Monthly Archives: June 2009

Anyone up for a field trip?

Bison help to restore grass prairie near Lewisville Lake 12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, June 27, 2009 By WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning News whundley@dallasnews.com Robert Vaughan emptied a sack of “buffalo candy” and called out to a herd of 30 bison grazing peacefully in a field at Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area. Photos […]

Share

What’s Blooming Today?

It has been just too miserably hot (and busy) lately to get out in the garden.   And it’s beginning to show.  The plants are all starting too look as wilted as I feel whenever I step outside the door.  It is already too hot by 10am to really feel like I can get much done.  […]

Share

Heat Advisories!

It’s still June and we are already having 100°+ days!  According to the weather station at Rheudasil Park in Flower Mound, today’s high was 99.7 degrees.  AccuWeather.com is forecasting tomorrow’s high to be 102 degrees with a “real feel” of 108 degrees.  Heat advisory, humidity, “real feel” – gardening seems all but impossible.  And the […]

Share

Texas Star Hibiscus

They’re blooming! Hibiscus can be annuals or perennials in our area.  Most of the really fancy hibiscus are annuals even here in the DFW area but this particular hibiscus,  Hibiscus coccineus or the Texas Star, is a perennial and is cold tolerant all the way to zone 5. There are several cultivars – ‘Frisbee,’ ‘Southern […]

Share

Forget-Me-Not

While I am away. While I am away from you, When we must be apart; Take these words I give to you, And tuck them in your heart. Keep them there inside of you, For only you to hear; Then if you’re ever lonely, Just know that I am near. You are the very sunshine, […]

Share

Ginkgo Biloba

The Ginkgo biloba is originally from China and is an ancient species that may date back as far as the late Permian period of the Paleozoic Era.  That’s about 260 to 251 million years ago – the age of the dinosaurs.  That is before the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.  This tree must be doing […]

Share

Meat Free Spaghetti Squash Dinner

We have been eating meat free a lot this week.  In spite of the tornado. we have been able to harvest a few wonderful veggies: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash. Garden Fresh Spaghetti Squash OK, so the spaghetti squash I actually bought, but most everything else was from the garden. Ingredients: Spaghetti squash, tomatoes, peppers, yellow […]

Share

Allergy Free Gardening

I borrowed this book from the library, but I may have to buy a copy. Basically, the drive for fruitless trees in landscaping has led to higher and higher pollen counts in urban and suburban areas.  There is no such thing as a trash free tree, it either drops fruit (including nuts and seed pods) […]

Share

Tropical Blood Weed

I was introduced to this plant as a “Tropical Blood Weed” but it’s one of those that goes by many names including Scarlet Milk Weed, bloodflower, silkweed, Indian root, and Mexican Milk Weed.  Maybe it’s easiest to talk about this plant using its scientific name, Asclepias curassavica. In the tropics, this particular asclepias would be […]

Share

Cool Stink Bug

Are there any entymologists out there that can help me I.D. this guy?  Although a lot of stink bugs suck the sap from plants, some stink bugs kill other bugs.  I have no idea which one this is, but he doesn’t seem to be causeing a major problem in my garden.  But come to think […]

Share