Intermission

January 8, 2013, 10:01 pm

≫ Next: Re-post: The End of My Foolish Prairie Garden

≪ Previous: A Look Back at 2012

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Plano Prairie Garden blog. I started the blog in 2009 with comments that I wanted to try something new and to “provide documentation that my landscape is planned and intentional...just in case a Code Enforcement Officer comes knocking on my door and threatens me with a citation if I do not mow my weeds.”

Fortunately, I have not had any problems with the city or neighbors and several neighbors have even commented on how much they like my garden. Nobody else has removed their lawns, but maybe that will come in time.

Gardening is often a solitary endeavor and this blog has given me the opportunity to share my garden with people from across the country and across the world that can appreciate my gardening endeavors, but would never see them otherwise.

Many of the people that visited the blog left comments and links to their own blogs which gave me the opportunity to get to know them and their gardens. A few of those cyber visitors (Pam and Shirley) even visited the garden in person and it was a pleasure to meet both of them.

I have enjoyed sharing my Texas native plants with the world. It is funny how many people in Europe have a greater appreciation for North American native plants than we North Americans. Maybe we think that a flower we see growing in a field or vacant lot is a weed and too common to be cultivated in a landscape.

But if you really want to see common, just take a look at your typical suburban landscape. From sea to shining sea, most of them look exactly alike: a lawn of imported grass, a couple of trees, a row of shrubs against the foundation of the house and maybe a flower here and there.

Not only are most of these landscapes boring, but they do nothing for the wildlife that is trying to survive among us. I know the larger wildlife like bobcats, wolfs, coyotes, raccoons, possums, and armadillos that used to make this place their home are unacceptable to most people in suburbia, but we can plan landscapes that will help out the birds and butterflies and maybe even the bees and lizards. That is where native plants come in because they produce or attract the food that the wildlife has evolved with for ages.

I hope that this blog has helped a few people gain an appreciation for native plants that they may not have had before. It is possible to make an attractive landscape with native plants and you don’t need to go the extremes that I did. You can fit natives into the typical suburban landscape I described above.

Anyway, after all of that rambling, the purpose of this post is to tell you that I have decided to take a break from the blog and I don’t know if it will be for a while or forever.

Even though I only post a couple of times a month, I spend more time than you would believe putting a post together. And, personally, I think the posts are getting redundant and boring. I don’t want to be like the guy that shows boring home movies to his sleeping audience.

I do have a couple of ideas for new themes I could post about in the future, so check back. You never know.

I plan to add to the blog a list of the plants in my garden and links to other blogs that I enjoy. Things I have planned to do for a long time, but never did.

One more thing. The blog spam is getting out of control so, in a few weeks, I will turn off the ability to leave comments on the blog. If anyone should want to get in touch with me, I will give you my email address in the form of a puzzle (to avoid more spam). My email address is my last name followed by my first name (with no characters in between)@yahoo.com. You can find my name in the 2010 Dallas Morning News story about my garden. Follow the link here.

And now a parting video that you may have come across before. I first saw this video clip about a year ago and I never got around to posting a link. I have watched the clip at least a dozen times and I am amazed every time. Watch it in full screen. This is why we need to grow more native plants.

So long for now. I will keep in touch through your blogs.

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Re-post: The End of My Foolish Prairie Garden

March 31, 2013, 10:01 pm

≫ Next: Stop and Smell the Bluebonnets

≪ Previous: Intermission

Hello cyber gardening friends. It has been almost three months since my last post. It is hard to believe the time has gone by so fast.

You may have noticed that I added a page to the blog with a list of other garden and nature blogs. I still have not added my plant list that I promised in the last post. I have the list in a spreadsheet, but it will require retyping in a different format to get it posted.

Otherwise, I have been working on some landscaping projects. I am not ready to share any pictures yet. In fact, I don't have any. I have not taken any garden pictures in the last three months. I guess one good thing about taking a blog break is that I save computer hard drive space. Maybe I will take some pictures soon.

I thought I would re-post my April 1 post from last year. It was supposed to be an April Fools' joke about giving up on my prairie garden and going back to a lawn. Or was it? Maybe it was foreshadowing of changes to come? Maybe that is what I have been working on for the last three months? Maybe not. You will just have to wait to find out.

So here is last year's April 1 post:

I have been thinking about the future of my prairie garden for a while and now on April 1, I have finally made the difficult decision that it is time to abandon this foolishness and declare my four year prairie garden experiment a mistake and a waste of time.

I know this will come as a shock to many, but I have thought long and hard about this and the truth of the matter is that I miss my lawn and I want it back. I wish I could have known how much I would miss my lawn before I went through the effort of digging out the lawn by hand and replanting with Texas native and prairie plants. Now I know how much I appreciate the uniformity and clean look of freshly mown grass. I suppose the stigma of being the only person in the neighborhood without a lawn influences my decision too. My prairie garden is out of place and does not blend in with the rest of the neighborhood. My garden is a cacophony of colors, shapes and textures in a sea of flat green grass, geometrically shaped shrubs and over pruned crepe myrtles. My prairie garden style even makes me more of a neighborhood outcast than the neighbors with traditional style lawns that are not maintained and are overrun with weeds. The planted stock tank in front of my house may not help matters either.

2004. The "before I removed the lawn" look complete with rectangular shrubs
and For Sale sign. Standard Plano landscaping. This is the look I want again.

2007. The beginning of the end for the lawn. I just could not control my urge
to expand that flowerbed and remove my beautiful carpet of St. Augustine grass.

2012. The neighborhood misfit as it is today with no lawn.

Over the last couple of years, I have grown to miss some things about lawns, particularly their maintenance. For example, I love the smell of fresh cut grass. I even miss cutting grass every week. I miss the roar of a gasoline powered mower that drowns out all other sounds and gives you a few peaceful moments to think. You can also sing at the top of your lungs while mowing and no one can hear how bad it sounds. The same goes for gasoline trimmers and blowers. Oh, and don’t forget the exhaust fumes. Just thinking about the scent brings back so many memories.

Speaking of scents, this is the time of year that the air is filled with the scent of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. After working my way through college at a garden center, I can usually identify the chemical scents that the wind carries into my garden from several lawns away. Last weekend, while working in my front yard, I picked up a familiar scent of what I thought was the herbicide 2,4-D. A few minutes later, a neighbor a couple of houses down came around to his front yard spraying his lawn from a premixed hose end sprayer. I watched with envy as he, in shorts and bare feet, sprayed the chemical concoction on his lawn as his wife and two small children played nearby and sometimes crossed into the area he just sprayed. That is the picture of the American dream.

I found this news clip on The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center’s facebook page a few days ago.

The video talks about how the invasive bastard cabbage from Europe is choking out native wildflowers. The weed has been popping up everywhere around here for the last couple of years. I even found one growing in my prairie. I pulled it out once it bloomed and I realized what it was. In the future, our lovely lawns may be the only zones free of bastard cabbage because we can easily kill the invaders with weed and feed fertilizers and other chemical herbicides. The availability of chemical herbicides is another advantage that lawns have over my prairie garden. You cannot spray herbicides in a prairie garden because they will kill all of the prairie plants. Weeds need to be removed by hand in a prairie garden. What a waste of time that is!

The header of this blog says that my prairie garden is low maintenance. Well, I lied. It is not low maintenance. Sure, I don’t have to do things like mowing every week, but the work never ends. I have been working on this garden since I moved into this house eight years ago and I am still not finished. Every time I think I am close to being finished, I think up a new project. That is the problem with this type of garden, it stimulates creativity. I can’t stop thinking of new things to do in the garden. New plants, flowerbeds, pathways, rain gardens, vegetable gardens, flagstone patios—the ideas keep coming and I am powerless to stop them. I am tired and getting too old for all of this manual labor and I am too picky to pay someone to do the work for me. A lawn would be a better option. After all, how creative can you get with a lawn unless you want to create a putting green or a crisscross mowing pattern like they have on baseball fields?

I realize that some nature lovers will argue that my prairie garden provides much needed wildlife habitat. I suppose it does to a degree, but my little plot of native plants cannot make up for the volume of native habitat that is lost to development every day. If native wildlife cannot adapt to our changing world of foreign, invasive plants, lawn grass, genetically modified food crops and concrete, then their eradication is inevitable. I am not going to devote my precious lawn space to native plants that support dying species.

After last year’s drought, spring rains have raised lake levels and our watering restrictions have been revised to allow watering once a week. This seems like the perfect time to plant a new lawn. Once I begin planting my lawn, I will have to rename this blog. I think the new header should read:Plain Ol’ Plano Garden - Returning to a generic, boring, high maintenance suburban landscape that is nothing special and just like all the others.

Below is one last look at the Plano Prairie Garden before I start ripping out plants and planting my new lawn. Click on the video below for mood music as you scroll through the pictures.

Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii, Husker Red Penstemon, Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red', Four Nerve Daisy, Tetraneuris scaposa, and Pale Leaf Yucca, Yucca pallida.

Gulf Coast Penstemon, Penstemon tenuis.

Morning dew on blades of Indian Grass, Sorghastrum nutans.

Monarch caterpillar eggs about to hatch.

A skipper on four nerve daisy.

Ladybug beetle on Elbow bush, Forestiera pubescens.

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Stop and Smell the Bluebonnets

April 17, 2013, 7:51 pm

≫ Next: Finishing Touches

≪ Previous: Re-post: The End of My Foolish Prairie Garden

I always forget that bluebonnet flowers have a fragrant scent. They are not a flower that comes to mind, like roses or gardenias, as having a fragrance, but their sweet scent has been apparent for the last few weeks.

The neighbors have noticed the bluebonnets too. Almost everyone that walks by comments on how much they like/love the bluebonnets. I think the presence of this familiar and beloved flower has helped to build broader acceptance of my lawn-less front garden, at least while the bluebonnets are in bloom.

I have been so busy trying to finish projects lately that I have not had much time to just enjoy the garden and smell the bluebonnets. I am trying hard to finish my ongoing projects before the heat and mosquitoes limit my outdoor time. One of this year’s unplanned projects is visible in the top photo. I emptied and moved the stock tank (galvanized planter as I refer to it around my neighbors) to the other side of the garden where it would be more visible and balance out the red yucca on the opposite side of the sidewalk.

I will have more photos of my completed projects soon. I think I will actually finish my existing projects in the front garden this weekend! Time will tell how long I can go before I start new projects. I hope it is a long time because I need a rest.

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Finishing Touches

April 24, 2013, 8:44 pm

≫ Next: National Wildflower Week 2013

≪ Previous: Stop and Smell the Bluebonnets

My garden is slowly coming into bloom this year. While the plants have been coming out of dormancy, I have been working around the edges to finally wrap up some projects and put "finishing" touches on the garden. Well, "finishing" for now. I already have a growing mental list of additional adjustments that I want to make.

Here in the center of the front garden, Four Nerve Daisies, Tetraneuris scaposa, Winecup, Callirhoe involucrata, Bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis, and Mealycup Sage, Salvia farinacea, are blooming around Pale-Leaf Yucca, Yucca pallida, and a Spineless Prickly Pear, Opuntia ellisiana(?). The Coreopsis and Husker Red Penstemon will be blooming in the next couple of weeks.

The flower stalks on the Yucca are over six feet tall. This is the second time for this one to bloom. The first time it bloomed was two years ago and the flower stalk was only about three feet high.

So what have I been working on for the last few months? Pathways. Decomposed granite pathways. I moved the garden edging to the property line and removed the grass from the sides of my front yard garden a year and a half ago. I wanted to add pathways and a buffer zone from my neighbor's chemical lawn treatments and possible overspraying into my garden. Before installing the decomposed granite, I also had to modify the underground drainage pipes and relocate sprinkler heads because pathways do not need to be watered. This is the west side of the garden. The purple flowers are Gulf Coast (aka Brazos) Penstemon, Penstemon tenuis. The small tree in the center of the picture is Hercules Club, Zanthoxylum clava-herculis.

The thorny tree is just beginning to bloom. The flowers are very fragrant and remind me of the scent of honeysuckle. They are very attractive to bees and butterflies. There were not any around at this time, but I bet the trees will be covered in them by the weekend.

Up the side pathway is the pathway that cuts across the garden. I installed this pathway four years ago. Unfortunately, my landscape material dealer found a new source for decomposed granite and the new stuff did not match the old. In fact, every time I buy decomposed granite, it seems to be a different color. I have four distinct colors in my landscape. To get it all to match, I scraped off a layer of the older granite and used it as a base for the new granite. Then I replaced the scraped off layer with new granite. So, now, the pathway that bisects the garden is the same color as the pathways on the sides.

Here is the view after crossing the pathway and looking back to the west. What a contrast from my neighbor's lawns.

Here on the east side of the garden is another pathway/buffer zone. The challenge on this side of the garden is that parts of my property are over two feet higher than the neighbor's. After having a fence with a treated wood (yuck) retaining wall installed last year, I extended the fence retaining wall about 12 feet toward the street with concrete retaining wall blocks. I got a good price on the retaining wall blocks 5-6 years ago when the Home Depot Landscape Design stores shut down. I wish I had about 15 more blocks. The interlocking white concrete edging was left over from prior flowerbeds when I still had a lawn. I used steel edging to add three steps up the pathway. Another project from last year was to install the rocks on the right around the rain garden.

This is a wider view of the rain garden. Rainwater from the house gutters is routed through underground pipes to the rain garden. The multi-trunk tree in the rain garden is False Indigo, Amorpha fruticosa. Also in the rain garden are Heartleaf Skullcap, Scutellaria ovata, Gregg's Mistflower, Conoclinium greggii, a couple of varieties of Liatris, and a few other miscellaneous plants that sprouted there.

Here is a close up of the False Indigo. The leaves sprouted out over the last two weeks and it will not be long before the purple flower spikes bloom.

I mentioned in the last post that I moved the stock tank. Here it is near the front door, surrounded by Blackfoot Daisy, Melampodium leucanthum, Four Nerve Daisy, and a Red Yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora, with yellow flowers. Horsetail Reed, Equisetum hyemale, grows inside the stock tank.

Along the front of the house, I created a decomposed granite porch. I have flagstone for this area, but I am thinking that I may find other uses for the flagstone and just leave the granite. The long snake against the house is a drip irrigation hose with built in emitters. I have this type of hose all around the house in a futile attempt to keep the foundation moist and prevent any additional movement during the dry months. One of the joys of being a homeowner on the blackland prairie. I suspect I use more water on the foundation than the garden.

On the other side of the sidewalk leading to the front door is another section of decomposed granite porch. Beyond the porch is a flagstone pathway leading to the side pathway on the west side of the garden. The birdbath is now where the stock tank used to be.

It does not look like much, but it looks finished now. It took many hours on my hands and knees digging out dirt so it could be replaced with decomposed granite. The unneeded dirt was hauled to the side yard near the alley and given away to people seeking free dirt on Craig's List. Then there were about 10 pickup loads of decomposed granite that needed to be unloaded, wheel barreled around to the garden, spread, and tamped down. Oh, my aching back.

Well, now it is time to move on and apply some "finishing" touches to the backyard garden. Fortunately, there is not as much to do back there.

↧

National Wildflower Week 2013

May 10, 2013, 5:09 am

≫ Next: Bee Informed

≪ Previous: Finishing Touches

This week is National Wildflower Week and I would have missed it if it were not for Shirley's recent post at Rock-Oak-Deer. In celebration of National Wildflower Week, here is a look at some of the wildflowers and other native plants blooming in my garden this week.

Bluebonnets continue to bloom in my decomposed granite pathways. Behind the Bluebonnets are the yellow flowers of Four Nerve Daisies. On the opposite side of the pathway are the purple flowers of Gulf Coast Penstemon and the red flowers of Autumn Sage.

Purple flowers of Mealycup Sage surround the pink flowers of Husker Red Penstemon. Husker Red is a red leafed cultivar of a native penstemon.

More Gulf Coast Penstemon form a backdrop for Four Nerve Daisy. In the right background is an American Basket Flower that is getting ready to bloom.

In the parkway area between the street and sidewalk, the Snake Herb has greened up. This is a fast growing groundcover for hot, dry areas.

If you look close, there are purple flowers on the stems. I found out last year that this plant has seed pods that are much like the dreaded Mexican Petunia. When the dry seedpods get wet, they explode and seeds fly everywhere. I am thinking about the future of this plant in my garden.

A little farther down the parkway are more Bluebonnets. The plants grow very well in the decomposed granite here. The flowers are few now and the seed pods are maturing.

Winecup, Prairie Verbena, and more Four Nerve Daisies grow near Yucca glauca.

The bright yellow flowers of Missouri Primrose open in late afternoon and close the following morning.

Chocolate Daisy fills the air with a chocolaty perfume scent in the mornings.

Lanceleaf Coreopsis blooms after surviving a bout with a beetle that I think is the same one Sheryl described at Window on a Texas Wildscape.

More Husker Red and Mealycup. Black Sampson Coneflower will begin blooming soon. The tufts of green are Gayfeather which will not bloom until the fall.

Shrubby Purple Skullcap is quickly becoming a favorite.

Eastern Red Columbine is a welcome spring blooming wildflower.

Blackfoot Daisy blooms from spring through fall.

The unique flowers of Green Milkweed. Plants in the milkweed family are the sole host plants for monarch caterpillars. I saw just one monarch butterfly laying eggs on the milkweed plants this spring and it does not appear that any survived.

This is one of the descendants of an annual Gaura that I collected from a nearby field a few years ago.

Texas Betony grows at the base of False Indigo. Near the Texas Betony are Gregg's Mistflower and Heartleaf Skullcap, neither of which are blooming yet.

Looking up, here are the flowers that cover the False Indigo.

These are the flowers of Pale-Leaf Yucca.

So there you have it, a look at some of the wildflowers blooming in my garden during this National Wildflower Week. Some of these flowers will wrap up their blooming in the next few weeks and others will continue blooming through the end of the growing season. Still, others will not even begin blooming until later in the season. With a little planning or a lot of luck, as is the case with my garden, you can have an ever changing palette of wildflower color all year long.

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Bee Informed

May 16, 2013, 7:43 pm

≫ Next: Rain Lilies and Grasshoppers

≪ Previous: National Wildflower Week 2013

A few months ago, I was contacted by Jessica Rykken, a Research Associate at Harvard University, through Kim Bacon of Texas Bee Watchers. Jessica found photos of my garden on Kim's website and wanted to know if she could use one of them in some educational bee observer cards she was working on for Encyclopedia of Life. Jessica ended up using a photo of my front garden from last year with an inset photo of the front yard when I bought my house nine years ago.

According to the EOL website, "Observer cards are designed to foster the art and science of observing nature. Sets are [sic] cards are organized around Families of plants, animals, and fungi. Each set provides information about key traits and techniques necessary to make accurate and useful scientific observations. The tool is not designed to identify species, but rather to encourage detailed observations. Of course, identification can be possible with careful observations but the focus here is on the process of observing."

The observer cards are brief and informative. The cards describe characteristics and behaviors that can be used to help you identify and better understand bees. I found out that the bees that collect pollen in my garden every spring and cluster on stems of plants at night are male solitary bees. I have referred to them as homeless bees and it turns out that that is an accurate description.

This is a photo of the male solitary bees that gather on plants in my garden in the evenings. Once they gather, they kick off all of the pollen that they collected on their legs. According to the cards, male solitary bees do not have a nest to return to at night, as the females do, so they aggregate as a defensive strategy and often return to the same location each night.

If you would like to know more about these important and, often, misunderstood pollinators, you can open the Bee Observer Cards below. Click the Encyclopedia of Life link above and you can view Ant Observer Cards as well. Be sure to check the Texas Bee Watchers site for information about bees, plants, bee gardens and more.

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Rain Lilies and Grasshoppers

May 19, 2013, 8:45 pm

≫ Next: Big Yellow Caterpillar

≪ Previous: Bee Informed

We received some much needed rain last Wednesday night. It was only around an inch or so, but it was more than we had seen in quite a while and it really perked up the plants.

These rain lilies began blooming this evening as a result of the rain. They are either Cooperia drummondii or Cooperia pedunculata.

As I looked closer, I noticed that grasshoppers were eating some of the rain lily flowers. I was reminded that many lives were disrupted and some lives were lost when the same storm system that brought beneficial rain to my garden also brought destructive tornadoes to several North Texas communities.

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Big Yellow Caterpillar

May 26, 2013, 8:54 pm

≫ Next: Water-Wise Garden Tours

≪ Previous: Rain Lilies and Grasshoppers

All of the rain we received since Friday night kind of messed up my outdoor gardening plans for this weekend, so I pulled out my camera this morning to take a few photos.

The horsetail reed in the "galvanized planter" is starting to fill in after being removed while I moved the planter across the garden a couple of months ago. Nearby, the yellow red yucca and red red yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora, are in bloom.

The spineless prickly pear is surrounded by blooms. The stems of winecup, Callirhoe involucrata, are weaving in and around and up and over the other plants in the garden which places the magenta flowers at several heights.

Look at all of those flower buds. The cactus will be covered in flowers this year.

The spiky plant is Soapweed Yucca, Yucca glauca. The yellow flowers are Zexmenia, Wedelia texana, and Four Nerve Daisy, Tetraneuris scaposa.

Pale-leaf Yucca, Yucca pallida

American Basketflower, Centaurea americana, is part of the second wave of spring wildflowers to begin blooming in the last week.

Heartleaf Skullcap, Scutellaria ovata, also started blooming. It has spread rapidly along the edge of the rain garden.

Horsemint, Monarda citriodora, and Indian Blanket, Gaillardia pulchella, are hearty reseeding annual wildflowers. The Horsemint is especially attractive to bees.

This Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, has never looked better. The flowers were timed perfectly with the arrival of several monarchs. This monarch is enjoying the nectar of the milkweed flowers. The butterflies have also been laying eggs on the milkweed.

This Purple Coneflower is Echinacea sanguinea. I have had this plant for about six years and it has yet to produce any seedlings. The small plant usually produces five or six flowers and then it blends into its surroundings until the following year.

This Purple Coneflower is Echinacea angustifolia. It grows much larger and has more flowers than Echinacea sanguinea.

What's that lurking on the other side of the Purple Coneflowers? It is a big yellow caterpillar, but not of the insect variety.

Yes, I have a Caterpillar backhoe parked in front of my house. I am bored with my current garden design and I want to make some dramatic changes. These changes will require moving lots of dirt, too much dirt to move without the use of heavy equipment.

Dramatic pause...

(Is this guy crazy?)

More pause...

(Why would he destroy his garden after so much work?)

More drama...

(He can't be serious.)

OK that's enough drama. I am not serious. I must confess that I made up the part about making dramatic changes to my garden. I already made my dramatic changes when I removed all of the lawn and planted native plants. That is all the drama (and manual labor) I can handle.

What is really going on is that the city is removing and replacing several sections of the street. Fortunately, they passed over the section in front of my house and did work in front of the houses on both sides of me. I am not really sure what they were repairing because there were no potholes or noticeable problems with the street.

I am glad they are not doing any work directly in front of my house because they are also replacing the curb. This requires digging about 12 inches into the parkway, which would damage a few plants and displace some decomposed granite in front of my house. So I have no damage, just a yellow Caterpillar parked in front of my house.

It could have been worse. My neighbors have had a portable toilet sitting in front of their house for the past week.

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Water-Wise Garden Tours

May 29, 2013, 5:38 pm

≫ Next: Cactus Flowers

≪ Previous: Big Yellow Caterpillar

First, a public service announcement about a free garden tour:

City of Dallas Water Utilities, City of Dallas Stormwater Management, City of Dallas Park & Recreation, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Dallas County Master Gardeners and the Town of Addison are teaming up with surrounding cities to demonstrate the beauty of Water-Wise and EarthKind™ gardening with the 19th annual Water-Wise Landscape Tour.

Dallas County Master Gardeners will be conducting free 30-minute talks on Water-Wise gardening every hour on the hour at each of the tour headquarters. Dallas County Master Gardener volunteers will also be assisting homeowners and helping answer questions about the plants and landscapes on the tour.
Click here for additional information, as well as photos, videos, and plant lists for the gardens on tour.

Maps for the self-driving tour are available at SaveDallasWater.com and at all tour headquarters.

Second, even though my garden is not on the tour, I have been happy to give impromptu personal tours to neighbors, interested strangers that drive by, readers of the blog, and a garden blogger in town from San Antonio.

Shirley Fox, famous for the Rock-Oak-Deer blog, was in town recently and stopped by for a tour of the garden.

This was Shirley's second visit. When she and her husband stopped by last year, the plants in the garden were about a month ahead of their normal growth because of the warm winter. This year, Shirley had the opportunity to see the plants on a normal growth schedule and to also see my latest finished and unfinished projects. Click on the Rock-Oak-Deer link above for a look at my garden through Shirley's camera.

Third, this past weekend while the Big Yellow Caterpillar was parked in front of my house and the portable toilet was in the street in front of my neighbors house, I created a moving, three minute tour of my garden. Moving, as in video. Not moving as in emotional, unless jerky, fast moving video makes you nauseous, then you may be moved.

This was my first time to create and edit a video and it shows. But it was fun and I will probably do this again. Maybe I will add narration next time. And maybe I will even get on YouTube so I can post longer videos. Flickr limits my creativity by only allowing me to post three minute videos.

Finally, this is a photo of Mexican Hat, Ratibida columnaris, that was supposed to be part of my last post's photographic tour of the garden. Oops.

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Cactus Flowers

June 12, 2013, 8:52 pm

≫ Next: National Pollinator Week 2013

≪ Previous: Water-Wise Garden Tours

My "spineless" prickly pear cactus is in full bloom right now.

The bright yellow flowers last just a day and are a good source of pollen for bees.

This bee hovered over the flower like a helicopter. I could not tell that it ever touched the pollen, although the pollen sacs on its back legs are full.

Enlarged.

When the flowers begin to close at dusk, they take on a peachy hue.

The pollinated fruits of the cactus (tuna) will mature over the summer and change from green to purple.

A couple of tunas from last year are still clinging to the pads. They are visible in the lower left of this photo. They are edible and taste pretty good, but you have to be careful to remove the tiny spines.

Well, this is not the post I intended for this week. I had planned a post about the pests (primarily insect) in my garden this year. I thought I had taken several photos, but it turns out that my memory card filled up much earlier than I realized and I did not get many shots.

Note to self: Delete videos from the camera after they are downloaded to the computer.

Anyway, I "had" a great shot of a swamp milkweed leaf beetle laying eggs on my Mexican milkweed. After I took the picture, I squashed the bugs, so no retakes. Now that I think back, I did not remove the eggs. I guess it will not be long before I can have another photo opportunity with the destructive swamp milkweed leaf beetle.

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National Pollinator Week 2013

June 19, 2013, 7:40 pm

≫ Next: Gardening Tip of the Week: Pruning

≪ Previous: Cactus Flowers

June 17 - 23 is National Pollinator Week. A couple of weeks ago Marilyn Kircus of the Adventures of a Vagabond Volunteer blog suggested I post pictures of the pollinators that my garden supports during this week. I have posted pollinator pictures during previous Pollinator Weeks, but it was not on my radar for this year. Thanks to Marilyn for giving me some notice, so I would have time to get a variety of pictures. And be sure to check Marilyn's blog. She is a retired school teacher that lives and works at wildlife refuges. She shares great photos and information about places in this country that I may never see.

The majority of the pollinators attracted to my garden are of the insect variety. The variety of blooming wildflowers makes my garden something of a pollinator haven.

In the front yard, the prickly pear cactus, red yucca, mealycup sage, winecup, zexmenia, coreopsis and four nerve daisy are popular food sources for pollinators.

The red flower in the center is rock penstemon. The feathery looking green stalks around the yuccas are gayfeather and will provide additional nectar to the pollinators in the fall.

In the backyard, horsemint, blanket flower, chocolate daisy, and frogfruit are frequented by the pollinators when they are in bloom. Toothache tree, American beautyberry, elbow bush and yaupon holly were covered in pollinators when they were in bloom.

The white flowers of flowering tobacco (not a TX native) open in the evening and fill the air with their sweet fragrance. The long tubular flowers attract large hawk moths. Other pollinator plants in the background are elderberry, beebrush, Autumn sage, clammy weed, Gregg's mistflower, and redbud.

The following pictures are of some of the pollinators I found in my garden over the last couple of weeks. I can identify the flowers, but bees can be difficult to identify, so I will not even try to name them. For all I know, some of these "bees" may be wasps or flies.

Blanket Flower, Gaillardia pulchella

Even the flowers with a few petals attract the bees.

Coreopsis

Horsemint, Monarda citriodora

Notice how the bee fits into the flower.

Even tiny bees like the horsemint.

Zexmenia, Wedelia texana

Mexican Hat, Ratibida columnaris

Four Nerve Daisy, Tetraneuris scaposa

Frogfruit, Phyla nodiflora

The clusters of flowers are smaller in diameter than a dime.

Spiders often take advantage of the high volume pollinator traffic to try to catch a meal.

Yes, even flies can be pollinators.

This is a European honeybee and clammy weed, Polanisia dodecandra. I believe the honeybees are the only non-native bee in this post.

These are future pollinators. Pipevine swallowtail caterpillars feast on woolly pipevine, Aristolochia tomentosa.

Just about everyone's favorite pollinators are the butterflies. This pipevine swallowtail was making its first flight around the garden after emerging from its chrysalis. It took a quick break on the beebrush, Aloysia gratissima, which is always covered in bees when it is bloom.

Common Buckeye resting on four nerve daisy.

Monarch feeding on the flowers of Giant Coneflower, Rudbeckia maxima. This plant is over six feet tall. Scroll up and check the top right corner of the third photo in this post for an overall view of the plant.

This checkered skipper is feeding on a the nectar of a Zexmenia flower.

A great American combination. An American Lady butterfly feeds on American Basket Flower, Centaurea americana.

Birds can also spread pollen from flower to flower. I took this picture of a hummingbird about two years ago. Notice the bright yellow pollen on her beak? The flowers are Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii.

Most wildflowers depend on pollinators to spread pollen and ensure future generations. Arguably, the most important service pollinators provide, particularly bees, is the pollination of our food crops. Many of our favorite fruits and vegetables require pollinators to set fruit. Squash plants, for example, have separate male and female flowers and need bees to spread pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers.

If you have ever grown squash and the plants produced little or no fruit, it is probably because the flowers did not get pollinated You can resolve that problem by spreading the pollen from yourself or by attracting pollinators to your garden by planting a variety of blooming plants, especially plants that are native to your area.

The link below provides a list of several crop plants that are pollinated by bees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

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Gardening Tip of the Week: Pruning

June 26, 2013, 4:50 pm

≫ Next: Freedom

≪ Previous: National Pollinator Week 2013

Plan before you prune.

Proper planning before you prune your plants will help to ensure an attractive outcome. If you want to prune your live oak tree into the shape of a Tootsie Pop, be sure your equipment will reach the top of the tree or it may look like your Tootsie Pop has a little fuzz on top.

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Freedom

July 4, 2013, 7:24 am

≫ Next: Gardening Tip of the Week - Natural Landscape Materials

≪ Previous: Gardening Tip of the Week: Pruning

Freedom to choose...

wildflowers, cactus, yuccas, prairie grasses, a stock tank planter, and no lawn for your front yard...

unless you choose to live under the tyranny of a homeowners association.

Happy Independence Day to my fellow citizens of the United States of America. Happy Thursday, July 4, 2013 to the rest of the world.

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Gardening Tip of the Week - Natural Landscape Materials

July 10, 2013, 8:45 pm

≫ Next: Want To Hear Me Speak?

≪ Previous: Freedom

Natural materials, such as decomposed granite, can enhance the beauty and functionality of a garden. I use decomposed granite for pathways and open areas throughout my garden.

This year, I widened part of a pathway in the backyard to create a more open feel to the garden.

In the front yard, I created a front porch effect with decomposed granite on both sides of the front door.

I made my first decomposed granite pathways four years ago. When I was ready to complete the projects above and add pathways along the sides of my garden this year, I returned to the same bulk landscaping materials dealer for more.

I expected the new decomposed granite to look a little different from the old because it fades a little due to exposure to sun and weather. Unfortunately, the new decomposed granite had a different color, texture, and higher clay content. It turns out that my dealer changed from a supplier in Marble Falls, Texas to a supplier in Oklahoma.

This is a shot of my old granite from Marble Falls. The material had a pinkish tint and looked like crushed granite.

This is a picture of the decomposed granite from OK that I purchased earlier this year. This decomposed granite originally had more of a golden brown color and faded once washed to light pinkish orange. This decomposed granite has a fine texture and a very high clay content. I was able to get several truckloads over the course of a couple months, but I had to remove a layer of existing decomposed granite from my pathways and replace it with the new decomposed granite to have some consistency through the garden. I used the layer of old decomposed granite that was removed from the pathways as a base for the new pathways. Just when I was about finished with my projects and needed two more truckloads of decomposed granite, my supplier ran out. When I returned the following week, the decomposed granite was a bright golden yellow color!

Ugh! This really does not match. Fortunately, I still had a pile of the decomposed granite that I had been buying over the last few weeks in the driveway, so I used the new yellow stuff as a based and covered it with the decomposed granite that was in the driveway. But I still needed one more load.

I decided to try a different bulk supplier in Plano. They had two piles of decomposed granite. A pink pile and a yellow pile. The pink pile looked similar to what I had and they said it came from OK, so I took a chance. Well, it was a rosy pink and not a match.

To get some consistency through the garden, I colorized all of my decomposed granite with a thin layer of the rosy pink stuff.

This is the side yard connecting to the backyard.

Opening the gate and looking into the front yard, the pathways are fairly similar in color. The flagstones at the gate are a bunny barrier. They love to get into the backyard.

Looking the opposite direction from the front yard into the backyard.

So this week's gardening tip is to remember that natural materials are, well, natural and will have natural variations in color, size, and consistency. If at all possible, get all of the material that you think you will need at one time to improve your odds of having consistent material. Also remember that your supplier may change material sources which can also result in variations in material.

Next time, I think I will use pea gravel because it always seems to be the same size and color.

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Want To Hear Me Speak?

July 14, 2013, 9:32 am

≫ Next: Whew, I Did It

≪ Previous: Gardening Tip of the Week - Natural Landscape Materials

I accepted an invitation to speak about my garden at the Timberglen Branch of the Dallas Public Library. At least that is the plan. I may get nervous, freeze up and have a staring contest with the audience.

This is my first (and maybe last) time to speak in public about my garden. Actually, it is my first time to speak in public about anything, other than work related events.

I was asked to talk about the whys and the hows of my garden. Why I did it, how I did it and how I keep it looking good. I am working on a PowerPoint presentation that will include lots of pictures to will facilitate the discussion. They would like me to speak for 30-40 minutes and have a Q and A session afterwards.

As of today, my presentation is titled: Lawn Free - Landscape With Purpose.

I was working on a theme song to the tune of Born Free, however I have been told that I should stick to the topic and leave out the singing and humor because I am not that good at either.

I stopped by the library yesterday to take a look around. The building is gold level LEED certified. Some are the "green" features are the use of natural lighting and a cistern to capture rainwater for landscape use. I noticed some native plants in front of the building.

If you would like to hear my presentation, it will be this Thursday, July 18 at 7:00 PM in the library auditorium. The auditorium is just to the right as you walk through the front doors.

The library is located at 18505 Midway Road and is easy to get to from the George Bush Turnpike or the Dallas North Tollway.

Let me know if you attend because you read about it here.

Speaking of libraries and native plants, check out the butterfly garden at the Bulverde/Spring Branch Library in Bulverde, TX as featured recently on Central Texas Gardener. This would be a great educational addition to the Timberglen Branch Library.

Watch Sharon Lovejoy's My First Bird Book on PBS. See more from Central Texas Gardener.

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Whew, I Did It

July 19, 2013, 8:01 am

≫ Next: Cattle Panel: Cows Not Required

≪ Previous: Want To Hear Me Speak?

Thanks to everyone that attended my speaking engagement at the Timberglen Branch of the Dallas Public Library. It was a small, but interested, group. I ended up having a little more material than I had time and that got me a little flustered as I tried to get through everything as quickly as possible. In my haste, I skipped (forgot) a few points that I intended to make. All in all, though, I think it went pretty well. I was even asked if I would come back again next year.

I told the wall to wall crowd of eight that I would post some of the links and information that I mentioned. Let me know if there is other information that you would like me to post.

Internet Resources:
Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center www.wildflower.org
Native Plant Society of Texas www.npsot.org
Texas Smartscape www.txsmartscape.com
The Biota of North America Program www.bonap.org
Texas Parks and Wildlife www.tpwd.state.tx.us
National Wildlife Federation www.nwf.org
Monarch Watch www.monarchwatch.org

For additional internet resources, check the links that I have in the right margin and the Blog Links tab under the header photo.

Local Sources for Native Plants:
Native Plant Society of Texas plant sales (Sale dates vary by chapter. Generally in April.)
Local Independent Nurseries
Northhaven Gardens in Dallas
Redenta’s Gardens in Dallas
Rhode’s Nursery in Garland
Shades of Green in Frisco
Strong’s Nursery in Carrollton

For part of the presentation, talked about the seasonal changes that take place in my garden. To demonstrate these changes, I showed a few photos from each season in 2012.

Just as the seasonal changes within a year can be dramatic, so can the changes from year to year. As I was reviewing the 2012 photos, I was struck by how much greener and fuller the garden looks this year than last. I think the differences between these two years are due to variations in rainfall and temperatures. As I recall, it got hot and dry earlier in 2012. Additionally, spring came about three weeks early last year due to the exceptionally warm winter. Take a look...

07-09-12

07-18-13 There are going to be A LOT of gayfeather blooms this fall. The remaining little bluestem grass looks much better than it did last year. It is blue instead of brown.

07-09-12

07-18-13 Maybe not a lot of differences in this view, other than the stock tank was relocated. The plants look similar in growth, if not a little larger in 2012.

07-18-13 long view.

07-18-13 Pine Muhly surrounded by more gayfeather.

07-18-13 I captured a grainy image of a hummingbird feeding on red yucca flowers.

I think this bench may be calling me to sit a spell and enjoy the garden this weekend. I may listen if it is not too hot and the mosquitoes are not looking for some warm blood to feast upon.

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Cattle Panel: Cows Not Required

July 23, 2013, 8:53 pm

≫ Next: God's Prairie Garden

≪ Previous: Whew, I Did It

A couple of years ago I was searching the internet for do-it-yourself tomato cage designs because the funnel shaped cages that you find in home improvement stores are worthless if your tomatoes grow over a couple of feet tall.

My search led me to this post on GardenWeb which shows how to make garden arches and vegetable supports our of cattle panel. The wheels started turning and cattle panel became my favorite farm store product.

This year I am growing tomato varieties Porter, left, and Sweet 100, right. These are two tomato cages I built last year. The cages are over six feet tall and the vines are growing out and over the top. These are prototypes for the cages I will eventually build. In the meantime, these work fine. Here is how I made them:

Cattle panel sections are 16 feet long and four feet high and are available at most farm stores. I got mine at a chain farm store in McKinney. If you bend the panels end to end into a teardrop shape and tie the ends with wire, you can slide them into the bed of a standard pickup truck. Watch out when you take them out and remove the wire.

Cattle panel can be cut to size with bolt cutters. The smaller 14 inch bolt cutters work OK, but the larger 24 inch cutters give better leverage and make cutting the thick wires much easier. The cut ends are rather sharp, so it is a good idea to smooth them off with a grinder.

My cages were initially four feet tall. Two sides of the cages were cut two squares wide and the other two sides were cut three squares wide.

It is hard to tell from this photo, but I removed the bottom horizontal wire between each vertical wire with bolt cutters. This creates spikes on the bottom of the cage that can be stuck in the ground. So far, that is all I have needed to keep the cages from falling over. If the cages ever get too top heavy and start to lean, I can attach a stake or two to the cages.

I attached the cut sections together using hog rings. The open hog rings are closed using hog ring pliers.

This photo shows a hog ring joining two sides of the tomato cage. The hog rings remain a little loose which allows me to fold the cages flat at the end of the growing season.

Last year I quickly discovered that four foot high tomato cages are not tall enough, so I added an extension to one of the cages. The extension brought the height to a little over 6 feet. I got around to extending the other cage this year. This photo was taken 05-02-13.

Something else I discovered last year was that I needed some internal support for the tomato vines. Once the plants began to set fruit, the weight of the tomatoes caused the vines to slide down inside the cage. This year, I placed a scrap piece of cattle panel inside the cage and it seems to have done the trick.

This was a very good year for tomatoes. I picked quantities of tomatoes similar to this every couple of days for several weeks. The tomatoes in the glass containers are frozen. I had to start freezing them because there were so many.

Eventually, I will build new tomato cages. When I do, I will cut the sections of cattle panel lengthwise so I will not need to add an extension piece. I think 7 foot tall cages should be sufficient.

This year I made an asparagus cage to help confine my second year asparagus plants. In May, the asparagus shoots were beginning to fall over and block the pathways between my vegetable beds.

I cut four lengths of cattle panel and placed them around the asparagus bed. I thought I would need posts to help support the asparagus cage, but all I did was wire them together with galvanized wire.

The wire will be easy to remove at the end of the season. This will allow me to store the cattle panel sections and remove the dead asparagus shoots.

This is the side yard on the west side of the house and driveway. It is also my last patch of lawn. Once it is gone, I think I may add cattle panel trellises with a vine (maybe green beans or gourds) to help shade this wall from the western sun. I am also thinking about a location for a cattle panel arch in the vegetable garden.

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God's Prairie Garden

August 7, 2013, 9:04 pm

≫ Next: Prairie Plant Profile #5 - Angel's Trumpet

≪ Previous: Cattle Panel: Cows Not Required

Mine is not the only prairie garden in Plano. Instead of sharing more pictures of the prairie garden around my house, I thought I would share some pictures of the prairie garden around God's house.

God's prairie garden is located at Prairie Creek Baptist Church on 15th Street in Plano between Coit Road and Independence Parkway. I drive by all the time and I even drove through the parking lot a time or two to get a better look, but a little over a month ago was my first time to get out, take a look around and take a few pictures.

Most of the plants on the church grounds are Texas natives, however there are a few durable non-natives as well. The largest bed is in front of the church facing 15th Street. Pink roses, I presume Knock Out, were in full bloom. The Giant Coneflower growing in front of the roses are just finishing their blooming. Mealycup sage and the annual Monarda, Horsemint round out the picture.

Panning to the right, a sea of Mealycup Sage plants and other prairie plants fill the front of the bed.

In this opening between the Mealycup Sage, yellow flowered Cutleaf Daisies, Indian Blanket, Horsemint, and Mexican Hat provide some variety. There appears to be a Standing Cypress plant that is not yet blooming in the front center of this photo. There also appears to be some sort of squash or gourd in the right center of the photo.

More Mexican Hat flowers (red in front and yellow in back) and the State Grass of Texas, Sideoats Grama.

More of the wildflowers.

A Prairie Garden sign that has seen better days announces the identity of the garden to those that are more familiar with manicured lawns.

All around the church building are some of the largest American Beautyberry bushes that I have ever seen. A Lindheimer's Muhly grows in front of the Beautyberry.

This Texas Sage is being strangled by a Carolina Snailseed vine. Carolina Snailseed is an aggressive native vine with red berries that is generally not grown in gardens. I suspect a bird planted the seeds for this vine. The yellow flowers are Zexmenia.

Several Sabal Minor Palms grow under Bald Cypress trees on the west side of the grounds.

Lush plantings fill the area around the main entrance to the church. Here a Desert Willow is surrounded by gold lantana.

Looking toward the entrance are more Desert Willows, roses, lantana, and Artemisia. As I was taking pictures, a woman drove up in a SUV. She got out and began removing some gardening tools. We greeted each other and I asked if it was OK for me to take a few pictures. She said it was fine and she would be happy to answer any questions I had. We talked a little more and I found out that she was one of two church members that take care of the garden. I also made the connection that she lives at the other end of my neighborhood and we met previously.

Being Mr. Plant-Know-It-All, I did not think I would need to ask any questions until I saw this small tree. It did not look familiar at all.

The tree was filled with small fruits. I was stumped, so I asked for the ID of this plant. She said it was a Viburnum but she could not remember what kind. Then it hit me. I asked if it was a Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum and she concurred.

Near the base of the Rusty Blackhaw, a milkweed of some kind (light green leaves) grows with Ruellia.

Mexican Feather Grass and Lindheimer's Muhly grow near the visitor's parking area.

The flower beds on the north and east sides of the church are around 10 feet deep. Possumhaw Holly, Turks Cap, Coralberry, and Pale-leaf Yucca are thriving in this section.

A little further down, the yuccas are in need of a little maintenance to remove the old flower stalks. Behind the yuccas are some good looking little bluestem grasses. They look so much healthier than mine.

Rockrose, Artemisia, Knockout Rose, and Possumhaw Holley grow near a door on the back side of the building.

For perspective, here is an overhead view of the property, courtesy of Google. And here is a link to the landscape designer's photos showing the garden in spring bloom. www.nativedave.com/#!gardens/vstc1=prairie-creek

It is nice to see a large landscape that includes native plants to support the native wildlife and conserve natural resources. Sure, there are more weeds than I allow in my much smaller garden and some plants could use some pruning, but God always welcomes the weeds and those in need of a little maintenance into his garden. And when you consider that two church members volunteer their time and energy for the maintenance on this large prairie garden, I say it looks pretty nice.

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Prairie Plant Profile #5 - Angel's Trumpet

August 22, 2013, 8:39 pm

≫ Next: Dog Days of Summer

≪ Previous: God's Prairie Garden

Last year I removed some of the remaining St. Augustine grass in the narrow side yard between my driveway and the neighbor's fence. I needed a place to store the excess dirt that resulted from my pathway projects. Once I had excavated more dirt than I needed, I put a Free Dirt post on craigslist and the dirt was usually gone within hours.

It turns out that seeds from other parts of the garden tagged along when I moved dirt to this area. Rock Rose, Clammy Weed, Cowpen Daisy, and Mealycup Sage sprouted in this space. Note to self: write a post on the odd names of native plants. But the volunteer plant that gets the most attention is Datura wrightii, which goes by the common names Angel's Trumpet, Devil's Trumpet, Sacred Datura, Sacred Thorn-Apple, Thorn Apple, and Jimsonweed. I usually refer to the plant as either Datura or Angel's Trumpet, depending on who I am talking to.

What makes this plant special are the large white flowers that open in the evening. This photo was taken at about 7:30 PM when the flowers were about half way open.

I can't recall the last time I intentionally planted Angel's Trumpet in my garden. It reseeds and grows where it wants until I remove the unwanted plants. I allowed three plants to grow in this spot. The seeds for these plants probably came from the plant that was growing nearby in my compost bin for the last couple of years. All it takes is a little sun and a little water to have a massive plant. This mass is about eight feet around. I have had single plants grow as large as these three combined.

When the flowers begin to open, their intoxicating scent fills the air and so do bees.

The bees like these flowers so much that they will even force themselves into the flowers when they are still tightly closed.

At 8:00 PM the flowers are open a little more and the bees are still buzzing in and out of the flowers. All of the buzzing inspired me to make a short movie.

By the next morning, the fully open flowers are attracting the bees again even though they are a starting to brown and wilt. Within a few hours, the flowers will droop and wither.

Spiny seedpods develop after the flowers fade.

The seedpods split open when they dry and hundreds of seeds fall to the ground. It seems like 100% of the seeds sprout. Earlier this year, I shared some of the many seedlings with a few neighbors. The rest of the seedlings were removed.

The plants sometimes attract leaffooted bugs, Leptoglossus phyllopus. The bugs are more of an annoyance than anything because they may fly out when you approach the plant. They may also be the cause of the spots on these leaves. The leaves of the plants are also a food source for the large caterpillars of hawk moths. I leave the caterpillars alone because they usually do not do much visible damage since the plants grow so fast and because I enjoy watching them return to the flowers as hawk moths.

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Dog Days of Summer

September 2, 2013, 8:45 pm

≫ Next: Fall Plant Sales!!!

≪ Previous: Prairie Plant Profile #5 - Angel's Trumpet

The dog days of summer continue into September as temperatures continue to venture into triple digit territory. The stress of high temperatures and lack of rain are evident in lake levels, plants and wildlife. Take this squirrel that has been hanging out in my backyard lately.

He seems to be suffering from heat exhaustion as he hangs his body over this branch.

A few moments later, he turns the other direction in an effort to find some comfort in the heat.

Still no relief, so he turns again.

Even as I approach, he (or maybe I should have said she?) is too exhausted to acknowledge my presence.

The garden looks a little tired too. This is always my least favorite time for my native plant garden. Few plants are blooming and it just looks a little messy to me. I have to keep reminding myself that it is resting in preparation for the burst of life that will come in the next few weeks. In this photo, the spiky stems of Gayfeather, Liatris, are everywhere and the lanky stems of Pitcher Sage, Salvia azurea, are topped with blue flowers.

To help control the messy look and prepare for the fall blooming season, I pruned some plants a couple of weeks ago. Some of the plants were pruned more severely than others. There are several Zexmenia, Wedelia texana, in the now open space in this photo. The plants had grown to one foot diameter loose balls of seedheads, so I whacked the plants within inches of the ground to visually open this area and to allow the plants to regrow for fall blooming. I did not prune all of the Zexmenia this severely. I only removed an inch or two of growth from some plants and left others alone if they were still blooming.

I was very tempted to cut back some of the Gayfeather so some of the other plants, like this Pale-leaf Yucca, Yucca pallida, could be seen. I resisted the temptation because the Gayfeather are weeks away from being in full bloom. I do think I will remove some of the Gayfeather next year and group them together instead of letting them cover the entire front garden.

The Rock Penstemon, Penstemon baccharifolius, were in a down time between blooms, so I took the opportunity to shape the plants by removing a couple of inches of the tip growth. I did the same thing with the Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii. To the right of the Rock Penstemon is a Zexmenia that I did not prune because it was still blooming. This one now has several gray seedheads that rise above the foliage and I may end up pruning them off before the fall blooming starts.

I cut back this Mexican Feathergrass because most of the leaves had turned to as straw color. Fresh green growth sprouted quickly.

Another shot showing all of the Gayfeather in the garden. This will be a sea of purple in another month. Unlike the spring and fall, flowers are few and far between in the heat of the summer, but they are out there if you look around. The white flowers of Angel's Trumpet, Datura wrightii, are hard to miss when they are blooming in the evening and morning hours. This is one of the plants I mentioned in the last post that sprouted where it wanted to.

The red flowers of Scarlet Sage, Salvia coccinea, white flowers of Clammyweed, Polanisia dodecandra, and blue flowers of Pitcher Sage bloom among the inflorescence of Pine Muhly, Muhlenbergia dubia. Some of the brown seedheads from this spring's Echinacea are still around because I find some beauty in them and the birds may eat the seeds.

I really like the white, curly filaments on the leaves of this Hesperaloe funifera (?). This is its first year in the garden. I really hope it blooms next year so I can give a positive identification of the plant. It was sold as Giant Red Yucca.

These are the flowers of the Pitcher Sage shown in the first garden photo above. The flowers are favorite of bees and hummingbirds.

These are the flowers of the Pitcher Sage that grows in the backyard. The flowers of this plant are a darker blue than the flowers of the plant in the front yard and this plant is less upright than the plant in the front yard. Some of the Little Bluestem leaves in the background are beginning to turn colors.

Rain Lilies, Cooperia drummondii, bloomed last week, but not because of rain. I think these must have been tricked into blooming because I watered the backyard garden for the second time this year.

Skeleton-leaf Goldeneye, Viguiera stenoloba, laughs at the heat and drought and continues to bloom. I will need to find a new location for this plant next year because it blocks the view of the stock tank from the street.

I carefully removed most of the Horsemint, Monarda citriodora, seedheads when I was on my pruning spree. These seedheads are full of seeds and I wanted to control the number of seedlings that come up in the garden (and pathways) next spring. I left the seedheads of this plant in tact because they are attractive and this plant bloomed longer than all the others. Salvia greggii blooms in the background.

Flame Acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus v. Wrightii, is always a popular stop for hummingbirds.

Seep Muhly, Muhlenbergia reverchonii, is not quite as impressive as it's cousin Gulf Muhly, Muhlenbergia capillaris, but it is still attractive and it blooms earlier.

The lush green plant in the center of this photo is Prairie Flameleaf Sumac, Rhus lanceolata. It was a small twig when I bought it in January. I am amazed at how much it has grown considering I moved it three or four times before I settled on this spot. I saw one today at the Plano Environmental Education Center that formed a large forest and now I am rethinking the placement of this plant again. Looking to the left of the sumac is a sign that the dog days of summer are beginning to come to an end.

The Eryngo, Eryngium leavenworthii, is one of the first late season flowers to begin blooming each year.

The plants are often unattractive and the leaves are spiny, but those purple flowers are tough to beat.

Another sign that summer is coming to a close is that the berries on American Beautyberry are turning purple. This shrub is native to east Texas and prefers a little more water than it gets in my garden. As a result, the leaves often wilt during the hot, dry times of the year.

This morning the garden received a little relief from the dog days of summer in the form of rain and slightly cooler temperatures. It was only enough to make things wet, but I will take any rain that I can get.

I took a few pictures of the wet garden. These are wide shots because I periodically receive requests to show different angles of the garden. Wide Shots is also the title of Xericstyle's new meme. The idea is to post a wide shot of the garden on the first of each month. Below are two wide shots of the front garden and two wide shots of the back garden.

This is the front garden looking southeast.

Front garden looking southwest.

Back garden looking southeast.

Back garden looking southwest. Go to the Xericstyle blog to see her Wide Shot for September.

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