Mornin' Petunia

It's about time! Late in the summer my dwarf petunia put out its first bloom of the year.  

I needed some purple. 

I don't have a lot of time as I am leaving in the morning for a few weeks at my sisters with her new babies. I can't wait to see what flora can be found in zone 4/5 this time of year! 

See you next summer, Texas heat!

A bird on the Hand

This cute young Mockingbird and I had a run-in at my front door and poor little thing was too scared to move! He stayed still as a statue perched on my gloves laid out to dry.  I actually took these photos from behind my glass door to try to avoid any further scare, but his mom was flying around squawking incessantly as if to tell her babe to "Get a move on!" (or warn us to stay away!)

Since he didn't move at all, we went out through the garage. It had occurred to me that the mom may attack us and I am never really OK with that situation. Bird attacks = not cool. 

Either way, they were both gone when we got home that evening, and can now be found in the backyard, where the baby is learning how to fly. How sweet! His hops are adorable. I hope to one day capture nature like that on film. 

Beneficial Bugs

Spiders can be some of the best natural predators to have around...provided you know where they are and steer clear of their webs. This garden spider is using a patch of monkey grass to spin its home in a nice out of the way place low to the ground.

The zig zag pattern in the middle alerts us that this is an Argiope spider, not a European garden spider.  Similarly, Argiope spiders are usually strikingly yellow and black whereas the the Europeans are gray and tan. Don't worry, there won't be a test over any material covered here.

I was shocked when I did my morning plant inspection and noticed this:

My dragon's blood sedum was covered in bugs! Yikes! I hurriedly snapped some photos for identification and went inside to research.  My anxiety lessened as I quickly learned this probably wasn't a bad thing, and in fact, could be a good thing.  These strange guys are assassin bugs, and I have actually blogged about their kind before here and here! I learn something new all the time. Anyway, assassin bugs are good in the sense that they eat/kill/assassinate pests from plants, and since my succulents seem a little susceptible to caterpillars lately, I am leaving nature as is. I am sure it will all balance out.  Gotta love good ol' Mother Nature.

NOTE:

The lovely Priscilla from Blossom Hideaway informed me that my comment section was not accepting comments. I reverted back to a simple boring template for now just to appease the comment Gods and plan to have a permanent solution sometime in August when I get back from vacation. Or maybe September. 

another Wordless Wednesday

[Albeit I have a lot to say, just not about my yard. ]

snail on watering can

dragon's blood sedum

Zwartkop aeonium

I have made it!

To the blogroll on Blotanical, that is.  Blotanical is a site that lists tons of  gardening blogs and such.  I joined a while ago, but just received word this morning that all was approved and Yard Day's Night is currently listed as a new blog.  I started this blog for myself, mainly, so if others actually enjoy it, that would be a total bonus. Happy reading everyone!