In the Garden with Dinah

December 1, 2025 This was a difficult year for my carnivorous plants. The drought, high summer temperatures, and low humidity levels made it impossible to grow them in their usual outside-aquarium display. Since July, I have been caring for them at my house and recently in the new glass greenhouse where we added a humidifier. In spring, we hope to redesign their original open-air aquarium into a climate-controlled display so they can return to the public gardens.   December 6

November 1 This adorable young man is exploring our rock-stacking station. The gravel we have in our herb garden area includes a variety of small, flat stones that are fun to find and collect. We encourage garden visitors to stack them to form mini-carins. This is a good eye-hand coordination activity for young children and it demonstrates the force of gravity as students experiment to find a point of balance (center of mass) using irregularly shaped stones. I find it calming

October 2 I’m sorry we have to cover this host plant (Aristolochia fimbriata/White-veined Dutchman’s Pipe), but it is necessary to prevent this pipevine swallowtail from laying her eggs on the plant. Once again, we are running out of food for pipevine caterpillars even though we planted 75+ additional plants in spring. Once again, we are protecting our denuded plants so they can recover and grow new stems and leaves. If eggs were laid now, all caterpillars would die from a la

September 1-5 We have multiple earthworm habitats throughout the gardens, but this one is designed for easy access to a handful of earthworms for observation. I salvaged a metal box that is large enough to hold our plastic worm composting bin, and Luis added hinged doors that can be latched. (Raccoons would love to visit this earthworm buffet.) The plastic inner bin is smaller than the outer metal box so surrounding air and added leaves or hay will help insulate this mini hab

August 1 We have a herd of about twenty deer in and around our gardens. This buck ventured close to the gardens for a cool drink. Despite the recent rain, this area is still in drought and deer frequent our wildlife water sources. We deal with deer damage in our gardens by numbers and diversity . We have ¼ acre with around two-thousand plants that consist of over 100 species of perennials and a few annuals. We focus on species deer do not consider palatable, but few plants ar

Hello Readers, Friends, and Fellow Educators, This month's Garden Journal by Dinah shares pieces of her personal experience with the devastating flooding in Kerr / Kendall County and the Texas Hill Country. The DZ Academy, the STEAM Garden, Dinah herself, and her team were fortunate to remain unharmed; however, we are deeply aware of the profound loss and disruption this disaster has caused for so many of our neighbors, friends, and local businesses. We know this is an extrem

June 1 About 250 pipevine caterpillars have eaten most of our pipevine plants and now they are going on what we call ‘walk about.’ We see them scurrying in and around black tubs, over mulched walkways, and up the sides of fences and buildings. They are looking for a place to construct a chrysalis and begin the process of metamorphosis. In the left photo, you can still see the caterpillar, but the transformation is beginning. The right photo shows a fully developed chrysalis,

May 2 These are my black and white garden companions!  Sophie is 14 and acts as my personal security detail. She is a short-haired border collie who herds our cats, chickens, and humans. Pepper is five years old this month. She is our COVID baby. We rescued her when she was two days old. Thankfully, we had time to give her the care and attention she needed to survive, but she missed socialization. She hides when visitors enter her gardens so you might not see her, but she wil

April 1 Parsley is an easy herb to grow. It can be eaten by the gardener or by the caterpillars of black swallowtail butterflies ( Papilio polyxenes).  This is a young black swallowtail caterpillar. To avoid predators, it looks a lot like bird droppings. Its appearance will change as it develops and passes through several instars. This is the time of year to plant annual butterfly host plants like parsley, fennel, and dill. Include as many perennial host plants as possible l

March 3 Fortunately, my cold frames are full of very healthy perennial plants that are ready to be transplanted. In this photograph you can see pipevine, columbine, coreopsis, scabiosa, and sedum plants in 4” pots. This cold frame is made from stacked cinderblocks and either black shade-cloth or corrugated fiberglass, depending on the season and air temperature. We use a large sheet of thick plastic to cover the entire cold frame when temperatures remain below freezing for l

February 2 Winter is a good time to add organic matter around established trees and shrubs. In this picture, Luis Sanchez is adding layers of cardboard, compost, and mulch around our peach trees. February 3 On this day in 2023, we had an unusual group of students visit the Dinah Zike Academy. Unfortunately, they have not been back. We should have offered them TEA Continuing Education Credit! 😊 February 15 In 2024 the wild turkeys visited the STEAM garden, about 3 blocks from

January 13 It looks and feels like winter, but the horizontal pastel stripes on the horizon make me think of spring. This magnificent view was from our back porch this morning. It is time to begin preparing the STEAM gardens for our pollinator visitors. January 14 We have been removing tape from cardboard boxes, cellophane windows from envelopes, and binder clips from old file folders so they can be used as weed barriers in our new spring gardens. Hint: It is easier to remove