GARNISH YOUR GARDEN WITH GAURA: HAPPY MACRO MONDAY

Gaura 'Siskiyou Pink'

In some ways, this Texas native reminds me of little orchids. The long, wispy stems can cascade over a rock wall, or mesh with agaves and other xeric plants. These were part of the planting I did up at our church during the blast furnace summer. As you can see, it's a survivor.

As with most wildflowers, the little plants aren't that exciting. But look at all those bloom stems!

Here's another image later in the day.

Visit our gracious host, Lisa, at http://lisaschaos.com/ for more great closeups.

Thanks for stopping by.

David/ :-)

WELCOME TRICK OR TREATERS TO THE ADDAMS FAMILY GARDEN

Morticia would be excited about this drought induced art! If you are 50+ years old, you'll remember the Addams Family TV show. Morticia was quite the gardener and even had a man-eating vine named Cleopatra.

Now for my Garden Spoof....



The Addams Family welcomes all Trick or Treaters to visit the garden! If you don't remember us, please watch our youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFD7KGBUtKI

Uncle Fester and Lurch will help the children pass safely through the garden.

Lurch will stand by the front agave bed. We don't want small children with masks to venture off the trails! Ouch!

There are even more spikey things over here. Uncle Fester will wave if you get too close.

Oh! And you might want to stay away from Cousin Itt's palm collection.

And please don't fall in Grandmama's Swamp Pond. The Piranha might get upset.

I'm a little worried about running out of candy. But Mr. Addam's says he has a back up plan.

Uh....hope we don't run out of candy.

I do hope you have time to play with Wednesday's aphid collection. She'd be thrilled.

Pugsley might let you hold his baby black vulture.

Thing might let you pet our baby opposum that keeps getting into our chicken run.

Of course the main attraction is Morticia's garden. The drought has put it in picture perfect shape. She's especially proud of the droopy firespike.

Morticia even wants to use the ferns in cut flower arrangements. I can't recall ever seeing them like this.

Mr. Addam's is so proud of his brown spots in the lawn. The drought came just in time for Halloween.

We left this spooky, dead tree for the woodpeckers but of course you can climb it for fun.

See you on Halloween night.

Morticia Addams/ :0)

IN THE STORY BOOK PUMPKIN PATCH ~ 2011 EDITION

Still looking for pumpkin decorating ideas? Well, you've hit the jackpot. Once a year I get to take you to my elementary school to see our annual Storybook Pumpkin Patch. Please enjoy the tour and tell me your favorites. These were decorated at home by parents and students for our library.  David/ :-)

Mike from Monsters, Inc.

Skippyjon Jones

The Swan from the Ugly Duckling

The Cat in the Hat

Chicken Little

The Very Hungry Caterpillar made by a Kindergarten class

Frankenstein's Pumpkin

The Frog Princess

The Great Pumpkin

Not sure...something about a Kitten

Pinacalicious(?)

Perry the Platypus

One of the Three Little Pigs and The Pigeon

Not sure, but she's cute!

Little Red Riding Hood

and finally.....R2D2 from Star Wars

That's it from this year's Pumpkin Patch. Thanks for visiting.

SMALL FLOWERS THAT GET STEPPED ON~ HAPPY MACRO MONDAY

Today I went out in the middle of our playground for an activity. From the picnic grounds, our school's field looks like just a field of grass. So you can imagine my surprise when I found these.  Take a look!

I think it's a tiny purslane similar to Florida purslane. Isn't that a nice color?

This is a groundcover called Sida. It is in the hibiscus family. Watch your step!

As a kid, I enjoyed touching the leaves of this member of the mimosa family. It's common name is sensitive plant since the leaves fold up as soon as you touch them. I wish I knew the Latin name.

Don't the hairs on these flowers remind you of snow? I have this 'weed' in my garden as well. It's quite pretty up close. Anyone know the name? The stems feel sticky when you pull them up. (Oooops! LOL)

And good old Crow Poison pops up just about anywhere. It was out there as well, but this one is from my garden.

Visit our fantastic host, Lisa, at http://lisaschaos.com/ for more surprises.

And please.....watch where you step! LOL

David/ :-)

DAD BRINGS A SURPRISE!

This month the chickens are finally old enough to lay eggs. So dad handcrafted a nice surprise for the hens.

That's dad on the left, our family friend Helena from Danevang, and my wife Melanie on the right.

Dad made the girls their own nest boxes! As you can see they loved their cozy new nests from the start. If you look carefully, you'll see Phoebe and Hoot already inside. Gwen (held by my wife) always needs a helping hand. She's talked (in chicken) the whole time saying things like "What's going on?"

I spent the weekend adding another area to the chicken run and hen house. Little Mary Marco Marie de la Boca de Gato inspects the new scratching area. She's a pullet and starting to grow the most beautiful iridescent feathers. She's our rescue chicken from a friend.

The new area will give them room to scratch around and dig during the wintertime. On nice weekends, I'll leave the gate open for them to free range SO THAT they can go back into the wonderful NEST BOXES and LAY EGGS. I learned that it's important to cover the area so that the hens can feel secure from hawks. Any alarm note from neighborhood blue jays send them scurrying for cover. And we DO have hawks in our neighborhood!

Fresh eggs! This week someone started laying brown eggs. Hoot lays the blue/green eggs, Gwen (the Australian Austrolorp) along with the Phoebe and Zeebee (the Barred Plymouth Rocks) will lay brown eggs. Mary Marco Marie will probably lay white eggs.

Here are the eggs for this week. Almost a dozen.

The nest boxes are a huge success along with that fresh country hay. Thanks, dad!

That's all for today.

Thanks for stopping by.

David/ :-)

MACRO MONDAY MYSTERY ~ ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS IS?

I'm stumped. This little guy finally bloomed and I had thought all along that it was Partridgeberry.  I'm not even certain what family it is in. I think it is evergreen. It is very small and grows very slowly. The blooms have a family resemblence to Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia). My good friend in Katy gave it to me this past summer and I'm hoping she will stop by and end the mystery. Thanks to all who can help. David/ :-)

Update: Thanks to our 4 botanical experts we can now safely say it's a Barbados Cherry. I've never grown one, this should be fun. Thanks all. :-) David



For more mysteries and beautiful Macros, visit our wonderful host Lisa, at http://lisaschaos.com/

Thanks, Lisa. :-)

13 FLOWERS IN BLOOM: HAPPY GBBD FOR OCTOBER

On the 15th of each month, Carol at May Dreams hosts a flower gardener's dream come true; a visit to gardens all 'round the world. You can find her on my side bar favorites. Thanks, Carol!
Now on with October's show! We got 4 inches of rain last week, so the garden is blooming like crazy!

Oxypetalum  'Heaven Born' is in the milkweed family and has bloomed for 3 months with no problems. I'm growing this one again next summer.

Here's a surprise. Our Golden Rain Tree had its first blooms this week. They 'rain' down onto the ground all month. It's a beautiful little tree called Koelreuteria paniculata.

Beautiful Turk's Cap again in bloom. Wow! Another one from my friend Cindy.

Lantana has my respect after this horrible, dry summer.

Yellow purslane volunteer. What a happy flower.

Ruellia has bloomed for months now.

All three shades of Four O'Clocks are in bloom right now.

This unusual Four O'Clock was growing wild along a river near Utopia, Texas.

Butterflyweed from my friend Cindy at My Corner of Katy.

Lantana 'Fruity Pebbles', an upright Lantana with leaves in sets of three.

Here are the fruity pebbles before eaten by Mockingbirds.

Big surprise. I've watched this volunteer grow all during the drought and now I know what it is: our native Goldenrod. That's nothing to sneeze at. All flowers are a welcome sight after this horrific drought.

Prickly Pear in a sea of lavender Lantana.

Aloe 'Silver Fox' in bloom.

Can you count the chickens? I found this display at our Hobby Lobby in Katy, Texas. I love chicken art since we have 5 live chickens of our own.

We got our first BROWN egg this week.

Well, that's it for this month.

May all your garden dreams come true.

Thanks for stopping by our garden here along the Texas Gulf Coast.

David/ :-)