Recently in going green Category

Spring is already around the corner, can you believe it? Sure, it's still January, but many of us are already planning our spring gardens, preparing beds, and ordering more seeds. But while you're busy planning what gorgeous flowers and greenery will decorate your garden this year, think about what lies beneath -- the soil -- for that is what makes your garden grow... literally.

Your best bet for healthy plants starts with a healthy soil. But what exactly is healthy soil? Good soil is teeming with life. Many people have heard of food webs that show the relationship between plant-eaters and the animals that eat them, on up the food chain to humans. But did you know there is a whole food web just for what occurs in soil? Healthy soil contains organic matter to feed the little tiny creatures within the soil, and those creatures in turn break down nutrients into materials your flowers, trees, and shrubs can use.

Take a look at this diagram from the USDA website on soil.

It shows that not only is it important to have a healthy balance of beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes, it all starts with organic matter in the soil. You simply have to have organic material in order to feed all the little guys that will do their part to take care of your plants naturally. Bacteria and fungi help retain nutrients in the soil, and protozoa consume the bacteria, releasing the nutrients into a form that plants can use. From there, beneficial nematodes consume bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, releasing even more nutrients for the plants. And while all these happy little beneficial creatures are eating their goodies, making their poop, and doing their part, they are denying nutrients to icky, disease-causing bad-guy creatures. Your soil is more protected with the presence of all those good guys, and your plants are happily reaping the benefits.

On up the food chain, arthropods, nematodes, and earthworms get consumed by larger predators, such as birds. And you can probably take the food web from there.

How do you know whether your soil is healthy? Well, one, you can have your soil tested, particularly if you are concerned about the mineral content of your soil (nutrient level) and whether you have any more serious concerns. But also consider whether you see many earthworms.

Earthworms are one of the best indicators of a healthy soil system. They consume bacteria and protozoa in the soil as organic material passes through their system, and their feces are rich with other microorganisms to help convert nutrients into a state plants use. They shred organic matter (making it more accessible to the microorganisms), loosen soil, create passages for oxygen and water to get into the soil, and their poop, or castings, are incredibly beneficial to the soil and your plants.

If you've been using chemicals on your yard for years, chances are that your plants are chemical dependent, or you might be starting to find that no matter how many times you spray, you just can't fix those brown spots in your lawn or resolve problems with fungus, etc. The chemical usage has disrupted the ecosystem, and getting your soil healthy again is the key to solving all those problems. You can help your plants transition off the chemicals simply by adding compost to your soil and taking advantage of multiple organic products out there that will boost your soil with microorganisms and/or natural nutrients, such as compost tea, seaweed, fish emulsion, and any number of organic mixtures and powders that provide microorganisms with food as a base. Leave your grass clippings and fallen leaves where they lay to decompose, resupplying the soil with the organic matter it needs.

And when you start to see earthworms, rejoice. Do a little worm dance, because you have happy, healthy soil. We are starting to have so many earthworms here that it's hard to dig a hole for a new plant without worrying we might hurt a worm. We protect them, we love them, and yes, we do our little worm dances. 

Homemade gifts just make the heart swell with love, and happy memories of making or receiving them abound, not to mention how economically wise they can be. This year, the family and I decided to make environmentally friendly gifts for Christmas, and not only were the gifts made from the heart, the satisfaction of staying green AND discovering that the four of us could work as a team equaled a total win-win.

The kids decided that for grandparents they wanted to make seed mosaic art, and it was truly a family affair. The boys made the drawings and did a bunch of the gluing, with Mom giving guidance and filling in where necessary. Dad made the frames with old branches from our yard.

This fish is a rainbow trout, fly fishing being my dad's favorite outdoor pasttime.

And, of course, hummingbirds seemed the perfect choice for other art subjects, because all our kids' grandparents love hummingbirds!

We used all sorts of beans and seeds, including kidney beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, white beans, pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds, millet, flax seed, black beans, lentils, and green split peas. These we glued onto a thick piece of off-white paper with good old-fashioned white glue, following a lightly pencilled outline of our drawing. Next we glued the paper onto a slightly larger wood board, and to that we attached the frame pieces my husband had carefully cut. To ensure the frame dried how we wanted it, we carefully clamped the pieces in place after the glue was applied. And prior to all the gluing, we nailed a small picture hanger on to the back of the board.

Ah yes, we added in a little popcorn for color variation.

For other family and friends, we tried our hand at making seed ornaments, as often in the past we've enjoyed giving purchased seed gifts for others, to hang out for the birdies.

We used a recipe that I found online -- it used unflavored gelatin as the ingredient to stick together the black oil sunflower seeds, safflowers, peanuts, corn, cranberries, raisins, thistle, flax, and other bird-happy foods, hopefully holding the intended shape. The best cookie cutter I had for the project was a large star, and we used it to shape most of the ornaments. We also used some round plastic storage containers for larger seed wheels -- these were much easier to shape, but much worse for drying time! Twine through the ornaments served as the hangers.

I want to say that the birdseed ornaments were a success, and in some ways they were. Once dry, the ornaments held their shape fairly well, but the key was definitely to let them dry fully, flipping when necessary. Overall I didn't allow enough dry time, thanks to the recipes I looked at being vague. They weren't just vague in dry time, they also were vague in the gelatin/seed ratio and recipe. Any of the ornaments that didn't get to air-dry well quickly turned to moldy ick, so I couldn't give more than a few out. SO... I'll need to work on this to perfect it. The idea was good! Once I improve on the project, I'll post details of the new and better recipe.

We attempted one other earth-friendly project for kids' gifts, but they were far more time-consuming than we expected. So this secret project will be on hold for next year!

I'd love to hear what you made for gifts this year, or what you've done in the past. We're already looking forward to our next projects! 

Cat over at Amlo Farms in her latest post dared me, and by me I mean all of us, to participate in One Small Change, a great idea that comes from the inspiration of Suzy at Hip Mountain Mama, and it's all about changing little habits or doing little things that will have positive green impact. Make one small change each month through Earth Day (April 22) and post about it. More than 200 people worldwide are already participating, including a whole 5th-grade class (well done!). Well, I'm up to that dare, Cat and Suzy! This month is actually filled with goals for me -- I'm involved in some large habitat projects at the moment but I decided that they don't count as "small" changes because they are big ones! And we already do so much in our daily lifestyle that is eco-wise, so I had to give this some thought. And here's what I've come up with -- yes, it's three, not one. I can't count, apparently (okay, two were already in the works, but I included them).

The first is to get the last of the invasive nandinas off my property this weekend, in time for bulk plant pickup by the city (we're removing all the berries first). Two, I have some old paint cans and whatnot left over from my "I didn't know better" days -- these I will get to the hazardous waste facility and say goodbye forever. And three, I will learn more about organic gardening products so that I can offer organic solutions when people have pests, want to fertilize, or otherwise want to get their yard healthy. It's one thing for me to say "go organic," but to be able to offer actual solutions will help bring the idea back to earth, so to speak.  :)

What are some other ideas? The possibilities are endless! Switching to better lightbulbs (such as compact fluorescent), reusing bags at stores, avoiding dusting sprays and non-natural air fresheners, using more cloth instead of paper towels, stop buying bottled water, conserving rain water, purchase green energy, reduce car usage, adjusting your thermostat to use less energy, taking things to a recycling center when your city doesn't offer at-home pick-up for items, and so on, donating items you don't use anymore, checking craigslist and freecycle before you buy something, and finding a way to reuse something you might otherwise have thrown away. Little things, but they mean a lot!

I've been posting so much on Texas habitats that I realized today how much I miss blogging about my garden -- after all, it's my baby. But soon, soon -- for now I have one more Austin locale to share.

A bit of history -- for many years, Austin's airport resided fairly close to downtown; it was the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. It closed in 1999 with the opening of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and the old airport sat untouched for many years. Today it has been replaced with a new community, including shops, homes, and parks, and it is home to the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas. Of course, this is a commercial development (Mueller), so I'm not going to chat it up too much, but I'd like to say that I appreciate what I saw in my visit to the demonstration garden last weekend (yes, along with Hornsby Bend and Rockport -- I told you it was a busy weekend!).

Basically, the concepts are simple -- think green and sustainability. Builders and developers are making use of recycling, solar energy, native plants, high numbers of trees in parking lots, commuter service, bike paths, and more. In partnership with the Wildflower Center, large areas have been preserved as natural habitats, and homeowners are encouraged to plant native plants, educated with beautiful and/or wild examples shown in the community's demonstration garden, prairies, and ponds.

Enjoy the tour, a bit of a zoom-in/zoom-out look!

Damianita and Prickly Pear...

Gregg's Dalea... Prickly Pear, Lindheimer's Muhly, Salvia, Lindheimer Senna...

Lindheimer Senna...

Flame Acanthus, Lindheimer Senna, Salvia

  I fell in love with this mixture of Salvia greggii colors.

  Inland Sea Oats in front of American Beautyberry...

Walkway under Desert Willows...

A view of the three ponds, surrounded by native grasses...

 One of the grassland prairies... 

Among the walkways in the demonstration gardens, native plants are all sorted and identified in lists, and the plant species are far more numerous than I've shown in these photos -- this is just a sampling. In addition, there are signs that teach about certain aspects of native gardening. What an excellent way to educate residents and visitors about plants they might like to grow!

Given that this area was once an airport and was destined for development of some kind, it is nice to see such strides toward thoughtful, green building and the restoration of native plants in place of the parking lots and runways I remember.

When your son doesn't pay attention and adds dishwashing liquid to the dishwasher instead of detergent -- yes, you know what that means -- here's a tip:

After cleaning up as much bubble mess as you can (i.e. the floor, so you can get to the dishwasher), pour vinegar into the dishwasher. It helps break up the bubbles, and you get far less foaming.

I'm adding it to the list.

Well, I'd been meaning to run vinegar through the dishwasher anyway. Guess now was as good a time as any. Well, better, actually!  :)

Now that the kids are back in school, I'm trying to take a few days to get the house back together. It's been a mess with all the gardening, dogs, painting, and constant activity, so I'm a green cleaning machine (my family's working their elbow grease, too). At the same time, I've been adding some new pages to my blog's sidebar with some tips for going green. I'm always looking for ways to be eco-wise in my home, but I'm still learning and incorporating, too, trying to make it all routine. Being eco-wise is obviously important to our planet, but sometimes it's hard to get started or hard to think beyond what you have done all your life. So if you find a useful tip or two, I'm happy! Part of the reason I decided to work on these pages was to remind myself to continue helping my family take positive strides toward reducing our negative impact on the planet.

To launch the new pages, I'd like to pay homage to the Indispensable Vinegar. It might not be fragrant like that rose in your garden, but it's oh so very useful. Take a look at all it can do for you!

Inside the home, vinegar can be used to:
Clean kitchen counters and sinks
Clean mirrors
Clean bathroom counters, sinks, and bath tub - either use diluted spray or making a scouring cleanser with baking soda, liquid detergent, and vinegar
Get soap scum off of glasses
Break down bodily fluids, such as vomit or feces, in the carpet or on your floor (dilute 1:1 with water)
Clean and soothe irritated skin after working in the garden (or touching poison ivy)
Deoderize a garbage disposal
Clean the inside of a refrigerator
Keep ants out of the kitchen
Soak pot stains to get them clean
Soothe itches from bug bites and poison ivy
Clean toothbrushes (and dentures!)
Laundry - add to your wash cycle for stubborn smells in your clothes or in your machine. Use dilute vinegar to loosen stains on your clothes before washing
Clean windows
Absorb smells - just put a bowl out overnight!
Clean litter boxes
Clean toilets, inside the bowl and on the exterior
Remove stains and smells from counters, pots, dishes, and hands
Mop the floor (particular useful on ceramic tile with grout; however, don't use on marble)
Clean stains from carpet

Outside the home, use vinegar to:
Clean your barbeque grill
Clean upholstery stains
Clean birdfeeders (always rinse well, regardless of how you clean)
Keep pests away from your garden bed, including rabbits and cats (be careful where you place, and don't spill - it's a natural plant killer)
Clean your trash bin
Clean stains off concrete
Clean clay pots
Remove ice or bugs from car windows
Kill weeds -- no need for Round-Up! Spray directly on weeds (careful of your other plants), on stubborn tap roots, and even on poison ivy! Some people use a combination of vinegar, dishwashing liquid, and salt on their poison ivy, too. Others heat the vinegar first to strength the acidity.
Clean windows

And the mistakes I've made, SO FAR.

Here's what I did wrong. I'm going to be happy that this list, as far as I'm aware, is short.

1.       I grew cantaloupe from the seeds of store-bought cantaloupes. To be fair to myself, I didn't know any better! So don't do the same thing -- sure it's tempting, but hybrids, if you bought one from the store (most of them are hybrids, apparently), will give you heartache or at least some stress. Read on to find out why. To those I gave seedlings, I will report my findings as I find them out, and I greatly apologize for any grief you experience!

2.       I took a picture of the giant grasshopper, and it got away. I'm still kicking myself about this one, and it only happened yesterday. The babies are hard enough to catch. If you see a big one, don't try to capture the awe in regards to its size or even impressive markings. Just kill it. It will eat and make babies. Something eats bits of my corn, and I blame him. Or them.

Here's what I'm doing right (again, as far as I'm aware). Top-Ten List! Top-Ten List That's Really in No Particular Order!

10.   I gave my cantaloupe seedlings a raised bed and trellis in which to grow to their heart's content without getting trampled by dogs.

9.       I learned about square-foot gardening and went ahead and spent the big bucks to give them a good soil in which to grow. Even the in-ground pumpkins got a healthy dose of compost mixed into their soil spots.

8.       I lovingly give them water each day, and I know to hold back on water as fruit maturity begins to happen.

7.       I learned the difference between male and female flowers and what "self-fertile but not self-fertilizing" plants are.

6.       I learned about and am quite willing to help my cantaloupes' pollination. I don't have many bees here yet, so I have to do what I can to help (I did see one of those big black ones this morning, but he didn't linger long at the cantaloupe flowers; I also see an occasional sweat bee).

5.       I check them each day for bugs and kill anything that looks menacing. Unless it gets away while I'm taking a picture, that is...

4.       I'm being a good mom by growing the cantaloupes at my son's request, and along the way I get to teach my kids about plant life cycles and good gardening practices (and/or my mistakes!).

3.       I gently guide the cantaloupe vines up the trellis to give them something to hang on to.

2.       I learned about companion planting and put in marigolds and corn in their raised bed.

1.       And most importantly, I love them and talk to them and love them some more!

And there you have it. I'm so excited to have thriving cantaloupe plants, but I'm worried that I'm growing a hybrid. So I'm seeking words of wisdom from the experienced cantaloupe gardeners out there! And Cat at AmloFarms has some blooming male flowers (from REAL seeds) she can share with me for pollination purposes. This cantaloupe thing is getting pretty complicated, haha. But for the sake of my cantaloupes, I will drive across town and back! Thank you, Cat! 

The cantaloupes are happily growing up their trellis and trying to grow out wide, too.

We've had male flowers for awhile, and today (day 38) I found my first female. Here's how you tell the difference. The easiest way is looking at the flower stem.

The male rises from the vine with a single plain stem of its own.

The female has a cute little bulge that will become the fruit if pollinated.

Here's a baby female bud.

You can also tell the difference by looking at the inside of the bloom, but here's where I'm unsure about the condition of the inside of my cantaloupe blooms. The male stamens will have pollen, but I can't tell whether mine do, haha.

And the females will have their stigma ready to receive pollen. But mine look quite green, so I don't know if mine look the way they should (I've seen pics with them yellow).

  All the same, I did my best to get some pollen from the male to the female. At first I tried q-tips and a paintbrush, but I saw hardly any yellow on either. So I finally pulled off some male flowers and exposed their stamens and rubbed them on the female.  

No idea whether any pollen grains stuck.

So experienced cantaloupe gardeners, should I be seeing lots of yellow pollen on the males? The male pumpkin flower (just saw my first two today!) has a lot of pollen, that's for sure. And ants. First blooms, day 38.

Here's one of the giant plants. They have a long way to go to reach full size. Egads.

From what I've read, if I read correctly, the female flowers should be ok and just the males might be sterile. But I don't know whether the females are sometimes sterile, too. And even if pollination happens, will I get a regular cantaloupe out of it or some dud?

And while I'm asking, let me ask this: Can someone identify this red bug for me? The bigger versions of it are black, but I don't see any of those on the garden yet, but last fall I had a ton of all sizes in a bunch of fallen leaves. Even the people at Natural Gardener couldn't name them for me. I kill them when I see them now. But I'd like to know what they are. They are not tiny lady bugs, that's all I know.

In other garden news, I decided to do something with my broken tools. Please tell me this looks like a flower, because it's supposed to, HA! I will probably paint it at some point, but it's growing on me (hehe) as is, too.

You can see the evil chinaberry in my very nice neighbor's yard behind it -- it's been my nemesis for many a year. My neighbor finally had it cut down several months ago, but the workers left the stump and roots, so of course it's been growing back with a vengeance. We cut it again just to prevent seeds and it's back -- so the neighbor is getting the tree people back out to properly kill it. Not sure they'll succeed if they don't get the roots out. I'm having to close my eyes and ears about the herbicides they'll probably use... But I'm so thrilled to have a neighbor who is trying to help with the invasives problem!

Sugar pumpkins continue to grow and confuse me. They just aren't eager to send out tendrils, but growing they be, with new bloom buds forming.

Marigold seedlings! Only about 6 took, but I have more seeds to try with.

And much of my corn is happy. A few seedlings are getting chomped by something <evil eye at grasshoppers, even if they aren't to blame>, but the rest are growing. I never really realized how beautiful a corn plant is until all this growing stuff.

And I've planted 8 pole bean seeds so far. I'm making use of the far corners of the trellis squares (ok, according to square-foot gardening, those squares belong to the cantaloupes but they were just sitting there empty! seemed so wasteful). I'll be planting more along the fence once I amend the soil. My wonderful oldest son dug out the weeds from that area for me this morning. This whole "raising kids to work on the farm" was a brilliant plan of the pioneering farmers!

I planted Black-Seeded Blue Lake Pole Beans. The seeds look like engorged ticks. Don't they sound wonderful? But I hear they are delicious. No, really. Really!

If you'd like to learn more about sustainable, healthy eating, you might want to check out Edible Aria. My friend Ren shares incredible whole, fresh recipes accompanied by beautiful photographs (I drool at every picture), and he also includes current articles about healthy eating and what's going on in the food industry. He encourages the use of organic, local foods and having home gardens, and he shows how the use of seasonal ingredients keeps healthy eating affordable. Did I mention the delicious recipes? (I'm still drooling.) Ren tells us, "Eat as if your life depends on it." Food for thought, eh?

Ren's Edible Aria was recently reviewed by The Monday Campaigns, Inc., in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, on their site Meatless Monday as well. This site is also worth checking out -- by not eating meat one day a week, you'll not only improve your health, but you'll reduce your carbon footprint, helping sustain our planet.

Good food. Good living. Yay, Earth.

I think I need a better name than Pumpkin Army -- this veggie gardening endeavour just gets bigger and bigger. I've now added corn to the plan. Alas. This is what research does for you! It also gets you: trellises!

I'm back from camping. It was good fun -- and nice to have a change of pace. I'd like to say that all my plants survived my absence, but I'm happy that most of them did (mourning the rest). The seedling army grows.

And of our three swallowtail caterpillars happily munching away before we left, we found one chrysalis, so we'll try to monitor it for butterfly-ness. Of course, it's in a place that is very hard to get a picture, and it's also in a place that the butterfly will have a hard time getting out of without our help. 

Though my DH didn't quite get to all the plants, he certainly tried, and it was nice to return home to additional hoses and hand sprinklers so that I don't have to drag hoses around to water those plants far away from civilization, my house. (It's not that I hadn't thought of it, I just was trying to avoid spending the money!) In addition, he made great progress on the raised garden beds, which means I will soon have the cantaloupes happily planted.  

The jack-o-lantern pumpkins are going to be spread around the yard and will have to brave possible trampling by dogs, scary because the vines are so important to the size and quality of the pumpkins. I've got three jack-o-lantern pumpkins in the ground now, with more to come, maybe. I put them in little mounds, and for now I surrounded them with rocks to help the dogs avoid them. One of them is near some other plants, so I'll have to guide the vines other directions, as best I can. It will have to do -- those vines are growing so fast that I wanted them in the ground as soon as possible. I'll get some marigolds and radishes near them for bug repellents. It's apparently not the right season to grow radishes, but if they'll keep the bugs away, I'll try!

The cantaloupes will be in a raised garden bed, grown vertically on a trellis. All in all, we'll have three raised veggie beds (for now, haha). The cantaloupes will be in one, along with corn and some marigolds, and sugar pumpkins will be in another, with some more corn. The third bed will be prepared for yummy fall planting goodness. The third bed was made for me by my kids this weekend, their first project working with drills and saws and whatnot!

To prepare the area, we dug out the grass. It was dead, so other than dealing with the hard soil, it was no loss and only somewhat of a pain. Then, with the frames in place, I mixed in compost into the existing soil. I expect some plant roots to extend into that soil, so I wanted to enrich it somewhat. How hard was the soil? Casualty, one shovel.

  For the main bed soil, I decided to follow "Mel's Mix" for square-foot gardening. I talked with the folks at Natural Gardener before doing this, and they had various suggestions (including Mel's Mix), but nothing really any better or worse. The other option I considered was mixing compost with more of my clay soil, but that would have involved more digging. Forget that! Once I got the stuff home, I read on the bag about dust concerns with the vermiculite, and I felt a little concerned that I'd made a bad choice, but a little more research online made me feel better. 

In mixing the soil, I felt a lot like Hermione in front of a big cauldron at Hogwarts. It was fun mixing it, I admit. I did add in some bonus clay soil from a pile in the yard, for good measure. It's that secret ingredient in my special sauce.

Because someone at NG told me that peat moss can be a pain to get wet at first, I decided to wet down the soil well and plant tomorrow. Sure enough, I had to work with the peat moss in a big soup of mud to get it to soak in the water. Then I really did feel I was creating a magical potion! Tomorrow will be a good planting day. First I'll get the trellis wires in place and the grid. Then in will go the cantaloupes and marigolds and some corn seeds.

Side story... While I was digging the soil for the frames, I found a weird, soft little tube. At first I thought that it was, pardon me, some old dog poop. But then it split open, and a spider carcass fell out. Squeal. And then lots of little spiders came out and crawled over the spider carcass. Shriek! While I was wondering whether they had eaten the spider, more horrors awaited me... the legs of a gigantic spider appeared. And they MOVED. And more baby spiders crawled out and over the legs... By now, I'd made loud enough noises that the kids came running over. And finally the whole spider slid out, and it was the biggest spider I'd ever seen in my yard. Yes, tarantulas are even bigger, but I haven't seen one as a resident yet. Despite my startled reaction to the sudden appearance of this spider and her babies, I find her beautiful. Can you see some of her babies in this picture?

It turns out this spider is a female trapdoor spider, and she creates a silk tube-like burrow for hunting purposes, laying eggs, and feeding young. I felt some major guilt about disrupting this little family. But once the babies left the tube, all I could do was scoop up (with the shovel) some of the dirt they crawled upon and get them to a prepared garden bed instead of letting them get buried under the dirt I was lifting and turning. The mom spider went to a shady spot, because she looked so shiny and that "carcass" I saw was probably her molted exterior. Or perhaps her mate, eep! 

Hopefully they'll survive. Guilt, guilt. Live, spiders, and go eat my pest bugs!

Speaking of horrific creepy-crawlies, check out this bug I found in Oklahoma. At first I saw beautiful wings and thought it was a really unique and large moth. But then I saw the head and its enormous pincher-like mouth. My guess is it's not a moth! This bug was more than 3 inches long, front to end. Imagine this bug about the size of a house. It's got B-movie horror written all over it!   Edit: I googled and determined that this is a female dobson fly. Takes some of the fun out, knowing the name, doesn't it? :) 

We saw a pretty cool leaf butterfly of some sort there, too, and many spiders. This picture didn't turn out as well as I'd like, but I like the overall effect of the image.

The Oklahoma state parks seem to be very nicely managed and maintained, more so than some of our Texas ones. I loved that they had litter bags to help people keep the trails clean. My only complaint was that they didn't offer any recycling options for bottles or cans anywhere. We kept our recyclables and brought them back to Texas with us. Green points earned!

I loved the bark of the pine trees at Robber's Cave.

All along the highways and in the state park itself, the beautiful but very invasive mimosa silk tree could be seen. I have a close-up of the flower, but I felt too guilty about admiring the beauty to post it. Bad invasive, bad! 

At least it's prettier than the invasive Chinaberry all over Austin.

The Austin Pond Society Pond Tour was this weekend. I have lots of pictures to post over the next couple of days!

What's all the buzz about? It's National Pollinator Week here in the United States. It's a time to spread the word about the desperate plight of our little flying flower-visiting, pollen-spreading friends. Because of their declining population, many farms and flowers are already in trouble! Missing native plants, too many pesticides, and diseases have all contributed to drastically reduced numbers of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

That's a queen butterfly on Gregg's mistflower (Conoclinium greggii) -- the butterflies, especially queens and monarchs, go crazy for Gregg's mistflower. I had hoped to get some pictures of bees visiting my flowers, but they were camera-shy (there were some yellow-jackets, though, but they were a little TOO friendly, if you know what I mean). At least my trusty butterfly and hummingbird friends came out for pictures. Ignore the lawnmower cord and ugly ground in the background.  

How can you help? If you have a garden, especially an organic one, you are probably already doing tons to help the populations of bees and other pollinators. But Pollinators Week for me is an excuse to go out and buy a native plant just for the sake of the wildlife, so as soon as I finish this blog entry, the boys and I are going to Natural Gardener to pick out something new. And we are determined not to let it die in the hot Texas sun (maybe a shade plant, lol). Not sure what to get? Enter in your zip code for an eco-regional planting guide on what plants are helpful in your region.

A kidneywood -- bees love this plant! Well, they will, once it's big and blooming (it's a tiny little thing right now). Whenever I pass a larger kidneywood, bees are swarming all over it. I can't wait!

Plant something new in your garden that is a bee favorite. Go native -- invasive plants contribute to the plight of beneficial insect and bird populations! Plant larval food for the caterpillars and rejoice when you see your plant get eaten by little happy caterpillars. Build a little habitat that might be a perfect home for a hive. Make a mud puddle for bees and butterflies to drink from. Do you have fruit bats in your area? Build a bat house for them!

Make a commitment to avoid pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This is HUGE. Even organic pest controls can affect the population of good insects -- so research before you buy and/or use any kind of product or method! And educate your friends and neighbors about the plight of bees and the dangers of pesticides and chemical fertilizers!

In this picture, there's milkweed, flame acanthus, blackfoot daisies, and pentas, all together.

This is one of my favorite butterflies -- the Gulf Fritillary. It has a stunning orange wingspread, but underneath it's orange, silver, and black. I'm not sure which side I like best, which is why I like it so much. 

Ah, here's one of my absolute favorites of the Texas natives, the wafer ash, or hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata). It can be hard to find in a nursery, but it's easy to grow from seed, and they're all over. Our dogs ate the top off our first one, and it amazingly grew back, the determined little thing. The wafer ash is a host plant of the giant swallowtail and tiger swallowtail. It's part of the citrus family, and it's one time that leaves of three (trifoliata) are a GOOD thing. They have nothing to do with poison ivy, by the way, so get that out of your mind!

Swallowtails enjoy other citrus -- we have a mandarin orange, lemon, and two lime trees growing. No fruit yet! But I'm hopeful that as long as I don't kill them, I'll have fruit someday. Look, here's a little fly sort of a thing on my lime tree. Flies are great pollinators!

Here's a yellow jacket on the baby  Goldenball Leadtree (Leucaena retusa ). Yellow jackets are minor pollinators as well as predatory wasps. I'm happy to have them around my garden, just not building hives under my eaves right where I'm building a new bed! The yellow jackets and I are currently having a discussion about where it's ok to build a hive and where it isn't. I haven't killed one, but I do remove their little hives in an effort to get them to move else winter. Oh, and the dogs also ate the goldenball leadtree over the winter, too. It grew back. Yay for native plants.

This one is almost native -- it's a Mexican anacacho orchid. We planted it a little too deep, I think -- it lives, but I feel it's struggling a bit. I hope to get a true native anacacho orchid in the fall. They are gorgeous when blooming.

Bees even like catmint! Catmint's not just for cats anymore!

And who could forget the all-time bee favorite, the sunflower. Here's mine:

My last batch of seeds I sprinkled onto the ground where I wanted them to grow. They didn't. So now I'm trying to grow sunflowers in little planters, and hopefully they'll grow into seedlings. I love sunflowers. My husband said he always thought of them as a weed, not as a pretty flower (gasp!). When he sees them in the back of the yard with the prickly pear and the white TX honeysuckle and the goldenball leadtree, he'll come around. I know he will.

   So in honor of Pollinators Week, bee happy and make a bee happy. And then those vegetables and fruits and pretty flowers and trees you love will be around for you -- and your grandkids-- to enjoy.