- STEAM Garden
- Apr 30
Updated: Jun 3
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 like native milkweeds in your STEAM pollinator garden, too.
April 2
Rue (Ruta graveolens) is a valuable host plant for black swallowtails and giant swallowtails. Its flowers are rich in nectar, the plant is perennial, and it is deer resistant. The black-foot daisy growing near the rue is also covered in flowers. It has the same qualities as the rue, and the flowers of both plants will bloom and produce nectar until the first freeze. These plants also have the same water, light, and soil needs so they grow well together.
Our ocotillo is dormant, or dead looking, most of the year, but today it is covered in leaves because yesterday we watered it deeply! Foliating occurs quickly after a good rain, or a good, simulated rain. Ocotillos are said to be drought-deciduous because they lose all leaves when the soil is dry and regrow them when conditions change. Hopefully we will get some rain and see this dormant/active cycle a couple of times this year. Sometimes red flowers appear on the tips of the stems after precipitation, too.
Last year I planted inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) for the first time. I seldom buy plants that are not nectar and pollen producers, but this ornamental grass can grow in partial shade, and it provides a hiding place for insects, toads, and the anole lizards living around the rock wall. It is also a host plant for several skippers, and the dried seed heads provide food for animals in the winter. It is growing quickly so I think we will have oats this year.
April 2
This is Big Red Sage (Salvia penstemonoides) and it was once thought to be extinct. It is still rare in the wild but is being saved by backyard gardeners like me who plant it, propagate it, and share it with others. I now have twenty seedlings that will be ready to transplant in fall. It is a salvia, and not a penstemon even though its flower looks like a penstemon flower and penstemon is part of its species name. It is an unusual salvia because it mounds, and it has large evergreen leaves that look polished.
These columbines were seedlings in the fall and now they are providing nectar in less than a year. Columbines are perennials and an important addition to our STEAM garden because they grow well in areas of dappled shade. They bloom in March when they are visited by the first wave of male hummingbirds and then the females use them for nectar when they arrive in April. Columbines self-seed so watch for seedlings that you can nurture in situ, transplant to a new garden plot, or pot and share with others.
Cedar sage is a fantastic plant for shady areas in our STEAM garden. It is a native perennial that blooms early in full shade (less than three hours of direct Sun) or partial shade (four to six hours of Sun). In the wild, it grows under juniper trees (Juniperus ashei) or in oak tree groves. This shade-loving raised bed has columbines to the left, cedar sage in the center, and pigeonberry to the right. Jewel-of-Opar is seen along the bottom of the photograph.
Pincushion (Scabiosa atropurpurea) has rosette-forming flowers that extend on long peduncles. Garden pollinators adore it, and so do I. The beautiful flowers on long stems reach for the Sun and sway in the wind. Recently, I was saddened to discovered it is on the Texas Invasives list! I admit, I continue to grow a few of these plants as annuals in a very controlled environment and use it as a talking point for invasive species.
Our antelope-horn milkweed plants (Asclepias asperula) are blooming. This milkweed, and green milkweed (Asclepias viridis) are critically important host plants for monarch and queen butterflies. They are nectar-producing plants, deer resistant, and drought hardy once established. Both of these species of milkweed grow naturally along the butterflies’ central migration flyway.
April 2
Finally, butterflies are visiting the STEAM garden! So far this year, butterfly sightings have been few and far between. This Red Admiral is visiting a scabiosa plant and a Pearl Crescent is on a 4-nerve daisy. We have early blooming nectar plants ready for more pollinators. I hope they find us soon. I think the on-going drought and exceptional early heat is affecting their numbers, but I've also read that some species are declining nationally! Sightings of Red Admirals has dropped by nearly 50%.
This is the time of year when seedlings emerge voluntarily in our herb garden pots. In the fall, when mature plants develop seeds, we collect and scatter them on the surface of the soil around the parent plant. We always have some seeds that make it through the winter and sprout in spring. In this photograph you see Thai basil seedlings. We will saturate the soil with water, use a spoon to dig up the largest seedlings, and transplant them to 4" pots or a flower bed. Bees and hoverflies love basil flowers so we grow more than we can eat.
Look at these mature well-established plants. On the left is Brazos penstemon and on the right is Lyre sage. These are two more examples of early-blooming, nectar-producing plants. These perennials are good STEAM garden plants because they are also drought-tolerant and deer resistant. Collect seed heads that have dried on the plant, shake the seeds onto the surface of a pot of soil or garden bed (do not cover with soil), gently moisten the surface area if you don't get rain, and new plants will grow in spring.
April 5
Our Swanflower pipevine (Aristolochia erecta) plant is developing flowers!! These flowers are hard to see in the grass-like leaves. Compare the developing flower on the left to the fully developed one on the right. We also grow white-weined pipevine (Aristolochia fimbriata). Both are host plants for Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies. We hope to raise 200 of these Swanflower plants this fall so we are excited to see flowers that will produce the seed pods we need.
Our Nectar Patch 1 and Nectar Patch 2 look great. It is exciting to see the non-evergreen perennials emerge from their winter dormancy. Some take longer than others as they wait for the soil to warm. We always fear they died, even though we know they probably didn’t!
Some of this year's late emergers include gaura, bee balm, lantana, and goldeneye (Viguiera dentata). I can see by the crowns that they are still alive, so that is good! I'll be patient.
Several years ago, I was given larkspur seeds by a neighbor and friend. What a wonderful gift that keeps giving every year. The children’s book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, is a perfect STEAM garden story-time activity for young children; however, I enjoy reading it myself, year after year. A few larkspur plants produce hundreds of seeds that spread easily, so be prepared to find plants happily growing in unexpected places. They are usually gone by the first week of June.
I need to get rid of this plant, and I will…today. I grew it for its beautiful flowers, but I have learned that all parts of Datura wrightii are toxic, not just the seed pods which I had been removing. It is also called moon flower, and like other white-flowered plants it attracts nocturnal pollinators. This is one plant I can't give to our chickens or longhorns, either.
We are adding four more rain-harvesting tanks to our multiple STEAM gardens. When they are installed, we will be able to collect 15,000 gallons of water in nine tanks. Every 1" of rain on 1000 sq. feet of rain-harvesting surface results in 623 gallons of water in the tanks. However, Central Texas has been in drought conditions for over two years. One-inch rains are few and far between these days, but May is sometimes a good month for rain. Let's hope so!
Is this a giant mosquito? No, it is a crane fly (Tipulidae). If you see one, try to get close enough to observe its very long legs, one set of wings, and slender body. Despite its name mosquito hawk, it does not eat mosquitos. Adults only live for a few days and if they consume anything it is only water or nectar. Crane flies have been on Earth since the Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era (Age of Dinosaurs).
This sedum definitely looks like hair cascading out of a head-shaped planter. Sedum flowers, large and small, attract pollinators because they produce nectar. All varieties of sedum are easy to grow and need very little care once established. This makes sedum an interesting plant for a STEAM pollinator garden, and it grows in heights from inches to feet.
April 20
These sweet tomatoes are the size of green peas. I was given a few 'special' tomato seeds in the late 1970s by a group of naturalists near Brenham, Texas who were raising and preserving heirloom species. For fifty years, I have grown these tomatoes and collected seeds. I think this is Solanum pempenellifolium, the original tomato from South America.
Verbesina encelioides has many names, but Cowpen Daisy is my favorite. These annuals self-seed profusely, sprout thickly, and fill the garden with blooms for months every year. We are constantly thinning emerging seedlings! This wonderful wildflower is a strong nectar producer, and it is a host plant for the bordered patch butterfly. To keep it in check (or within boundaries) remove seed heads before they disperse, or plant it in a location where overgrowth can be mowed.
Today we have a first! Our newly planted passion vines are flowering. What a welcomed sight! We have added eight passion vines to our gardens this year and hope they will be heartier than the two we planted and lost last year. We need them as host plants for the Gulf Fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae incarnata [Riley]) that visit our STEAM gardens to feed on nectar from lantanas, verbenas, and asters.
This is, Pumpkin, the rescued warehouse kitty at the Dinah Zike Academy, and he caught a mouse!! He has adopted Dr. Rhonda, the director of the Academy, as his human; this is her desk.
Pipevine swallowtail caterpillars are consuming our native swanflower pipevine plants! I need to move them to the white-veined pipevine plants so I can protect and harvest the seed pods of these special natives! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I hope to raise about two-hundred native swanflower plants before next spring. I have to be diligent to protect the plants and the seed pods before the caterpillars eat them.
We have four chickens that repay us for taking care of them by producing eggs and manure. They have a large, secure enclosure, but sometimes we allow them to roam under supervision. Pepper, our garden rescue cat, finds them as mysterious as they find her frightening. I'm not sure if she thinks she is hidden behind that sunflower plant, but I'm pretty sure they see her!
We often get clusters of fungi growing in our gardens. To grow, fungi need organic matter (like compost and mulch) and moisture. As organic matter decomposes, heat is generated and nutrients are released. We got six-tenths of an inch of rain yesterday, and our STEAM garden is a breeding ground for fungi today.
This is the largest, healthiest winecup (Callirhoe involucrate) plant we have ever grown. Flowers cover the sprawling mat of vegetation produced by this one plant. Winecups grow along highways and in fields in zones 4-8. Flowers open in the morning and close at night.
We will divide the root ball of this plant in the fall, so we have even more plants next year.
We have hired a local drone operator, Dustin Castro of Surface to Air, to document the growth of the plants in our STEAM garden. Today was our first drone shoot. We plan to record a flyover four times a year to compare and contrast seasonal changes. This is another way to use technology in a STEAM garden.
We moved our tub of balloon plants (Campanulaceae family) from a shady location to full sun, and they have exploded with flowers and buds. Garden visitors love seeing the balloon-shaped buds and the star-shaped flowers of this perennial. We have learned to “…move it before we lose it.” We know we have to be aware of the health of our garden by analyzing the soil, light, water, temperature, nutrient, and space needs of each plant.