Fun Things From Our Backyard: Some "Other" Fun Garden Helpers...

You all know about my two completely adorable and wonderful garden helpers, but I wanted to show you some of my other helpers that don't get as much recognition around the garden, but I still value :)

At the top of my list?  Ladybugs!  I love ladybugs!  Not only are they super cute, but they also will quickly take care of any aphid problems one might have and make sure they don't return.  Thankfully, they LOVE living in my corn and I found lots and lots of them the other day.

I even found a red one with no spots and a black one with a red spot!  So much variety in one cute little bug...

Next up, lizards.  I know, most ladies don't love lizards, but these have been working hard around the clock to make sure the other bugs in my garden don't go crazy.  I was worried they would take out the ladybugs too, but that hasn't been much of a problem, it seems.  I think a Texas Spiny mama must have had some babies close by because they started out little and have gotten progressively bigger and there are always a few each time I go out there...

This Green Anole is a new addition to our backyard and I'm not sure where it came from, but he is certainly welcome also.  It particularly enjoys living in our peas.  I also saw him trying to impress a lady friend the other day, so I'm guessing we'll have more at some point.

I suppose this last one doesn't quite qualify as a garden helper, but I do love to check on him/her periodically throughout the day and see how big it has gotten.  This is the same Black Swallowtail caterpillar I wrote about in my last update, he's getting huge!  I really hope he makes his chrysallis somewhere close by and I can find it, but these caterpillars are apparently known for going far away to do that, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

What's missing?  The honeybees...I have had them in past years and we even had some this winter hanging around our rosemary, but it's been a long time since I've seen any and they are very dearly missed.  I sure hope some find us soon!!

Spring 2015 Garden Update

Happy Spring Garden as it was two minutes ago...

I don't know about you, but we here in Central Texas have had unseasonably rainy and somewhat cool weather, which has made for a super happy Spring garden.  I have only gone out to water it once or twice because of all the rain we have had...I am so thankful!!  I have found myself regretting that I didn't plant more!  Anyway, I figured it was probably time for an update since everything looks quite a bit different than it did the last time I posted.

 LittleBear checking out the height of the corn only two weeks ago.  Today, the tallest stalks are taller than I am!

Looking up to the tallest stalk of corn... 

I had to build a fence with my extra tomato cages because on a really windy day, they would all blow over.  Good thing I didn't plant any tomatoes this year!

  Corn blossoms!!!

So, far I have harvested two HUGE zucchini and there seem to be lots more on the way, which gets LadyBear excited as it was her request to plant zucchini in the first place (though I'll admit it's a favorite of mine).

Happy LadyBear with her second huge zucchini! 

I haven't seen many pollinators around, so I've been trying to pollinate them myself with a dry paintbrush, which seems to be working ok, but I sure do miss the honeybees :(

 Green beans I harvested this morning alone!

The asparagus patch seems to be really happy, which in turn makes me really happy as asparagus is one of my absolute favorite veggies.  Each of the crowns have now sent out three or four shoots, which I am again letting go to fern this year, so hopefully I will have a bigger harvest next year.

 It's an asparagus!!!

Here's the whole patch along with some other shots of what we have growing:

 Asparagus patch

 My unintentionally planted melon, happily growing up around a tomato cage (my attempt to keep things tidy)...

 Baby melon!

 LadyBear's carrots with LittleBear's peas in the background and the melon plant to the left...

Another zucchini on the way!! 

 Green beans!

 Corn vs. Zucchini

 LittleBear's peas...

And lest you think I'm this great gardener with a prosperous green thumb, here's a picture of my sweet bell peppers and basil patch...

 Just keepin' it real...

Um, yeah, majorly disappointing.  Some of the lemon basil came up, but none of the sweet bell peppers or the sweet basil came, which means I need to go buy some transplants in order to get my homemade pesto sauce quota for the year done.  I have no clue what happened there... oh well!

 I had no idea that fennel flowers could be different colors from the same plant!  How neat!

Our butterfly garden has it's first resident of the Spring!  This is a black swallowtail caterpillar that showed up yesterday and has already doubled in size.  We hope he stays around for a while!!

 Welcome to our garden!!!

Spring Garden 2015

Spring is here around our area and that means that our Spring garden is also underway.  It might not look like much, but from up-close, there is a lot going on!  My quest for an edible lawn continues!!!

This year, I rebuilt my two 4x4 beds and hope they will hold up better than my last ones did (I used 10x4x2 boards instead of 6x4x1 boards).   I also added a 4x8 bed to our garden and in it is planted 21 crowns of Jersey Giant Asparagus.  These are supposed to be 2 year old crowns, which I should let grow to fern and then next Spring, I'll be able to harvest asparagus to eat for the next 15-20 years.  For now, each crown is sending up one shoot per crown (though one crown has sent up 2 already).  From my research, after the crowns establish themselves, they'll start sending up more shoots.  I noticed the other day that our last crown (which I had just about given up on) was sending a tiny shoot through the earth, so I'm thrilled to announce that all of them are producing.  Hooray!  For a newbie gardener like me, this is good news.

 Asparagus fern with little bell flowers on it...actually rather pretty!

 The last tiny baby asparagus shoot to come up...

I asked the kids what they wanted to plant this year and LittleBear wasted no time in shouting out, "Peas!"  So, LittleBear planted his peas.

 LittleBear's peas...we have Tall Telephone and Sugar Anne Snap this year...

LadyBear wanted to plant corn and carrots, so for the first time ever, we are attempting to grow corn and I'm giving carrots another try.

 Corn...we have Golden Bantam and Wade Giant Indian Flint Corn (just for fun because I think they are so pretty!)

 LadyBear's carrots...we have Chantenay Red Core Carrots this year instead of the baby ones I tried before...


We also have:

 Brussel Sprouts!  This is my first time growing these, so I'm curious to see how that goes.

Broccoli!!!  My last broccoli plant grew to be HUGE and didn't really produce any broccoli, so I'm hoping I have selected a better variety for my area this time around.

Zucchini!!!  A favorite of mine and LadyBear's and very easy to grow...

Green Beans!  I grew these a few years ago and they were super easy, so I'm hoping for another good year this year!

There is a sneaky melon plant coming up that I didn't intentionally plant, but I think was inadvertently planted by the critter who stole my melons off the plant last year (grr).  It's either this fancy french melon or a honeydew, but I'm not sure which yet (I'm leaning toward tit being a honeydew).

We also have planted green and orange sweet bell peppers and basil, but those take a while to come up (they are in the above box next to the green beans).  I'll also plant one cherry tomato plant, but I haven't figured out exactly where yet.

As I type, the garden is getting a wonderful bath from a rain shower, which I am super thankful for.  Grow, little plants!  Grow!!

My happy blueberry bush!!

Fun Things From Our Backyard!!

We have had lots of exciting times around our yard lately.  Always an adventure!

Like this poor guy...a huge Texas Spiny Lizard that had jammed himself between the grate and mesh on our outside Air Conditioner unit. 

Thankfully, Hubby came home on his lunch break and took off the grate, which let me free the little guy.  I didn't think he was going to make it, but an hour later, he was gone, so hopefully he was just shocked...no idea how he got in there that far, but I'm thinking happy thoughts that he is ok (don't ruin it for me)!!

Pecan season is just starting!!!  It looks like one or two of our seven trees might have some for us this year!!!

We love watching for butterflies in the yard...they are so pretty!

And this baby Texas Spiny Lizard...he/she did NOT take its eyes off of me the whole time we were playing on the swingset, but thankfully it let me snap a photo...thankfully it also wasn't anywhere near the above butterfly :)

LadyBear loves to swing and LittleBear loves to push her!

Just today we found a new Monarch caterpillar on our milkweed!  He's still there...maybe he'll decide to stay?

We have had a few Queen butterfly visitors as well, which Orbit has enjoyed watching from his favorite window seat...

And the biggest Monarch I have seen in a long time stopped by for a pit stop...

We love our backyard!!!

Fun Things From Our Backyard: Butterfly Garden!

maybe laying eggs?

It all started with something that caught my eye fluttering outside the window...

This Queen butterfly has been visiting us today and has been out there pretty much all day.  I *think* she may have even laid some eggs on our milkweed (YAY!), but I'm not certain about that.   Needless to say at least one, if not all of us (including Orbit) have been looking out that window all day long :)
We spent some time just watching it from both inside and outside and these are all the critters that we saw (I can't imagine how many more were there that we didn't see!)

We love our butterfly garden!! 

It's humble, maybe a little wild-looking, but it has given us lots and lots of opportunities to see fun and beautifully made critters outside our home.  I am super thankful LittleBear had the idea one day to plant one...

Texas Spiny Lizard...can you see him?  A whole family of them lives under a bush nearby...

honeybee!

Our Queen butterfly friend at her best...

 LittleBear watching the butterfly...

 LadyBear joined us...can you see it flying up near the top of the window?

 Ladybug enjoying some aphids...

 An Oak Hairstreak moth...my first time seeing one!

 Purple lantana!

Naptime for Orbit!

The little black dots, I think are butterfly eggs...we'll see.

Grasshopper...

 Ladybug on a pepper plant!

A rainbow skink who did NOT want his picture taken...sorry buddy.

I'm not sure what kind of moth this is, he was super fast!  I'm guessing a Hayhurst's Scallopwing...

Definitely a fun way to spend our morning :) Now, I need to go clean that window...yikes.