Konza Prairie Flora, Fauna & Weather

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin

Rainbows apologize for angry skies. Sylvia Voirol

Walking through puddles is my favorite metaphor for life. ~Jessi Lane Adams

Nikki & Lizzie like to cool off in my water garden

during the hot summer days here in Kansas

Gardening with a Pug!

"Gardening With A Pug"

Even she's in her wheelchair now, Nikki is my constant gardening & farm chore companion protecting me from killer grubs, straying dragonflies & the horses. She will roll over hill, dale & tender transplants to follow me about the garden. Her wheelchair keeps her from wiggling under the to chase after the horses but she still gets her fair share of barking in! The problem with her vigilance in her duties of protecting me from things that might attack me in the garden or barn can sometimes be a challenge.....not to mention getting her wheels free of a insurmountable obstacle

Move the Pug..........go out the door

Move the Pug..........trip down the steps

Move the Pug..........walk to the tool shed

Move the Pug--------open the tool-shed door

Move the Pug--------pick out tools needed in the garden

Move the Pug--------go back out the tool-shed door

Move the Pug--------walk across the yard to the garden

Move the Pug--------dig a hole for a plant

Move the Pug out of the hole----------put in Manure fertilizer

Move the Pug--------fill hole with water

Move the Pug--------rinse mud off Pug in muddy hole

Move the Muddy Pug again in the hole-------------Place Plant in the muddy hole while holding the muddy Pug out of the hole

Rinse yourself off from the muddy Pug & wheelchair-------------catch the now to the wiser muddy Pug

Rinse the muddy Pug-------------Place Plant in the hole

Move the Pug off the new-planted Plant-------------prop up the unhappy bent plant

Move the Pug--------Quickly fill the hole

Move the Pug--------Spread mulch

Move the digging Pug------------again scatter the mulch

Move the Pug---------water newly planted plant

Move the Pug & now stuck in the mud wheelchair out of the mud again--------rinse the muddy Pug & wheelchair

No need to move the Pug this time, just point the hose at her..........gather the tools

Move the Pug----------walk back to the tool shed

Move the Pug---------open the door--------by now the Pug is too tired to follow to investigate all the neat smells in the Tool shed

Move the parked Pug in front of the tool shed door----------carry the now worn out Pug & wheelchair back to the house and lay her muddy butt on the rug in front of the door.

Open the frig----------you got it: Move the Pug

Go to recliner---------move the Pug already there ahead of you, take her out of her wheelchair.

Sit down to watch Jerry Springer------listen to the Pug's sweet snores from a hard day of guarding Momma!

Can you tell: I love my sweet Nikki! Her 13+ years as my constant companion always brings joy to my heart.

Weather in Kansas frustrates even the most experienced meteorologist. 80°, sunny & windy one day, with night storms that will send shivers up the most seasoned stormchaser, & cold sulking low clouds the next day. 30° temperature drops in a 12-hour period are not that unusual!

Hold tight to your bonnet in Kansas, as the wind blows hard & constantly almost every day. Chicago's "Windy City" status will not hold a candle to the spring wind storms of Kansas.

It has been a long cold snowy winter but spring will be here soon! we'll have plenty of sunshine to encourage reluctant bulbs, tubers & hardy perennials to spring forth a profusion of colors.

My Iris have wintered over well & new colors have joined the old standards. I’ve been blessed with a tall copper with tiger striped falls, a hybrid between Glazed Gold (tall deep vibrant yellow with faint tiger stripping on the falls) & Sultans Palace ( medium tall maroon with almost black buds), a dainty peach, a hybrid between a tall old fashion very fragrant salmon (found on a abandoned homestead) & Sultan’s Palace. A tall fragrant Lilac, a hybrid between a tall old fashion purple & Hi-Ho Silver (a white medium tall rebloomer) I’m hoping it will bless me this fall with a new flush of blooms like the Hi-Ho Silver, which bloomed until the frost of winter.

My new beauties are not available for trading but I have several named varieties and several “Historic?” Iris found on the long abandoned homestead of our farm. Pictures of my Iris are below. I also have several native perennials to trade, too.

I’d like to trade these Iris, Asiatic lily & native daylily for any bi-color Iris or reblooming Iris or daylily: Sultan’s Palace, Glazed Gold, Hi-Ho Silver, "Baseball" bi-colored asiatic lily & Orange Native Daylily for naturalizing or soil erosion control.

Iris - hybrid bwtween Glazed Gold & Sultan's Palace

Iris - Hi Ho Silver, one of the 1st reblooming Iris available to the public

Sultan's Palace

With almost black buds, this standout Iris blooms in early June

Very fragrant

Iris - This old fashion Iris came from my childhood home

Little Bluestem A prairie tallgrass

Growing 2 to 5 feet tall with bronze fall color

Common Milkweed - -----------Pink & White

This "weed" will pull Butterflies, Hummingbirds & Bees to your garden

Perry's Red Dwarf - Hardy daybloomer

This waterlily is great for small water gardens or containers

Iris - Nontypical hybrid between old fashion salmon & Glazed Gold

Ver, Very fragrant

Iris - old fashion "historic" found on a long abandoned homestead

Indian Grass A prairie tallgrass

Wonderful fall color - Grows in clumps 5 to 8 feet tall

Becca's swap list:

There are few seed left to trade. This year I participated in a group swap & most of my seed went to this.

I also did a special packaging of select seeds to send to my sister in Mississippi. Carolyn sells them in the school Christmas bazaar to buy computers for the school in their poverty stricken area of Mississippi.

All of my plants will be fresh dug or seeds collected summer & fall 2010
Big Bluestem ornamental grass (seed or plant)
Little Bluestem ornamental grass(seed or plant)
Indian Grass ornamental(seed or plant)
Side Oat Gramma ornamental grass (seed only)
Illinois Bundle Flower(seed only)
Indian Blanket Daisy (seed or plant)
Wild White Yarrow (plant only)
Lanceleaf Coreopsis(seed or plant)
Maximmillian Sunflower (seed only
Horsetail rush (bog-marginal - plant only)
Purple pickeral (bog marginal - plant only)
Waterlily (Perry's dwarf red hardy - only one to swap - this will be a private treat swap)

Iris - Ruffled Lemon - Hybrid?

Iris - Glazed Gold - Tall & fragrant

Asiatic Lily - June blooms last 2 weeks

This bulb plant is great for filling in gaps in your garden

Cold windy winter days in Kansas are famous

Icicles hand from the porch at the break of dawn Febuary 2003

If you see something you'd like to trade for, email me! lilkonza@aol.com

Some pics courtsey of KSU wildflower website.