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Tag Archives: Midway Hills Christian Church

Poppies In My Garden And Bees

Like the title of the book All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, I could say all the plants I really need  to know came from  Master Gardeners. For example, these beautiful poppies.

 

They self seed all over my garden and at Raincatcher’s.

A close up tells the story: bees also love poppies!

This loaded honey bee is happy about the choice of flowers in my garden, which is something to consider! Note, bees prefer these single petal blooms rather than double.

Load up on information about poppies. Remember to sow seeds in the fall.

Poppies

Poppy and Larkspur Planting

Ann Lamb

Tagging Monarchs at Raincatcher’s

Monarch Butterfly Sipping Milkweed, Note the Tag

With a woosh of her net, Master Naturalist, Ellen Guiling, has captured another Monarch butterfly to be tagged and then sent on its migratory journey.

As per the Monarch Watch website: tagging information helps answer questions about the geographic origins of monarchs, the timing and pace of the migration, mortality during migration, the effects of wind and weather, and changes in geographic distribution of monarchs. Each year the information is collected and can be viewed at www.monarchwatch.org.

You may remember Starla found a tagged Monarch from Kansas who visited our garden in 2015.

We have many butterflies visiting The Raincatcher’s Garden and the reason goes back to the careful planning and planting of host and nectar plants for many different types of butterflies. Review the butterfly plant list in our Raincatcher’s Resources on the right of our front page and enjoy the delights of your own butterfly garden.

Ann Lamb

Pictures and video by Starla Willis

 

 

September 2017 Classes at Raincatcher’s Garden

Simply Succulents, The Plants That Drink Responsibly

Tuesday, September 19th 11am until noon Raincatcher’s Garden of Midway Hills, 11001 Midway Rd, Dallas, TX North Education Building, Room 1

Paula Spletter, Dallas County Master Gardener, is a Creative Director for North Haven Gardens in Dallas as well as a popular presenter for both the Dallas County Master Gardener Association and North Haven Gardens. After converting her lawn into perennial gardens, she was a winner on the 2012 City of Dallas Water Wise Tour. Her serious interest in succulents began many years ago, spurred from her yearly trips to California and visiting Dick Wright’s succulent farm, who is known for his Echeveria hybridizing.

Paula will touch on all the facets of succulent care, including propagation, disease and planting. Learn the best ways to keep these great plants thriving and gain the confidence to expand your collection.

Raincatcher’s is a demonstration garden and project of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Dallas County Master Gardeners located on the campus of Midway Hills Christian Church. To find the class, please park in the west parking lot and come through the courtyard to the covered sidewalk to the north building.

 

Grape Harvest – Home Wine-making Tutorial and Post-harvest Vine Care

Saturday, September 23rd 10am until noon Raincatcher’s Garden of Midway Hills, 11001 Midway Rd, Dallas, TX Shade Pavilion

Michael Cook, Viticulture Program Specialist – North Texas, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, has been consulting with Raincatcher’s to maximize production on our two grape varieties in the vineyard. We planted ‘Carlos’ Muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia) and Champanel, (Vitis champini X Worden), aAmerican hybrid. The birds helped themselves to our first crop, but we’re hoping to beat them to the punch to harvest a second one.

Michael will discuss home wine production, teach the backyard grower how to determine when to harvest, and help us with vine care advice for fall and winter to ensure a good crop next year. Raincatcher’s is a demonstration garden and project of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Dallas County Master Gardeners located on the campus of Midway Hills Christian Church. To find the class, please park in the west or north parking lots and come to the shade pavilion in the north garden.

Lisa Centala

Classes open to the public, Master Gardeners receive education credits when attending

Grape photo from our garden by Starla Willis

Succulent Photo courtesy of  http://debraleebaldwin.com/succulent-blog/

August 2017 at Raincatcher’s

We appreciate and enjoy our new shade structure!

Our rain garden flourishes with purpose and beauty.

Our volunteers are busy with projects like staining vegetable beds.

Our roses are carefully monitored in Rose Rosette Trials.

Please visit us at The Raincatcher’s Garden. We are at work Tuesday mornings and also have several upcoming education events open to the public. Drop a comment if you would like more information or call the Master Gardener Help Desk 214 904 3053.

Ann Lamb

Pictures by Starla Willis

The Science Of Decay

What am I ?

 

It appears that the latest visitor to the edible landscape garden is a Brown Shelf Fungus. It was found on one of the logs that has been used as a garden seat. Fungi are many-celled filamentous or singlecelled primitive plants. They lack chlorophyll and must live on decaying plants to get carbohydrates.

The Brown Fungus produces hydrogen peroxide to decompose the cellulose in the wood. Since the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a small molecule, it can move rapidly through the wood. This will mean that the decomposition will not be just surrounding the area of the hyphae or filaments of the fungus. The log will eventually decay and become part of the surrounding soil. 

Mark Jones

Picture by Kim Kirkhart

 

The Rainbow Garden at Raincatcher’s

If your green thumb is ready to branch out into living color, visit our Rainbow Garden for inspiration and plan on taking lots of photos. You’ll find a colorful mix of flowers and vegetables growing in harmony. In the summer heat, early morning is a good time to stop by. Enjoy iridescent dragonflies and come face to face with giant bees casting their drunken shadows on the garden, touch fuzzy silver green lamb’s ear, and see if you can identify standing cypress. (Hint- it is red.)

See the violet morning glory threaten to take over the purple heart growing beneath it. Compare the many shades of blue flowers and notice the exuberant orange Mexican sunflower. Inhale the aroma of fresh basil and see how the eggplant and strawberries are doing. 

Now take a shady break under the garden’s charming vine-covered entrance arbor and make notes before heading to the nursery to create your own rainbow. The rainbow garden doesn’t get any shade from the hot summer sun and receives only minimal supplemental water so you know these plants can take the heat in your own sunny spots at home. Drop by anytime and let the garden inspire you.

Gail Cook

 Pictures by Starla Willis and Ann Lamb

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Gardening on a Shoestring!

Gardening on a Shoestring:

Confessions of a Frugal Gardener

Tuesday, June 6, 2017 at 11:00 am

Location:The Raincatcher’s Garden of Midway Hills

11001 Midway Road, Dallas in the Fellowship Hall

Speaker: Dallas County Master Gardener, Fran Powell.

Education Credit for Master Gardeners. Bring a friend.

This free event is open to the public.

 

Fran Powell comes from a family of English gardeners. Her mother instilled in her four daughters a love of the mysteries of life in the garden; from planting seeds and watching their growth to enjoying and harvesting the results.

Fran came to the USA in 1969 and to Texas in 1982. After spending seven years in Waco, she moved to the Dallas area in 1989. Two of Fran’s sisters are true English gardeners. Her younger sister has an award-winning vineyard in the southern part of England, while the eldest has a garden open to the public every year, including a meadow, which she leaves wild, many fruit trees and an enviable vegetable garden. Fran has used many of her eldest sister’s frugal methods and plans to share them with us.

What a treat—plan to come and learn from an experienced gardener and enjoy our gardens after class.

The courtyard of The Raincatcher’s Garden

Lisa Centala

Ann Lamb

Picture by Starla Willis

 

Plan Now to Attend the May Master Gardener Meeting and Plant Sale

Dallas County Master Gardener Association

May Meeting

 10:00am Plant Sale · 11:30am Meeting · Thursday, May 25th

Location: Midway Hills Christian Church Fellowship Hall, 11001 Midway Rd.

(West side of Midway just north of Royal Lane) Dallas 75229

Please use the south and west parking lots at Midway Hills Christian Church. The north lot is used by Dallas Cooperative Preschool parents.

 Plant and Brick Sale

Find summer-hardy plants to continue the gardening season with selections from our annual plant sale.

Honor a loved one with a brick purchase.

Cash, checks or credit cards accepted.

 

Program: “Fifty Shades of Green” showcasing 50 common

and rare native plants to use in the home landscape

 

Speaker: Ricky Linex who is a wildlife biologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). He is also the author of

“Range Plants of North Central Texas, A Land User’s Guide to Their Identification, Value and Management” – a plant identification book for Texas detailing 324 various regional grasses, forbs, and woody plants.  

Book Sale 

The gift shop at Texas Discovery Gardens is the sole retail outlet in Dallas County for sales of this interesting book.  In conjunction with Mr. Linex’s presentation to DCMGA, a representative from the TDG gift shop will be present at our meeting and will sell copies of “Range Plants”.  The retail price of the book is $25.00.  All profits from the gift shop support TDG’s educational programs and mission.

Please join us for the plant sale and the monthly meeting,

which are both open to the public.

 

Purple Martins Have Arrived At The Raincatcher’s Garden

Deirdre starts this utube video saying “so these are the gourds where we’d really like to have a Purple Martin Colony.” She then explains the preparation and that we have been waiting two whole years for Purple Martins. No more waiting!

As of the beginning of May 2017, Purple Martins have landed at The Raincatcher’s Garden.

Purple Martin Close Up

Looking for friendly neighbors? Put up a Purple Martin house. It’s comparable to a miniature neighborhood in your backyard and Purple Martins chirp pleasantly and  perform aerial acrobatics to snap up flying insects.  Unfortunately, Mosquitoes only comprise as low as 3% of their diet.

At the end of the breeding season they gather in big flocks and make their way to South America.

Next year, we should see some of the same Purple Martins again!

Purple Martins At Home!

Video and Pictures by Starla Willis

If you are having trouble watching our Purple Martin Utube video, please click here.

Ann Lamb

Have you ever seen a butterfly laying an egg?

Thanks to our own intrepid photographer, Starla, for capturing a rare picture of a butterfly laying an egg.

Black swallowtail butterfly laying an egg on fennel

And here’s the egg-

Look for the creamy yellow egg located on the lower right of the picture

*Eggs are laid singly on the host plants—usually on new foliage and occasionally on flowers. Development time is variable depending on temperature and host plant species, but generally the egg stage lasts four to nine days, the larval stage 10–30 days, and the pupal stage nine to 18 days.

Fascinating!

Ann Lamb

Picture by Starla Willis

*http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/bfly2/eastern_black_swallowtail.htm

Study up on our butterfly garden by looking at the right hand side of the front page of Dallas Garden Buzz under Raincatcher’s Resources for a list of hummingbird and butterfly plants or type butterfly in our search box for a host of articles on butterflies.

 

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