Ladybug Hatching from Larva

Yesterday a ladybug hatched from larva! It was so exciting!!! The larvae had been perched on our peony leaf for a week or so, and then finally...

Ladybug hatching!

Empty larva casing

Newly hatched and hiding 

Outdoor Classroom Experiment/ How Temperatures Affect Hybrid and Heirloom Tomatoes

Cultivating a variety of plants is a fantastic opportunity to observe science in action! The way heirloom and hybrid tomatoes grow is very different and noticeable when compared side by side. This year, we'll be studying how these varieties grow:

Pineapple heirloom tomato. Isn't the variegated red and yellow fruit gorgeous? The fruit is large and organic in shape, not perfectly round. 

In our region, the temperature rises very quickly. Larger tomatoes are a bit trickier to grow than the cherry and smaller fruits. Even with regular watering, they can split once the temperature rises. Logging the temperatures in a journal will help us estimate:

• At what temperatures the fruit tend to split more easily
• How long the fruit takes to mature at different temperatures
• What the ideal temperatures are for larger tomatoes vs. cherry 

What would the garden be without scientific observation? ;)

Chef Jeff's yellow cherry version is another premium variety we'll be observing. The bright yellow flesh looks so bright and beautiful! Again, our journal will chart temperature -- to see if and how temperature changes affect the yield, quality, and overall fruit size. 

Green Zebra looks to be absolutely breathtaking. Fruit like this is the reason people grow and treasure their heirloom tomatoes! Extraordinary, juicy, large green tomatoes boast impressive yellow variegation. How tart will this green variety be? Only one way to test...

Of course, you always need a control group. Super Sweet 100 is a common red cherry hybrid available at the big box home improvement stores. Any guesses on how it will fruit compared to the yellow specialty variety? Will it continue to fruit well past the larger varieties? 

Growing Dramatically ~ Black Krim and Indigo Sun Tomatoes {Heirloom Grafted}

Goodness gracious, the Black Krim tomatoes grew over an inch in diameter this week! The larger tomatoes measure over 3" in diameter.

Black Krim heirloom hybrid cluster of 3

Newer, bigger Black Krim cluster of 2

The Indigo Sun cherry tomato heirloom hybrid is covered with clusters like this one:

Indigo Sun heirloom heirloom grafted

Some of the clusters are ALMOST ripe. They're not bright yellow yet, still green. I couldn't resist and tried one but it was not sweet. Super juicy though. Can't wait until we taste our first ripe one!

Growing Garden: Final Radish Harvest?

The radishes were a fantastic success! If you are looking for an easy, fast crop then give radishes a try.

Big radish! It was left longer than its 35 day harvest date.

Interesting heirloom/fancy shape

Whatever big sister does, little sister copies. Sophie was dying to help pull radishes. No way! There's other plants in that barrel that are still growing. I didn't want her overzealous hands to pull them out. Instead, we gave her a big bowl of water and she washed the dirt off the radishes.

Eh. It's still dirty. But hey, she's only 3.

Every time I think we've harvested the last of the radishes, another plant appears. Are the gnomes planting extras at night? Anyway, I think this is the LAST radish plant. It's gone to seed, if you look close you can see the flowers. Madeline wants to leave it a little longer so it will grow bigger.

Can you see the flower?
It's a bit fuzzy, but it's as close as I could get.

The tomato seeds have now taken over the radish barrel! They are now at the two-thirds up the tomato cage. No tomatoes yet though.

Are you growing radishes? If not, what's growing in your garden? I'd love to hear about it :)

Outdoor Classroom: Berry Blossoms

A few years back I planted a blackberry bush. At least, I think it's a blackberry bush. All the canes except one little survivor went to plant heaven. My 65 lb. hunk of furry love {Tank}, used to stomp through it while barking at pedestrians passing by our fence.

Since it has never bloomed or fruited, your guess is as good as mine. But this week, two new canes popped up and the existing cane is blooming! And a few berries are emerging from the blossoms.

Blackberries? Raspberries? We'll see...

Madeline even called the bush our 'blackberry bramble'. She remembered the term from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM. 

This year we've been sprinkling the base of the canes with soil acidifier. Maybe that's the difference? 

Outdoor Classroom: Snakeskin Discovery

While tending the garden, we found this little creature...
or at least what was left of it.

The little snake must have died a while ago. All that was left was the skin. The little eyes were still intact, though dehydrated. Very cool!

Just a small garden snake, the diameter of a pencil. They like to hide in the back of my garden beds. With super tiny mouths, humans need not worry about bites. Their diet is primarily small creatures {like earthworms and snails}...so they are a welcome part of our ecosystem :)

Outdoor Classroom: Tiny Black Krim Tomatoes

Our second heirloom hybrid grafted tomato plant has fruit! Hopefully, the Black Krim tomatoes will grow large and dark purple/black. Supposedly, the hotter it is ~ the darker the fruit. And it gets REALLY HOT in Dallas!

So far, this is what the emerging fruit looks like:

Growing...and about 2 inches in diameter

I'm thinking we'll count how many fruit are on each plant every week. That way, at the end of the season we'll be able to tally how much fruit each plant gave total. Good plan?

Outdoor Classroom: Bees, Bees, Bees

Bees, bees, bees. They just love the salvia. I kid you not, there are always at least five or six bees buzzing around this plant.

Can you spot the bee?

Lately my camera has been a source of frustration. Not because I don't love it. But sometimes it would be nice to splurge on some additional lenses, especially one for close up work. My camera requires shooting objects from a few feet away, so cropping is a must. I just wish for a bit more detail and close focus.

But lenses are soooo expensive. And not in the budget anytime soon.

Guess that means doing the best with what I have! And shooting lots of pictures to try and share some of our life with you.

So back to homeschool. Madeline is constantly curious about the bees. She wonders if she should be scared of them...I tell her only if she bothers them! They have never stung any of us, we just let them gather pollen until their little hearts are content.

To foster her curiosity, I've requested some books on bees from the library. Maybe she'll be less weary of them if she understands them better. So excited for the books to come in:

UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings

Busy Buzzers: Bees in Your Backyard (Backyard Bugs)

The Honeybee Man

Do you have any bees that like to visit your yard? How do you feel about them?

Outdoor Classroom: Do You Know the Difference Between and Butterfly and a Moth?

The salvia in our garden attracts butterflies and bees galore. We spotted this little creature and wondered...is it a butterfly or a moth?

This little creature has been fluttering around for days

It was a bit fuzzy like a moth, I wasn't sure. But with this handy butterfly vs. moth comparison chart, the answer presented itself. What do you think?

Growing Garden Experiment ~ Heirloom vs. Hybrid Tomatoes

Science experiment in the garden! This spring and summer, we've decided to experiment with with hybrid and heirloom grafted tomatoes.

The first group of specimens are hybrid tomatoes sown from seed. The feathery young leaves on the top right are the tomatoes. I honestly don't remember which variety they are.

Tomato hybrid seedlings, about $3 per seed packet at Lowe's

Because the kids and I are impatient gardeners, we also bought two (2) young hybrid plants as our second set of specimens. Their common name is Lemon Boy. The fruit are large and yellow, so I am hoping they will be interesting to grow!

Lemon boy plant from Home Depot, about $4 per plant

The third set of specimens are heirloom grafted tomatoes. We've never grown this type of plant and have never had good results or yield with traditional heirloom tomatoes.

However, these plants graft the top of a heirloom variety plant onto the base and roots of a hybrid plant! Supposedly, this increases the yield by 50%. Plus, you get incredibly unique varieties of tomatoes that just can't be found at big box stores.

These heirloom grafted plants cost about three times (3x) the cost of hybrids from the big box stores, but they were also about three times as big. Very healthy with plenty of flowers too. And I can't wait to see all the interesting tomatoes they produce!

Plant with variety of heirloom tomatoes, cost $12/plant at
Calloway's nursery

Heirloom variety with purple tops and yellow bottoms, cost $12/plant at
Calloway's nursery

This heirloom variety is nearly black in color! Cost $12/plant at
Calloway's nursery.

Since my old tomato cages were broken and old, they were replaced with these fun green ones. No more boring gray! Home Depot also had them in a dark raspberry, orange, and aqua. Fun colors!

If you are having a garden experiment, please share ~ I'd love to hear about it and get more ideas for the garden...

Growing Garden ~ Eggplant Musical Chairs

Sometimes, plants just don't stay where you want them. This is the pot where we sowed eggplant seeds. Notice anything wrong?

Where did the seeds and dirt go?

Thanks to my 65 lb. hunk of love, Tank, the pot somehow fell over. I tried to put the spilled dirt back in, but somehow it ended upturned again.

I gave up. And then saw this:

Eggplant? 

I'm about 90% sure this is an eggplant seedling. There is a set of four of them on the edge of the walkway a few feet from the original pot.

For now, I'm taking a wait and see approach. I guess they just didn't like that pot and found a new home ;)

Growing Garden ~ Carrots Emerging

Look what finally has started growing...the feathery tops of our carrots :)

Potted carrots and lillies

Science/Horticulture: Yikes! Frozen Seedlings, Week 2

Even though all our plants were coming out of dormancy, a late freeze hit! Madeline freaked out and wondered if her little seedlings would survive. Actually, she downright panicked. So we covered them with lots of leftover fall leaves in an effort to insulate them.

Poor marigolds, I saved the flowers for the seeds.
Then I piled up more leaves to protect our little seedlings.

In the span of two days, the temperature dropped from nearly 80 degrees to 21 degrees. A 60 degree difference. How's that for crazy Texas weather?

Two days later, there was still evidence of the freeze on the ground and in our pots.

Small bits of frozen ice in the camilla pot. The big buds
seem to be fine and are still opening into their flowers as if
the freeze never happened. 

We carefully removed our layers of leaves to see if the sprouts were survivors. Just a couple had a tiny bit of leaf burn, but no damage to the stems. And most were absolutely perfect!

Minor leaf burn on just a handful of sprouts.
No damage to stems and secondary leaves are sprouting.

Most seedlings are just perfect. Whew!

Wondering if the leaves that had damage are a different plant than
the rest? We'll find out soon enough.

All the flowers and new growth on my peach tree and hummingbird plant died. Madeline and I don't know how or if our peach yield will be affected. This is our first spring with the peach tree, so I hope we get more flowers and don't lose fruit!

This led to a wonderful discussion on farming and weather. Madeline was shocked that framers could lose an entire crop {and their monetary profits} due to late freezes or extreme weather. She decided we should definitely not be farmers and only grow crops for fun! 

She even remembered about farmer Fitzgibbon from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and how he had to try to predict the last frost so he could plant his crops. We talked about what would happen to the crops if he planted too early or too late. She definitely has a whole new appreciation for farmers!

I'm tempted to keep a few leaves in case another late freeze comes our way :)  How are your seedlings faring? Any close calls? Tips for saving them? 

Science/Horticulture: Sprouted Seedlings, Week 1

Just seven days after planting seeds, look what appeared...

Tiny sprouts breaking ground

Exciting considering we had a light freeze! You can tell the marigold did not fare so well with freeze :)

My best guess is that the sprouts are radishes. They are usually the quickest to sprout and the quickest to harvest. 

Can't wait to see what the sprouts look like in another week. Nothing yet in the carrot or eggplant pots. 

Our Backyard Classroom ~ Has Spring Sprung? {Sewing Seeds and Horticulture}

The backyard is our outdoor classroom. There are so many opportunities for learning. Plants, weather, little creatures like insects and worms. A comfy swing to sit and write.

The weather has been awesome the last few weeks. As in 70-75 degrees beautiful! And then I saw this...

My peach tree is in bloom!

To be fair, my peach tree is in the front yard. But still ~ it's in bloom! Time to get the our backyard classroom ready for spring :)  It's just too gorgeous not to be outside.

When I opened my back door, a surprise was waiting for me...

Bright fushia camilla blossoms

Madeline was adamant we buy some new seeds. Every year, we try growing something new. It's a fun way to experiment with life science. Here are this year's selections:

Cherry tomatoes, fancy radishes, eggplant, colorful carrots,
and mammoth zinnias

Sowing seeds is the easy part. Trying to figure out what you planted...always a challenge. So we used rocks as plant labels. My trusty Sharpie should weather the elements just fine.

So excited to grow colorful carrots. A new experience!

Last year my hubby bought me an amazing hydrangea for Mother's Day. It was supposed to go in front of the kids playhouse in the shade. It died. Or maybe it went dormant. It was ugly. I threw it away.

That left a big empty pot. Not very attractive just filled with dirt. Empty pot, meet your new friends ~ Camilla and Hosta.

Newly potted red camilla + variegated hosta and grasses

And since my mosquito plant froze, I added a gardenia to its pot next to the camilla. Now the girls have their own little playhouse plants :)

Can't wait for fragrant, white blossoms

It's time to say goodbye to winter. Before our little trip to the garden store, everything was so brown and barren. Thus, a rush to buy whatever few flowers the garden store had.

But look! The butterfly bush is sprouting tiny green leaves.

Ranunculus flowers were pretty much all Home Depot had. They are so beautiful, but bulbs last such a short time. Luckily, the butterfly bush behind it should be vigorously growing by then.

So excited for Spring! Get ready outdoor classroom, here we come :)