292/365 A Thief and a Killer

Earlir today, my mom noticed this little guy in our unfinished butterfly garden. He would run up a stake planted next to the flower, reach out as far as he could to grab the stalk, then drop back to the ground with it so he could eat the flower. He did this for a good 20 minutes before my desire to get a closer shot startled him.

Sadly, over the next few days, he ATE THE WHOLE THING. And what he didn’t eat, died a very sudden death.

I guess butterfly are not the only creature who finds this plant nom-able.

 

279/365 Stop And Smell The Roses

Today was busy with cleaning, organizing, laundry, yard work and cooking. However, during all the business, I did take a moment to stop and admire the beauty around me.

273/365 Ho’n Is Hard Work

These bad boys kicked my arse this evening. Next time I decide to build a new garden bed where grass now grows, Gil is totally bringing out the tiller.

258/365 Live and Let Live … or Kill These Suckers Now?

I discovered some caterpillars on my passionflower today. I know what caterpillars do to vegetation and I am not happy about the impending doom of my beloved flowers.

I found the caterpillars because I had been drawn outside with my camera to capture the beautiful butterflies fluttering around my bright pink flowers.

Yes. I know caterpillars become butterflies, but I didn’t exactly connect these dots right away. It wasn’t until I came in and started exploring the Googles with a search on “how to kill orange and black caterpillars” that I started to make the connection.

Did I mention how much I love my passionflower?

Then I started noticing a lot of images of these caterpillars, butterflies and passionflowers together. A few clicks later I came to realize that not only is this butterfly called the Passion Butterfly, or Gulf Fritillary, but my beloved plant is the larval host plant for this species.

So now I’m torn. Do I allow the leaf chomping larvae to completely defoliate my plant in the hopes of reaping the benefits of a backyard filled with the beautiful butterflies?

Well, what do you think? Let them live or save my plant?

 

251/365 No Day Off for These Mamas

We finally made the time to build Mama’s garden beds. It was supposed to be her Mother’s Day gift but she ended up working much harder than we had intended. I think she liked it though.

This is actually a picture of one of the little side projects we decided to do in the middle of building the garden beds. This will be Vanny’s Corner. We will plant a white rose bush in the corner and memorialize him with a decorative stone the kids are going to make.

PS….I kinda miss him.

PPS…Happy Mother’s Day, Mama. I hope you like the beds.

PPPS….Yes, Honey, I know I’m not a REAL Mama, but I am a kitty mama so that totally counts. Now stop rolling your eyes.

 

202/365 Backyard Flora

Before I got distracted by the little reptilian visitor on Sunday, THIS is what I was actually photographing.

 

201/365 Backyard Wildlife

While Gil was grilling, I grabbed the camera to take some pics of the jasmine we planted last year. It’s growing just like it should and each vine we planted is in full bloom. I did take a few shots but got distracted by this little guy trying his best to hide behind the greenery.

045/365 Cat’s Whiskers (It’s Not What You Think)

When I was pulling into our driveway today, I was really struck by the beauty of our plants on the front walkway. So, of course I snapped a photo to share.

A couple of weekends ago I went to the Fall Plant Festival with my mom. We go each time they have a show but we were on a mission this time.  We had picked up these pretty plants, Cat’s Whiskers, at last year’s fall show but a couple of them had died over the winter. We knew they would be hard to find because we actually bought all they had at the show last fall. I couldn’t go to the show on Saturday due to a prior obligation, so we planned to be there when the gates opened Sunday morning. This is my mom.

Yes, it was raining cats and dogs and yes, were were the ONLY customers the entire time we were there. And, yes, we are insane. But, we were on a mission to replace my poor dead Cat’s Whiskers.  Sadly, no Cat’s Whiskers were to be found. We had missed the few a single vendor had for sale on Saturday. Oh well, we decided to improvise.  I mean, we were there anyway and certainly couldn’t go home empty handed. This is what we got instead. Now we have this lovely crimson and white walkway to our front door.

Roll Tide!

PS: Thanks to mom for planting and taking care of all of these plants. We all know what would happen if I was responsible for them.

PSS: While searching The Google for a link to Cat’s Whiskers Plant, I found this.  I think I want more of these and less of those green things growing in my front yard. Sorry, it was too good not to share. 🙂

007/365 So So Succulent

I love succulents. LOVE them. When my mom mentioned there was a special succulent plant show at the USF Botanical Gardens, I knew I needed to be there. Thank goodness we got there when the gates opened. There weren’t a lot of vendors and I would dare say each of them probably sold out before closing time. Mom and I were able to pick the cream of the crop of itty bitty alien looking plants. This made me very happy.

Here’s our haul.

Here’s a silly artsy shot of the beautiful rock garden mama created.

I took several shots tonight, but because I waited until after dark AND the flash on my camera phone is pretty brutal, this is probably the best shot of the whole garden, not artsified. Okay, maybe it’s not the best shot but it’s the one Monkey photo bombed. Obviously, it’s the one I chose to post.