Lemon cucumbers and mammoth sunflowers growing together. The local Titmice are just so happy with my selection! I see them out there picking at the seeds now that the flowers are bearing good seeds. Better get out there and save some for next year, before they are all gone!
Having a pond right outside your bedroom door affords itself to tons of nighttime pond watching. This year has been a little slow in the nocturnal water lily department, since it took a nasty bite when we had a late freeze. But this did not stop the Gulf Coast toads and leopard frogs from showing up!
Now this guy is BIG! Scared me half to death last night trying to put the toad screens into the pond filters so they wouldn’t drown in the filter. I had a hard time grabbing him and throwing him back out into the pond. He fought me all the way. But I got him tossed him back into the pond. He climbed right up next to me onto a rock to which he clung like it was his last chance at air!
Here’s Dick’s hand next to this fella. And when he’s stretched out swimming away – he’s even bigger. I sure wonder where he came from. I did not see him here last year. He’s certainly seen some younger days!
Here’s a younger fella – doing his nighttime love song routine….
Ahhh- young love…
I will be posting some more nocturnal adventures pretty soon, since there is so much stuff going on out there at night.
When I first moved to Texas I spent most of my gardening time building perennial beds and borders. Having never tried my hand at veggie gardening but wanting badly to do so, I started small with some container grown peppers and tomatoes. That went so well that in fall of last year I was ready for a real garden. Dick and I spent many an hour discussing location and shape and finally came up with a shape that we both liked. I didn’t want it to be a regular square foot garden. I wanted it to fit into the place with curves but yet still be functional. It also had to have some kind of roof to provide light dappled shade since the sun gets very intense here in Central Texas.
Veggie garden roof being built
We had to build raised beds since all we have here is caliche limestone soil and rock. More rock than anything else really, and nothing much will grow in that. I did spend some time pickaxing out the stones about a foot down, so that moisture could move downward unimpeded in case we got a heavy drenching rain. I wanted to use a stone to border to match the limestone fascia of the house. Dick spent a lot of time cutting the stones and making them fit together. We filled the gardens with soil and compost we bought form the Natural Gardener. Then Dick fenced the entire thing in to keep deer and rabbits out. For the posts he used cedar – you just can’t beat the weather and bug resistance of that glorious wood.
Tomato and pepper plants are in and growing and I have my lemon cucumbers are happily blooming already. We placed the garden pretty close to the house and the all important water collection system. I use only this water for the garden as it isn’t as hard as the city water and there is no chlorine in it either.
The project is almost done. We still have to stain the wood. I can’t believe the tomatoes plants have gotten so big.
I planted some huge sunflowers in there – just for fun. I had no idea they would climb out of the roof at over 8 feet tall!
Some of them are really pretty!
Although yellow is still a stunner!
I am in awe of Dick’s handiwork skills. He spent a lot of time coming up with this amazing pergola design. Nothing seems to challenge him, and if it does, he usually finds some awesome solution. He listened closely to what I wanted, even though I thought it could never be done and built something that is better than I could have imagined! Thank you Dick!!
A view of the top of the veggie garden from the pond.
I sure hope Kokopelli’s fertility powers extend all the way to the veg garden for extra productivity.
Spent some time walking around the pond this morning. Things are looking good – especially after cleaning out the old leaves, spent flowers and some stray algae on Sunday. The wildlife is going crazy with the warmer nights we’ve been having. Lots of matin’ , reproducin’ and raising young. Very busy indeed. Here is the inevitable picture of the pond again – I am sorry I just can’t help myself. Things have been changing so much lately, what with the warmer temps.
Each day the water lilies are popping up pretty new flowers. A sea of pastels!
And my lotus has finally sent out it’s very first flower!
Wow!
Frog populations are exploding: I have at least 4 or 5 cricket frogs, one pictured below clicking away. I love teasing these guys: You can trick them into calling to you by clicking two rocks together. This makes the exact same clicking sound and it drives the frogs crazy with passion or competition – since it might just be a rival male frog! Soon they puff up and start calling back! Makes me smile every time.
Tiny little fellas with amazingly loud sounds. Here’s a closeup:
The dozens of Rio Grande Leopard frogs are very content to lazily float around, much like us humans enjoy doing on a lake in the hot Texas sun on a balmy Sunday afternoon.
Or hang out with our buds on the nearest rock. I have no idea where these guys stashed the brewskies.
The Cannas are making their first display of the season. I spent Sunday fertilizing all the plants. I hope that the spectacular show continues.
This one in the bog is just stunning – never had an orange one before.
The other plants in the pond are coming along nicely. The Water poppy is sending out some lovely lime colored blooms. 
Yup it’s getting warm and the activity is speeding up. Summer is on it’s way! Even the domesticated critters are already enjoying the shade:
