Here be Dragons

Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Well, not dragons exactly, but lizards of respectable size. One frequent visitor to my garden is this Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus).


He's a bit longer and plumper around the belly than the anoles that I was accustomed to seeing in Florida. These Texas Spiny Lizards are much faster moving as well. Once I shot the photo below he panicked and took off so quickly I lost him in the bushes.

The weather has been very mild here for Central Texas this time of year. We've had a lot of rain, which I love. Hopefully the Edwards Aquifer and Lake Travis will fill up nicely.

Now that I'm feeling better I'm taking walks again. I've enjoyed the purple blooms of the Vitex (Vitex agnus-castus) trees in my neighborhood.

I'd plant a vitex, but seem to recall someone telling me they are invasive. Must look that up. I'd prefer to add more native plants to my property that will attract the local birds, mammals and even more lizards like my little friend above.

Somehow all this lizard talk makes me think of that silly bumper-sticker..."Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy, and taste good with ketchup."

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Copyright © 2007-2009. Suburban Wildlife Garden. All Rights Reserved.

Snakes and Blooms

Hello! I've really missed blogging these past few weeks and am very thankful to be feeling better now.

There have been a few changes in my garden in the past month. My passion flower has grown up and over my back fence. The Mexican Fritillary continues to show interest in laying eggs on the leaves. I'm hoping for some caterpillars soon.

The passion flower blossoms offer a nice touch of color to my back garden.


A few days ago I saw this pretty snake (photo below) on my driveway. It was close to 4 feet in length with a narrow head. I'm not sure of the species, though I did check with the Austin Herpetological Society web links. A few walkers said they saw two other snakes just like it a block or so away from my house on the same day. I was glad when the snake finally reached the safety of the grass where misguided people would be less likely to see and kill it. The South Texas Poison Center offers some good advice as to how one can let snakes live in peace.



My container water garden continues to flourish. This week's waterlily bloom has a much longer stem than the previous flowers which seemed to just lay on top of the water before.



It really is lovely!

I'm also pleased that my pots of sedum are doing so well. My cuttings originally came from my great-grandmother's garden. I'm trying to grow the sedum as groundcover in some of my flowerbeds, but they seem to prefer containers like this one.

Speaking of groundcover, I have a mystery plant in one front bed that I have not identified yet (see photo below). I'm not sure if it's friend or foe, but the little purple flowers are cute.

I enjoy watching the activity in my front garden. The Cannas are blooming by the front stairs.

My Bat-faced Cuphea (cuphea llavea) is thriving in the warmer summer weather.

And this purple buddleja still attracts its share of butterflies, though some of the blooms are beginning to fade.

One plant that's in bloom all over Austin right now is a kind of Leucophyllum, or what some here call Texas Sage. I'd like to add at least one to my garden.

I'm hoping to visit some more flora-rich Texas sites like the Fredericksburg Herb Farm soon. And when I do I'll certainly blog about it.

"Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared." ~David Ben-Gurion

A Crazy Birthday & End of School Week

It's been a busy week with two birthdays at our house and school coming to an end. A dear friend was kind enough to send this pretty bromeliad arrangement to me for my birthday last week.

Last week I visited a friend's garden. She is concerned that her zinnias are dying. As you can see, they look pretty bad...


I examined the undersides of the leaves carefully, but could not catch anything in the act of munching on her flowers. I did notice some white spots on the surface of the leaves. I wonder if the zinnias have more than one enemy in this case. If any of you have an idea what she can do, please let me know and I'll pass along your words of wisdom.

I continue to be tempted by shade plants lately. This Ligularia was definitely calling to me on my return visit to the nursery.

I wish I had more time to blog this week. Once school is out I hope to be back in the cyber swing of things.

Happy Mother's Day!

I received some extra special Mother's Day gifts today. Not the least of which was a SpongeBob Squarepants Mother's Day card from my son along with some fun movies.

My garden even bestowed some special surprises by giving me my very first water lily bloom in my new container garden.

I'm very glad now that I bought this variegated waterlily, Texas Dawn at Hill Country Water Gardens.

There was some butterfly activity as a Gulf or Mexican Fritillary laid her eggs on my newly blooming passion flower.

And to top it off I found a lucky ladybug, coccinellidae, looking for aphids.

I spent Mother's Day weekend visiting some of my favorite haunts and exploring new places as well.

Our first stop was The Shady Grove for a relaxing lunch under the pecan trees. The topiary bear -- complete with sunglasses -- always makes me smile...

...as does the "Hippy Trailer" where you can rest while waiting for your table. This is Austin fun at its best.

After lunch we drove up Bee Caves until we saw a garden store we hadn't been to before. It's called Breed and Co. That urn looks familiar.

There was so much to see. Of course, I couldn't leave without buying 3 lipstick salvia first.

I wanted to drop by Barton Springs Nursery ever since reading about it in Pam from Digging's blog. It really is a great place. I enjoyed the water plants.

And my son preferred the aviary with parakeets, baby ducks and chicks.

We both liked the fountain!

I had my eye on this Rocket Ligularia, but wasn't sure where I'd put it yet. I have a feeling I'll be back.


At the end of the day we decided to drop by Amy's Ice Cream at the Arboretum. The ice cream is terrific as is the park next door.

My son likes to follow the stream all the way down the hill.

I followed him with my camera firmly in hand.


I knew where I'd find him!


These Arboretum Cows were carved from marble by Harold Clayton. The little grove holds five 'boulderous' bovines which my son loves to climb on.

And that's no bull.


Happy Mother's Day to all those who nurture and love.

A Fledgling Gardener's View

Look who sat on my solar fountain. A fledgling cardinal hopped and half-flew around my back garden for quite a while yesterday. I was afraid I'd scare her if I opened the door, so this is a through-a-glass-darkly sort of shot.

She stood on the fountain for almost 5 minutes, drank some water and even tried to peck at the metal dragonfly (photo below) before she flew into the nearby oak tree.

One way I learn what will grow here is by observing what my neighbors' have planted. Some beautiful blooms can be seen in their yards this week. This larkspur (Consolida ambigua), looks particularly colorful.

Even the wildscapes along my morning walk are lovely. I don't imagine anyone besides Mother Nature planned this grouping of cactus, stone and wildflowers, but it's pleasing to me.

As is this yellow stand of wildflowers (Thelesperma filifolium?).

I still do not know the names of all the plants in my garden. Below is another mystery plant left by the previous owner that I cannot seem to locate in my garden books. I may take a blossom to the nursery to see if they can give me a clue. Edit: Thanks to Susan, Robin and Annie for letting me know this is a Husker's Red penstemon digitalis. You ladies are a national treasure!

When I visit the nurseries here I'm invariably introduced to plants I've never seen before. But imagine my surprise on my last visit to The Natural Gardener Nursery when I saw these Dandelions for sale. If only I'd known there was a market for Dandelions in Austin, I could have made a fortune from the bushels I dug out of my lawn this spring.

Like the fledgling cardinal I'm not always certain of my 'way around the garden. I'm thankful for the Austin Garden Bloggers and local nursery staff who teach me which plants work in Austin and which do not. Thanks!

Butterflies, Hummers and Baskets

First of all, a big congratulations to Pam at Digging for her excellent article in the Austin American-Statesman. You're a talented writer and gardener, Pam. Thanks for letting everyone know about the Austin Garden Bloggers. It was a privilege to meet all of you. I'm honored I was included, despite my newby status.


The plants in my garden continue to grow. The front porch basket of petunias and vinca minor is finally starting to fill out.



My next project will be to make this bare front porch more inviting. I'm considering a rail basket and a planter topped with a trellis to add some color and structure to the porch.

Last week I laid a set of 4 stepping tiles under my back garden faucet. There's not much in that shady, damp space besides mud and tiny weeds at this point, but the tiles at least keep my toes clean.


I'd love to plant some moss around the tiles if I thought it would live. I saw some for sale at a nursery, so might just try a little as an experiment. If it doesn't work out, I may plant ajuga there instead.

Re-evaluation seems to be my gardening M.O. lately. For example, I was going to replace the crepe myrtle (lagerstroemia) in my front garden with a native Texas orchid tree. But this week I noticed dozens of butterflies on the crepe myrtle blossoms. I still want the orchid tree, but the crepe myrtle has won a reprieve.

Here you can see a Red Admiral sharing a blossom with a honey bee.

They don't keep their wings open for long. So this was a lucky shot.

I love watching the Banded Hairstreaks (Satyrium calanus) flutter about.

This little fellow seemed to stare at the camera defiantly as if to say, "What are you lookin' at?"

When the Banded Hairstreak lands he moves the false 'antenna' on the back of his wings with his legs. This fools an attacking bird into pecking his tail instead of his head so the butterfly is more likely to escape.


My hummingbird feeder was such a high traffic area with so many hummer 'wars' I decided to buy a second feeder. The Black-Chinned Hummingbird male cannot guard both feeders as well, so more hummers are able to drink in peace. Though peace is a relative term when it comes to hummingbirds. They seem to love bickering and chasing each other. Here's the Black-Chinned Hummer drinking sugar water at his favorite feeder.

Below you can see him coming in for a landing.

Made it!

I've noticed the hummingbirds seem attracted to the solar fountain when it's running. I keep trying to take a photo of them buzzing the spray, but they are so fast the shot has eluded me thus far.