Peeking through..

My driveway is dotted with tiny poppies that are seizing the chance to bloom before the hot dry weather begins in earnest.

Their pampered kin (lucky to pop up in my flowerbeds) are massive but still have dormant flowers, heads nodding like they're asleep.

The volunteers have been the stars of this early spring. I welcome some (like the poppies, the sunflowers, the left over wildflower seeds I threw around carelessly in the fall). Others I recognize with a sigh and a question. If horseherb is so prevalent and hardy, should I just give in and grant it square footage? At least it is soft, unlike the greenbriar that it rearing its head in patches..

 

A cutleaf daisy that could care less about my gravel landscaping. It is massive and has survived many tramplings by my kids..

Bluebonnet in the dryest most desolate corner of the lot..

Huisache Daisy

Horseherb, well on it's way. I laugh when I see it for sale at nurseries it is so common in my yard. With some rain it makes a soft green carpet with cheerful yellow flowers, but it shrivels into dry black sandpaper when the drought hits hard.

Greenbriar. Should I create a garden sculpture and train it to grow just to spite it?

Wild onions that were also indifferent to being covered in 2 inches of crushed granite. I find them beautiful.

A different wild onion in the front yard

The coral honeysuckle is still blooming away, and the wisteria is covered in fat bumblebees.

Blooms spilling over

The hammock is a new favorite spot to swing in in the late afternoon. A perfect nap spot (or child reading nook).

My red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) up front has become wide and massive, but is stingy with blooms usually. It must have had a good winter because I noted at least one stalk pushing upwards today.

And finally the shady dry bed up front is waking up, with bright new green at the base of the perennials..

Mmm chile piquins!

Turks cap

Cedar Sage looking vigorous

Once my flashy (not local!) irises peter out these guys will have to step it up. 

Things are more overgrown in the front beds, with the purple lantana blooming everywhere but where it should, last fall's leaves laying uncleared and an unkempt mix of wild onions and husband-planted Home Depot plants sit half grown.

My cast iron plants are never lush, but have put up with my neglect for 8 years..

The Mexican petunias (Ruellias) have been wonderful, too.