Greg Storms was the first to point out the giant wasp while we prepped an area prior to planting our cache of zizotes, Asclepias oenotheroides, the milkweed at the new Zizotes Circle garden in Harlingen’s Hugh Ramsey Nature Park. “Tarantula wasp,” he said. We didn’t doubt him for a second — the thing was as…

  As the Thursday RGVCTMN crew of Ramsey Park volunteers finished a project, we ended up with a small clearing ready for re-vegetation. Before we could contemplate what to plant, a surprise visitor appeared. We saw him talking with Frank Wiseman, and then he was gone. However, he had kindly offered us some milkweed plants.…

It’s rather fun digging in the soil in Ramsey Park. What once was a landfill is now covered with more than 250 species of plants native to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Sure, there are pockets of dastardly Guinea grass, but that can be dug up easily enough with a garden fork (and a lot…

Nothing is quite so elegant as a freshly-mown lawn. The opposite, however, can be full of surprises. Many of our chapter members have come to the Valley and purchased a residence with acreage. Overwhelmed with information after TMN training, new graduates sometimes don’t know where to start. I’ve told a few people to quit mowing…

Not often, but sometimes, I feel compelled to help out Mother Nature. For instance, twice this month, one of my cow pen daisy bushes has been thick with butterfly larva. What was a lush, green bush one day, was suddenly sickly looking with little black blobs all over it. The blobs were Bordered Patch butterfly…

Ever wonder what quail eat? A couple of years ago I overheard someone say that quail babies can’t eat seeds; they rely on low growing plants to provide insects. Although I often wondered what I could do to provide quail with food to help them prosper, I never remembered to research when I sat down…