more random pics...

Mother and I went to visit friends of the family... Actually, more like family than some of my actual family... I spent a few minutes taking some pics... They have a circular planting bed in the middle of their driveway. Origionally it had two half dead crepe myrtle trees in it, but since they've moved in, about 4 years ago, they've dug out the grass and started planting things... these are some cosmos that self seeded from last year...

And these are cushion mums... In our climate, crysanthemums sprout in spring, bloom in early summer, then go into a heat-induced dormancy before resprouting and blooming in fall like a normal mum...
And these are self seeded petunias. Sometimes, when you buy petunias and plant them, they scatter seeds, and this is pretty much what you'll get next year... plants that bloom in various shades of white, lavendar and purple.

although, sometimes you'll get a surprise... look at those bicolors in there... These have been self-seeding for about 3 years now.

and here's some day lillies...

scrunched right up beside the daisies...

And this is our hosts father, aged 78, who was sitting on the porch whittling a mockingbird...

He's really a very talented carver. I have my order in for a cane with a horses head handle, but he's got a very long list.

Of course, we stayed for a late lunch featuring fresh leaf lettuce from the vegetable garden, and zuccini fritters...

Mix together

2 grated medium zuccini (or large yellow squash,)

1 grated carrot

1 small onion

1 egg

add enough flour to make it all stick together good (about 1/2 cup)

and Salt and Pepper to taste

Fry by large spoonfuls in hot oil till brown.

Serve immediately.

Simple and yummy... you can vary the ingredients or seasoning to individual taste... maybe a minced jalapeno if you like spicy?

So, my Memorial Day weekend started out pretty well... Hope y'all have a great one!

just a drive by post...

The first harvest from my straw bale garden... a zuchini... dinner tomorrow!

And the purple coneflowers have started to bloom...

And at work, I was walking into an office for a pick-up, and a mourning dove took off on a paniced flight... Stupid bird had built her nest right by the front door of a business...

And that's it.

Not too exciting I know. I got off work and stoped by the hardware store - I walked in on the opposite side of the building as the nursery dept... I'm learning! - to get a bracket to replace the rusted out one that held the wheels on the lawnmower. Tried to mow last weekend and the wheels fell off...

Well they don't sell the brackets. They'd much rather I buy a new lawnmower than repair the one I had. So I had to go over an buy some little metal pieces that they sell to brace cabinets and I got home and spent a good hour rigging that thing, and I was sitting there feeling all proud of myself. Then it dawned on me... now I have to mow the lawn.

I knew there was a reason I claim to not know how to do these things...

later.

thorns in the mail...

Actually, it started out as a thorny day... I had to do a couple of what I thought would be simple errands, so I called dispatch and told them I'd start late... well, of course, simple errands turned into bizarre rituals, and I ended up missing a day of work, which I really didn't want to do... but when I finally got home, I found three little plants in the mail...

I had sent out the cemetary cactus a few weeks ago, and that wonderful Aiyana had sent me some plants back...

The plant at the top of the triangle is Chamelobivia 'Fire Chief' the one to the right is Chamelobivia 'Rose Quartz' The one to the left is what we believe Echinopsis 'Elegant Lady'

Really, it was totally unnecesary to send me anything. But, these really cheered me up, and for that I'm grateful.

And once I started potting things, I kept going... I started by cutting up a few pieces of fence wood to make a tray. I use these to display little plants that I root up to sell in the Flea Market and I have some to take in next weekend... The first one I made, years ago, surprised me... people want to buy the things! I have no earthly idea why, but who am I to turn down 10 bucks... it's just a piece of fence wood that you find by the side of the road on trash day after a good storm blows through, and an old belt that you cut up to use for handles. Old horse-shoes make better handles, but they're hard to come by.

The boot with plants in it sells well too... something to do with Texas no doubt. Then I planted a bunch of Semperviviums chicks in an old tin can... I'll either use this to size them up to sell or maybe just sell the whole darned thing. There's a very old tradition of Hen & Chicks in old tins, galvanized buckets or enamel pans, growing on front porches...

I then I planted up this Strawberry jar...
I collect pots from rummage sales, and I like to plant them up, but I really don't have room for all of them, so I wait for them to root good and sell them off... I can probably get 15 to 20 for this at the flea market. It would be more than double that at a nursery, but I'm just pulling these out of the yard, so I don't really have any money in them...

And the final pics are of the infamous "Prickly Pear Jelly Cactus"

Looks like I'm going to have a great deal of fruit this year...

So it turned into a pretty good day after all...

Random stuff...

I didn't have anything around to merit a real post, but I did have to let everybody know that I was still around, so here's some random pics that are in the camera... thought I'd go ahead and post them before I deleted them...

This is Spectre... (yep, another black cat. It's been a theme since I was a kid. Grandma said 'If there's a black cat within a mile of that boy, they'll find each other!' ) Spectre is a cat that wanders the neighborhood and has decided that sleeping on top of my shade-porch is a good thing... I have a love-hate relationship with random cats... On the one hand they can cause a certain amount of trouble. On the other hand, if there aren't any cats in the neighborhood, there are rats... given the choice of cats or rats... I'll take the cats... Spectre is nice enough, as long as you don't get in her face. She tends to watch me a lot as I work in the yard, but I can't get within 6 or 7 feet of her. She may tame up eventually though...
This is the Pereskia aculeata v. godseffiana that I saved from Home Depot. I had it in a previous post when I first got it... Pereskias are cactus, even though they have leaves, and aren't succulent. The godseffiana is the more colorful cultivar of the plain green standard species. Normally, the plants bloom in the spring, but there is sometimes a second blooming in the fall... since this didn't get to bloom in the spring, I'm hoping I'll get a couple of blooms about October or November. He was barely hanging on when I first got him... but now he's recovering from the chain store... It's almost enough to make you break out into a chorus of "We Shall Overcome"

These are a couple of Scissor-tail flycatchers that I snapped when they were perching on the fence at a warehouse I delivered to... These are the state bird of Oklahoma, but they're common through Texas too... This is probably a mated pair. They hunt by sitting still till they see a bug, then swoop down and attack, a process refered to as 'hawking,' so often when people see them, they think they're seeing some type of barn swallow. However, the scissor-tail can hover in place for short periods, about 5 seconds, which I've never seen a swallow do.

And here's Phennig, sitting in the yard. He seems to be giving me an opinion on what he thinks of this unmowed grass. Obviously, I'm going to have to get to work.

And that's about it for the moment.

Rocks & stuff...

I finally, and belatedly, have to think SAM at http://learningtoheal-walk2write.blogspot.com/ for the wonderful box of specimen rocks that he sent me. He had a little trivia game, and both Julie, at http://asucculentlife.blogspot.com/ and I won... although I am proud to say that I knew what fossilized dinosaur poop looked like and she didn't... What can I say, I'm a Texan, we know manure when we see it...

Now I'm certainly not a geologist or a rock hound, but over the last few months I have been picking up rocks here and there, with the ultimate goal of setting in another rock garden. Most of them are just native rocks that I get when I deliver to various sites... I always ask if I can take them, and the construction crews really don't care.

But in amongst them, are the occasional fossils...

And I sometimes find an ammonite... Though not a complete one yet...

And these are my favorite fossils, althought they're probably the least significant. Rocks with holes all the way through them... (Mom always jokingly called them holey rocks) These are the fossilized tunnels of worms and such digging through the mud...

I do have a fossilized nautilus... but I can't, for the life of me get a decent pic of it...

and that's my rocks. Nothing too exciting, but I'm afraid that's about the best I can do today...

All sorts of stuff...

When I'm working... I supposed to be chock full of all sorts of customer service skills...

And, I'm usually pretty good about it... I smile alot, I'm chock full of yes ma'ams and yes sirs, and I even laugh at tired one liners... but today for some reason I wasn't quite able to muster it up. I tried. I kept telling myself to just smile and get on with it... but I'm afraid all I was able to manage today was a semi-polite indifference.

We all have bad days I guess...

Part of the reason is that the summer heat is starting to hit right after 2 really wet weeks and it's humid out there... I felt like I was walking through soup. But I did manage to stop by the side of the road for some wildflower pics... I thought it might cheer me up a little. Didn't really work, but it was a nice break...

Here's some Indian Blanket, or Galliarda. It always amazes me when I see these in seed catalogs.

And the next two are Yucca filamentosa blooming in a field of Coreopsis...

I also stopped in a city park and saw a Duck and ducklings...

And when I got home, the Prickly Pear had it's first bloom open today... of course it was closing up by the time I got here, but you get the idea...

And really that's about it....

later!

A plant and a rant...

Well, true to my blog name... When I post, I usually have a rant, or I have a plant. Rarely will it be both in the same post. Today it is... Lucky you! Aren't you glad you clicked onto here today?

I should start with a little background info I suppose... here's the previous post from a couple of weeks ago...
http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2009/04/cemetary-cactus.html

This is about the cemetary cactus... Specifically the Escobaria missouriensis that were deliberately planted in the cemetary. I didn't tell anybody what cemetary, because these are ancient clumps, and very valuable... well I had a little time off in the middle of the day, and I was within a mile, so I dropped by... the plants would still be in bloom, and I wanted to have a good look into the older part of the graveyard... see if I could pick out the oldest plant... more for something to do than anything else.

Well, the graveyard had recently been mowed... and here's the result...

They mowed right over the cactus... beheading the little guys!

As far as I can tell, this is the oldest clump... on a grave dating from 1891. The plant was probably decent sized and at least 25 years old when it was planted here... the total size was about 3 feet by 1 3/4 feet...

Now it won't kill the plants totally... most are pretty low to the ground to begin with... this next pic is old damage, probably from last year... the black/brown mass in the middle is what will be showing up here soon...

Now, I did start picking up the cut off pieces and knocked off pups from the plants... (Yes, I know it's probably technically stealing plants from a graveyard, but I absolutely dare anybody to tell me that I can't pick up grass clippings if I danged well want to... and besides, I was so burning that they're lucky I didn't have a shovel with me to start salvaging plants... You don't go around haphazardly damaging 100+ year old plants then start whining when people decide to save them from you...and if I did have the shovel on me, and I also saw the lawn maintenance man... well, I would have a shovel and it IS a graveyard... figure it out.)

This is only a fraction of what I got...

I should be able to root 90% of what I picked up...

The truly awful part of it is that those plants were worth from $25 to $200 each... easy... I've seen old clumps bid up to dizzying prices on ebay... and now, this scarred up and deformed, they're not worth 50 cents. I have no doubt they'll survive. They evolved to survive being trampled by buffalo herds. But they're ruined now...

I would try to contact the Cemetary Association, and try to get permission to remove the plants that are in harms way. But, I know Texans, and I'm 99 percent sure they won't give it... I may start a career as a cactus poacher.

But as is... I got some winter hardy cactus rooting... anybody want one?

Ink caps and coriander...

Well all this rain has resulted in an absolute invasion of ink caps in the straw bales...

Sure, they're cute now... but by this afternoon they will have turned to black goo...

I don't really mind. My research on them says that while they're not edible, they're not poisonous either... their non-edibility is probably related to their general ickiness... even when they're in their cute adorable stage, you can't pick them... they fall apart and the heat from your touch begins the melting to goo phase... but their myceliums (ie: mushroom roots) are very busy converting the cellulose in the straw to something that the plants can use to grow, so I'll let them be...

Next year, if I do the straw bale thing again, and I probably will, I'm going to innoculate them with oyster mushrooms. I figure that if I'm gonna grow mushrooms, they might as well be edible.

And next, we have coriander.

Well, not exactly.... This is Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata)

I use this to replace cilantro or coriander leaves in most of my recipes... primarily because I can't grow cilantro here... our summer heat makes it bolt to seed before I even get a decent leaf. They're a decent replacement, although they don't taste exactly the same... the flavor is a little deeper, with a peppery overtone, but it's close enough for all practical purposes. And while cilantro looses much of it's flavor when it's cooked, this doesn't...

Originally, I bought plants from the nursery, but you can't always rely on being able to find them... This is cutting I got from the grocery store.

If you go to Asian groceries, there tends to be a large amount of leafy greens. This, like most of the herbs, is sold fairly cheaply... usually 2 or 3 bunches for a dollar. The last time I bought some, I put a few stems in water to hold them, and they sprouted roots.

I know from experience that you can't just stick them in a pot and grow them though... the little cuttings will promptly lose their leaves and the stems will die back.

What I did was put them in a pot of soil then set the pot in a bigger pot that has no drainage and filled it with 3 or 4 inches of water. (Don't cover the top of the inner pot) Essentially your taking the plant from water to mud. Then after 3 or 4 days, I take the pot out of the larger pot, and let it begin to dry out... so now I'm going from mud to soil. And now, 2 weeks later, the plant has tripled in size and roots are growing out of the bottom drainage hole.

It's now ready to go into a hanging basket, where it will end up looking a lot like a Tradescantia ie: wandering jew, or out in the yard, where it will make a bushy viney kind of plant to about 2 feet tall.

Whichever, it will be getting more sun than it is now, and the undersides of the leaves will turn red and the top of the leaves will get dark half-circle markings. You can see the barest hint of them in the bottom close up pics.

It's closely related to smart-weed, a plant often found in abandoned lots, and occasionally eaten... not by me though. Here, in my climate, it can survive the winter outside, although after it begins growing in the spring, late frosts will kill it off.

By the way, this method of rooting works for other plants that don't transfer from cuttings in water to cuttings in dirt real well... some of the fibrous rooted begonias, impatients and basil come to mind...

Storming outside...

And it will be all day tomorrow too...

way too much rain. I know that some of my potatoes have already rotted in the ground... this is Texas... We're supposed to be dry, right? Actually, 2 weeks of rain as spring turns into summer is typical here... not quite monsoon, but close enough for me!

This morning, before the rain hit, I stopped by a tailgate sale... It's a fairly new phenomenon in the states, but I understand that "Boot" sales, (boot being what the British call the trunk of their cars) have become quite the rage in the UK. The way it works is that you load the trunk of your car, or the back of your pick-up, take it to a parking lot where a whole bunch of other people have loaded up their vehicles, and sell everything in it... The result is a bunch of people cleaning out their closets mixed with a bunch of people who deal in flea markets for a living, selling stuff. Kind of a condensed rummage sale. Usually the person who owns or controls the lot charges a fee for the sellers to park... anywhere from 10 to 20 bucks.

Anyway, I didn't really find much, mostly because I wasn't really in the mood to buy... I was just there to avoid mowing the lawn (didn't work by the way, I still had to mow when I got home) but I did find these little guys...

Here's the story... (bear in mind that it was being told by the guy who was trying to sell them...) The guy grew up in Arizona, and these cactus grew wild at his Mothers house... when he moved to Texas he brought a plant with him, and everytime we get a rain storm, some little pieces break off and he roots them. He said they were called Boxing Glove Cactus. They'll grow a bit, then form a 'Fist' on top, then more little branches will come out the side and do the same thing... and so on and so forth...

Well, if the story and description he gave me is accurate, it's the monstose form of the chain cholla, or Cylindropuntia fulgida var. Mammillata Monstrosa. And while he said he keeps his in a pot and carries it in every winter... it's actually hardy to 15 degrees farenheight, and I can grow it outside here... WOO HOO... they were a buck each so I bought two... one to pot up and bring in this winter and the other to leave outside to test it's hardiness... Supposedly, it can get to 8 feet tall. Hmmmmm

All this rain lately has gotten some fungus going... these actually showed up in my tomato straw bales... I'm not worried about them, they help decompose the straw into somethng the plants can use. And they're kinda cute...

The straw bales are actually working out well in this rain... they do retain water, but they drain well enough to avoid the root rot that plauges gardeners this time of year here...

And my annual battle with these little critters has started... CACTUS WEAVELS!


I've always called them cactus weavels. I don't know what they actually are... all I know is that they show up every year and the pierce the pads of my prickly pears to suck the sap and in the process make them look like this...

See those ugly yellow dots? NOT ACCEPTABLE. They won't kill a plant, but they will weaken it. And once a cactus is scarred, it's permanant. This happened when I tried Grandmas method of dried garlic on the roots to make the plant unpalatable to the critters. It works with most plants, but it evidently doesn't work with cactus. So back to insecticides... I tend to use Pyrethrin, simply because it's less toxic to people and pets than most other sprays. It's made from the leaves of English Daisy, if you have some of those around, you can actually make a tea and produce your own. I don't, so I have to buy it...

If anybody out there knows the exact name of these pesty things, and a totally organic method of controling them, please tell me! These plauge the prickly pear that produces the fruit Mom uses to make jelly every year! And don't tell me to pick them off by hand... you can't pick them off without wearing gloves, and they don't make gloves that allow you're hands enough dexterity to pick them off... God knows I've tried!


Later folks.

What I saw meandering around...

A better pic of the cactus flowers... got this pic when I got home at 6:30 pm yesterday.

and now that I've softened you up with a pretty flower pic... here's something that isn't quite so pretty... Black Vultures. If you can get past their dining habits, they're actually fascinating animals...

And if that isn't creepy enough, they're dining outside the Rehoboth cemetery...

The Black Vulture isn't quite as shy as the larger Turkey Vulture. We do see these a bit further in town.

Vultures are gregarious birds, often nesting in groups of up to a hundred, which split off in pairs to look for food during the day. Often Turkey vultures and Black vultures will share the same nesting areas. They're very clumsy on the ground, but are fantastic flyer's. While they prefer fresh meat, they can eat meat that has started to decompose... primarily because there is not a single known microbe that can survive their digestive tract. There is enough remaining stomach acid in their droppings that it is antiseptic... and if they do get a scratch or cut on their faces or feet while digging through a carcass, they use their own droppings to sanitise it... Other than this habit, they're actually very clean birds, spending much time grooming their glossy feathers.

All rather gross, I know, but they are rather interesting birds which perform a very neccesary function in the wild.

And extremely hard to photograph... they're smarter than you'd think. These were fine as long as I stayed in my truck, but the minute I pulled my door handle they recognised the sound and took off. I'm on the Northern edge of the Black vultures territory, the Turkey Vulture, with dark brown plumage and a red neck and head is larger, shyer of humans, and also common here.

There are some people who can't get past the bias against their dining habits, and sometimes shoot vultures on sight, only to find out that these species are protected under the migratory bird laws, and that they can be fined up to $1500 per bird.