Category: Anita’s blog

Is terminology important? After all, I’m a Master Naturalist, not cramming for a Ph.D. in botany, ecology or zoology. The first thing they taught in journalism school was that every word has its own distinct meaning. They said don’t rely on the vocabulary you grew up with. Look it up, even if you think you…

Remember! It’s still tree-planting time in the Valley – November through February. The first criteria for planting anything in my gardens is, “what can it do for me?” Selfish, but payload is important. I want wildlife in my yard but not be a slave to it. Planting what nature wants gives me endless hours of…

I welcome January — Ordinary Time. The hustle and bustle of Hallowe’en-to-New-Year run now behind us. Now it’s time to plan new ideas, and refresh old ones – get out a new note pad, select new pen colors for 2016 and jot down ideas. Some of my ideas are: 1. What to write about next…

As the year wraps up, our 2015 new members end their first year, here’s a recap of what they may have learned: January – Not all debris should be cleared. Many now know to leave rotting logs and fallen branches no matter how tempting it is to make a nature preserve look as neat as…

November through February is tree-planting time in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The perfect umbrella-shaped canopy of the potato tree, Solanum erianthum, caught my eye. All the Valley nature park butterfly gardens have one, so it must be important. I bought a small, shapely tree. Not one to accurately judge future spatial relationships, I planted…

For those interested in a small, colorful butterfly and hummingbird garden, I’ve listed what’s planted around my potato tree in a 10- by 30-foot plot (listed mostly by height, definitely not by girth of adult plants): Caesalpinia, Caesalpinia Mexicana – attracts hummingbirds and butterflies Potato tree, Solanum erianthum, — all sorts of fun. See “Consider…