Mosaics, Art Beautify Caraway

Our school’s exterior has undergone a metamorphosis! The 5th-graders’ 2011 legacy project, two mosaic butterflies using art created by the 5th-graders themselves, show how much our Outdoor Wildlife Lab (the O.W.L.) and other habitat projects mean to our school. Did you know that Kathy Caraway herself loved butterflies?

Thank you to Ms. Conti, our art teacher, for planning this spectacular creation with our students, and thank you to Liz M. and all the other volunteers who helped bring this butterfly to life, so to speak.

Nearby, other mosaics beautify our Outdoor Wildlife Lab.

Tricia L. and her scouts designed and made the tiled art for our O.W.L. benches. The artwork shows hummingbirds, flowers, and of course our school mascot, owls. The bench tops are gorgeous!

The benches are a perfect colorful complement to the blooms in our garden. Thanks, Tricia L. and your student helpers, and thanks again to Liz M. for helping me do the final stage — the ever-fun grouting process! Another thank you goes out to the USFW Partners for Wildlife program for the funds we used to provide these benches for our outdoor learning center — the O.W.L. has become a fantastic wildlife viewing area for our students and our school neighbors.

While photographing the benches, I discovered this wonderful birdfeeder by the O.W.L. Could this be a class’s Earth Day project? Love it!

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Thriving in the Heat

Summer is in full swing, but so is our school habitat. You can see why native plants are so wonderful — they are thriving in the crazy heat (while the rest of us are melting). The blooms are blooming, the butterflies are fluttering, and the bees are all abuzz gathering pollen. The habitat is just busy with life, and come fall everything is going to be even bigger and better than it already is!

Take a tour with us…

Just inside the arbor, countless Queen butterflies are fluttering about the Gregg’s Mistflower. It’s their favorite nectar source.

Even from the back, the garden is a rainbow.

This assassin bug is a welcome beneficial insect and will help get rid of pest bugs.

A swallowtail caterpillar feasts on dill, soon to become a beautiful butterfly.

A bumbling bumblebee is quite fond of the Mealy Blue Sage — look at that big pollen sac it’s collected! It looks like the bumblebee has also been visiting the Zexmenia.

The Flame Acanthus is starting to show off its red tubular flowers — perhaps a hummingbird will visit soon! Speaking of birds, one stopped by to get a drink of water from a birdbath, but it flew off before I could get a good picture!

The yellow Four-Nerve Daisy is striking against the purple blooms of the Prairie Verbena.

A Queen butterfly rests on the Milkweed flower, getting nectar. Soon we might have eggs and caterpillars! The aphids have found the Milkweed, so we hope some ladybugs will arrive soon to have an aphid feast.

Thank you to everyone who adopted a plant for the summer.  The habitat looks wonderful, and I know the plants appreciate the water you provide when you stop by!

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Adopt a Plant for the Summer!

Please help us see our garden through the heat of the summer by adopting a plant species to water and care for each week. This should be the easiest way for people to help without taking up too much time or having to haul a lot of water. Basically all you’ll need to do is bring a few gallons of water (milk jugs work great) each week to water your plants.

Please pick from the list below — as people choose a plant species, I’ll mark it on the list so nothing is duplicated.

STILL IN NEED OF ADOPTION

NOTE: If you missed getting to adopt a plant, we’d love to have a back-up list of people who can fill in while others are on vacation. Let me know and I’ll add you to the watering team! There are other areas around school that could also use a drink of water from time to time, like around the sign, so there’s definitely room for help!

Anacacho Orchid (1) – requires a deeper watering every few days     PENDING

Arbor Beds (2 beds, with Coral Honeysuckle, damianita, pink skullcap, and Texas Betony): these plants need a deeper watering because of the raised beds, especially the honeysuckle   PENDING

ADOPTED:

Birdbaths (4) — keep them filled and clean of dirt for the wildlife habitat water requirement–the Midkiffs
Autumn Sage (14 total: 12 in one set, 2 elsewhere) — despite the large number, they are easy to water–the Busfields
Blackfoot Daisy (10)–the Carriers
Sensory Garden (thyme, lavender, oregano, Society Garlic, Gray Santolina, plus Chocolate Daisy, 3 damianita, 3 Mexican feather grass): easier for one family to just take the whole bed – the Hattons
Tropical Milkweed(6) + Antelope Horn (1) — the Coates family
Lantana, Texas–the Midkiffs
Basket grass, or Texas Sacahuista (2) – Fitch family
Big Muhly (3) – Fitch family
Yellow Bells (3) – Kondra Family
Damianita (14) -- Kung Family
Butterfly Herbs (3) — Kung Family
Black-eyed Susan (9) – Kung Family
Prairie Verbena  (10) — The Higdons
Woolly Butterflybush (1) — The Higdons
Texas Sage, Compact (2) — The Purcells
Gaura (6) — Mais family
Gregg’s Mistflower (3) — Mais family
Purple Coneflower (2) –  Sanders family
Skullcaps (3) — Sanders family
Firebush (1) – Purcell family
Flame Acanthus (6) – Baddour family
Mealy Blue Sage (8) — Shrull family
Standing Cypress (2) – Shrull family
Tropical Sage (1) — Shrull family
Texas Betony  (12, around Anacacho Orchid) – Rodriguez family
Zexmenia (3) — Miller family
Four-Nerve Daisy (14) — Faires- McClellan family

Once we’ve got our rain collection system installed (and once the plants are established) this won’t be necessary anymore! Thank you so much for keeping our beautiful garden thriving!

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Earth Day Habitat Dedication

Today is Earth Day, a day people take extra care of the environment and truly appreciate Earth. For our students this year, Earth Day also represents the culmination of our school’s focus on wildlife habitats and the creation of our new Outdoor Wildlife Lab. We will be presenting our Legacy of Giving murals to their recipients, and we will have special recognition from National Wildlife Federation and Texas Parks and Wildife! If you can make it, our ceremony begins promptly at 1:45, and we recommend arriving early and parking on the street rather than in our drive. A very exciting day for Caraway!

P.S. Do you see the rogue bluebonnet that has made its home in front of our sign? It didn’t want to miss our special day!

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Stonework!

After a long hard day by a very generous and dedicated Caraway neighbor and his company’s masonry crew, our large pile of limestone was transformed into the base of our new habitat garden and Outdoor Wildlife Lab.

Just add nature! We will be, on Dig and Plant Day — Saturday, March 27, 9am. Please volunteer to help us get the paths and raised beds completed!  Send e-mail to Meredith at MMLN(at)austin.rr.com.

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