Basil Seeds

The basil plant has done really well this year.  Usually it flowers, makes seeds, and dies.  It's made seeds fairly well but has kept on growing despite the heat.  I've watered every day and sometimes twice so that probably helped keep it going.

The picture here is from after the flowers have pollinated and the seeds are forming.  It's not quite ready yet but soon there will be hundreds of seeds to save.  Basil has been consistent with how it produces and seeds so it's a no brainer that it would be one of the staple plants in the garden.

After the heat dies down and the green onion flowers again, it too is pretty much guaranteed to make seeds and possibly baby plants along side them.  This is in addition to splitting which they don't always seem to do.  Or if they do I don't realize it.  Of course only two green onion plants survived last winter's freezes.  Most of the new plants are either from seeds or new transplants from the store, a pretty reliable source for new plants.

The flowers have surprised me though.  We bought chrysanthemums and they have held on pretty well.  They have flowered throughout the summer, coming back when the weather cools a little from the 100's.  Of course that's been a few weeks but I already see new flowers forming and hope they bounce back hard with their color.

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

Pot of Potatoes

One of the many pots I've used this year has potatoes, among other things growing in it.  As you may be able to tell from the picture, it also has mint, beans, and corn.

The potatoes are growing so fast though that the other plants, besides the mint, are not keeping up.

The pot is pretty deep though so I'm hoping that at least I'll have some nice potatoes after the season is over.  

They were started from a potato that I hadn't gotten around to cooking that had started forming eyes.

Patio Anoles

This little guy has been hanging around the patio for a few days now.  I'm hoping the greenery will keep him well fed with little critters.  Pretty sure something has been eating my plants and leaving a bit of leaf litter.  At first I though it might be bunnies but the pattern doesn't seem to match.  Bugs are more likely the culprit.

One of my earliest memories is of these guys outside my grandparents houses.  Down in Southwest Louisiana it's warm and humid, perfect conditions for these guys to thrive.  We'd catch them and put them in a box to carry around.  they can change colors depending on where they are from bright green to brown.  Fun to watch them change.  Also in the spring they puff up their throats with a big red fan and pulse to attract other anoles.

Five Leaf Green Bean Plant

You've heard of four leaf clovers, well I've got a five leaf green bean plant.  I'm sure it's just a clump of leaves that didn't make a new stem out of the previous leaf area but it still looks cool.

The garden currently has lots of leaves growing.  The basil has doubled in size since last week and the cilantro is growing even faster.  No need to go to the grocery store any time soon for these.

The single solitary carrot has no flowers yet but it's already five times bigger than any carrots that tried growing last year. The new leaves seem to just keep coming.

The green onion at first seemed like it might die back after the scapes were done growing and making seed but there are now even more leaves than they started with.  Lots of brown of course as the old growth gives way to the new though but that's to be expected.

The tomato plants should be making flowers any day now.  There are surely enough leaves but I plan to add a little more dirt and thin them  just a little more so there isn't so much competition for nutrients.  An of course feeding it all.  There are still inkcaps growing in the large pot.  I think the dirt was still more mulch than dirt and needs some decomposition. They're doing what they can and should be excellent next year if not by this summer.

Fairy Ring Mushroom

To start, I am not an expert on mushrooms.  That being said I'm 99% sure that this is a fairy ring mushroom.  I did not however eat it since there is still that 1% chance I'm horribly wrong and would die.  Not good enough odds.  In addition to these pictures it had the most wonderful mushroom smell.  When I think of a delicious mushroom, that was the smell I got.  But again, 1%....

If you have any skill at identifying mushrooms I would love to have a second, third, and even fourth or more opinion on the variety of mushroom this is.  In the off chance I can get a positive identification, I placed the mushroom on one of the pots outside on top of mulchy dirt in hopes that it would propagate.  I keep the area plenty watered and who knows I might get a delicious meal out of this.

I found this and several others of the same type while hiking in the woods in south east Oklahoma.  The trees that were around were pecan, cedar, oak, and a spattering of others.  Trees I can identify more or less, mushrooms not so much.

The pictures are several hours after picking and are only slightly darker than they were when picked.  Some of the others had a slightly flatter look and the edges started to become wavy.

At this point in the garden they have shriveled and turned brown.  I don't know if any spores were released or if anything will happen but if anything does happen I will revisit the variety at that time.

In the mean time, please comment and let me know what you think.

Female Dimorphic Jumping Spider

This little cutie was spotted in the corner of my patio hanging out waiting for a meal and allowed me a moment to take this picture.  

Fortunately for everyone she isn't that big.  This is way zoomed in.  It took a while for me to identify this spider since it wasn't listed as even being this far west but you know how animals are, they don't know where they are, just if they like being there.  Since I put in the small patio garden there are plenty of things for her to eat.

I started out looking for a list of Texas spiders and it was actually very limiting since most of them were larger spiders or the ones you might worry about if you got bitten.  Then I looked for colors like red and brown.  This too was limiting and not a lot of help.  Then I remembered she jumped to a railing piece from the corner so obviously a jumping spider.  I looked at an images of jumping spiders and way down I saw one just like her.  I say her because the males are entirely black and about half the size.  

As with most jumping spiders she isn't a danger to people.  For starters they would rather run away from you.  For those on the more worried side their venom isn't enough to do much to a person.

Butternut Squash Transplant

This is the attempted transplant of a seedling.  When I pulled it up it had what I though would be plenty of roots for it to transplant well.  This is it a day later.  Kinda shriveled but still pliable and still a new little leaf in the middle.  I mounded the dirt up a little more in hopes it would keep it from baking when the sun hits it today.  I'll go look at it late this evening when it's shaded again.

This is one of several that I was going to pull out anyway since the area is quire crowded.  I didn't know how many seeds might sprout so I planted way to many.  Still only about half of them sprouted.  If I had planted 5 or 6 then I may have only ended up with 1 or 2 plants, maybe 3.  As it is, I can pick and choose which plants will keep growing and get rid of the weaker seedlings.