Lovely new additions all around! Those blooms on the beans are pretty! You can harvest whenever you want before the beans get too tough inside. You can chop them & stir fry. Here's a few i found growing. need to look at all my beans, I may have red ones hiding too!

Oh, yummmm, I'll be right over.

I love your alocasias I should try more in pots. I didn't know that one could eat Pinto beans as green beans. I am growing three strange to me beans this year. My normal ( rattlesnake bean ) did not germinate. I think bugs got into my seed box. No old seeds grew.; just the new ones. Red Swan Dragon Tongue and a name that I can never remember a Italian wax roma. Most of these need to be cooked longer than the french fillet and rattlesnake been . But they are flavorful in a longer cooked meal than sautée blanching or stir fry. They take a gentle stewing well where a rattlesnake would be mush. I just planted some purple hulled pink eyed cow peas. I have eaten them in the pods too. I am also just planted some Californian cow peas. They are just starting to break ground.

Thanks every one! Gonna' harvest the "foot long" beans today, some of them are 18 in. long, and stir fry them for lunch.

My dad, an avid vegetable gardener, said pinto green beans had the best flavor of all. The ones I grew 10 or 12 years ago were the bush form. These are semi climbers. If you wait until the pods swell with beans before picking you have to string them, but they are still very tasty, and they produce a lot of pods! I'm going to have to start sharing them with the neighbors.

Here's one of the long beans before harvesting ...

Carrying the huge and heavy Macho fern in to the green house every year was getting old! A hardy plant that does a great job substituting for a fern is Russelia rotundifolia so it was placed on the bird bath in front. The stems will eventually reach the ground ...

The “Texas red yucca” has about eight flower stalks coming up through the tower this year. The 'mosquitoes' are a good size as well ... ;-)

Coral futurity canna is looking pretty good ...

So what’s new for you these days?

I grow Gita yard long beans, but no mine have never gotten a yard long. They do produce better for me in our heat than anything else I've tried. Of course I haven't tried that many beans. This year I'm trying Winged beans and Early Riser. The winged beans are hard to germinate. I only have 3 plants up so far.

Also bought 2 elderberry. Hoping to make my own syrup someday.

Ruth, I had no idea what 'yard long' beans were like, but had read that they take well to the hot growing conditions in Texas.

Today I stir fried my first handful of what I'd call 'skinny beans' in Texas Olive Ranch roasted garlic olive oil. They were at first crunchy and then chewy. Very good!

Yours and Mara's bean varieties sound so interesting. Wish you both lived close ... LOL

Is everyone’s rain lilies blooming like crazy? Show us your plants. Here’s some of mine...

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I’m often amused by what flowers might be thinking when they bloom. This Texas rock rose looks like its being swallowed by the squid agave.

“I waited all winter to wake up to this nightmare?”

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What caption would you give the photo?

Here’s my long bean harvest for today...

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Saw this checkered beauty while pulling weeds ...

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A harmless garter snake, it watched me intently without moving a muscle...

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Also saw Big Mama getting ready to lay eggs...

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I intended to check back sooner, but forgot. When I did she had already covered the nest. Warmed by the sun the eggs will hatch in a few weeks.

So how did your day in the garden go?

I remember ( when I was in school in China) watching guys on bicycles with their harvest of long bean hanging over the back . No bag ; just beans. They must have been coming from their garden.

Hi Ragna, mike says oh peekabootiful to that hibiscus 🌺 under the squid yucca plant. Love yard long beans. You supposed to measure them before harvesting. 😂
Hmmm I love kitchen garden.

So how did your day in the garden go?

Sigh. Bittersweet. ;-)

Before I could get any photos of my Passiflora 'incense' on my umbrella trellis -- and, more importantly, before I could get any photos of the beautiful purple flowers -- I discovered Gulf Fritillary caterpillars feasting on it. Which, of course, is *awesome* since I knew it was a host plant, and was part of the reason I planted it. :-D

I was, however, under the mistaken impression that they'd just eat the leaves, though, and leave the flowers mostly alone. Not the case. I have half a dozen caterpillars on the plant, and they chew right through the buds, eating the insides before they bloom. When the flower does open up, it's all a wreck. I've only seen one open up in tact, and she only lasted a day.

And then, today, I saw a wasp climbing around on the leaves... I suspect he was hunting for my baby butterflies! Ugh.

Mamachili Mizan, I love the caption Mike provided. Oh, and I'll be sure and take a yard stick when I go out to pick the bountiful beans ... LOL

And I do mean bountiful! I'm picking them every other day at anywhere between 12 and 18 inches. We are enjoying them stir fried.

Devoted, I know -- what a balancing act between the flowers we love, the caterpillars that turn into the butterflies we want and the wasps who prey on them, but also prey on pests!

I just have to sort of look the other way and let them duke it out. Somewhere in between all that we'll get flowers and butterflies, along with fewer pests. When you do, and you will, take some photos and post them here.

Thanks to Eric who passed it along I‘m enjoying Texas torchwood which blooms repeatedly in summer with fragrant flowers ...

A nice combo...

Doncha’ love backlit plants..

Canna pretoria, grown as much for the foliage as for flowers ...

What's looking good in your yard today?

If you have photos you are invited to post them here.

Ragna, that canna is beautiful. They’re just looking like dancing in your garden. I noticed a mantis guarding some rosella seedings then jumped on a branch and also had a swallow tail visit with my pot of parsley today. She was around a long time laying eggs. I guess no more parsley for me now.

Mamachili Mizan, gardening with insect friends is so much fun; even if they do eat your parsley! LOl Mantises are so photogenic! Just like anoles they seem to stop, look at you, and pose when they sense a camera.

Thank you for sharing your photos!

Oh and by the way I'd a never thought of it myself, but those cannas do look like dancers. You are so observant!

Can you move the pot back a bit? We are getting close to the solstice but this dry weather portends more heat. The cool mornings are delish though.

I moved it about five feet away as soon as I saw it drooping. The sun isn't bothering Tea Cup.

Yes, these cool mornings have been great!

Texas rock rose is getting bigger and better every summer, filling up my tiny east-facing front yard when spring turns to summer. I haven't learned yet how much to cut back in winter. One is filling the area around a 6 yr old live oak tree. On the right, the Bougie is just now renewing after a down month, and a sweet potato vine is starting to spread and take over for the next 5 or so months. Two photos an hour apart last Friday morning:

On nice days the branches gently sway in the morning breeze. During months with constantly alternating wind direction, many branches split off. But the broken off pieces root easily when planted elsewhere. This small yard may be full of it before long.

The backyard potted passionfruit (incarnata) has more Gulf Frit butterflies than in previous years. There's 1 or 2 hanging around all day, and several dozen caterpillars have been seen. I couldn't find any Porterweed plants for sale this year so they have to go farther to find abundant food.

In March I divided a 3 yr old tuberose and also purchased some new bulbs. Practically everything sprouted and 4 of them in pots or beds are sending up stems already.

Grapes are starting to ripen (5 yr old Concord). This year small spiders moved into several clusters and are damaging some. I'm thinking to spot spray with insecticidal soap (I don't swallow the indigestible Concord skins anyway, just squeeze out the juices and uh, discard). Blackberries finished up last month. The birds left them alone for the most part, maybe because I tied some reflective metallic flash tape around it. I doubt that the tape 'scares' my mockingbirds, but rather signals them it's something near & dear I'm working on. Let's hope that holds up another month during grape harvest. (If only thrips were so considerate, on fragrant cut flowers I want to bring indoors).

SunPatiens survived another winter in the ground by covering with 5 gallon buckets during freezes. They stop blooming by mid-summer, but IMO are worth keeping until we get extended drought.

It was a mild winter here; many tender perennial types came back earlier & bigger. Even the lawn (Bermuda) didn't go fully straw yellow dormant Jan-March like usual. Didn't see any fireflies this spring. After the late May rain my compost bin is taken over by black soldier fly larva; they're harmless but break down the compost too far & too fast, as I understand it. But can't stop them and will take what I can get. Thanks everyone for all the tips. I'm claiming an E for effort.

Wow Dan! Your garden has really matured! It's absolutely glorious!

What is the tall pink rose close to the front door? It's huge! I'd like to see a close up of that one.

I'm happy to see you've got lots of Gulf Frit caterpillars! About the only two butterfly species I see in my yard are the ones who are raised here. Gulf frits and Pipe vine swallowtails.

I found one blue porterweed at Rainbow early spring on my last visit there. Looks like you have one in the front yard by the bougie and sweet potato vine. Did it winter over?

I envy y'all who have mild winters. Even thought we're both in San Antonio I live in a dip where the cold air settles and things freeze where two blocks up the street they don't!

Those tuberoses smell so sweet. You're going to have lots of them to enjoy.

Aren't the rock roses going crazy this year!? Love 'um.

Thanks Ragna, that 7 ft tall rose is Perfume Delight. I confess I delayed posting my pics to wait until the buds opened. Like with a Mr Lincoln rose, I can sniff without bending down into thorns. Here's 3 rather unflattering pics of it from May, July and October 2019. It gets less black spot fungal disease when I keep the bottom open for air circulation. In the October photo it was still pretty ragged from the extra long summer, the color and aroma fade quickly. SunPatiens blooms are prominent in the first 2 pics but the young rock roses are barely noticeable from these angles.

Yes, good eye, the purple porterweed in the front yard survived the winter (which is a first for me, going back 4 yrs when I saw them in the butterfly section of the SA Botanical Garden and started growing them). It's a different story in the backyard though; behind me there's a detention pond (rain overflow basin/pit) that gets significantly colder than the front yard. In the backyard (near the passionflower) they never made it thru winter, and never reseed. I've been getting them at the SABG spring sales, but this year they were already sold out when I got there 20 minutes after opening. Life goes on.

BTW my wonderful 3 yr old potted Mexican Orchid Tree is in my first 2 pics in front of the garage; it's easiest to see in the earlier darker photo. It was one of several potted plants I intended to plant in the ground last February, but I only got to the first 3. I set it under a tree for mid afternoon shade last summer.