Wild Flower of the Week

Baby Monkey presents the Wild Flower of the Week. Behold the Texas state flower, the Blue Bonnet.

Here they are without my kidlett.

There are actually five Texas state flowers, but all of them are Blue Bonnets. In 1901 Lupinus subcanosus or Buffalo Clover Blue Bonnet was declared the state flower of Texas by our legislature. Off and on for the next seventy years there was a Blue Bonnet debate. Many people believed that Lupinus texensis was clearly a prettier Blue Bonnet. In 1971 they solved the argument by making both Blue Bonnets the state flower as well as three other Lupins. Here is how it reads "Any other variety of blue bonnet not heretofore mentioned." The other three are Lupinus harvardii the Big Bend or Chisos Blue bonnet, Lupinus concennus or annual lupine, and Lupinus platlensis the only perennial Blue Bonnet which is found in the Panhandle. The pictures above are Lupinus texensis. Thanks to the Texas Agrilife Extension for the Info.

Over the next couple of months I am going to try to post a Wild Flower of the Week. I want to learn more about the native flowers in my area. If you have a post related to wild flowers and would like me to link you here, just leave me a comment and I will come back and create a link to your blog. Everyone can play.

Here we go.

Weed Wackin Wenches are the first players. It's not a flower but it is something wild.

In Notes From a Cottage Garden I found more wild flowers. Check out small flowered Blue Eyed Mary.

Look What I Found Under My Mess

Hola Senor Werm, glad you stayed warm under the Comfrey all winter.

Behind all of the weeds and overgrown, gone to seed broccoli I found Senor Werm and a beautiful spider wort in bloom. Why do beautiful plants sometimes have such awful names?

Here, relaxing under the Duchess De Brabrant, is Miss Trixie taking it easy.

I made it. I did not get lost. I did get sunburned. What did I do with all the broccoli and weeds? Well, I hid them behind the rose bush on the other side of the garden where there are several beds that won't be planted for a few weeks. You see, last summer I found a book among my grandfather's belongings. It was published in the 1950's and was about one woman's struggle to grow a productive vegetable garden. The point of the book was to use mulch. Last fall, I used my pulled weeds and the soft stuff from pruning to mulch my fallow beds. I just dumped them on top of the weeds that were growing in the unplanted beds. After about two weeks I pulled back my "mulch" and the weeds were dead. Better yet, the soil looked awesome. I just cleaned up my weed mulch and removed it to the compost pile. Then I planted my rows and was off. It's not pretty, but it works great. I looked and looked for about 10 seconds for the book so I could give you the title and author. I will actually spend a little time and look for it tomorrow. I am pretty sure it is no longer in print, but maybe you can find it at a used book store.

I''m Going In

Here is my crazy overgrown winter garden. See the broccoli all gone to seed? Isn't the Swiss chard lovely. It tastes good too. Then there are the misplaced French hollyhocks.

So, I'm going in. I intend to spend the next two days cleaning up this mess. We will also be on a search and rescue mission. Somewhere out there are little lettuce plants, sugar snap peas, carrots, and radishes.

This is the result when you have a tiny garden and absolutely no self control. I am pretty sure I need counseling with regards to my plant addiction.

Here is my comfrey plant in the foreground and my Duchess De Brabrant rose in the back. Can you tell I never got around to pruning her last fall? I know you can't see it, but there is a Celtic knot pathway through this disaster.

I intend to use this Monkey as slave labor/helper. That is his own personal lawn mower. He just came in and invited me to help him with the lawn, so I gotta go.

If I'm not back by tomorrow night, send a rescue party.

Why I Will No Longer Work With My Husband

I know I have mentioned it before, but I love my work. I love my clients, I love the dirt, and I love the flowers. I enjoy myself way to much.

Today I took my husband to work with me. I thought he would enjoy working on this brick patio rehab project. He loved making our deck. He was awesome at putting in hardwood floors for me. He even took a wall out last year. I almost lost my mind, but it turned out really nice. He can fix anything; hot water heater, leaky faucet, my truck, his 36-year-old VW Bug, clogged pipes, etc...

This is really a great guy. Last week our elderly neighbor's home was burglarized. He installed motion sensing lights and rekeyed all of her locks. He even rehung a door for her so it would open and close properly. Then he came home and installed better locks on our garage and motion sensing lights for us as well. He remodeled his grandmother's home so she could use her walker more easily. If you need help, he's your man.

Anyway, we go get the brick and sand and head out to my customer's house. He looked a the brick patio and asked me, "How much are you charging for this?" I told him. He says, "That's not enough." I explain that if I run over budget the customer will understand. I just have to keep good records.

He started to pull up brick. Then he started to tell me what an awful job this was going to be. Then he wandered over and started digging up grass in the area where we are going to extend the patio. Then he told me how hard digging grass was. Then he took a break. He came back and tore the rotted wood off two old planters and hurled them into the lawn. It was now obvious how frustrated he had become. Mean while, I concentrated on getting the dirt out of the two huge planters so we could remove them. He looks at me about 45 minutes into our day and says, "Why are you happy?" Me, "Hey, dude, I love my job."

On our way home he asked,"Would you have gotten more done with Meme or Crystal?" I didn't answer. He says, "You're being pretty quiet." I begin to explained that some jobs are more suited to certain personalities and we all need to seek our bliss, blah, blah blah - sunshine and kitty cats. He says, "Go ahead and say it. I can take it."

YOU'RE FIRED!!!

He did the happy dance right there in the truck.

Rite of Passage

Teenage Monkey shaved the black peach fuzz off his upper lip this evening. For some reason that made me cry. Silly mommy.

Help, We Have Been Invaded by Mayflies

Over the last couple of weeks we have been invaded by Mayflies. There are billions of them. I would not mind them if they stayed outside, but the keep getting in our house.

I did a little web reading on these critters and here is what I found. They are of the order Ephemeroptera. The nymphs live from three months to two years. The adults live from thirty minutes to a few days. There are two adult stages first the Dun which molts into a Spinner. The Spinners are the trouble makers at my house. According to Wikipedia, the adult’s sole purpose is to reproduce. The Spinner’s mouth is vestigial and the belly is filled with air. All they do is fly around, mate, lay eggs over a body of water, and die. They are a food source for cat fish and bass.

Now I know a little bit about these flying critters. I still have the unexplained nightmare of why hundreds of them must fly into my house and commit suicide in my kitchen sink and bathtub?

Gorilla Gardening

It has been a weird day here in my garden. I went to the back door to go outside and the little fellow above was sitting on my deck raising cane. Apparently, he was very dissatisfied with my performance as a bird feeder filler. He was mad, I mean, really really mad. After I gave him more seed, he flew off. Now what was that all about. Get mad at me and then don't eat the food you were so determined I provide? A few minutes later he came back with a female. It's always about a girl. I took the picture above through my dirty glass door.

After taking care of the Cardinal, I went out into the garden and noticed something behind my fence. Someone has left me two bags of leaves. Now, I have been known to ask for the neighbors bagged up leaves and I have been known to just swipe them when no one was home to ask. This is part of my gorilla gardening activity. I also sneak seeds into family members' flower beds, plant things while people are on vacation, and collect seeds everywhere I go. Now bags of leaves are being delivered. Odd, but good.

This is a terrible picture, but my Mutabalis is in bloom. See the different colors on the same bush (not the red to the left. That's Martha Gonzales). The booms start off a dark pink/apricot and then fade to a very light yellow. I love this rose bush.