Prairie Winds Farm

This Thornless Blackberry was purchased from a store here in Katy, Texas two years ago, repotted two times and fertilized with bat quano. This year it produced 85 berries.

Now is the time to attend Fruit Tree plant sales in Houston and surrounding communities. The next one I know of is the Fort Bend Master Gardener Fruit Tree Sale @ the Ft. Bend County Fairgrounds, 4310 Hwy 36 S, from 9-1 on the 12th of Feb., 2011. Go to the web-site for the Fort Bend County Extension Office to get more info or learn how to become a master gardener. http://fbmg.com/ This is a photo of buds on our Meyer Lemon tree. I harvested 89 large lemons year before last from this tree but last years freeze limited this years production. I have pruned the branches and am anxiously awaiting arrival of the buds and the bees. And of course it is important to remember that the citrus tree is also a host plant for the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly as mentioned in previous blogs.

My backyard has citrus trees, lemon satsuma and orange, originally planted there not only to provide fresh citrus for my family but also to provide a host plant for the majestic Giant Swallowtail butterfly. Here is a photo of a Giant Swallowtail butterfly that I raised in captivity in my laundry room( in a zippered 14" x 30" columnar container covered in fine mesh), in order to protect it from predators such as wasps and birds when in the larval, caterpillar stage. Each day I misted the column with water and introduced fresh host plant material for the caterpillars to eat. The caterpillars in this photo of the mesh holding cage are the monarchs not giant. You can purchase these small insectaries from Insectlore.com or your local museum, zoo, or botanical gardens gift shops. The beautiful butterflies dance gently on the softest breeze and light ever gently on the tips of the new growth of leaves or on the top of a young leaf to lay their eggs. When the female lights on the

This is a photo of the Blue Hill venue. A large pavillion that housed numerous booths, not air conditioned but that was no problem because the weather was beautiful. Loving gardening and gardening decor, I found myself outside the booths looking at the garden decor a lot.

Last week I visited the Roundtop antiques show. The weather was beautiful and I had a lovely time seeing the antiques and crafts. I purchased a jewelers magnifying lens for my husband to look at his treasured coin collection. I charged my camera the night before just to take photos and was so busy looking, I forgot to take photos. Here are a few that I took. I only visited the Old Depot,the Blue Hills event venue, and the Big red barn there was much more to see. My next visit in the spring time will allow me to see the other venues. Above is an old Turkish clay pot for $225 I saw. I am taking a ceramics course and throwing vessels so the pottery interested me.

I just adore the beauty of cobalt blue bottle trees. Last summer I visited Shangri La in Orange, Texas. Here is a photo I took of the river during the boat ride tour.