April Update

 Gorgeous time of year to see changes in the garden before the heat comes!

I managed to watch a flock of cedar waxwings as they devoured the berries on my yaupon holly tress outside my bathroom windows a few weeks ago. They flew in all of a sudden, cheeped and squawked like mad, then left in a flurry a few minutes later.

My Engelmann's daisies (aka Cut- leaf daisies) are taking off in the back, with the lantana bushes that come back and take over in late summer forming nice mounds behind them. I placed two blue salvias behind them and have spotted a hummingbird coming to visit already. All of the plants host native bees and butterflies.

As for the veggies- I have gotten some broccoli and sugar snap peas. I could have waited for the broccoli head to get larger- but I needed to clear room for my tomatoes to spread out. I used the broccoli leaves like chard- chiffonade-ing them (is that a word?) and sautéing them with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. Yum! The spinach made a couple of good salads too- the type was "America" and I will plant a lot more next winter since it did so well. The sugar snap peas are best when snow-pea like in thickness as they got tough when I let them fatten up. It is getting to hot for them so the shoots that are fading are getting fed to my chickens (who love them).

Broccoli, spinach and sugar snap peas

The veggie bed looked so empty when I started- now it is full of tomato plants and a left over snap pea and kale or two. On the right side are some beets and carrots but they are crowded out so I will harvest them soon and use their greens.

Waiting for the tomatoes to ripen! I have been more diligent this year about pruning the suckers and making sure they get fed with organic fertilizer- and they are in the new bed with good soil and compost (and a drip irrigation system) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they won't fade quickly this year.

Handsome cabbage in the lower bed forming a head.

Other odds and ends making me happy: Spiderwort growing bigger every year with its cheerful flowers. There are offshoots scattered through the far back garden which is great!

My little cactus collection out on the back back porch. Some are ones I couldn't resist at the plant store, the Queen Victoria agave has been steadily growing for many years (and is surrounded by my kid's old art chalks as part of its mulch), one is a gift from a friend who recently moved (taken from her cactus that had produced many babies), and one is a cute hedgehog cactus from my parent's place in Mason which they are selling soon.

I am never fast enough for the bees and insects that I see including shiny green ones, carpenter bees, dragonflies, admiral butterflies, sulfur butterflies and others. But this honeybee stayed put long enough on one of my citrus plants for me to get a photo.

I have a selection of native vines popping up that I am encouraging (or tolerating like the Virginia creeper below). They host natives and look lush when they get thick so as long as they aren't smothering anything important I let them grow.

Virginia creeper can smother the bamboo behind my lot for all that I care! Below is inland sea oats taking off.

Passionflower vine- These are native to Texas and I have two types in my garden- purple passionflower vines with deep green lobed leaves (the first photo) and a pink passionflower vine (second photo) that provides fruits that my soon enjoys eating (pop open the red cover and eat the few slimy sweet seeds). I need to encourage/baby a few of my vines since my neighbors have eradicated most of theirs. They are the host plants for several butterflies- the main one I see in the garden is the Gulf Fritillary but I’ve also seen Zebra Longwings and it also hosts Crimson-patch longwings, Red-banded hairstreaks, Julia butterflies, and Mexican butterflies. For a while my purple passionflower vines smothered my rose bush (now deceased) and would make my flame acanthus flop over. I’ll try to train them over to a structure that is more convenient- though nature always seems to want to do things her way.

Light through the anacacho orchid tree- most of the white flowers have faded but I like the structure of it in the afternoon light.