant my sweet peppers in this same bed every year. It's shallow dirt in this bed and the peppers are really the only thing that does well in it. I mean, except for the Cosmos. It comes up in this bed every year and in the walk ways as well. It is some kind of strange Cosmos that I originally got the seed for from some old lady I met in a nursery. It gets over five foot tall in a good year and doesn't bloom until the last of September or in early October. It really puts out the seed too.
Things in the back seemed fine.
The two little ponds under the gutter spouts were OK. A couple of the little gold fish did wash out but Lyn was able to scoop them up and get them back in .
Another new bed that we have been working on lost some dirt from all the water running across it. The Potato Vine looks good. It has certainly faired better than the the two chartruese green ones that a rabbit ate. The Hoja Santa and the Mountain Sage look quite perky, better than they have all summer.

The pear tree lost some fruit but there is still plenty left. It's almost pear eating time.
The Ocatillo only had about five leaves on it a few days ago. Now look at it. I've had this little guy for about five years now and it has hardly grown an inch and has never bloomed but I like it any way. You can bet those rain water tanks in the back ground are full, 24,000 gallons worth.

Going back around the raised beds I notice the Indian Mallow is squashed pretty badly. I don't think it is too bad though. It will come..............what is that? Right there, across the walk from the Powis Castle. What is that shiny thing? Oh no, it can't be. It is, it is, it's Ol' Charley, my catfish. He must have washed out of the pond during the night and lay there until he died.
I put him in the big pond when he was only four inches long. I wanted him to eat the baby gold fish so we wouldn't have to give them away every year. He did too but he has been getting lazy this last year and we have a lot to give away again. He would eat out of my hand, he really liked me and Lyn. He was more affectionate than a cat. I really liked that catfish and it was almost time to eat him, dammit. I guess the rain did strike us a severe blow. Say good bye to Charley, Lyn. He was a really good catfish and I just know he would have been excellent dipped in a mustard sauce and rolled in corn meal.