The Blakleys' website, illustrating nature in Kingwood, Texas

A description of our yard:

When our house was built in 1983 we landscaped with typical nursery plants but as we got more interested in native landscaping we started to evolve the yard. In the late 1990's we certified our yard with the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife habitat and later with Texas Parks and Wildlife (certificate #1508). We avoid pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer. We also compost yard waste.

In 2000 we went "all the way" and tore up all our water thirsty turf and shrubbery and replaced them with native plants. We initially planted a little of everything our native plant supplier had. We do not water, and now after ten years, we have a pretty good idea what works for us. The hardest was finding a good ground cover, finally settling upon horseherb.
We try to keep up to date with pictures of plants currently blooming. You will also find comments about the plant's blooming duration and ability to withstand neglect. The plant number corresponds to its position on the plant list.

Our garden pond:

We started with a 6 mil polyethylene lined pond but the racoons shredded it with their digging so we had to switch to a hard shell. They still dig up the plants. We decided to discourage them with an electric fence around the pond. Not very showy, but effective. In the spring of 2007 the hard shell cracked so we again had to reline the pond. This time we used a relatively heavy (1/32" thick) sheeting. If this doesn't last we'll have to use the very heavy and very expensive sheeting used for commercial ponds.

Plant list

The list of plants on the property, mostly in taxonomic order, itemizes the more than 100 species we've found successful. The few non-natives are marked with an asterisk.

Here are lists of:

Local Weather

We've had a weather station since December 1998 and you will find annual summaries from the current year to date back to 1999 plus our experience with hurricanes Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008. We also provide real time weather data uploading every ten minutes when we have the weather station pc on. The station manufacturer, Davis Instruments, makes it easy by providing the software.

Welcome to the website of the Blakleys

Calvin: B.S. 1967 Chemistry, Michigan State University Ph.D. 1972 Physical Chemistry, Yale University Connie: B.S. 1966 Business Administration, University of Missouri Columbia Married: 1970
	Rain lilies in our front yard bloom after summer rains
A description of our yard: When our house was built in 1983 we landscaped with typical nursery plants but as we got more interested in native landscaping we started to evolve the yard. In the late 1990's we certified our yard with the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife habitat and later with Texas Parks and Wildlife (certificate #1508). We avoid pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer. We also compost yard waste. In 2000 we went "all the way" and tore up all our water thirsty turf and shrubbery and replaced them with native plants. We initially planted a little of everything our native plant supplier had. We do not water, and now after ten years, we have a pretty good idea what works for us. The hardest was finding a good ground cover, finally settling upon horseherb. We try to keep up to date with pictures of plants currently blooming. You will also find comments about the plant's blooming duration and ability to withstand neglect. The plant number corresponds to its position on the plant list.	The garden paths are covered with crushed granite and edged with lichen covered stone. Our garden pond: We started with a 6 mil polyethylene lined pond but the racoons shredded it with their digging so we had to switch to a hard shell. They still dig up the plants. We decided to discourage them with an electric fence around the pond. Not very showy, but effective. In the spring of 2007 the hard shell cracked so we again had to reline the pond. This time we used a relatively heavy (1/32" thick) sheeting. If this doesn't last we'll have to use the very heavy and very expensive sheeting used for commercial ponds. Plant list The list of plants on the property, mostly in taxonomic order, itemizes the more than 100 species we've found successful. The few non-natives are marked with an asterisk. Here are lists of: Lepidopera Reptiles and amphibians Mammals Birds	Local Weather We've had a weather station since December 1998 and you will find annual summaries from the current year to date back to 1999 plus our experience with hurricanes Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008. We also provide real time weather data uploading every ten minutes when we have the weather station pc on. The station manufacturer, Davis Instruments, makes it easy by providing the software.
sitemap	Some trips we've taken home movies	Our e-mail addresses:
		Note: these are neither hotlinks nor plain text: we don't need any more spam and though bots can read jpeg files, OCRs have trouble with the lines. Visit captcha.net for more information. Here is a hotlink you can use to e-mail us that we can easily change when too much spam arrives. Don't put it in your address book

Welcome to the website of the Blakleys

A description of our yard:

Our garden pond:

Plant list The list of plants on the property, mostly in taxonomic order, itemizes the more than 100 species we've found successful. The few non-natives are marked with an asterisk.

Local Weather

sitemap

Some trips we've taken home movies

Plant list

The list of plants on the property, mostly in taxonomic order, itemizes the more than 100 species we've found successful. The few non-natives are marked with an asterisk.

Some trips we've taken
home movies