These were the blossoms on the Western Redbud a few months ago, before the leaves appeared.
This is what it looks like now.
Western (or California) Redbud
Pea family
Usually a shrub 7 to 18 feet high.
Leaves are round and heart shaped, winter deciduous
Bright purple flowers appear in early spring on naked branches, followed by bronze colored leaves that soon turn green.
Seed pods appear in July.
Grows below 4,000 feet.
Drought tolerant and sun-loving.
Native Americans highly prized this shrub and used its autumn wine-red branches for basket-making.
I am hoping to have this redbud as part of my lovely front yard for many, many season to come.
I have long wanted a redbud in my yard and when we did our front yard remodel we left a space for one in the front section. I planted poppies around the base and this spring I got to discover how beautifully they work together in my yard. I need to remember that you are to prune it in the fall, winter, or early spring after the leaf drop.
This month our Outdoor Hour Challenge focus is on garden flowers and crop plants. There will be no lack of subjects to study this month right outside our front and back doors. As the spring weather warms up and we have abundant sunshine, I am eager to get out and start digging in the dirt. It was easy to check off a few of the Garden Grid Study ideas as went worked in the yard this weekend.
So I will give you a tour of some of the interesting garden flowers, crops, grasses, and bushes we have in our yard right now. Enjoy!
Heart shaped leaves…
My latest garden acquisition is this lovely, lovely lilac bush. If only you could smell the delicate fragrance of the flowers! I am hoping this is a winner in my sunny backyard. We planted it where it will have plenty of sunshine and room to grow.
We had this spot already prepared from last summer when it was part of my experimental veggie garden expansion…we weren’t all that successful so I decided that my beloved lilac would find a home here.
More heart-shaped leaves…
Here is my latest experiment….hydrangeas on the shady side of my house. I decided to leave them in pots to see if they survive and if they look like they are liking it here then I will plant them in the ground. The birdfeeder has now been moved to the other part of the garden where the squirrels might not find it for a bit.
Watched the bees in the flowers…
The backyard lavender is blooming now and the bees are busy already. You can never have too much lavender….or at least I think so.
Disneyland Rose
This is definitely the year of the rose in our area. All my roses are blooming and this one is my favorite…the Disneyland Rose. It has a spicy perfume fragrance and the blooms are peachy-pink. I cut this all the way to the ground last fall because it was an odd shape. I wasn’t sure if it would bloom well this spring but I have to say that I may just cut it all the way down every fall if this is the results. Awesome!
Look at those leaves!
This is another new arrival in the back garden. We have a super sunny hot spot up next to my backyard retreat. Nothing has been very successful here except the Jerusalem Sage. I am taking a chance with the Moonshine Yarrow and it has probably doubled in size since we planted it. I am hopeful that it will do well here.
These leaves are fuzzy and soft.
This is our Jerusalem Sage…I looked it up and it grows to be about 48″ wide. It needs very little water and it blooms long into the autumn season. I watered it three times a week last summer (the first summer) but now I am going to be only watering it twice a week and see how it goes. It looks like it is pretty well established. Where I live in Northern California, we get very little rain from June to November. Our first significant rain last fall was November 27th. Now you know why I use lots of drought tolerant plants in my yard.
So here is my surprise squash plant that is growing in the cutting flower garden box. I am not sure where it came from but I am going to let it grow since it seems so happy where it is. I did not have squash growing anywhere near this box last year so we will be surprised when it matures to see what it is exactly.
I had to include an image of my clover since we are focusing on Garden Flowers and Crop Plants this month for the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Clover is included in the Handbook of Nature Study so if you have some in your yard…take advantage of the nature study opportunity.
Our Smoke bush is so very pretty right now with its airy little blossoms that make it look like it has smoke. This has doubled in size since we planted it two years ago and I love the way it looks right now.
See the tiny little flowers? This is what makes it look like “smoke”. Later in the autumn the leaves turn a deep purple…love it!
One last image of our sage that is growing like crazy with our warmer temperatures and sunshine. This will be covered in delicate purple flowers during the summer…loads of bees visit these bushes in our front yard during the summer.
There you go… a visit to my garden, a few new things, and some close observation as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. My boys helped me finish preparing the garden boxes and we planted seeds this weekend too so there will be lots more to come as the seasons flow by.
This month’s blog sponsor is Udi’s Gluten Free….a premium gluten-free foods company that caught my attention when I attended the BEECH Retreat way back in January. I was so impressed with their products and their company that I decided to seek them out for a partnership here on my blog as a way to help promote their delicious foods to my readers. If you are gluten-free in your family or thinking about it, I highly recommend that you see if you can purchase their products in your area (look in the frozen foods department).
Why have Udi’s Gluten Free sponsor my nature study blog?
Personally, I think eating healthy foods is a part of the lifestyle that I try to promote here on my blog. I know of many families in my real life that are gluten-free and I have seen the struggles they have gone through to provide alternatives to gluten for their children who have Celiacs or other grain-related allergies. I want you to experience what I did at the BEECH Retreat. I was shocked to taste gluten-free that was so yummy!
As an active family, I wanted to show how you can take Udi’s Gluten Free products with you on the trail and on the road. This month we will be traveling to Yosemite for our big spring trip and Udi’s foods will be going along with us. I look forward to sharing the many varieties of tasty treats and staples that have found a place in our family’s diet.
Udi’s Gluten Free – Giveaway So let’s start the month off right with a fun giveaway for two free products from Udi’s Gluten Free. Use the Rafflecopter gadget to enter for acouponfor free Udi’s products. Two winners will get to try their choice of products using the coupons that I will mail to them. I will pull the winners on Wednesday night. It is as simple as that!
Udi’s provided free product for my review and for the giveaways but no other compensation was received. I love these products and want to share them with you…you will always get my honest opinion.
“The only right way to begin plant study with young children is through awakening their interest in and love for flowers.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 453
Outdoor Hour Challenge: Use the grids in the May newsletter to get started with your Garden Flowers and Crop Plants study this month. There are lots of simple ideas for observation that all ages can use to start this month’s focus on garden flowers and crop plants. If you have the newsletter, make sure to see the garden journal ideas on page 14. There is also a flower notebooking page included in the newsletter for you to use with any garden flower you study this month.
Special Activity: Using Your Senses in the Garden
Use your senses during your Grid Study this week and record your observations on this Garden Senses Notebook Page. Use you sense of touch, smell, sight, and even taste and hearing (be careful with the tasting!) to take your Outdoor Time to the next level. Garden Senses Notebooking Page
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #8.Just remember to take a magnifying lens with you during your outdoor time this week and encourage your children to look closely at some plants or flowers in your yard. Record you observations on the notebook page in the ebook.
If you already own the Garden Flower and Plants ebook, you could combine this week’s challenge with Garden Flowers Challenge #5 – Learning Leaf Parts. This challenge also encourages you to spend some quiet time in your garden using all your senses. Complete the accompanying notebook page in the ebook if you desire.
For the month of April we continued to work on our goal to be less wasteful with plastic. My husband packs a lunch everyday for work and he can be gone for 12+ hours a day so he takes a man-sized lunch with snacks. In the past this meant that we used lots of disposable sandwich sized Ziploc bags but once we made our pledge to use less plastic, we have switched to more reusable containers.
I am pleased that we have not used a single disposable baggie since we started the year.
Reusable Plastic Lunch Products
Here are a few products that we have used to reduce our plastic consumption.
Kids Conserve Kozy Wraps
This was really hard to get used to at first. It is basically a plastic circle that you fold and velcro shut. It will even fit a man-sized sandwich or bagel if needed. They are easy to wipe clean and are a great alternative to a plastic sandwich baggie.
Sistema – Salad to Go
My husband takes a green salad everyday in his lunch. I LOVE using the Salad to Go container because I can fit his salad in the bottom section and then in the top there is a small container for his dressing and two sections to put any other items he likes in his salad. It also has snap in fork and knife slots on the bottom of the top section. This is super easy to use and clean. My husband likes that his salad stays fresh.
I have also used this for yogurt and toppings and it stays neatly inside until you are ready to eat.
There are a couple of products that I have been waiting to order that I would like to try in his lunchbox as well. We are looking for something to replace his yogurt cups and these stainless steel containers look interesting. I have been trying to decide if it is less plastic to buy the big tubs of yogurt and dish it out into the stainless steel containers for his lunch. I think these little containers would be perfect for taking in my day pack with snacks. I will keep you posted on how we like these as alternatives to plastic baggies.
I am still working on finding an alternative to the plastic produce bags. I ordered some reusable ones from Amazon.com but there are highly unsatisfactory. Still on the hunt….
Please note these are affiliate links to Amazon.com. I purchased all the products in this entry and have not been compensated for this entry.
I have been eagerly anticipating this month’s focus on garden flowers and crops because I love planning my garden and spending time enjoying it. Using the flowers and plants in our yard, nature study is more personal and meaningful. I encourage you all to try to study one garden flower from the Handbook of Nature Study this month. If you are overwhelmed with the choices, pick a petunia for the up-coming brand new study that I will post later this month.
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
4 fabulous articles sharing different garden related activities for your family
May Study Grid – actually two grids this month!
Garden Flowers – printable notebook page
Nature Study Spotlight Family
Lots of extra links this month
Chart correlating the Outdoor Hour Challenge garden flowers and crop plant studies with the Handbook of Nature Study
I have attached the newsletter download link to the bottom of my blog feed so if you are a subscriber you will receive the link to the latest newsletter at the bottom of every post for the month of May. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can still subscribe and receive the newsletter link in the next post that comes to your email box. You can subscribe to my blog by filling in your email address in the subscription box on my sidebar.
Note: You can download your newsletter from the link in two ways:
If your link is clickable, right click the link and then “save link as” to save the file on your computer.
If the link is not clickable, cut and paste the link to your browser, open, and then save your newsletter to your computer.
What a fantastic month of surprise reptiles and amphibians! I am always amazed at what comes our way to study and after reading the entries from all the participants I know you have the same sort of experience. We go out looking for reptiles and amphibians and there they are! If your family wants to save these challenges for later in the season, please feel free to share your entries with the carnival and I will put them in the Potpourri section.
Thanks for all your hard work and for sharing your experiences!
Our family’s reptile and amphibian entries from this month’s study (in case you missed one):
Angie from Petra School has written an awesome entry for you: Benefits of Observational Nature Study. She shares their on-going long-term nature study of frogs and their habitats. This is such a great example showing how just a few minutes a week over the long run will reap many rewards.
Barbara from The Schoolhouse on the Prairie captured their outdoor time in a lovely entry: But Not the Reptiles and Amphibians. She shows the many things they encountered and finally their skink.
Cristy from Cristy Nature Journal has submitted her OHC Reptiles entry for this edition of the carnival. She shares a very tiny turtle they found in their backyard. She also would like to share her entry: Plants that Eat Animals.
Alex from Life on a Canadian Island has written and submitted her entry: Dead Man’s Pond – Looking for Amphibians. She shares their excellent pre-study and then their pond adventure along with some additional resources for you.
Seasonal Pond Study
Shirley Ann from Under an English Sky has put together a fabulous entry with their pond study: Pond Life and a Tadpole Aquarium. I really enjoyed reading about their pond study and their nature journal pages are not to be missed.
Diana from Homeschool Review shares their Slate Nature Study with the carnival. She not only shares their abundant slate but also some moss and lichen too.
Sweetie from The Diary of an Owl has submitted their Orange Jelly Fungi entry for you to enjoy. I love seeing what our younger participants are learning as they spend time outdoors.
Don’t forget to share your blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in May are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 5/30/13 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.
This month has flown by with Singing Bird Studios as the sponsor! I am wearing my butterfly necklace as I type this…always makes me feel pretty and happy. I want to thank Stephanie for her generous gift of necklace and keyring…they are very loved. So far this month, we have given away a beautiful Vintage Butterfly Necklace and a Vintage Bird Keyring.
Now I have something a little different to offer in a giveaway…a Scrabble tile necklace with a black and white design featuring a bird and flowers.
This necklace is so very pretty and I know you will love wearing it.
This month has been full of reptiles and amphibians! My husband sent me this image of a Sierra newt that he took on a hike with a friend. He sees newts a few times a year on this particular trail and I think he did a great job of capturing this colorful amphibian so I could share with all of you.
Taricha sierrae- Sierra Newt
Medium sized salamander
Subspecies of the California Newt
They breathe through lungs and not gills.
The Sierra newt spends most of his time on the land.
The Sierra newt has very few predators because they contain tetrodotoxin. The only real predator is the garter snake. The Sierra news bright orange color is a warning to other potential predators.
One source said they can live 12-15 years in the wild.
Their habitat is forested areas, migrating to breeds pools or rivers during breeding season.
This amphibian has been added to my list of reptiles and amphibians in my nature journal and recorded in a journal entry. My sons and I saw newts in a breeding pool a long time ago and I wrote about it in this entry: California Newts and Tree Frogs.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This week you will need to find a local pond to explore. I might suggest taking a look at the Turtles and Pondweed Challenge for a few ideas. This challenge also includes a free printable Pond Study which will expand your study beyond turtles and pondweed.
Printable Activity: Seasonal Pond Study Notebook Page
Use this notebook page to record your spring pond study observations and then revisist your pond in each season to compare plants, insects, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Printable Seasonal Pond Study Notebook Page
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #10. This week take an opportunity to get outside and enjoy a picnic lunch or snack. Use the ideas in this challenge to create a fun nature study experience for your family. Complete the accompanying notebook page for your nature journal while you are outdoors!
