My Mulberry Tree

I have a big, old mulberry tree in my yard. Not only does this tree make a great place for a shade garden, but with a bench addition, it's a great place to enjoy all the birds that nest in this tree. Among my favorites are the Western Kingbirds, a Mockingbird, and Orioles. Of course, the usual sparrows and blackbirds love the tree too. I also spot a lot of Bluebirds perched on the branches looking for insects.

The only bad thing about this tree is all the mulberries dropping all over the place right now! They are yummy and the birds love them, but there's more than enough for all as evidenced by the mess all over the ground. Don't dare sit on the bench without brushing them off of it!

Since the ground under this tree tends to be dry, I have to find shade plants that tolerate the dry conditions. I started some creeping myrtle a few years ago and it is filling in nicely. A couple of Coral Bells look really great this year and I plant some annuals in pots for added color. The annuals seem to do better in pots where I can keep them watered more regularly and the tree can't steal the moisture!

To read more about my mulberry tree check out my Squidoo Lens called Under The Mulberry Tree . There's more facts about the birds and a great Cherry/Mulberry Crisp Recipe.

Simple Water Gardening

Well, between the Kansas Tornado and then a trip to Kansas City to help my sister prepare for my neice's wedding, my prairie garden has been a bit neglected. The beauty of a garden planted with native plants is that it really doesn't take much care and other then a few weeds (not native beauties!) needing to be removed, it's really looking good. Of course, a wetter than usual start to summer has helped, too.

I've added a few simple water features to my garden and the one to the right is right outside my front door where I can hear the sound of the fountain inside the house. This was a really simple feature to set up. I found a long flat rock that fits across the back of the pot and holds the turtle spitter. In order to make a place for the plants to stand and hold some rocks I set a concrete block on its end in the pot and then used the front cage from an old fan that didn't work anymore (I'm an avid recyclyer, did I tell you?) and laid it face down on the concrete block. It's just a simple matter to place rocks inside the fan cage to cover it and to help anchor the plants.

The plants were pretty simple, also. I purchased a small chameleon plant and the other two reed-like plants were dug up from around the edges of our farm pond. Now, I know not everyone has a farm pond to dig up plants from, but if you live in an area where there is water and you would have access to water plants this is a great way to put plants in your feature. I put a small clump in a clay pot with some rocks or gravel in the bottom. When it's time to put up your feature for the winter, you can just dispose of the plants and save the pots for next year. You can also purchase water plants if you like.

You can overwinter your water plants if you have the space for a flat, under the bed type plastic storage container. I place it in a sunny window and set the plants into it and keep about 3" to 4" of water in it all winter long.

I also like to add a couple of goldfish to my water feature to help keep algae down and besides the grandkids love to feed them when they are here.

Use your imagination and look around for things you can use to set up your own water feature and enjoy the sound of the water during the hot summer months to come.

Kansas Gardening-with Wind, Hail and Tornado

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his spendor was dressed like one of these."
Luke 12:27


Yesterday was one of those gardener's nightmares. The wind blew about 30-40 mph out of the south all day. I'm glad I'm going native on a lot of my plantings. Even though they were bent over and whipped all day long, they just pop back up and keep on blooming!


Last night the storms rolled through. I took this picture of the sky around 8:30 or 9:00. It was like the clouds were rolling in long separate rolls out ahead of the storm. The first tornado warning came about 10:30 - right after I had gone to bed. It wasn't in the form of sirens - no such thing out here! - it was a call from mother-in-law saying the sirens were going off in Abilene. That got my attention!


Spent the next couple of hours going from window to window and door to door with the radio going, listening to all the sightings from all around us. When it started hailing, I started praying. We only had a little pea sized hail and as bad as that sounded, I would have hated to listen to the baseball sized hail reported around us!


I look around this morning and can honestly say that I need to count my blessings. We had no damage here on our farm - even my delicate flowers look pretty much ok.


I wish I could say the same for other areas. We are about 12 miles from Chapman, Kansas and that small town was nearly destroyed last night. I grew up in this county, went to school at Chapman High School, my kids and a lot of my nieces and nephews attended that school. I haven't been able to go there yet, but they say the High School is heavily damaged, the Middle School is gone and many other familiar places are destroyed. So far no one that I know was among the injured.


Yes, I am blessed. We'll be heading to Chapman later today to see what we can do to help. Please keep all the people who have lost their homes in your prayers today. Thanks for letting me vent and share today.

"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble, He cares for those who trust in him." Nahum 1:7