Happy Gardens

Fall is such a fun season in North Texas. The temperatures are mostly mild; it actually feels nice to be outside. It is the best season for planting. The need for watering is much less than in the summer. And to make it even better, it is a great time to be outside observing wildlife. Pollinator activity is high, and who needs TV when you have wildlife.

While watching all the activity going on in your garden, you may want to delve into the world of plant and animal identification. There are many tools available to make identification easy these days. Internet searches bring a treasure trove of information, and I find a few sites to be particularly helpful when trying to find plant and wildlife-related information.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s website provides a wealth of information and is very useful in research of native plants and the role they play in our ecosystem.  www.wildflower.org

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA)  is an effort to collect, store, and share species information and occurrence data. It is also a great butterfly and moth identification tool. You can find information on the website as well as post your sighting for identification.  www.butterfliesandmoths.org

iNaturalist is “a place where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world”.  It is a powerful identification tool for both fauna and flora.  www.inaturalist.org 

Have fun discovering all that is around you.