Natural Gardener tour

Last Saturday some friends and I went on a tour of the Natural Gardener led by Roger Igo and Rosina Newton.  We covered the butterfly garden, the vegetable garden, the herb garden, and the vineyard.  I took some notes on things that I would like to incorporate into my garden, particularly from their butterfly garden.  Both of them were knowledgeable and passionate about their work.  It was lovely spending the morning wandering around with them.  It was pretty warm, so I was dissuaded from taking home any souvenirs.  At this point I have given up on gardening until the fall vegetable garden gets going.  It is too damn hot!

Map of the promised land.

I believe this was called corkscrew willow, it was really gorgeous. It’s tucked away in my mind for future pond plantings.

From the vegetable garden.

Still here!

Gardening just holds no allure in this heat. Oh well.

We went to San Antonio for our friends’ wedding and had a good ol’ time. I had never been to El Mercado, so we dropped in for a little while and it was good fun.

This weekend we watched my 3-year old nephew, who is about as cute as they come. He likes trains and Dr Seuss and cookies and the car wash.

We went to the Battleship Texas and, although I’m sure he would have been just as happy at the car wash, it was fun for the adults.

Flickr favorites

1. Sugar Skull Pillow Closeup, 2. Tentacles, Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, 3. LIMBO : 5, 4. *, 5. 藍鵲襲犬 Pup! Watch Out!, 6. Magnolia Beach, 7. don’t forget!, 8. Austin Bats, 9. Painter’s helper, 10. Put that down Forbo, 11. Untitled, 12. Untitled, 13. Rock Poster Wedding Invitation, 14. The small things, 15. Marilyn Rose Journal Quilt: Interstate 20 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, 16. Sun Done Gone

Quick trip

I went to Corpus Christi for work and managed to sneak in a couple of hours in the evening at the Padre Island National Seashore.  It was low tide, and plenty of interesting things were on the beach.  There were lots of these lettered olives, which were alive and digging in the sand. They were entertaining to watch.  They are predators!

The birds were busy. You can see the marks their probing beaks leave in the sand.

I found a skate egg case (aka mermaid’s purse) and some whelk egg case strings. They are very stinky! I am hoping that drying them out will help. It was lovely to be on the beach in the evening. There were only a couple of other people around, it was really nice.

Flickr favorites

1. Turtle, 2. Guardian, 3. bird egg, 4. Radiator’s Last Home, 5. Go toward the light!, 6. Gotcha!!, 7. Visiting Italy, 8. wonderland: leaves, trees, & ferns…, 9. England, Surrey

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Artichoke update

It bloomed!

Santa Fe

We went to Santa Fe for a long weekend, and had a great time.  We loved hiking Bandolier National Monument and seeing the cliff dwellings.

And hiking at Hyde Memorial State Park. We did the Circle Trail, which is only 3 or 4 miles long but with over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. In other words, it is insanely steep, especially if you have recently arrived from sea level. It was a beautiful hike. We also took a drive up to the ski basin where there was still a little bit of snow, and very pretty views of the aspens.

A parasitic plant, Conopholis mexicana, that I mistook for a fungus. Nifty!

A short-horned lizard, perfectly camouflaged the same shade of pink as the granite.

Cactus in bloom.

We also ate our share of green and red chile. We ate breakfast at the Plaza Cafe three of the four days- I had their blue corn and pinyon pancakes. YUM. Other favorites were Cafe Pasqual’s, Cafe Castro, and La Choza. We went shopping at the Tesuque Flea Market (no photos allowed, unfortunately) just north of Santa Fe, and each of us came home with a pair of cowboy boots! I definitely want to go back to the Flea Market when we have a car to drive home, so I can get some baskets and some things for the garden.  And how can I forget the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market?  It is so beautiful, and the food is really delicious.  The new site in the railyard is really nice. We were lucky enough to return to more spring in Austin, when I thought it had already turned to summer! And the garden has happily absorbed the 2+ inches of rain! It looks healthy and happy.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, May 2009

Please check out what is blooming all over at May Dreams Gardens.

Here is what is blooming in my garden.
Woolly butterfly bush. The flies love this plant, oddly.

Argentinian butterfly bush.

Butterfly bush (buddleia) in peacock.

Artichokes!

Some blue flower that volunteered. Is it cornflower?

Texas tuberose sent up a couple of shoots.

Bicolor iris are putting on a show in the front yard.

And I was happy to see the columbines blooming that I planted last year.

Also blooming: Salvia coccinea, Salvia ballotiflora (blue shrub sage), white potato vine, yarrow, mutabilis rose, Salvia greggii, blackfoot daisy, pink skullcap, esperanza, and four-nerve daisy.

Computer photo tricks

I just figured out how to do this and I’m psyched.  Sorry this one has a heavy dose of the Flickr blog repeats, but it could be worse.  Cute monkeys!

1. Santa Fe Sign, Old Santa Fe Freight Depot, 2. Watching the fight from a distance, 3. 57, 4. And I Promise to Show You All the Wonders of a World You Never Imagined, 5. giant janice and the tree dwellers, 6. Mozzer Snuggie, 7. Untitled, 8. Story Deli, 9. 東環童稚 Sweeeet !

A few small problems

I think I let the compost sit too long. What do you think?  I also have two volunteer squash in the garden that seem to be doing quite well– flowering, anyway.

What is eating my tomato flowers? I assume it is eating them before they turn into fruit. Help!

I do have a good idea of what is eating my dinosaurs.