Garden Anole

Cute little baby anole climbing around in my patio garden.  In this picture he's in the lavender plant which has been flowering all summer long.  Just have to keep it happy.

When one of our friends from the Netherlands came to visit we had a much bigger anole hanging around.  She had named him Clouse. At least that's how I'd spell it.  No telling how she would have spelled it. Unfortunately Clouse didn't hang around for very long and there were none to be seen for quite a while.  When this guy appeared I knew that my little garden was still a fairly active place for critters to visit.

Another of the critters are the wasps that come drink from the pots and soil.  I never would have though about insects drinking from dirt but I guess they have more of an ability to pull out the water from different sources.  One wasp really liked the dirt around the moss rose and would come several times in just an hour and return to the exact same spot to refresh himself.

The toads haven't been seen in a while but I'm still hopeful that they will return once the heat lets up.  It's been too hot for many of the usual creatures to come out and play.  The bunnies as well haven't made their nightly appearances so often.  Before I'd see them just hanging out on the grass looking around.  Now I only see then moving across the lawn areas heading to either eat or go home.

Temps are showing a downward trend though and things should pick up for wildlife viewing.

Lavender Growth

The symmetry of plants never ceases to amaze me.  Our little lavender bush has leaves that line up perfectly along the stems.  

You can't see it in this pic but it's even flowering.  I must have done something right this time.

There are other plants too that are flowering but this is the one I'm happiest about.

Other flowers include:

Tomato

Basil

Squash

Poke

Moss Rose

Gerbera Daisies

Okra

Lavender Harvest

It's that time of year again. Tomorrow we'll be harvesting the first lavender flowers of the year and making spindles out of them.  We hope to get at least fifteen to twenty for the American Herb Society's conference this weekend where we'll have a booth selling among other things herbal sachets and of course the spindles.

Plant Roundup

Before the heat of summer comes it's nice to know what was there before it's just a dry patch of land with nothing growing.  Fortunately most of these plants should make it for quite a while save the hyacinth and snow pea plants.

The weeds last year are what really made the garden survive last year and i plan to let even more grow this year in hopes of keeping the heat at bay and saving precious ground water.  The rain barrels are full and ready for whatever heat comes our way.  Already people are complaining about the heat, 82 degrees.  I don't know what they plan to do when it actually gets hot.

Steady Rain

We planted some new plants early this week and just in time it seems for a nice steady rain to help them take root.
Among the new arrivals are four lavender plants so we can hopefully get a bigger crop this summer and fall of flowers to make spindles and other lavender crafts from.  We also got some parsley, basil, two kinds of thyme, dill and sage.
We purchased some flowers and a climbing jasmine that aren't in the ground yet but they'll get there.  In the mean time they're all out enjoying the showers.

Harvester Ants

From what I can tell these guys were harvester ants. I snapped this photo at the lavender festival at Blanco by the side of the road where the booth was located. They didn't seem to bother anyone, the little black ants did more of that.
I tossed a few pebbles on top to see how many would come out and defend the mound, not big pebbles mind you, just big enough to get their attention. Not many did but besides horned lizards I don't think many things mess with them.
I didn't see them bringing anything into the mound the ants mostly sat there and guarded the entrance. I guess it's the slow season for them.

Becker Vinyards Lavender Festival

We had a great time at the festival last weekend. With the weather holding off on pouring rain down upon us we were able to survive the sudden gust of cold wind. While I was standing there talking to some gentleman or other the wind blew in a good fifteen degrees colder in an instant and kept dropping for the rest of the day. Most of the visitors were either in shorts or sun dresses and hurriedly left to avoid getting a chill.
The decorations were all my wife's idea. The balloons were supposed to be giant lavender flower stalks. We never did hear what the results were for the best decorated booth but I'm sure they forgot to even worry about it due to the high winds otherwise we would have won.
My wife gave two lectures that afternoon. One was on the history of lavender and the other was on using lavender in cleaning and decorating. This of course goes right along with her book which we still have a few copies of but again need to reprint.



I got to get some pictures of the lavender fields they grow out there but never got to the grape vines. There are actually a lot more grape vines than lavender bushes. I saw them in the distance as I drove by but figured I shouldn't take pictures while driving. Come on, if texting or talking on the phone is a bad idea then pulling out a camera while holding it steady at something out the window and then waiting for it to focus right to take a picture is crazy. Which goes to show I'm not crazy.



The lovely folks at Becker Vinyards gave us this bottle of wine for my wife speaking. We have yet to open it but I'm sure it won't be too long until we have something for dinner, my wife being an excelent cook, that will pair nicely with the wine. Fortunately she's supposed to be in contact with them for a lavender day some time soon and we can get some more when it runs out.

Room to Grow

We have peppers! In this area we have five pepper plants, labels kept with them so we would know what they were when we got around to picking peppers off of them. Really though it shouldn't be that hard if they've ripened well enough. If I knew my peppers better then I would probably be able to tell from the look of the plant. They really do look different.

On the front porch we have another area of plant growth. The lavender really wants to be planted in a sunnier place and has decided to reach for the sun as best as it can. The marigolds are hanging off the other side apparently content with their pot in life.

Out back the garden is doing well enough. It really has grown since this picture especially in the back where the onions have taken off. It's mostly green now. Some of the tomatoes in the middle don't look so well but I'm going to wait until the tomatoes ripen before I decide what to do with the plants. I think I might have to remove some of them. Not to worry though, I have plenty of small tomato plants that are eager to take their place.

What to plant...

Well, the onion was sewn back in January and has been growing very nicely for over a month now. I have some lettuce seed, dill seed, carrot seed, beet seed and some old heriloom squash seeds that need to be planted. I should probably clean up the back yard a bit before planting so I can make sure I have plenty of sun for all of it.

Also coming in the mail are the hops rhizomes which I plan to plant near the drive along with some lavender bushes.

The fig tree has already put on green tips. AMybe it knows something the rest of us don't. Short winter maybe? We can only hope for a long cool growing season.

Green Soap

We're looking in to making soap and I was curious about what we could put in it that we already had growing around the house. come to find out there is quite a bit that can be used in making soap. Most of them unfortunately need the oil extracted out of them.
For instance, lavendar and rose will need to have their essence extracted using enfleurage or extracting into a carrier oil. The rosemary and lemongrass on the other hand can be distilled and the oil trapped and stored.
A couple of the other plants are yarrow and aloe which can be added without these processes.
It will still be some time before we attempt our first batch but we have plenty of help.

Mexican Mint

I still need to plant the mexican mint in the ground even though it seems to like it on the widnow sill. It's even putting out some nice little yellow flowers.
As far as where to plant it, I have been told that it looks really good next to purple flowers so I think I'll find a spot near the lavendar bushes.

Front Garden Layout

There's more to it, but below are pictutes from the roof again.

This time it's of the front gardens. I've placed them so they are in order. The top edge of the top picture is the street we live on and the right side is our driveway. The tree shown is a 9 year old oak that came with the house. I can only estimate it's age from what our neighbor tells us.

The bottom of the bottom picture is the walkway leading up to the front door. The right side is our rock garden and the left side next to it has our pepper plants, mums, hyacinth and iris.

The planting strip along the upper part of the gravel walk has lamb's ear, parsley, lettuce, cabbage and sage. The lettuce can be seen in both pictures.

The large cloud of yellow is our fennel. I really should figure out something to make with it before it dies off...

On the corner of the drive and street there are two small lavender bushes. Too bad most of the plants aren't recognizable here.

The middle round area in the top picture is where we decided to put the mint, chives, and other assorted herbs.