Unfurl

Fiddle heads of wood fern, Thelypteris kunthii, begin to unfurl in the back woodland garden.


Buds forming on the southern wax myrtle, Myrica cerifera.

First Signs of Spring

I love the anticipation during this time of year. Every day I discover new buds growing larger and new leaves bursting from old winter stems and pushing up through brown leaves and mulch. I absolutely love watching it all unfold. Here are a few things happening around the garden + one thing happening down the street.

The first daffodil blooms. This is always seems like such a grandma plant to me (respect to all the grandmas out there), but springy nonetheless.

Prostrate rosemary blooms

Broccoli headed the way plants like to head - to seed. These are still yummy to eat, and there's just nothing like fresh broccoli from the garden.

Katydid

A peach down on the reach that blooms long before mine in the backyard. I think it's the sun quotient.

Atta-tack!

Gardeners of the world, unite with our tiniest gardening brethren: the fungus-gardening, leaf cutter ants, Atta texana. These fascinating critters harvest leaves and other plant matter, taking the stuff deep into their colony to serve as fertilizer for their fungus gardens. They only eat fungus, not leaves, and these gardeners figured out agriculture long before our ancestors did a mere 10,000 year ago.

Unfortunately for us, they've moved into the 'hood, and they can be MAJOR pests. Last summer, I watched them strip two large ornamental pear trees down the road in a matter of days. The same ones (pictured here) have staked a pheromone trail up our driveway, where they concern themselves with removing pieces of acorn and pecan nuts that have been crushed by our car. Very enterprising.

And like all great corporations, this one makes me nervous. I have a feeling their colony is growing bigger and bigger, and they could cause big problems this summer. What to do? Admire them? Sure, but eventually my neighbors and I may have to make a concerted attack back (none of the ant hills are in my yard). In the meantime, I'm keeping a wary eye on the buggers.

A Texas leafcutter ant carries a piece of acorn bigger than her body. Can you imagine carrying something around bigger and heavier than you? Amazing...

Garden Grow Ugly

Gardens are filled with beauty and surprise...yadda-yadda-yadda.

But there are times when I look out my window or walk my paths, that all I can see is an ugly, messy and terrible place. I know it's negative to think that, but I just can't help it. And I also know that not many people want to see ugly pictures, but this is my blog, and damn it, I'm going to post them. Maybe identifying the ugly and putting it out there will help me accept it and move on.

I also think there are times of year, no matter what Piet Oudolf says and does, that a garden is just plain nasty. In Austin, I think that time might be the end of January. Things are looking pretty ratty and nothing is quite growing green again. Bare trees. Brown, brown and more brown. Sure some of the structures (plants and man-made) are nice and everyday holds a surprise (I saw a monarch butterfly yesterday of all things!), but these are the few weeks in these parts where I can't wait for spring.


Frost bitten and very scraggly mexican lime


Ruellia at its prettiest


The back corner...lord help me!


Will the buffalo grass grow back pretty and green or will it remain a scrappy, weedy piece of crap? Stay tuned.

The previous owners tried to build a wall. I admire them for trying to reuse materials (a.k.a the old crumbled front cement walk), but really people...terrible.


Oops! That one snuck in. Our beautiful and delicious cauliflower - my first. (I can't be totally negative after all.)

There. That feels better already.