For the last few days I've found Phyllis squeezed into the laying boxes with the other gals while they are trying to lay. This evening I found her sitting on all the eggs! So, I do believe my lovely Polish has gone broody on me.

So that's where all my darn eggs are!

We used a very simple trim, but I'm already thinking of some funkier alternatives, and sourcing some more deep, detailed carving from our Antique scrap dealers. Now, while these were being completed, the cuttings from Friday were waiting patiently on the drying screens, fully calloused and ready to go:

via terraingarden.typepad.com

I LOVE their succulent boxes!

This has been a bang up year for snakes, at least in Texas. I'm a herp enthusiast so I'm always happy to find reptiles or amphibians in my garden. I've had so many snakes this year it's been crazy! These are Rough Earth snakes. They are usually mature at about a foot to 14", are non-venomous and totally harmless. They love living in gardens with cultivated soil because their primary diet is earthworms.

Unfortunately for the snakes, my biggest (and meanest) chicken Eunicehas quite a talent for rooting out their nests and swallowing themwhole! But, lucky for this little one, he/she was in the front yard andcan go back to rooting around in the flower beds all it likes.

I planted this Oakleaf Hydrangea last year in my new shade bed. It's just popped into flower this past week. So lovely...

Still getting some decent lettuce from the 'Red Sails', 'Black Seeded Simpson' lettuce and a few other varieties, including a burgundy test lettuce. I imagine that they'll only last another week or two with the heat.

Here is one of my salad beds...a crazy mix of greens around the edge with carrots and some Apricota poppies (Papaver rupifragum) in the center. The poppies are just starting to bud. Should be lovely once they come into flower...

I seeded some Nasturtium as a border to one of the veggie beds...just because I had a packet of seeds kicking around. They just decided to pop into bloom yesterday...

A lovely orange Nasturtium with some purple-leafed test lettuce in the background.

A yellow Nasturtium at dusk...

It's been a great spring for strawberries! We've got quite a harvest going this year. You know they're perfectly ripe when they pull right off the stem without you having to snip them. My fingers have been pink for days from picking and eating them right off the plants. I just can't help it!

Strawberries are perennials and will usually start producing well the second year after planting in a sunny location. I like to mulch mine with pine needles before the fruit starts to set in early spring to help keep fruit off the soil.

The biggest pest issue I have with strawberries in the N. Texas area are pill bugs (rollie pollies). You can treat strawberries with spinosad if they become a problem for you. During fruit production plants will need good consistent watering, but be careful because they are also very susceptible to fungal problems with too much water. Make sure they have good drainage. Okay, I've got to go pick more berries!