Its been such a long time since my last blog…I had this Water lily container pond for such a long time and never had it bloomed so profusely like in the past two years, that is ever since i added the mosquito fish in it.
I added at least 20 mosquito fish into the pond to curfew the mosquitos and eventually all of them turned belly up or so I thought. Then come the next spring the pond seemed cleaner and the lily is blooming back to back even without any fertilizer or pruning/repotting which was amazing. The one or two Mosquito fish that somehow survived managed to proliferate and brought back the population and they are thriving!
I’m so glad they survived and are annihilating the mosquitos 🦟 by their numbers and I still get to enjoy the fish and the ever beautiful lilies!
I am thinking of adding one more water container pond and planting another kind of Lily!! Will update how all that goes!
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I am a bit late…actually way too late on posting this blog regarding my garden…The garden was in full bloom in Spring!
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I found the first newly emerged monarch, (at least i spotted) of this year on a Clarkia taking its tentative steps, getting itself dry before taking its first flight ever! They take upto 2-4 hours to dry their wings after coming out of its chrysalis!
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My Yard has been in full bloom over the past couple of months…so many new plants and seeds that I planted last fall which will eventually bloom over the next couple of years like Fuchsia flowered gooseberry, Golden Currant, Coyote Brush, etc.
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Last year I had so much wildlife in my yard, I was so happy and I think I only managed to picture perhaps half of them…even after lurking behind the garden to find them for hours on end..!! I had so many caterpillars, butterflies, moths, larvae, pupae, eggs, lizards, birds, beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, wasps, and so many kinds of bees, etc.
This year on the contrary although the spring had begun I don’t see as many movements as I did last year but I am hopeful they will show up sooner if not later!
Tried to save this Cabbage White Moth who was out in the hot summer sun by providing some sugar nectar. Unfortunately he didn’t make it! Cabbage white MothJune Beetle On California Native Wild RosebushJune Beetle on a Moringa treeTobacco Hornworm Caterpillar on a Green Pepper plant Tobacco Hornworm Caterpillar on a green pepper plantPainted Lady Butterfly on Moringa flowerPainted Lady Butterfly enjoying the nectar from a Moringa flower Monarch Caterpillar underneath the California Native Narrowleaf MilkweedMonarch caterpillarFresh Monarch Pupae Tried to save this Monarch PupaeUnfortunately it didn’t make it. Dead Monarch PupaeSaltMarsh Caterpillar on Chapparal honey suckleCarpenter Bee on Moringa treeSaltMarsh Caterpillar on Chappral Honeysuckle plantCarpenter Bee on a Moringa treeOrb weaver spider on Lemon treeRabbitbush Hooded Owlet on Seaside DaisyRabbitbush Hooded Owlet on a Seaside DaisyFiery Skipper Butterfly on California Native Wild RosebushA Juvenile Green Valley Grasshopper on a California Bush SunflowerA Juvenile Green Valley Grasshopper on a California Bush Sunflower Horace’s Duskywing Butterfly On Chapparal HoneysuckleTachinid fly larvae on a Milkweed plant!Found this Large Milkweed Bug on the milkweed, it got annoyed when i tried to take pictures.GrayBird Grasshopper clinging onto our sliding door net! They are always in our mint bush!Bumble Bee on a California Native Wild Rose….We have so many bumblebees in our yard during spring…it is literally buzzing…Rescued Toltec Scoliid Wasp from our swimming pool, was almost drowning, and reached a toy boat to rescue him!Western Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar
I am hopeful I will find even more beneficial wildlife this year and in the coming years to glorify my garden!! Growing a native garden has not only given me happiness but also provided me with so much in-depth insight into their lives!
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I wasn’t sure when i started seeding the cilantro at the beginning. It didn’t yield much other than some leaves here and there! But after the 1st couple of years it started coming in full bloom and lots of leaves and lots of seeds as well.
In Indian cuisine, cilantro seeds are an important ingredient in almost all dishes. And the flavor they add is beyond this world especially if it is a homegrown one!
The best way to make it seed is to stop plucking leaves, as soon as the leaves are left alone, it will bolt and seed!
I waited for the cilantro plant to wilt after it reached its maturity and once it wilted pulled it out and let it dry!
Dried Cilantro plant
I cut out the seeded tips and inserted them in a ziplock, shook it vigorously and most of the seeds separated on its own.
Cilantro tipsSeparated Cilantro seeds
Now just need to ground them up or use them as it is!
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Water Hyacinth is a South American flower that has a beautiful blue-to-purple color flower that etch out on top of the green leaves and water!
Water Hyacinth
Other than the hyacinth my water container pond also contains duckweed, hardy lily, cattail, pickerel rush etc. and the container pond are being regularly used by the bandit warbler/common yellowthroats and by the red shouldered black bird when they are here on migration!
The hyacinths flowers are diurnal, meaning they open in the morning they typically last 2-3 days but mine mostly stays only for a day and they will wither and sink into the water but they are a sight while they last!
Hyacinths Hyacinths
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This year my garden looked pretty colorful, thanks to Elegant Clarika! I replaced a lot of succulents and other non native plants from my porch garden. It was full of non native and invasive plants. I am so glad i got rid of them, now going to sow some native seeds the coming fall…!!
If you look carefully you will notice the tiny hummingbird hovering around the Clarika!ClarikaClarikaClarika, California Poppy, Blue field GiliaClarika, Blue field Gilia, Buckwheat Clarika, California Poppy Clarika, California poppy Clarika Clarika Clarika, California poppy, Blue field Gilia Clarika, California poppy, blue field Gilia, Buckwheat ClarikaArroyo LupineBlue field Gilia, California poppy White Yarrow, Showy Penstemon Clarika, White YarrowWhite YarrowCalifornia RoseWallaces NightshadeClarikaCalifornia Poppy, Evening PrimroseCalifornia Poppy, California False Indigo BushNarrow leafed MilkweedsNarrow leafed Milkweed with a Monarch Caterpillar underneath itNarrow leafed Milkweed with a Monarch Caterpillar climbing on itChaparral Honeysuckle California AsterCalifornia SunflowerGreat Valley Gumweed
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I love watching birds, sometimes loses track of time! I wanted to share the birds that visit my backyard on permanent daily basis and those who visit during their migration as well!
The most visited bird in my backyard would be the White crowned Sparrow. They are always poking around in the yard looking for seeds by my feeder, bird bath or around the native plants! They are very skittish and fly away at the slightest disturbance.
I always love to watch the House Finches that forage around in my backyard. They always come down in half a dozen frolicking around and taking advantage of my birdbath.
Although a permanent resident of my neighborhood but only seen as an occasional visitor to my backyard would be the Eurasian collared dove. They don’t visit my backyard daily but they always visit in pair and is always so wary and is nearly scared of everything. But they look so elegant and beautiful!
I have seen this bird ever since moving into this house. We have a water channel going in the backyard and I always see Herons standing still trying to catch aquatic insects and fish. They are so patient and then take off ever so quietly and gracefully!
Mourning doves are the familiar faces i have in my backyard for years, I can even individually recognize some pairs. One pair nest on our house awning every year for the past three years without failing! Although I never had the luck of seeing the hatchlings I can see both mom and dad taking turns incubating the eggs and have the peace of mind that they are tucked safely above that awning!
A pair of Black Phoebes have been visiting my backyard for a while now and the pair visit individually for some reason. I always wonder where their nest could be! They fly above the pool picking insects that are squirming about on top. They also takes bath in the pool by taking quick dips although i have 3-4 bird baths all set for them!
This bird is a ferocious little one, the Rufous Hummingbird! He has been drinking from my feeder for years and years! He never migrates, unlike their counterparts, but stays nearby. I have seen it drinking early in the morning as early as 5:30 and as late as 8:00 during the long summer days. He never lets any other hummingbird come any closer to the feeder, always on guard and fighting with others but i have seen him letting some female hummingbirds have a drink at the feeder. He always makes me ponder upon his skills to fly so effortlessly!
I always hear them before i see them, the Ravens. They are the loudest birds around and they come in a flock. They are always bickering and cawing. Still it is fun to watch them and did you know that ravens are extremely smart and can imitate human speech among many other sounds?! Aren’t they amazing!!
This bird is a rare sight and is something to be reckoned with and I had the rare opportunity to handle it one time. One evening an unfortunate Red-tailed Hawk fell into my pool and was unable to fly away. It somehow managed to get out of the pool but was exhausted so I wrapped it in a towel and boxed it in a card box and took it to a rescue center near by that same night and they rescued it and released it back into the wild. I always see these hawks flying low and can see the birds panicking. A soaring hawk can be majestic to see over the yard!!
Mocking bird is a bird which is bolder, smarter and more opportunistic! The way this bird can imitate different sounds is phenomenal!! Whenever my Pomegranate fruit ripens in fall it appears and start making holes in it and we end up with only 2/3 of the fruits in the tree. It also loves my Toyon and the California rose which it gulps without any hesitation!
The Common yellowthroat Warbler appears in a flock and always appears in spring and stay till late fall! They always forage in my Evening Primrose and Elegant Clarika for seeds! They are constantly in motion, darting under leaves and between branches in pursuit of insects!
This would be my favorite bird and they always appear in Spring time and leave around the end of summer. Orioles visit my backyard and have nectar from the hummingbird feeder. I see them visiting the feeder daily in a pair and towards the end of the summer they even bring their fledglings which is striking to watch!!
When we moved to this house the Mallard ducks used to visit us almost every year in springtime looking for a place to lay eggs! We had ducklings two years in a row and it was a pleasure watching them walk out following their mom! We still see them migrating back but they don’t come to lay eggs anymore!
Killdeer is a beautiful bird which i get to watch occasionally! It is always so well camouflaged against the color of the mud that it takes a while to see it when i look for it. It wades using its beak through the silt in the water channel.
I love all the different calls of this Red Shouldered Black bird and I love to watch the birds flying about in big flocks in the old fields which is adjacent to my backyard. They appear around springtime and visit my bird feeder and take bath in my container lily pond! They are always squawking among themselves and visit almost everyday!
Snowy Egret is nothing but a small white heron and I always find it perched either on ours or our neighbor’s chimney facing the water channel looking for potential prey. It is so beautiful and I miss seeing it when it migrates!
We had Barn Swallows nesting on our eaves for years now! One year we had more than one nests and our backyard was always so busy with swallows flying back and forth trying to feed their young chicks! They leave on migration once the chicks mature and return back the following year!
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N.B: I didn’t take any of these pictures, these pictures were taken by talented photographers, I just borrowed their fantastic pictures!
This year my garden stayed in full bloom for very short amount of time compared to the past few years! But it still looked pretty good to me!
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I have been sowing and planting california seeds and plants for very many years now & had attended quite a few workshops and meetings to understand the CA native plants even more. I love how easy it is to grow and maintain them, except for the beautiful California Poppy. The poppies need to be deadheaded which means when the blooms fade you deadhead them or cut the faded blooms and that will encourage flowering and prolongs the blooming period. Deadheading is a strenuous and time taking garden work. But it keeps your garden looking really pretty!! But most of the other plants just need to be cut and cared for every now and then. You don’t even need to water them that often compared to other kinds of gardens, also they don’t require fertilizers either!
I have a wide variety of plants in my front garden which are wild rose, manzanita, stinging nettle, california sage, beach strawberry, woodland strawberry, monkey flower, primrose, sea side daisy, blue eye grass, California morningglory, penstemon, California Aster, Toyon/California holly tree, Wallace’s nightshade, coral bells, Ceanothus Joyce coulter, clarika, baby blue eyes, blue bells, California false indigo bush, tidy tips, arroyo lupine, Chinese houses, dwarf godetia, five spots, blue thimble/globe gilia, California goldfields, Mountain phlox, palmers penstemon, showy California milkweed & California poppy to name a few.
Mountain Phlox and BlueBells
Bluebells
Beach Strawberry and YarrowSeaside DaisyCalifornia Morning Glory and California Sage
California Poppy Mission Bells
California poppy & Tidy tips
California poppy
Stinging Nettle
Monkey flower
Yarrow
California Wild Rose
Baby blue eyes, mountain phlox & California Poppy
Blue thimble & California poppyArroyo Lupine & California poppyCalifornia poppy, Godetia, Clarika & Chinese houses
California poppy, Dwarf Godetia, Clarika & Chinese houses
California poppy, Godetia, Clarika, Chinese houses & California false indigo bush
California poppy, Godetia, Clarika & Chinese houses
Evening Primrose
Clarika/Godetia
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I have 2 moth orchids which is the most common type of orchid & is also called the Phalaenopsis orchids. One is purple & the other is pinkish orange in color! They bloomed around the same time(just like my lily & pickerel rush (from another post of mine)) but they are really different in size! Purple moth orchid just had another bloom a month ago & from the same stem but about half way through started this new stem & the current one started growing out.
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This time both my pickerel rush & the lilies decided to bloom at the same time!
1st day:
2nd day: only one lily left, the other one didn’t bloom!!
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My water garden have been a visual treat for eyes for the past one month! The lily bloomed three times already & its the pickerel rush’s turn & its blooming in half a dozen at a time!
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Finally my Water lily bloomed after over an year of testing my patience! Its a hardy water lily which is a result from crosses between European and North American species. It is an excellent permanent residents of water gardens.
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I love this plant & its flower, the Texas Lantana. It is considered a pesky weed by some folks; Its a true testimony to the plant’s nearly indestructible traits. Texas Lantana blooms with masses of orange/yellow flowers that seem endless. The plant is drought tolerant, disease and pest resistant and thrives. It is a perfect choice for a low maintenance informal and wild flowerbeds although it works well in more formal arrangements. Xeriscape ready, provide Texas Lantana with ample space because it will get quite big.
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When this plant blooms, its a pretty sight! Its also called Confetti Bush & Pink Diosma, a bee magnet…
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I visited an old missionary this weekend & the garden was so pretty! I managed to takes some pics of those i really liked.
Now this is a cotton plant which already bloomed & is pretty much ready to produce cotton!
Once its ready to be picked, it will look like this!
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This flower looks really beautiful but if it’s in a garden, it’s invasive!
The bulbs can be pickled just like pickling onions. Flowers make an attractive addition to salad and the leaves can be chopped and added to dishes that require mild oniony flavor. Whole young plants can be used just like a spring onion in sandwiches and salads.(Courtesy:pod gardening) Isn’t it interesting?
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This water plant bloomed within a week I bought it! It spreads so fast that it is prohibited in many states in US! But its a welcome addition to any container pond!
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Autumn is a season followed immediately by looking forward to Spring.
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These pictures were taken at Singapore Botanical Garden when I visited the Orchid Garden there! It was breath-taking!
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Added some more flowers that bloomed lately..check them out, all the way in the bottom !
Some of the flowers that I like in & around My garden! Will post more of them as they bloom!
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I see this strange insect on this Plumeria, do anyone know this insect?
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I see a lots of bees on my basil and the basil is full of tiny white flowers & it smells refreshing!
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Got 2 pomegranates, but one was eaten by something & ended up with just one fruit which was actually a bit sour! Should have left it there for couple more weeks to ripen!
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I harvested & dried the Lavender in the garage in 4 bunches upside down for a month & then removed the flowers from the stem.
My dried lavender buds including the bracts!
Now I’m adding these in my potpourri, as a scented sachet in my closet & also to clean my mattress by adding some lavender buds & baking soda & after 2 to 3 hours will vacuum it up & it will smell really good… I’m also planning to use them in place of dryer sheets in the dryer, also going to simmer it in a pot of water with some citrus peels for a natural air freshener.
Lavender
Lavender
This is my fresh new batch of lavender that i harvested this week.
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Finally my red rose start blooming , it has 2 more buds coming up!
My red rose got 3 more flowers on it, I think it’s blooming because of all that cut grass & compost it’s getting lately!
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The visit to the estuary was fun as I reached there by 9:00ish & finished viewing the birds by 10:30 before the sun gets stronger. Might take another trip where I can spend more hours watching the birds & taking some more better pictures.
A pair of Pigeons resting on the ground!
Wonder what would be the name of this wild flower? Saw this at the estuary that i visited this weekend but not quite sure of it’s name!
Quite a long walk…
Love those 2 bushes & their color with those greenish weeds growing up in the front!
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Have Water Lettuce, Lily, Pickerel Rush & Parrot feather in there. All of them slowly growing up in their own pace. I also have added some mosquito dunks in there to get rid of mosquito larvae. I started them in a 15 gallon storage container & is going to paint the outside to give it a nice look. Will take a picture & upload once i do that.
Like I mentioned I tried to do some painting on the side of the container pond but as its upright & cannot be kept on its side, couldn’t paint properly & it turned out to be a mess! May be will try again next time I clean up the container pond….
This is how my container pond looks like now! Lots of algae & 6 pond snails, i only had 2 snails which hitched a ride along with either my water lettuce or parrot feather from the store but they are breeding like crazy! I guess my water lettuce need some treatment as they are slowly turning yellow!
Here’s my container pond after some cleaning, propagation & re potting! My water lettuce still not growing, in a dormant stage as always! I added a plant in a frog pot called Horsetail reed!
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Mountain Phlox and BlueBells
Bluebells
Beach Strawberry and Yarrow
Seaside Daisy
California Morning Glory and California Sage
California Poppy Mission Bells
California poppy & Tidy tips
California poppy
Stinging Nettle
Monkey flower
Yarrow
California Wild Rose
Baby blue eyes, mountain phlox & California Poppy
Blue thimble & California poppy
Arroyo Lupine & California poppy
California poppy, Godetia, Clarika & Chinese houses
California poppy, Dwarf Godetia, Clarika & Chinese houses
California poppy, Godetia, Clarika, Chinese houses & California false indigo bush
California poppy, Godetia, Clarika & Chinese houses
Evening Primrose
Clarika/Godetia
My Backyard Nature 
