For the Birds.

ages and ages ago, darin brought me a bird pepper (capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum). the poor thing has been mostly forgotten in a pot on the deck for the past two-and-a-half years, but has, nonetheless, survived, if not thrived.

but at least someone appreciates this woeful pepper plant. earlier this morning, as i was carrying the sprout around the yard (and trying to herd one of the cats back inside), a mockingbird flew down to dine on the ripe peppers! thanks to our unseasonably warm spring, there are many, many more peppers to ripen for the birds, so i'll keep my eyes open and maybe get a picture one day.

Technorati tags: pepper, chile, mockingbird

Creepy Cool.

(squeamish readers, beware.)

ever seen the movie starship troopers? it can be summarized as giant alien bugs battling the entire human race. and, for the most part, winning.

the assassin bugs are up to something strange on the serrano plant. they're congregating. it's like an assassin bug family reunion, with representatives of several generations in attendance.

Assassin Bugs.

much better pics of assassin bugs than i have yet managed -- Wild Animals of South Austin: Assassin Bug

yesterday afternoon i saw a good-sized herd of recently hatched nymphs in the island bed; bye-bye aphids!

Twisty Center for Urban Varmit Research

Slinging Snails.

after months of denial, i finally admitted to myself that the reason none of my rainlilies were blooming was that they were being eaten by snails.

i've always thought snails were kind of cute and the knowledge that they were devouring the rainlily buds as they emerged was hard to accept. however, after a very rainy spring and no rainlily blooms whatsoever, i knew i had to do something.

i have no problem picking snails up, but i absolutely, positively cannot stand squashing bugs / snails / worms / whatever. i can't step on them and i certainly can't squash them with my fingers (gloves or no gloves). i'm also not keen on baits, traps or introducing decollate snails to eat the rainlily eating snails.

so i started slinging snails at the fence.

the idea is that the shells smash against the wood and the snails perish. it's probably a gruesome death and i will probably come back in a future life as a doomed snail. actually, i think most of the snails survive because i have a really lousy throwing arm and throwing snails (especially small ones) is sort of like trying to throw whiffle balls. i suspect most of the snails are just being forcefully relocated to other areas of the yard, so i try not to throw them towards plants i particularly like. i also try to be a good neighbor and not throw too many of them over the fence into the neighboring yards.

since i began my snail slinging program about four weeks ago the rainlilies in the island bed have been in almost continual bloom and the snail population is markedly lower (at least in that part of the yard).

i don't know what i'll do in the long run. i'm partial to the rainlilies, but i'm not going to patrol the snails indefinitely.

Cavorting in the Catnip.

bevo (left) and bronte (right) taking advantage of their catnip patch. for some reason, darin always scolds me for letting them wallow in the patch. i thought that was why we planted it in the first place!

Two Toads.

i've been meaning to post this for a few days but kept forgetting. after a summer vacation, the toad hole is once again occupied -- by two toads.

Two Down, Two to Go.

this afternoon darin took out the two red-tip photinias between the sunroom and the deck. only two remain in the backyard (and one by the driveway).

the red-tip eradication took longer than it might have because i first had to inspect each branch, twig and leaf for monarch chrysalides. the largest of our latest crop of monarch caterpillars wandered off yesterday or the day before and i wanted to be sure it didn't end up in a pile with the red-tip scraps.

interestingly enough, today is exactly one month since the last batch of monarch butterflies emerged. i didn't realize the butterfly weed had recovered so quickly. by tomorrow the remaining three caterpillars will have stripped the foliage once again and moved on.

if i remember correctly, this is the fourth generation of monarchs we've had this year. (shame on me; i haven't recorded each generation as it appeared.)

More Critters.

this morning there were two new monarch butterflies resting in the red tipped photinia by the sunroom.

i am almost certain that these were two of the four monarch caterpillars that devoured all the leaves of the butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) last week. new leaves are already appearing on the butterfly weed, which is a good thing since there will almost certainly be another crop of hungry caterpillars soon.

Garden Residents.

look closely to see one of the many anoles that resides in our yard.

this one is perched on a pineapple sage (salvia elegans) in the backyard island bed. i don't know whether the local population of anoles has increased or i'm more attuned to their habits and hiding places, but i almost always see two or three or more each time i go outside.

(click on the picture for a larger view.)

Hummingbirds and Pentas.

three pentas (out of five or six) survived last winter and returned this summer, but only one has really thrived. the thriving plant is either the 'new look red' i bought in june 2002, or the unidentified red i bought in july 2002. whatever it is, it's been blooming profusely for the last couple of months.

even though the plant is only a few feet in front of the tv room windows, the hummingbirds have been visiting it. frustrates the cats to no end to have an unreachable hummingbird at eye level.

Hummingbirds are Here.

they showed up in our yard about a week ago. they had probably been visiting the neighbor's yard earlier, but we don't yet have enough hummingbird attracting plants in our yard.

now that i've filled and hung the feeder, one male ruby throated hummingbird has declared it his property, perching nearby and rudely chasing off any interlopers lest they consume too much of his sugar water.

if those silly birds didn't chase each other around so much, they wouldn't need so much sugar!

Toad Returns.

i was pleasantly surprised this afternoon when i looked into the toad hole while puttering in the back yard and saw a large toad peering back at me. i can't be sure, but it certainly looks like last year's occupant.

Weekend Update.

real quick - the lettuce has sprouted, giant caesar and black-seeded simpson; the existing lettuce continues to grow. the peas aren't happy, but i'm not sure why. spinach is also struggling; cilantro appears to have finally decided to grow. parsley and rosemary look great.

darin let me finish off the basil plants. they were pretty much done, so i salvaged what decent leaves remained and composted the rest. made fresh pesto last night.

with the basil out of the way (it was in the bed under the sunroom window, along with nearly everything else) i was able to lift the second unidentified iris clump. eight fans altogether. i replanted five of them in the previously occupied iris / basil spot and the other three went into the side fence bed, around the base of one of the mandevilla.

i'm not sure that these iris are the same as the first clump i dug - the way the offsets were attached to the main rhizome was different - they were all much closer. and the leaves seem to emerge from the rhizomes in a slightly different growth pattern. or maybe i just looked more closely at this batch. at any rate, hopefully i'll get flowers eventually and have a better idea of what i have.

the monarch hasn't emerged from the chrysalis yet, but it has turned a beautiful bright green, with glittery gold dots.

Referral Logs.

today's selections, for your entertainment / education:

• "where can i find info and pictures on the large milkweed bug?" - a picture (and info) from the entomology department of texas a&m is online here, and here are milkweed bugs as pictured in a photographic catalog of north american arthropods. more pictures and information are here, from the daylily dictionary.

  and my own posts on milkweed bugs were on august 28.

• "vacuuming pine needles" - here at garden spot, vacuuming pine needles seems to be a never-ending activity. although it's a little more work than just raking the needles together and transferring the piles to the compost, the pine needles break down much, much faster when they're vacuumed / chopped with the rake and vac.

  the gardenias like pine needle mulch, and the crepe myrtles and crinums don't mind it. and hopefully the unidentified iris are louisiana iris, because they also like pine needles.

Fun with Referral Logs.

now that fall has arrived and daylight savings has ended, the days are shorter and it's usually dark when i get home. and as much as i enjoy working in the garden, i'm not (yet) willing to wake up early to get some garden-time before going to work. so, to satisfy my desire to blog during the week, i'll "answer" some of the questions that come from the referral logs.

• "are toad [sic] helpful to gardens?" - i first blogged about toads in the garden on august 30, and most recently on september 16. i haven't checked the toad hole lately, but i think the garden toad may have moved on to higher ground during the recent rainy spell.

  to answer the question, toads are helpful garden inhabitants because they eat insects (including grubs).

• "killing asian jasmine" - my first post on asian jasmine was on february 16. not surprisingly, i was trying to clear the stuff out of the yard.

  i am happy to report that due to my diligent efforts over the past several months, i have almost entirely cleared the asian jasmine from our yard - and without resorting to chemicals. i did it all by hand, patiently pulling every single blasted plant, getting as much root as possible. these days, i find only a couple of sprouts a month and my greatest problem isn't so much the few bits sprouting from root remnants, but the bits coming through (and under) the fence from the back neighbor's yard.

  fortunately, asian jasmine doesn't seem to be nearly as tenacious / obnoxious as some "weeds". nonetheless, i do not recommend planting the stuff unless you really like it and are willing to look at it for a long, long time.

more referral fun to come later this week!

More Monarchs.

one of the two most recent monarch caterpillars made a chrysalis amongst the pineapple sage yesterday. excellent choice as the chrysalis is exactly the same green as the sage leaves. (see it? right in the middle of the picture, there.)

i tried to keep track of the other 'pillar, but it snuck off on its own.

Butterflies are Back.

i saw a monarch butterfly fluttering about several times this past weekend. i think it was the same one each time (it seemed to be cruising the same path), but maybe there were multiple butterflies.

at any rate, yesterday i found two tiny monarch caterpillars on the butterfly weed by the back door. i think they are second instars, maybe third instars, because i can see distinct bands of black and yellow even though the caterpillars are not even as long as my fingernail (keeping in mind that i have no nails).

Toad Treats.

forgot to mention yesterday: while digging holes for the lantana, i uncovered four grub worms. normally, i toss grubs onto the driveway for birds to eat, but since it was raining there were no birds hopping about waiting for handouts. so i put the grubs in the tray that had been holding the lantana pots, and when i finished my planting i took the grubs to the backyard toad. after eating the first few, toad was almost willing to eat the last one directly from the trowel.

Toad at Home.

Toad Hole.

last fall, when we started "exploring" the backyard of our new home, we discovered a hole below the liriope that rings an oak tree. the liriope ring has apparently been around the tree for several years and has built up about six inches above the level of the yard. the hole was (is) two or three inches in diameter, of indeterminate depth (*i'm* not about to stick my fingers in there!) and sheltered by the liriope.

yesterday afternoon i happened to reach down in front of the hole to pick up some tree debris and noticed what looked like a brown leaf in the hole. looking more closely i realized that it was, in fact, a large-ish toad. i'll try to remember to look this afternoon and see whether he's still there.

not surprisingly, texas (and houston) is home to all sorts of frogs and toads. my (somewhat uneducated) guess is that the aforementioned toad is either a gulf coast toad or a woodhouse's toad. it would be neat if it were a houston toad, but that seems unlikely given its endangered status.

gardeners who wish to encourage toads can help them out by creating a toad shelter.