diamanita blooms

Oh man. That first picture. Anticipation. That is going to be a riot of flowers in a couple days.

a butterfly on blackleaf daisy

The second is a butterfly I haven’t seen before. It looks a lot like a red admiral in the picture, but in real life was orange and not red.

apricot tree

And the third picture are apricots. This tree was a gift from my grandmother. When my I took my mother over to look at how well it was doing she questioned how I was going to retrieve the fruit (the tree is within a ring of boxwood hedges)? Therein lies a distinct difference in our gardening style. I might try an apricot or two if they get big enough, but mostly the raccoon and opossums can have ‘em. I’m very much a xeric guy and not really into fruits or vegetables. My mom and my taste pretty much only intersects on rose bushes.

Speaking of vegetables. I tried to plant a garden again for Stella and Etta. I got in some snap peas. Okra. Melon. Basil. 2nd day I couldn’t find most of the seedlings. I thought the dogs had trampled them. Then I came back to the basil chomped to the ground. Then I moved my seedlings right outside the house and all my ‘Silver Falls’ (Dichondra argentea) had been chomped. * sigh * Guess I need cages or something.

Oh well, it’s weeding season and everything’s starting to come in. I love this time of year. I always get a bit despondent in the winter, assured that nothing is coming back. Do you have that problem?

I finally pruned my rose-bushes today. Mainly because one completely fell over. I’m worried I’ve damaged it, but chances are it was just figuring it could claim more garden space if it fell over. Those rose bushes are scary.

a terrifying rosebush with the text ROSEBOT 5000 WILL CUT YOU

The one above is the less scary one. It’s a tad excessive on the thorns and I couldn’t help thinking about Conan O’Brian. 

me in slightly mirrored safety glasses

Picture #2 is me in my work glasses. Jenny over at Rock Rose admonished all of us in blogger world to wear protective glasses. Apparently the glare can be cause eye problems. These are 3M work glasses that filter light, but don’t do much tinting. I can’t really garden with a lot of tint.

shoe racks with seed trays on top of them

Picture #3 is attempt #2 at getting some veggies and plants for the front yard. This one looks like it’s going to go. We’ve got broccoli  peas, and okra going gangbusters. I’ve got a lot of Dichondra ‘silver falls’ started in there. I want to cover my front yard with it. Also some santa barbara daisy and gayfeather. We’ll see how this turns out. I’m not horribly optimistic, but if it works it’ll save me a lot of money. I don’t really have enough money to buy the amount of ground cover I need.

Julie left town to help my sister and her new baby while my brother-in-law is in Norway. So Stella and I went to harbor freight and picked up this greenhouse for $29.99. We’ve got melons, carrots, brocolli, peas, okra, grass, cone flowers, and swiss chard. This is a first for me, but Stella grows veggies at school all the time and so she took charge of the process.

Stella and a greenhouse. Really shelves with a clear plastic cover

Got some pruning shears yesterday so I went to town at lunch today. Finally started getting that lovely little pine tree back under control. It needs to fill back in after much neglect, but it’s on its way. And it’s going to have a lush bed of salvia under it come spring.

some shaped boxwoods. and the shape is rectangle

a conifer of undeterminate species sculpted into dr. suess poofs

I like this article a lot. When I first started gardening I struggled with what authentic or natural really meant. I bristled a bit at “invasive” rhetoric as it so closely parallels anti-immigration rhetoric, but at the same time invasive plants can be a serious problem. And the more I’ve learned about the Texas landscape historically the more I’ve realized what most Texans think of as “nature” is really not historically authentic (and who’s to say if that’s even desirable).

Much of our juniper “forests” are actually just second growth after the cattle stopped grazing. I’m not one of the “mow down the mountain cedar” people, but our highway medians often have more native species than our nature preserves.

As such I think it’s amazing what cultivating native species can do. You start seeing them reseeding everywhere. People can’t help but have an influence on the nature around us, but we can introduce diversity and recognize beauty rather than mowing it over.

Here are my new octopus agaves that I picked up at the Great Outdoors sidewalk sale for $5 a piece. Fantastic deal. Makes me realize how frickin’ huge those flowerbeds are that I put in two giant agaves and there’s still massive amounts of leftover space…

octopus agave

Right after I took this picture, Rhett peed on this lovely Prairie Verbeena. Julie was relieved to find out I did not mark the Verbeena after him. Although clearly I should have so he knew who was dominant in this relationship.

prairie verbena and Rhett's schnoz

I love this. Julie was cleaning out some indoor plants that hadn’t done so well so I brought in a piece of ice plant just to see how it would do. It started blooming inside which was a nice surprise. But the blooms were yellow. Outside they’re orange.
I’m sure this is just an effect of chlorophyll  but still it’s fascinating.

bright orange ice plant blooms

bright yellow ice plant blooms

Hope.

I feel like since planting this last spring all I’ve done is weed. And weed. And weed. That picture is of feathergrass coming in. Hopefully this is the beginning of the decomposed granite being more a xeric flowerbed, and less a cracked sidewalk with weeds growing through.

I’m hopeful. I suppose that’s why I’m a gardener.

teeny tiny mexican feathergrass